Nicaragua and Niger

While in Nicaragua I kept finding myself saying "In Niger..." because I found so many things similar between these two worlds-apart nations. Leslie (who lives in Nica) pointed out that this might be due to the developing world landscape which includes Blue Bird school buses converted into city buses among other similarities shared by the "third world".

Some of the things we noticed in this category:

1. The lack of washing machines and the necessity to handwash one's clothes (or pay someone else to do it)
2. The need for talc powder to walk comfortably or ride on a plastic bus seat for several hours
3. Shared taxis
4. Donkey carts among taxis, cars, buses, and trucks
5. The ability to ride in the back of a truck standing up, packed in like a sardine
6. The necessity to sweep one's house at least once a day to avoid the dreaded black foot
7. The broken bottles set in adobe walls as barbed wire substitute
8. The willingness and necessity of people to protest
9. That nearly all tourists and homeowners in the nicest tourist spots are extranjeros (foreigners)
10. Terrible beer (at least at first... until you realize it's cold and has alcohol in it... then it's delicious)
11. Frequent marriage proposals