Word: nicaraguan
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When the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) was voted out of power in 1990 after a decade of battling U.S.-backed contra insurgents, many of its supporters from the United States and Europe packed up their bandanas and Birkenstocks and went home with a good story. The Nicaraguan revolution was over, and most of the "Sandalistas" (the nickname that combined their preferences in politics and footwear) saw no point in staying on: There was nothing sexy about helping out a centrist transition government led by a grandmotherly widow when you'd been drawn here by the allure of a regime...
...country, empowering women and peasants, providing micro-credit loans to farmers, and delivering drinking water and latrines to the rural poor. Today, many live simple lives eating rice and beans for breakfast, speaking a Spanish that drops the s at the end of words, a signature of a Nicaraguan accent. A group of several dozen of them gather each week to discuss social justice issues at the Casa Ben Linder, the Managua meeting house named after the only U.S. citizen killed by contras in the 1980s...
...fact that the Patriots lost the Super Bowl may be why the celebration was being held in this small Nicaraguan village - because Boston's loss was definitely Diriamba's gain, in the form of the "Perfect Season, 19-0" Patriots T-shirts and hats that Brady, Belichick and Bruschi were supposed to have worn on the field after the game. Due to NFL regulations that prohibit the sale of the losing team's "championship" apparel, the T-shirts and hats were donated to needy Nicaraguans by World Vision, in conjunction with the NFL and Reebok...
...Home to some 40 million mostly poor people, Central America is an enormous market for inexpensive clothing. Nicaraguan entrepreneurs often travel to Miami to buy used clothing in bulk, and ship it back home to sell for a hefty profit. According to an investigation by Nicaraguan economist Alejandro Arauz, most such apparel is imported into Nicaragua as "donations" to skirt commercial taxes, then resold for a 200 percent profit. To further cut costs, the used clothing purchased in the U.S. is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff, the garments picked over and left behind at Goodwill and then sold...
...example, if a foreigner asks, "How do you get to the Nicaraguan Tourism Institute?" the conversation might go like this...