How a mural in Nicaragua made me think about preconceptions. The explanation was hilarious though.

Have you ever been traveling in a foreign country and had locals warn you about visiting the neighboring country? I have, several times and it made me realize how most countries place a stigma on their neighbors. This is especially true of how poorer countries view their even less fortunate neighbors.

If you go to Mexico, they warn you about Guatemala, if you go to Guatemala they warn you about El Salvador, if you go to El Savador they'll tell you not to risk going to Nicaragua. It seems to never end. I used to chalk this up to them just not wanting to give up your tourist dollars to a competing country. But, I doubt the locals I've run into who are farmers just trying to raise enough food to feed their family really cared about tourist dollars.

Why is it we have this view, I mean even in the U.S. you'll get this from a lot of people concerning Mexico. I'm sure our governments Travel Advisories don't help much. Do you pay attention to these? I don't anymore. I've learned our government will constantly release travel warnings for countries whose government it just doesn't agree with. But, countries that have just as much or more danger never get mentioned, that is as long as they are friendly to the U.S.

I don't need our government to warn me about a travel location. I realize that every country has dangerous areas of travel. Every large city has no-go areas for late nights. I just learn about these areas for each country and try to avoid them at night. I try to be vigilante about my safety and never travel with nice clothes and jewelry, I think having some street smarts rules will keep me safe in most areas of the world.

But, I digress, back to neighboring countries' prejudices and why all this was brought to my mind. We came to be helping out a medical missions team while in Nicaragua. No, we do not have any medical background at all, but there is lots to do during a medical clinic that doesn't require it.
We were placed in charge of weighing babies so the doctors knew the doses of medication to give them. My Spanish is atrocious so basically this involved me just pulling babies off of the breast of their mother as they waited in line. Then once the baby was weighted I'd just attach it back to the mother. Crazy I know, but it seemed to be the thing and there were no disagreements.

Here's the mural. Could you guess it's meaning?

While we were there I noticed the mural above painted inside this tiny shack of a church we were working in. I studied this mural for 2 days trying to discern it's meaning. Finally on the 3rd day the local village had a party for us for providing the clinic and getting their well fixed. On this day the pastor from the church was present. So, I had to pull her aside and ask her to explain the mural's meaning to me. She said the plane was crashing, and the people on board were going to heaven. "Yes, I understand this" I said, "but, why does the plane say MEXICO on it?" Her response was "Oh, simple, that is to show our parishioners that everyone can go to heaven. Even Mexicans!". I nearly laughed out loud at the thought, but then realized, this was a very serious comment. They literally have such a strong distaste for Mexicans that the parishioners generally couldn't imagine them going to heaven. Of course this was a tiny little village in the middle of nowhere Nicaragua, but it really made me think about the prejudices we carry without knowing it and how this plays out all over the world. All because I couldn't figure out the deal with this crazy mural.

---

Thanks for reading! I'm interested in your thoughts on the subject.

All the images and words in the is post are mine alone. The images are all near Playa Hermosa, Nicaragua

-Qberry