Feeling Proud and Happy 

I went to bed last night feeling happy. I was happy because I was remembering spending the evening on the veranda of my home in Rancho Santana, talking to three men and three women – Nicaraguans that I first met more than 20 years ago.

It was an impromptu get-together. They had plans to have dinner at a local restaurant, along with four of their teenage kids, but they stopped by my house to say hello, and I insisted they have a drink. One drink led to another and a conversation that continued until nearly midnight.

We spoke about the early days of Rancho Santana, when we were clearing fields and building roads and clearing the beaches of debris. At that time, the three women were in their late teens, and the three men were in their early 20s. I was in my early 50s. Now they were in their mid-30s to mid-40s, with children and houses and careers.

Back then, their prospects for financial success were limited. The country was just emerging from a decade of post-revolution poverty, and in the state of Rivas, where we were, jobs were few and far between and those that could be had were poorly paid. A laborer earned about $5 a day, and a doctor made about $400 a month.

At Rancho Santana, we were paying about $12 a day for laborers, which was a bit more than twice what farms and businesses were paying in the area. I remember thinking then that it amounted to about $1.25 an hour, which is what I was paid for my first “official” job in 1962, when I was 12.

Twelve dollars a day is where these men started from. One dug trenches for waterlines. Another worked as a property guard at night. And the third spent his days cutting field grass with a machete. The three women had similar stories. One had been a housekeeper. One worked in Rancho Santana’s laundry. And the third one worked in the kitchen of our small restaurant.

While their kids watched TV in the den, we talked about Rancho Santana, then and now, and about all the little adventures we had shared. We were feeling good, laughing, and I was thinking how much the trajectory of their lives had changed.

The women had recently retired, but all the men have respectable, relatively high-paid careers.

One has his own fish company. He has four boats that go out daily, fishing along the shore and selling the catch to Rancho Santana and a dozen other resorts and restaurants up and down the coast. The other two are still working for the resort – but now they are senior executives, with their own departments to run.

In terms of income, they are probably in the top 5% of the Nicaraguan working population, which means they drive nice cars and own their own homes – small and rustic by US standards, but ample and respectable here.

What they have accomplished in their lives is the result of their good characters, relentless work ethic, and the willingness to continually learn and acquire financially valuable skills.

I was super-proud of them for what they’ve been able to do. They rose from the dirt – literally digging dirt – to positions of respect in their community. So I was not surprised to hear that they are referred to as Don Nestor, Don Eduardo, and Don Enrique by the locals. (In this part of Nicaragua, “Don” always was and still is a title reserved for influential and successful men.)

So there we were, sipping rum and reminiscing. And in the den were four of their children, all of whom I’ve known since they were babies. All of whom are now smart, young people looking ahead to a future that their parents, at their age, didn’t have.

And the best part, the part that makes me extra happy, is that they think of me as a sort of gringo padrino, an American godfather who they know they can count on, as they have in the past, to help them move forward with their lives and careers. And though they are too young to have “real” conversations with me, they are at least relaxed enough to laugh at my jokes in Spanish. I mean, really. How many people in the good old USA get to have that sort of experience?

And speaking of Rancho Santana, since I’m writing to you today about my life there… 

Travel & Leisure just rated Rancho Santana as one of the 100 best hotels in the world and the #4 resort in Central America. Read about it here and here.