USA – an easy target

When in Granada – you WILL see “gringos”.  They are often a bit ‘stand offish’ and seem to be annoyed that your presence is spoiling ‘their’ Central American adventure.  ALL Nicas greet you warmly – gringos do not.

On Ometepe, you will interact with mostly gringos (although the island is populated almost exclusively by Nicas).  This is because Ometepe is a premier world traveling destination and vagrants (oops, I mean backpackers) from around the world can enjoy a police free state for about $10 per day.

We met people from Belgium, England, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Norway (you should have seen Heidi’s shock when I belted out her national anthem!) and of course, the US.  There were some nice conversations – but in general most people don’t care for the US (including most of the backpackers from the US).

Jason - a US Professor of Anthropology

On our first night, Senor Molina and Jason (an Anthropology professor from a Southeastern Missouri college) heaped disdain on the US for its poor educational system, poor health care system, ‘closed minded’ attitude, overbearing world influence, the crime rates, and on and on.  We sat silently.  Senor Molina, to enforce a point, told the following story about the terrible US health care system:

A friend of his was morbidly obese (typically a self-induced condition – I’m just sayin’).  He decided to undergo gastric bypass.  The procedure (done for free in Nicaragua) went terribly bad and he was very sick.  To remedy this he traveled to the US – knowing that one of the best hospitals to fix this was in Miami.  The doctors there agreed to perform the surgery, but the hospital required a substantial ($75,000) down payment – prior to the elective surgery (no doubt this policy results from people getting surgery and then fleeing the country without payment).  The man found the money, got the surgery (which was VERY successful) and then left without paying the remainder of the $400,000 bill.  What a terrible system!

I sat there thinking, “I must be missing something”?  A foreign national, from a country with free (but obviously inferior) health-care, came to the US (where there is VERY good care) and was treated for less than a 25% down-payment.  He got fixed, fled the rest of the bill (which no doubt, we are now all paying for) and went home well. For a condition HE BROUGHT ON HIMSELF.  I am not sure what the better answer was.  I guess we were supposed to pay for it all?  Later, a Canadian couple whispered that had the man traveled to Canada, he wouldn’t have been treated for free and would have had more than a year’s wait. 

To make things worse, Jason (sporting his blonde dred locks) was happy to rail against all things American (oops – US). 

I left thinking that I could have spent the evening pointing out the terrible poverty, lack of education, and obvious class system of Nicaragua.  I could note the trash in the streets, the untreated water, the electrical blackouts, and lack of any government infrastructure (schools, roads, social services, low income assistance, animal services, etc.).  But I did not.  Because it isn’t respectful to visit someone’s house and to point out the worst aspects.  And I kept hearing Thumper from Disney’s Bambi, “If you can’t say nothing nice, don’t say nothing at all.”