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When people ask me (and they often do) if I have children, my response is usually, "No, but I have a dog and she's like my baby." It generally makes people uncomfortable enough that they don't push the issue further, but it's not that far from the truth; Paul and I have definitely turned into "dog people" and have realized that whether or not people like Dora or dogs in general is a pretty good litmus test by which to judge them.

Before joining Peace Corps, one of the things we read was that many volunteers get dogs during their service, and we had this same plan long before we even knew we'd be coming to Nicaragua. Once we arrived I had some cold feet, but I finally relented and we wound up with Dora. Though having a dog isn't always easy--the late-night potty breaks, keeping her from eating horse poop, fretting about her broken leg--it's definitely been worth it and Dora has been one of the best parts of our Peace Corps service.

Though her first impression of America wasn't quite ideal, she's agreed to come back with us on the condition that there will be lots of car rides, an endless supply of liver treats, and no monkeys.

February 10, 2008

February 26, 2008

March 1, 2008

March 4, 2008

March 19, 2008

March 31, 2008

April 2, 2008

April 19, 2008

May 25, 2008

December 18, 2008

December 26, 2008

May 16, 2009

May 16, 2009

P.S. My brother graduates high school today, valedictorian of his class and a graduation speaker. I wish I could be there! Happy graduation, Jake... I'm proud of you!

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The New Cathedral

After the 1972 earthquake that destroyed 90% of Managua, the cathedral was condemned, and the Catholic Church decided to replace it with the Ugliest Cathedral Ever.

It was finished in 1993 and is understandably controversial. It's supposedly the most recently built cathedral in the world, but sometimes people play fast and loose with their facts, so there's my disclaimer.

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Helados

Choco bananos are, well, chocolate-covered bananas and helados (or caritas, depending on geography), are really delicious frozen treats that come in plastic bags. Like soda and other beverages you just bite off a corner and eat it through that hole. You will find them in a variety of flavors: fruit, peanut, milk, banana and milk, coconut, nancite, and some others that I can't remember. The quality and contents vary greatly because they're sold and made in any given person's house. Sometimes the fruit helados have papaya or watermelon, but the ones that I got today only had pineapple and banana. Regardless of the contents, they're delicious (and cheap--5 cents each).

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León at Night

This was one of the first pictures we took with our new camera; I was experimenting with the long shutter speeds at night in León.  I'm fairly sure there were some motorcycles and cars missing a headlight that passed, which explains why some of the lights don't match up exactly.

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Pizza

Whenever we're I'm too lazy/tired to cook, we sometimes like to play pizza roulette. It works like this: you call up Telepizza or Pizza Gold (the two Nicaraguan pizza places in Masaya) and you request whatever toppings you want. Two times out of three you will get a pizza with missing ingredients, added ham, or both. 

This is a pizza we ordered a while ago; we asked for tomato (check) and garlic (missing) but not ham (it came with ham). The default pizza here is ham and ketchup, so we're at a big disadvantage if we want something else. This was a lot more frustrating when I was a vegetarian and was a leading reason why I switched back to eating meat, but it's still annoying now. 

This was temporarily solved when we ordered a lot from Pizza Gold. They got to know me as Don Paul; I would call, start talking, and they would cut me off and know immediately who I was, what we wanted, and where we wanted it delivered. When our sitemate John moved into our old house and ordered Pizza Gold, they were really confused why a different gringo wanted a different pizza delivered to Don Paul's house, but they eventually allowed it.

It's kind of sad to admit, but one of our favorite restaurants in Masaya is Papa John's... okay, it's our favorite, but there's not much else to choose from! It's a little pricey, but when we're ready to splurge, there's no better use of $15 than a large pepperoni from PJ's. It always comes exactly like we order it arrives right when they say it will on an awesome pizza moto.

A picture isn't even really necessary since it's exactly the same as in the US, but here it is:

Even though Papa John's isn't healthy, Nicaraguan, or cheap it's been a good comfort food for us and has been there to celebrate election day, Christmas, Easter, birthdays, and many other milestones during the last two years.

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