Pole Corner

At its best, life abroad is full of unexpected, wacky, hilarious moments. It’s this element of the ridiculous that keeps me enjoying being here, even absent many of the comforts and conveniences that the US has to offer. In the US, I generally understand what is going on around me. Even after two and a half years here, Nicaragua has not lost the ability to surprise me. Though not understanding can make life frustrating – as when the lady at the post office told me that envelopes with tape on them couldn’t go through the mail – in the right frame of mind, day to day life here provides plenty of opportunities to shake your head in wonder and laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all.

If you are open to seeing them, bizarre moments occur every day. Just to give an example, yesterday riding on a ferry I saw a salsa video from the 90s that randomly featured a dragon. While I was watching the video a guy walked past me wearing a shirt that said, “I buy, I try, they die” next to a picture of a dead flower in a pot. If you enjoy comedy of the absurd, then living out of the country can be as funny as a stand-up routine.

Even at home I can find things to laugh about, like the fact that the number on my house looks like 219A when in reality it should read 279A – because whoever installed the number wasn’t used to seeing a 7 without a cross through it. And because this is Nicaragua, the orientation of the number has never been changed. Not to mention, that the house numbering system is random to begin with, so it hardly matters whether the house is 219 or 279 anyway.  

Or the fact that the other day my roommate came home to find a group of guys installing a metal pole in front of our house, when there were already four poles right on the same corner. Our landlord had come out from next door and he stood shaking his head. “I don’t know why they need to put another pole here for just one wire. It’s not like the other poles are full.” Then he paused and laughed. “I guess this is just going to be pole corner.” Our landlord’s response to the situation is an approach I have found useful for dealing with the unexpected, inexplicable events that happen constantly here: I don’t understand it, I can’t do anything to change it, might as well laugh about it. The more I take this approach, the happier I am.