What's Inside Your Bubble?

Here in Nicaragua what first struck me as odd coincidences are starting to come together to make a little more sense. How strange, I thought, that shop keepers don't have enough change to break my C500 (US$20) bill. How nice, that when I come home from school my room is mysteriously neater than when I left it in the morning. How comforting, that there are multiple security guards at the entrance to my university. How different, that every where I go there is personnel opening doors and serving me with polite smiles.

At first these all seemed to be a part of the many cultural differences between the United States and Nicaragua. And in a way, they are. However, these "coincidences" don't really reflect the culture of Nicaragua, but the culture of the upper class. 

In the US I am lucky to have more than enough money to get by, even enough to get a college education (which is still something only 30% of Americans have). But here I have been launched into a completely different stratosphere of comparative wealth. Not only am I enrolled in a university here, but a private, English language university which means I am surrounded by the elite of Nicaragua. I am the one percent. Whoa.

In talking to a local Nica about the contrast between rich and poor in this country, she said something about the rich here living in a bubble. While this is true of most upperclass around the world, I can't help but note the differences between the bubble I live in at home and the bubble I live in here. In the US our bubbles can be as big as entire neighborhoods, cities, or even include the whole country depending on what your definition is. 

Here it is impossible to go even a day without realizing how alive poverty is in the world. Every day I come face to face with people who make their living selling plastic trinkets by the side of the road or who drive carts pulled by gaunt, overworked horses or who's children stay out of school to beg for pesos. 

My bubble is feeling pretty thin here in Managua but I don't think that's a bad thing. Maybe if all of our bubbles were a little thinner we could start changing the world into a place where we don't need them.

-Kayla Duskin