Tough by circumstance

Imagine not having your car, a subway or a metro, and not being able to afford the bus. You’d be forced to commute by making use of the limbs you were given. You’d be forced into walking, into biking, into hauling stuff on your back, over your head, or over your shoulder. You’d be challenged. You’d be expending energy. You’d be working overtime. By circumstance, you’d probably be pretty tough.

Nicaraguans do not appear to be the fittest people in the world. A very low percentage of them work out at a gym. None of them jog. Their diet is characterized by bubbling oil with some food sprinkled in. Their greatest pastime includes sitting on stoops in plastic chairs staring at people as they walk by. It is not unusual to see the same person in the same position in the same chair at the same house at the same hour every day.

As you walk the streets and witness the coping mechanisms for this transportationally-challenged atmosphere, however, the preconceived notion that Nicaraguans are unfit quickly disintegrates. Though their work is not formal, nor their exercise in a gym…Nicaraguans are expending energy…and they are working very hard. They are tough in ways inconceivable to many of us. Take a look at what I mean:


















My home-country gringos have spent decades and decades perfecting the vehicles through which they optimize time and convenience. This wave has yet to take place in Nicaragua, where very few people own cars, where there is no subway or metro, where those in poverty are on an economic rung below affording the bus, or a horse buggy for that matter.

As a current member of the Nicaraguan community, and a lifetime member of a gringo culture inundated by technology and convenience, I spend little time wondering what is better or what is worse, and a lot of time wondering what can be learned from these distinct realities.

For example: How much would America benefit with regards to health and environment if its citizens were forced to walk or bike instead of taxi, metro, or drive? Would Nicaragua’s work-related efficiency, production, and output improve if less time was spent in manual transit and physically expending energy ?

I suspect that we share similar responses to these questions. And while these responses offer a balance between “convenience” and “work overload,” I have realized from walking the brutally hot streets of Masaya, for a measly twenty-five minutes a day, how tough the Nicaraguan population is. How dependent I used to be on convenience. And how we often don’t know how tough we are until cornered into a situation with few to no options.