first impressions of Granada

OK. This morning´s power cut is now over and I´m in a better internet cafe than last time, so I can at least put down a few first impressions of Granada, where I´m now living.

I arrived late last Thursday evening at the Casa Santa Lucia, which I´m currently sharing with 5 other girls, although I believe a couple are joining us in a fortnight or so. I managed to wangle a room to myself, although I don´t know if you can call it "to myself" when I share it with more than 30 spiders! I have to say that there´s no way you could live here with a fear of spiders, but mainly I just let them be (even the ones in my shower). So yes, the house is quite basic but it´s also quite comfortable and the other girls are very friendly. I´ve taken a few photos and once I come back with my camera I´ll upload those here.

Since a group of volnteers who´d been here a while were heading off for the weekend to the beach, another new arrival and myself stayed in town to acclimatize to the heat (we arrived during a 32 degrees "cold spell" which sadly is now over) and get to know the town. Granada is chaotic, ramshackle and dilapidated, but actually also very pretty and relaxed. I have to admit I really like it - even the market which some people find intimidating. It´s clearly the richest and most developed town in Nicaragua, but then that´s not saying much!

So Torey and I spent Friday and Saturday shopping, wandering and generally hanging out. Oh, and we did manage a bit of a night out on Friday too. Granada is quite small so there´s really only a handful of bars to go out in, so I think you very quickly get to know everyone - particularly who´s local, who´s a volunteer/ex-pat and who´s just a traveller passing through. Then on Sunday we visited a nearby Lagoon created by water filling in the crater of a (hopefully) dormant volcano. It was really chilled out and beautiful. Great swimming too.

Monday was our orientation day at the office, when we got something of a tour of the town and the local poor villages we help in. I have to say the organisation is pretty chaotic, but hopefully it will calm down once more of the recent influx of voluteers find their way. It turns out that I will be working with the women´s group but also helping out with the schools too. I´m trying not to get annoyed about it (after my long email discussions with the volunteer organiser about precisely this subject) and just go with the flow. It is the Nicaraguan way, after all. In fact you can´t do anything here quickly at all, so everything involves going with the flow. Even just buying something at the market stall can involve 10 mins of conversation. Nothing happens "rapido" in this heat.

Yesterday was my first day with the women´s group getting to know some of them and seeing how the payments are made. We managed to sell quite a few items of jewellery to a local hotel to sell on, so that´s great. And today we bought materials at the market to make a couple of display boards too. Also this morning I helped take a group of 11 boys (aged between 12 and 14) to computer class - for which read 30 mins paid for at a local internet cafe with us 3 volunteers showing them how to change font, cut and paste, etc in Word - and then on to the market to buy them all shirts, trousers, shoes and socks for their school uniforms. Complete mayhem as you can imagine. But actually the boys are naughty but still friendly and wanting to learn...