Goin to Granada

So I had Sincuello (No Neck) book me a ticket on the bus up to Granada, Nicaragua for tomorrow. It leaves at noon and I should get there after dinner time. I need to load up on snacks and drinks probably. I decided to take the EXECUTIVE bus instead of the crappy, hot, no AC basic bus, because it is only $12.00 more and a heckuva lot nicer. It has AC, reclining seats, movies, music, and a little more room, which is worth it to me if I'm going to be sitting on it for seven hours. I'm going with the company called TransNica, which is owned by friends of my family.

http://www.transnica.com/

Check out their website. It's pretty funny.

Other than that I'm still itchy on my hands and feet constantly, which is annoying. No more swelling, fever, ulcers, joint pain, or sore throat though. I'm out of Allegra (Ahhhh...Allegra.....) but still have to take Nexium for the stupid chest pain/ulcer thing that is a side effect of my other drug--Prednisone. I talked to Emily this morning, and everybody went up to some waterhole of some sort to go swimming this morning. Sounds like everybody drank last night, which would explain me getting a drunk dial from Emily at 11:15 pm anoche. She ended up not going to the waterhole thing and stuck behind with Nicole, because Nicole just found out that one of her friends back home died from cancer yesterday. Tough news, but sweet of Emily to stay behind and console her.

So I'm in the midst of writing my essay entitled: "In which ways and to what extent has the migration of Nicaraguans into Costa Rica affected the economies of both countries?"

Basically Nicaragua has been nailed with natural disasters, dictatorships, trade embargos from the USA, and civil war the past 30 years. A 1972 earthquake in the capital city of Managua killed over 6,000 people and razed 90% of the buildings, making it the biggest seismic distaster in the western hemisphere north of South America. In 1975 they were finally able to overthrow a 45-year-long dictatorship under the Somoza family (three different guys). They family has assets worth over 400 million by the end of the regime. Not to mention the Sandinista rule that lasted until 1990 where the USA was actively hiring and training terrorists in the School of the Americas to terrorize Nicaraguans and their leaders in attempts to stop their socialist movement.

Today they still migrate to Costa Rica because Costa Rica has had a labor shortage. Their economy is growing so fast that they don't have enough workers to fill the new jobs opening up. So, like Mexicans in the US, Nicaraguans are taking over the "undesirable" jobs that Costa Ricans no longer want or need. These include domestic jobs, construction, agriculture, security, etc. Costa Ricans are moving up the scale and filling new jobs generated by tourism and manufactured goods, services, etc.

Since Nicaragua is so poor, the worst, cheapest, dirtiest jobs in Costa Rica are STILL more desirable than the conditions back home in Nicaragua. One recent development is the sudden rebound of El Salvador's economy, which is also beginning to see a labor shortage and a bigger demand for Nicaraguan labor. Thus many Nicas are choosing to go to El Salvador for employment instead of Costa Rica. This will inevitably result in a further labor shortage down the road for Costa Rica, and a slowing of their economy (or a greater influx of Colombians filling up the jobs vacated by Nicaraguans???).

Anyway, it's an interesting dicotomy between the press constantly blaming Nicaraguans for draining the social security system (though it is inherently flawed and only affected by Nicas about 2% a year), for increasing crime and violence, etc. However, businesses rely heavily on them for cheap, willing labor that they don't have to pay the government social security taxes on (16% to 23% of each laborers salary is matched by the employer to go towards the social security fund).

So really its the businesses screwing over the ss system!