That is, that's what I thought until two weeks ago. Natan Castro Romero is a sweet six year old boy with nystagmus, which causes him to rely on his peripheral vision, twisting his head to the left whenever he's excited.
I spent two mornings with him and his mother driving from Chureca to Mascota, one of Managua's children's hospitals. There we waited in lines, got lost in corridors and argued with parking attendants only to walk away with an appointment with an ophthalmologist... in June. You see, in Nicaragua you wait in line just to get an appointment, where you get to wait in line again. By the end of the second day, I was exhausted, frustrated and disappointed, apologizing to Natan's mom because we weren't able to see a doctor. Instead of complaining or commiserating, she thanked me. Later, when I stopped for gas, she ran to a street vendor. After a few minutes, she came back with her arms full of jacotes, one bag for each of us. It's the first time anyone in Chureca has given me anything. As we rode back to Chureca, I listened to Natan jabbering about the colors of the buses and buildings around us and sucked on my salty jacotes. And I gotta tell you, they tasted pretty good.
