POST by ANNA: Stepping OUT

Nicavangelists

The Mercado Oriental, located in the beautiful city of Managua, is the largest market in all of Latin America. It is also one of my favorite places to visit here in Nicaragua. The very first time I went, I went with Liz and all the trickers and bboys to get shoes for their performance outfits.

Jonny, (who is one of the top bboys of Nicaragua) insisted that we power walk through the market because it wasn’t time for sight seeing or acting like tourists. Essentially, this meant that we hardly had time to look up because we were all so focused on where we were placing our feet. I found this to be quite nice because if I had the chance to look at more people, then more people would have seen I was a "Gringa" and yelled strange things at me.

First pulling up to the market, I was surprised to see that we parked in what looked to me like a gas station. Parking here is so random. In my mind, I would just park anywhere because there doesn’t really seem to be a rhythm to the madness.

As we exited the car, the looks began, not because we unloaded about 20 people from a car that seats 9 but because we were white and white people don’t really come to the market.

Loud music played from several shops, many of them blasting the hit-single Gangnam Style, a personal favorite of mine. Stenches of trash, fresh and spoiled meat, and burning tamales drifted straight to my nose, causing me to smile and making me want to puke, all at the same time.

Premier Nicavangelist Performance

Here it’s perfectly okay to throw your trash wherever you please, but somehow the environment seems happier here. Therefore, trash cluttered the alleyways between the shops. The boys took the tail because it’s not necessarily safe for us girls to be the very last ones in the line of people.

The shops are all attached to one another through a maze of narrow, dirty paths. Each shop probably has three or four duplicate shops that sell the same thing, but each claims to offer original products.

After minutes of power-walking, we stopped at the first shoe place that seemed to offer what we were looking for. I never thought that it would be super difficult to find the right shoes for the performance, especially considering they were JUST for the performance and for boys. Most of the guys wanted Converse because the outfits were black on top and bottom, with reflective stripes throughout. I thought Converse would be a nice match, although I personally thought any black shoe would work.

So, after many misses, we found a nice black converse at a good price. Most of the guys tried on their sizes and all was well in the world, but a few of them were not particularly keen with the Converse.

Nicavangelists performing GLOW at NCA

After at least a half hour making the shop lady search for the different sizes, someone ventured to a similar shoe shop and found a nice knockoff pair of Nikes. Those apparently were the winners.

I am making it sound much less difficult than it was because with some of the performers not present, sizes had to be guessed, different sizes fit better with certain shoes, and principles such as fashion and comfort had to be considered, of course.

We were there for at least two or three hours. A trip to the store here always seems to turn into a parade of people who need to get this or that. I definitely understand and I am ever amazed with how much Liz gets done working with all these gents. LOVE HER and THEM.

Throughout the search for the perfect shoe, I managed to purchase a delicious donut that was from Price Smart (Costco) as well as two pairs of earrings, all for less than 2 dollars. People walk around carrying trays of goodies and products making it easy to purchase something no matter where you are.

I look forward to more trips to the market as I grow more comfortable with the language, products, and food. Liz and I will surely go there one day just to peruse around for nothing. And when that day comes, I am going to buy a tamale.