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Well, I've been in Costa Rica for about a third of the past two years on and off, but we've been back in the Philippines for about 3 months.  Sorry if I was unclear in my garbled Spanslish - Bill is another person who posts on this site, just like you and me.  He is the one who lost his wallet.  (You can register easily also just click Create New Account - then you can post primary articles and also your comments bypass the moderation queue.)

I'm not sure you're right about the word primo - at least the poor, uneducated people (who worked on my farm) used the word regularly - "primo" "hermano" whatever, "maje" yes when there was a slight twist of condescension or sarcasm.  Here's a picture where I'm plowing with an Ox - sorry, no pictures of me plowing with dos bueyes en la manera nicaraguense, although I can do it more or less.  You may be right, that educated Nicaraguans don't call each other primo.  I wouldn't know, as I hardly know any - you're one of the few!  In general, as you know, the more educated 20% of the population left thirty years ago like I assume your family did.

Your words about the pride of the Nicaraguan soul certainly ring true.  He or she may say yes massuh but it's a superficial obediance rather than a respect for knowledge or authority.  When it really comes to learning something new, it's such an offense to the typical Nicaraguan's pride, that he'd rather lose his job to prevent learning anything.  I'm not sure this is exclusively Nicaraguan though - in general, I've found in countries around the world that the resistance to learning and obedience to an infantile conception of pride are highly correlated with criminality and poverty across cultures.