Jonrón

Nicaragua is baseball territory. All of it, even the countryside with the dusty roads, horsemen wearing the compulsory baseball caps, wandering dogs and cows – and a few overloaded trucks. Add to that quite a lot of coffee, a few cabbage fields, lots of potatoes – and the local baseball field. That more or less describes the Estelí countryside. And the field was where I ended up with some friends last week, and where I realized why Nicaragua has so much to offer.
I just love the fact that in this country, I can walk onto the local baseball field, sit down on the grass next to the local boys and watch the game. No fuss, no comments, just a few smiles and surprised looks. It is not everyday that a bunch of cheles watch the local match, but what the h… - in Nicaragua everything is possible, even this, people seem to say to themselves. So they leave us alone and answer our strange questions on the game with patience. The field is too short, so they have had to adapt the global baseball rules to local conditions. If the ball hits one side of the roof of the school building, the striker is allowed to run two bases. But if it hits the other side of the roof, it is a homerun. Or jonrón as Nicaraguans call it.
And so it strikes me that this country has so much to offer. Hospitality and friendlyless can open so many doors and maybe allow a major homerun.

Published by Christian Korsgaard