los caballos de nicaragua--something i've never seen

When we were first driving through Masaya, I couldn't stop staring at the horses and the horse carts. I drew them in my sketchbook and I wrote a long journal entry about them, asking why do people still have to rely on horse carts? How is the poverty so extreme that horses are still the main mode of transportation? 

horse carts in Masaya

But after spending two weeks in the country, i've started to see that at least in the country, horses are part of the culture, part of a tradition that's full of pride and passed down from father to son. I think of the photo Meagan took of a young boy sitting on a horse wearing his hat and boots, happy to be part of the groups of men riding through the town. I think of the horse tied up outside of a store in esteli, standing calmly in its saddle while motorcycles roar and women shop and taxis beep their horns.

un caballo en esteli

I assumed people not using cars was a sign of depravity, of being sadly excluded from the modern world of technology. I see now that my tendency to pity people and wonder at the differences was a sign of all the things i don't know about this other world that is Nicaragua. I need to listen to Nicaragua, and see the wonders that are here instead of the things that are missing.