birthday party but stressful afternoon

Last night´s birthday festivites went very well (see the photos below).

My 32nd birthday party

The food turned up only about 45 minutes later than planned, but was such a delicious feast that it didn´t matter at all. We ate carne con verduras (sort of meat and veggie stew), gallo pinto (rice and beans), pollo (chicken), tostones con queso (plantain slices fried with Nica cheese on top), albondigas (meat balls), arroz (rice), frijoles (pureed beans), vegetales (vegetables), tortillas (home-made and fried), guacamole, ensalada (pureed coleslaw, sort of)... We also had a pineapple and orange juice refresco to drink, which went very well with the huge bottle of rum that the guys from the other volunteer house brought over! Also my housemates had organised a birthday cake, iced with "feliz cumpleaños Lizzie". I think in the end there were about 25 of us, and we all ate very well, with plenty of leftovers in the fridge for today. It was so sweet, because I received all sorts of lovely gifts too - a woven bag, a necklace and earrings set, a carved pineapple (!), a home-made CD of Latino music, a bracelet. I felt very touched by people´s generosity. And then of course, we had to go to Cafe Nuit (just for an hour or so) for a bit of a boogie afterwards.

So onto my stressful afternoon today: well, obviously in the way of the world any great evening is then balanced out by a not so fantastic day, so I´ll write it down and then forget about it (and I´m off to San Juan del Sur tomorrow morning for a little weekend away at the beach anyway).

Today was one of womens group sessions, and the one where we do the weekly accounts, working out how much each women has sold of her work, and therefore how much she earns. We all got off to a slghtly slow start this morning at home because firstly we were all a bit tired and hungover from last night. But also we had a water leak problem from under our sink, which in this heat meant that horrible water full of food particles was lying in the sun in a gully by our garden. To cut a long story short I had to get our friendly handyman and his assistant to clear out the blocked pipe and wash it all through, but the smell was disgusting, and then we had our daily water stoppage, so we had only our emergency water tank supply to use and it took ages to find any disinfectant (our cleaner uses only water on the floors, I think). And all the while no one could take an outdoor shower because of the men all around. So we got down to the office rather later than planned to work out the accounts. Also, we´d arranged that a lady was coming to today´s session to start teaching a sort of weaving/crocheting skill (which I´m trying to learn alongside the ladies - you should see my practice threads!) plus the English mother of a long-term volunteer was coming too to see how the group works as she could teach knitting at a later date.

But when these visitors turned up at the office we weren´t ready and were only just finishing the accounts and Jo and Fiona were still sorting out new beads to take to the jewellery-making ladies. So after about 20 mins of them hanging around, I suggested I take the two visitors up to the community centre and open it up and that Jo and Fiona follow in a few minutes. [I just felt uncomfortable that our visitors, who´d given up their time, shouldn´t have to hang around while we phaffed.] The trip up there involves a 10 mins taxi ride and then a 10-15 mins walk/scramble across fields along a rocky track. So I´m making comversation in a mixture of Spanish and English for my two comapnions.

We get to the community centre and open up and I get things sorted for the women. But without the keys (which Fiona couldn´t give me before, as they were stuck at the bottom of her bag) I wasn´t able to open up the cupboard in which we store materials, so I made another 20 mins of slightly difficult conversation with everyone, whilst unable to actually do anything. I felt so bad given that Margie was giving up her free time (as a local working person) to teach, plus it was giving Joan a very unprefessinal impression of what we do. Then eventually the other girls turned up and we got started with the crochet class. Despite the late and tricky start, what we actually did was good, plus we gave out new beads and did the accounts with the ladies. So the session went well (depsite me having not thought to bring any scissors to cut the threads - thus looking even less prepared then ever, although I suppose it wasn´t just me).

Afterwards Jo and Fiona were heading off on this afternoon´s bus to the beach (I prefer to take my time, finish everything off that needs doing and go tomorrow morning), so they dashed off and I locked up and then took our two visitors back to Granada. Cue yet more dual-language conversations (which I find quite tiring). Then on the main road, the first taxi to come along was one of the horse and carriage ones that always ply for trade in the main square. I have so far managed to avoid taking one, because the horses look so thin and unhappy and it´s generally not great. But somehow, perhaps because each of us was hedging around the sensibilties of the other and not wanting to seem too difficult, we agreed to take the horse and carriage taxi back to Granada. Which then mean a further spell of semi-translated conversation, whilst I could feel Joan sitting beside me getting more and more unhappy with the horse situation. We actually told our driver not to take on board more passengers when he tried, because it would be too much work for the horses. I also asked him not to whip the horses, and paid him an extra 10 cords to feed them something nice (which of course is unlikely to happen, but I felt the need to try). All of which was painful to sit through, plus the shame of being so amateurish in front of our guests (one of whom is connected to a La Esperanza coordinator).

So I´ve just had an ice cream to cheer me up, and now I´m off home for a long, cold shower... And then tomorrow is a new day. *deep breath*