Granada - settling in to our home for 10 weeks
Trip Start
Jan 23, 2007
1
60
120
Trip End
Dec 24, 2007
Granada,
Nicaragua
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Arrived in Granada, where we are to do our volunteering for the next 10 weeks, on Friday afternoon, after catching the usual string of buses. Unfortuanately, the first bus seemed have been imported from El Salvador in that it was very comfortable, but showed yet another Steven Seagal clanger - written and produced by, and starring (of course) the man himself, it went by the imaginative name of 'Action Force' - thankfully the pirated DVD didn't last the distance, and our agony wasn't prolonged, although the alternative was a awful slapstick comedy where adults dressed up as kids and fell in wet cement etc (usually Sam finds this kind of movie fantastic, so for him not to even smirk shows how bad it was).
Have spent the last couple of days getting ourselves sorted and used to our living situation - we are living in a pretty simple little home with 9 or 10 other volunteers, where we can self cater and do our own laundry, which makes a nice change
01. Our room
.Without wanting to sound too down about it, we were more than a little nervous at first about how we are going to fare here. It will just take a little getting used to living other people, after being all on our lonesome for the last few months, particularly since our house mates (at least on first impressions) seem very different to us - they seem to enjoy socialising, smoking and drinking, and seem quite 'alternative', while our interests at home include playing board games on a Saturday night and knitting......
Also have worries about our ability to do anything useful during our volunteering but after to talking to the volunteer coordinator, and the other volunteers in our house, everyone feels like that for the first couple of weeks apparently, so surely we'll be ok. It didn't help our initial pessimistic attitude that one of the first stories we heard was how a girl in our house found a big scorpion under her pillow one night (about 10-15cm big) - apparently they aren't fatal here, but we'd both experience serious bladder weakness if we found one in our bed....
Anyhoo, spent today washing our filthy clothes, and doing the initial shop for the basics - hope to have a nice salad tonight, which we can wash with safety as the water here is drinkable.
Are to start properly on Thursday, after a public holiday and an orientation session, so will be able to report more then - Francie is to work with the health team, and Sam is to tutor kids, or help out in the classroom - both of us are very nervous!!
Will keep you posted, and will upload a whole lot more photos soon.
Love to all.
Comments
Who's alternative?
If they are all alternative they ain't - you are! And interesting as such. We (collectively) can't imagine you not making friends. I recall G & G years ago being laughed at for taking their own thermos each day on their bus trip around Europe but one by one fellow travellers commneted on their common sense and resourcefulness. (I already wrote this once and don't know where it went so laugh if once again you get 'twins'
What's a little ol scorpion?
Eeeeeeek! I am sure after experiencing NZ weta's you can cope with a spanish speaking scorpion. Just address it in your best espanol following your father's calm and mature manner with weta's - pass it over to Frances! - That way she is the one to scream and make a fuss and you can go find someone to come to her rescue. PS Never mind pillows - leave enough time in the mornings to check your undies.