Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Independence Day

Sara threw a party at her apartment last night in honor of July 4th. It was an excellent July 4th, celebrated with chips and guacamole, roasted chicken, hot dog casserole, Nicaraguan beer, and a bit of Jose Cuervo. The crowd was quite diverse and included Americans, Nicaraguans, Japanese, and one Korean. The cast of characters included: William and Mario, the two informatics guys who work on the Dengue Project; Nana and Emmy, who both work at the Japanese embasy; Miyumi, daughter of a Japanese diplomat father and a Colombian mother; Robert and Justin, two American guys who run clothing factories (aka "sweatshops); Sara 2 (to distinguish her from MPH Sara), who will be starting med school at the Univeristy of Oklahoma in the fall; Two pre-med volunteers from a program that gives free medicines to needy Nicaraguans; Willy and Indira, the cute newlyweds who live next door to Sara and are both architects....

And then there was Alex. A Korean man who runs a textile factory that does embroidery. Alex knows basic Spanish vocabulary but almost no grammar. However, he didn't let his language difficulties get in the way of his telling stories. It quickly became apparent that Alex was the evening's feature entertainment.

He told us:
- about his wife who lived in Korea who he missed very much.
- that they had only been married since January
- that he had left to work in Nicaragua soon after the marriage
- that his wife would be coming to live with him in Nicaragua in August
- that he had taken up drinking out of loneliness because his wife wasn't with him.
- that he wanted children
- that he was sad he couldn't make children since his wife was far away.
- that he was exercising so he wouldn't be fat when his wife came
- that he was learning to cook so he could cook a romantic dinner for his wife.

In short, Alex was hilarious. And thus was spent a wonderful July 4th evening.

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