Early Morning, Gabriel & housing...

It was an early morning this morning...

I suppose that if one takes the responsibility to take care of the chavalos a little inconvenience now and then is part of the deal...

Anyway, this morning at 4:20am, somebody rang the doorbel and knocked on the door like there was a fire or something.

When I opened the front door, there was Jonathan, al in a panic telling me that one of his buddies was very sick and seemed to be dying.

A 'gringo' had given him a drink. They didn't know it was an alcoholic drink, and I suspect that there was more than alcohol in the cup. Luckily, it was something that could be taken care of quite easily in the hospital. A big scare, some inconveniance, an IV and a good rest fixed it!

Gabriel came by today. Nothing special... he comes by every single day.

Just to say "Hi" and to let me know that everything's fine.

Only this time, he was crying. I asked him what was wrong, and he told me that his grandmother had passed away early this morning.

I know he was very close to her. Gabriel carried her "stew" to the market every morning. She was half blind, and relied on his help.

The buriel was in Managua, where her family is from.

Gabriel needed some money to make it to Managua until tomorrow.

$5 from the Chavalo fund covered it.

I've gotten the question a couple of times...

Can you show us where & how the poor people live?

Well yes... here are a couple of pictures...

Here you see the day area of a house.

The sink, where food gets prepared and the laundry gets done.

Next to it... the stove.

An old truck tire with a little contraption on it to burn wood.

No water boilers or microwaves here!

If someone wants to eat an egg, they have to start a fire.

Behind it all, the main entrance of the house.

Although these houses look horrible, and they are, the people living in them are usually always happy people with large families. They are as proud of their house as the next person, living in a beautiful brick house.

Mostly all these houses have a dirt floor.

Usually 6 to 8 (sometimes more) people sleep in a single room.

The ones with a job or being pregnant sleep in a bed or on a foam mattress.

The rest sleep on the floor, in a cheap plastic hammock under or on top of a table.

If you'd like to see more about housing, or other things in the daily life of the Granadinos, please ask!