volunteering work

OK, I must apologise - I know I have been very lax in writing blog entries (or, in fact, with sending emails at all) in the last fortnight. My excuse is that work is keeping me actually bloody busy. And add to that the fact that temperatures are starting to rise, with the onset of the summer months, so you have to shower and scrub off the sweat and dust and sun cream and grime before you can even think about being human enough to write about what's going on (a girl's best friend out here is her body scrub!)

So given that volunteering is my excuse for not writing, I guess I'd better let you in on what that actually entails. It is what I've come out here to Nicaragua to do, after all... I am now involved with four different volunteering projects: the women's group; the dentist visit program; organising for donated computers to be mended; and communications between a Catholic Mission in New Orleans and an orphanage (yes, I have no idea how that one came about either!).

My women's group work continues as usual, with two afternoon sessions a week with the ladies where we get together and go over current business, and check the quality of the goods that have been made (the leather-bound books are going particularly well at the moment). Once a week we do the accounts and we're trying to get the women to be more involved with both the raw materials costs and the real sales, so we go through the sales and monies earned in some details. Once a week we also have Margie (a local Granadina) come up and teach crocheting, to see whether we can turn this into a saleable product. Although the raw materials for this are wonderfully cheap, it is very labour intensive and takes quite a long time to crochet anything intricate, so we're starting with crocheted borders around material for table centrepieces to see how they might go. The jewellery making group get their regular rations of good beads, and we are trying to keep a good track of costs with them too. In between the meetings, we have jobs like internet research on fair trade status and import/export costs; making new display boards; visiting old and new shops in which to replenish & sell the stock; making up samples of possible new handicraft items (one idea is to make netting bowl-covers with beaded edging); buying supplies in town with the ladies; finding alternative sources and outlets including via volunteer email queries; doing regular inventory stock takes... As you can see this project alone keeps us pretty busy!

Granada & the office

For the dentist project I am co-coordinator, so we had to start off by setting up the program with the clinic and seeing teachers at the four schools we take children from. Even just getting the days and timetables arranged involved six different schools visits (each of which requires a chicken bus ride up the main highway). Also, twice a week I take a group of six kids from one of the schools (so I'm up at 6.30am to collect the children at 8am, and then drop them back around 12.30 or 1pm) to the clinic for their treatment. Even with two volunteers to six children this can be hard work, as we have to persuade them to come and mop up any tears; keep them occupied with puzzles, games, chat, books, playing catch in the yard, etc for four hours straight; even just getting them there and back can be an effort, as we have to either brave the chicken bus or hitch a lift in the back of a truck (actually often easier with the kids than without!) Today I had to walk one boy home mid-morning because he was refusing any treatment, and I talked to his parents about him returning another day. To be honest, virtually all the kids have such bad teeth that many are having loads of fillings, teeth pulled, and more, and they come back week after week. So I coordinate and update the detailed spreadhseet records about the visits. Sadly (for the kids, although happily for me personally) the school chats to explain dental health have been cancelled for now, so I finally get a relatively quiet day on Friday.

The other two projects (computers and orphanage) are weird enough but alas I have run out of time today to explain more, so you'll have to hold your breath for another time...