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Trip Start Jan 23, 2007 Previous
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  Granada, Nicaragua
Friday, May 4, 2007

Hi Everyone,

Didn't really intend to start talking about our volunteering for a while, but find ourselves at the internet cafe, with 20 minutes of the hour left as usual, so might as well.

Our house situation is far better than our first impressions -  the people are really nice - think we probably caught them all feeling particularly shady after a night out on the grog. Also have got used to the simpleness of our room and shower (a tap from a tank basically), and have enjoyed cooking some stuff for ourselves, even if it's nearly cheaper to buy stuff at restaurants! Still have a pathological fear of scorpions though - turns out there were 3 monsters found, 1 killed. The one that was killed was an accident - one girl put her foot in her boot and squashed it

01. La prussia

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A unbelievably lucky fluke you would have to agree, particularly because while not deadly, a sting from one of these fellas will give you a very unhealthy dose of nuero-toxins, which apparently means you'll be in serious pain over your entire body for a couple of days - yay!!

Also sharing our house is a little cat who enjoys leaping up and holding on to your stomach with its claws while searching for a nipple - which Sam hates, but along with an abundance of cute puppies here is hopefully moving Francie away from getting a annoying little rat of a hair-ball hoika - and some chirpy bats that live somewhere in the roof. Apparently some used to live in our room until they installed ceiling fans in February, and 2 were found dead on the then occupants mosquito net in the morning - gruesome! Current score = Ceiling Fan 1 - Sonar detection 0.

Sorry, have eventually finished this ages after starting it - on Tuesday, a public holiday, we went to nearby Masaya, famous for its handicrafts market. We didn't buy anything, but spent a pleasant couple of hours in the plaza solving the problems of the world, and were given extra food for thought when a couple of visiting American pastors latched onto us for half an hour

02. La prussia

. While being very nice, genial guys, we wondered how far they were getting preaching to the local populace with their nice clean clothes, getting driven around in air-conditioned mini vans, speaking in English.

We had our orientation on Wednesday, and our first 2 days with our teams on Thursday and Friday. The orientation was interesting - we were taken around the 4 schools the organisation works in, running out of petrol twice (!!) but had a good time anyway.

Thursday we both had our first days on the programme, Sam having his first experience of the preschool classroom and Francie taking 8 kids to a dentist visit. Will elaborate more on problems and successes in a future entry but for now, our first taste of volunteering here was bewildering, challenging, and above all, even at this early stage, frustrating (will explain in full once we are sure any criticisms aren't just bad first impressions).

Sam's helping out with another volunteer in a classroom of little tikes - all beautiful children, but more than a far share of little ones with behavioural difficulties. Doesn't really help that the young teacher doesn't seem to have any sort of lesson plan (not that preschool should require anything brilliant, but at least have a plan of a few activities you want the the kids to do) and the kids aren't really stimulated like you would see in a kindergarten at home - this isn't for lack of help or resources

03. La Prussia

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Frances took (or tried to take some kids) to the dentist on her first day with another volunteer. Most kids got teeth pulled out completely they were so rotten, and have further extractions lined up.

Have so much more to say about our volunteering experiences, but hopefully another week will temper any rash things we may write and regret, so will fill you in further later.

We did have a good weekend though! On Saturday we helped some other volunteers clean up the community centre in La Prussia, one of the villages that our organisation works in. The work was pretty simple, but the reward for the students who came aloing to help was a trip the nearby Laguna de Apoyo, a fantastically beautiful, pristine crater lake about an hours walk from La Prussia.
Walking in the middle of the day may not have been the best of ideas, as mid day temperatures here are 30-35 C, but it made the swim at the end of it all the more inviting. However, we were more than a little disappointed that the lake was very tepid indeed, although it did mean we were able to stay in for the entire afternoon

04. Transport back into town

. Francie began teaching some of the kids to float and swim, which was enjoyed by both teacher and student!
The long walk home was shortened somewhat when our volunteer coordinator waved down a horse and cart and 5 of us piled on board. We both felt very uncomfortable for giving the poor old emaciated horse even more of a burden and because we had the worst seats on the cart - Sam's boney bum nearly split in two going over every bump, while Francie actually got thrown off when we went over a speed bump too fast!
However the day ended in fantastic fashion when we were shown the best place to buy Choco-bananas - a deliciously cheap frozen snack that are exactly as the name suggests....mmm
That night we also had a party with all the other volunteers in one of the volunteer houses, which was a bit of fun, and allowed us to meet a few more of the volunteers and have a far bit of the local rum, Flor de Cana.

Sunday, we visited one of the nearby Las Isletas, which are hundreds of tiny islands in the lake formed after a volcanic eruption, with the rest of the volunteers. It was a very relaxing afternoon and allowed us further time to get to know the other volunteers.

Love to all.

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