Privacy

Privacy, it seems, is something that does not exist down here. 

In the houses, the walls dont connect with the roof so you can hear every word people say.  Front doors are always open so people can walk in and sit down or come in and join you for dinner whenever they want.  During the anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, people stood in our doorway most of the day to watch the coverage on the TV.

Bathrooms dont exist inside houses here.  Families have something like a porter potty in their garden and their shower consists of a stone ´room´ near their water basin.  It sometimes doesnt reach above your head, so when you are showering everyone can see you.  Underware, bras and boxers dry freely on the clothes lines for the world to see.  The one good thing that has come from this is that things dont embarress me as  much as they used to.  We are all humans, we all have the same clothes and the same bodily functions so there is nothing to be ashamed of!

The last privacy issue here is that of TV reporters.  Talk about ´ín your face news!´  When there is a drug bust (about once a week), the cameras are feet away from the culprits with their faces in the ground and they are sometimes shoved out of the way when the police try to close the car doors as the TV crews are trying to interview those being arrested.  A few weeks ago there was a security guard who was shot 2 times in the chest.  You saw the up close view of this security guard lying limp in his plastic lawn chair with no sheet covering him up or anything.  To make it even better, they were interviewing his family with the dead guy in the background of the shot.  Seriously...?!  There has to be some point where you cross the line.