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Blind AmericInn considering Nicaragua

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blindave13
  10/25/2014 17:42 EST

After a very handy couple of emails about Nicaragua and some -ones about Panama and Ecuador, I am focusing more on Nicaragua. As a blind person, where would be a good place to start? I was thinking about Managua but are there a lot of Americans there? Ideally I would like to live near other American or European expatriates as my Spanish is port to nonexistent. I will try to learn but being blind is making that difficult. On a $1300 a month Social Security disability income, I am hoping to live relatively comfortably but would like to be able to afford maybe someone to cook meals for me part of the week or some situations like that. Thanks for any tips in advance, I really appreciate them

iguanalover
  10/26/2014 10:53 EST

There are many blind people that I see around town, we live in Granada. They are alone so it can be done. Granada has wide sidewalks but there are problems you have to learn to navigate. It is also flat, which helps. It has a lively expat community and you can live inexpensively if you want. There are lots of care givers in town.

There are lots of expats in the mountain towns which are beautiful but not as easy to walk in. Living is less expensive. The climate is very different than Granada.
The ones I have been in have small sidewalks and lots of traffic on narrow streets. The mountain towns have lively, involved expats.

San Juan del Sur is a small town, flat and the walking was pretty good.

Managua is a rough town with gridlock traffic. We walk in certain areas but are very careful. There has been mucho activism on the part the blind in Managua because of the trouble with walking around.

I would recommend that you look at the Facebook pages about Nicaragua, it gives more of an idea about the type of expats in the communities and what life is like. Spanish is the language here and it is not true that lots of people in the tourist areas speak
English. When we are out of the house, we operate in Spanish. There are great Spanish teachers all over the country. You will have to deal with the language and you can do it. Nicaraguans are very helpful people, you will find a teacher.

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JohnSS
  10/26/2014 18:30 EST

Ditto iguanalover's message.

In the smaller cities he mentioned other than Managua the expats tend to hang out together in "their area" and support each other. You will not be lacking for help - Most are very giving people.
Granada may be best but the smaller San Juan del Sur is full of wonderful people. You will never be alone in a panic situation. But apartments are now up in price. Minimum for something modern is probably $350 maybe more.

Come down and take a look! Ask here or PM any of us for personal help.
Good luck.

elduendegrande
  10/28/2014 12:27 EST

My experience is in the north where there are few foreigners and they mostly stick to themselves or their Nica families. SJdS and the 3 real cities have expat communities of some size so that would be a better option, but think of handfuls of foreigners, not hundreds. Of the expats I know, several work all the time, several are missionaries, and some seem to spend a lot of time on the net.

Being blind and not speaking the language would put you in a very difficult situation, especially coupled with the fact that Nic. society has high levels of dis-functionality on a good day. Boredom would be your greatest enemy.

You would be leaving the culture and safety net of your own country and you should check if you can legally receive your disability check outside the US. (regular social security is no problem).

For living independently, $1300 a month would be a stretch, especially since you would be paying for a housekeeper or other personal helper. The housing bargains are in the cow towns, but don't expect many foreigners or comforts. A better plan would be to find another person with similar needs and split some of the costs. Or rent a room and let somebody else sweat the infrastructure till you see if you can fit in.

This reminds me of years ago I was in some brainstorming sessions with the late Tony R of Jinotega. He had a plan to start an assisted care facility for people who could live nearly independently but needed some backup. Nic has a relatively mild climate and low nursing costs and a few other good points, but like any business proposal somebody has to do and make it work.

richardsteebird
  10/29/2014 13:25 EST

My husband and I live in Jinotepe a decent size mountain town about an hour out of Managua where the weather is much cooler. We have some expats here. We lived in a gated community for 6 months but moved into town in September our rent dropped from $600 to $400 for a much larger home. We love it here. My husband is legally blind and gets a social security disability check too we left the bank account in the states open and just use the debit to pull money for rent, etc. We are pensionados and just got approved for our cedulas. You will have no problem getting a cedula with the income that you have coming in. We are also ministers and basically moved because we needed a location where we could open our Crossroads Fellowship Bible Institute where we are training Nicaraguans who want to become pastors, ministers, missionaries, or just want to learn more about the bible. We are accredited and offer degree programs to those who would like a degree.
There are homes here that rent for anywhere from $250 up and are safe. A friend of ours here in Jinotepe is checking on assisted living places for you. Please email me at [email protected] so we can chat regarding the different areas.

richardsteebird
  10/29/2014 13:50 EST

Do you have any equipment to help the blind? My husband was able to get Blind Services in Florida to give him a DaVinci large screen monitor that talks. Software for enlarging the text is ZoomText 10 and Dragon Naturally Speaking 12. He suggests you get Dragon Pro 13. You want to get this before you make a move to Nicaragua you can't get the equipment here. Floyd's vision is 20/400 and he can see some images but they are blurry. You could hold up your hand he could tell there is a hand there but could not tell you how many fingers you are holding up.
We would suggest you stay away from Managua except for medical treatments or to go to PriceMart. We have some really great doctors and dentists here in Jinotepe as I am sure there are in Granada. It is more expensive to live in Granada and San Juan Del Sur but they do have larger expat populations. We have made some wonderful Spanish friends who speak fluent English and have helped us on many occasions and I only speak limited Spanish phrases. You can get by here without any great problems. Maids charge C100 per day so that's less than $4 a day. We are sure you can get the help you need for cooking meals inexpensively. Email me and I'll give you our vonage phone number.

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richardsteebird
  10/30/2014 17:01 EST

Dr. Rev. Roy Nicholas thanks for your message regarding our post on this subject. Please email me [email protected] or [email protected] so we can respond to your questions. We do not have you email address and can not respond on this site.

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