Children

Preface: I consider myself a patient person (no matter what my mother may say…).  Unfortunately this character trait is not extended towards children.  I like kids.  Generally when they’re cute and behaving we get along just fine.  This has not been the case as of recent.  Family from Jalapa came for a visit and stayed for 3 nights.  This meant that the number of rugrats under the age of seven grew to 4.  Long story short, I didn’t get a lot of sleep this week.  In fact, I even took a recording of how obnoxious it was—look for it on iTunes later this month under “Little Hellions”.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about; I learned another fantastic Nicaraguan custom!  Maria Jose lost her two bottom teeth so I asked if the tooth princess (clearly I never learned the word for fairy) was going to visit.  After receiving many blank stares, I explained our first world tooth-for-cordobas custom.  After having a good laugh at the expense of goofy American parents, they shared the Nicaraguan tooth-losing tradition.  At night, the child with recent mouth vacancies steps outside and faces the house.  Then the sans teeth kid sings “Little rats, little rats: take my old teeth so I can have new ones” and THROWS THEIR TEETH ON THE ROOF!  I love this country.

Two weeks of work left, woohoo!