Robert,
Yes, I know of their hardships, but that's not new. Shocks me that you talk of starvation! I didn't realize that folk in Nicaragua are dying of hunger! According to medical reports I've heard, obesity and overeating is an increasing problem in South America. Now you break that bubble of my ignorance. Hunger in Nicaragua! Just how prevalent is it? For sure we have endles stores of food to send needy people! What's going on!
Asher
I shouldn't have put 'starve and die young' together like that. I'm not implying that it is the poorest country in the world --- however it is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere - it was the poorest until Haiti's earthquake devastated that country.
Many of the normal everyday Nicas I come across and know, eat one meal a day and somtimes even skip a day. Some young 20 year old men eat , but experience starvation pains daily. In the rural areas of Nicaragua, the issue is even more pronounced. Because of a lack of jobs, the daily income can barely buy essential high priced beans and rice for families. I have learned that it is a mistake to presume that because some are round and pudgy, that they are eating well or properly. And because they appear well dressed and clean, does not mean they don't have serious needs - simply that they are proud and very pragmatic. Foreigners get so jaded by the manipulated photo and video presentation of the poor and desperate, that we see on infomercials and presented by organizations trying to pull at our heart strings to donate money.
If city folk are able to find a job, their earnings may be 60 or 70 cordobas a day ($2.50-$3.00 US) - some rural areas even less than a dollar a day. That income may have to feed and buy drugs for a household of 5 or 6 or more children, aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents.
A young 22 year od friend of mine who desperately has been looking for work to support his family who's woodworking business no longer provides any income - has completed University with his government certificate as an Accountant. After 6 months of looking everywhere for a job to get his mandatory apprenticeship to be fully licensed - he let me know he found a job 3 weeeks ago working in accounts for a company that repackages bulk vegetable oil for distribution. I talked to him yesterday. He has quit. It was a brutal job paying $35US dollars per week for 6 days a week from 6:00AM to 6:00PM. In the 2 weeks, he never did any accounting work, instead was cleaning the building and digging ditches. He was provided no meals which ended up costing him almost half of what he made each week. He put up with terrible verbal abuse from the female owner, who even demanded that he pay her for what she had taught him, when he finally quit. Such situations are the norm unfortunately. People put up with such things for years, just to hopefully have a meal for their family each day and have a bit to buy the used clothes that everyone wears.
By dying young, I wasn't referring to having witnessed starvation on the level of Ethiopia in the past or other such countries --- just that you don't see a whole lot of old people. People ingeneral die younger - stats are 10 years younger than Canada - with a males average life span around 70 years. In the area I live in, there is a lot of kidney disease.
As for obesity and overeating, in Nicaragua an increasingly common way of preparing foods in the city is frying - so every day people may be eating deep fried chicken. As well Coca Cola has a stranglehold on people and affects heath. The only real options to quench endless thirst from the blazing heat, are water, Coca Cola and Beer, and many starving men can purchase dirt cheap Rum that they water down and drink all day long to ease the starvation pains in their stomach. There are refrescos avaiable made out of local fruits - but they cost twice what Coke and Tonia (beer) cost.
My purpose to be in Nicaragua isn't to study these social issues or find solutions --- these are simply things I witnesses and hear about in getting to know the people in my community. I am always encouraged by how they stay happy and optimistic (on the outside), even though there won't likely be much change on the horizon.
It's not hard to find info online. Just search 'hunger in Nicaragua'. This report is from 2010, so stats may be marginally better in 2015 - but not likely --- plus drought this past year is devastating Nicaraguan farmers. We are currently in the rainy season since June and have barely had a handful of rains.
http://www.wfp.org/countries/nicaragua
http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2014/10/17/feeding-hungry-children-in-nicaragua/
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