Monday, April 30, 2007

Lizzie is staying longer in Nicaragua!

Fantastic newsflash - I am staying extra weeks in Nicaragua. I just recently got the final confirmation from HarperCollins that I can extend my sabbatical by another 6 weeks, so I will be out here until later in July. All very exciting! This means I can finish the first half of the school year on the dentist program, and hand it over to the free Dentists Without Borders team who turn up in July. And the two women's groups should be fully independent, accounts-wise, by then too. At last that's the aim...

La Esperanza weekly news

Sorry for the lack of news recently - I have been very busy with the dental project (see below). But I'm soon taking off for a long weekend in the north of Nicaragua, for a bit of relaxation and travel experience...

Dear All,
Full week of school, which makes a nice change, at all four schools too. I notice that next Thursday the 26th has been circled on the school Calandario – though it doesn't say why, it would be a good idea to check in the schools. Also as Tuesday the 1st May is a national holiday – we should check if the schools are closed just for that day, or if they will in fact be closed for the Monday 30th April as well making it a really long weekend?

Sunday 6th May we will have our regular outing to the isletas – meeting down at Las Palmas restaurant at noon – I will put a reminder in next week. For those who are new – we have a free boat ride to one of the islands and then hang out for the afternoon at a small cheap open air restaurant, swim, relax etc. normally returning to Granada about 4 or 4.30.

We are full steam ahead on the dental program still now, thanks mostly to Lizzie's input. Also if any children are in need of glasses we will be able to supply them. As for adult reading glasses we have quite a number of pairs in the library.

This week we have have to say goodbye to Julia who has been with us for the past two months. Seems like she only arrived last week – but I have checked the calendar.

New arrivals this week are Amanda Brown from Canada, Alan Cowburn, Emma Close and Rachel Evans, all three of whom are from the UK.

We have had a couple of paypal donations this week, one for $40 from Chloe Sharpe from the U.K., and one of $100 from Jeremy Jensen from the U.S.A. In addition to this we had a visit from Jim and Jan Hainsworth, and Ron and Peggy Garvalia from the U.S. Jim very generously brought with him a new laptop for us – though it is not brand new it is completely reconditioned and so working like brand new – couldn't have come at a better time. The two families each donated $20 on behalf of their grandchildren, Jillian, Gwen and Anna Hainsworth, and Luke, Joe, Sam and Tony Garvalia. Plus they brought with them bags of stuff including school supplies and lots of things suitable for prizes for when we have International Children's Day celebrations.

Clay put on a very good presentation for the tutoring session this past Tuesday, and I believe that Laura will be conducting the next one – though we will need a date check on that one as it would be scheduled for the 1st May.

See you all through the week,
Regards, Pauline.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Global warming

Apparently the reason the scorpions are starting to come out and about is because we're now in the height of the summer months here in Nicaragua. And boy is it hot! If I thought I was sweating before that was nothing to what it's like now. I sweat morning noon and night... everyone suffers from nappy rash somewhere (mine is on my tummy for some reason), and anything cotton just gets soaked through so that after sitting in a chair for 5 minutes you always have a lovely sweat patch all over your bum. And the dust is quite something too. I'm actually just recovering from a sort of flu/cold sort of throaty/chesty infection that has had me in bed for a few days. This sort of thing is doing the rounds at the moment because of all the dust everywhere which goes straight to your chest, plus all the kids you're dealing with who always have some bug or other. And it was pretty odd having a fever when the air temperature is above body temperature anyway. But I'm very much on the mend now and I only had one sick day off work.

And yes, the title of this post is relevant, because the two-season (dry and wet) climate here appears to be in turmoil this year, possibly due to global warming. We had two torrential rainstorms last week (very unexpectedly), and my Semana Santa trip to Rio San Juan was also unseasonably wet and cool. All very strange... So please remember to use your cars less and recycle more, because what's going on in London and the UK is having serious effects even over on this far side of the world.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Scorpion attack!

As you become accustomed to living somewhere quite "exotic" you sort of forget that it is still a foreign environment with exciting and sometimes dangerous species around. And then out of the blue you suddenly come face to face with one that makes you remember where you are... So last night I came home a little after midnight after a quiet night just having a couple of drinks with friends at Cafe Bohemia, and was getting ready for bed. Then I looked over and saw something moving in my bed, creeping out from under my pillow - yes, you've guessed it: a scorpion, about 4 inches long, scuttling around on the sheets.

To my credit I didn't start screaming or anything too girly, but there was no way I was getting too near the scorpion. So I opened up my mosquito netting to the ground, to give it an escape route, and tried to nudge the pillows to make it want to leave. But the beast was having none of this, and scuttling in towards the wall side of my bed. And after about half an hour of vague attempts at scorpion extraction and generally pondering what on earth I could do, I gave up and slept in another room, in the bed of a volunteer who's away at the moment. I can tell you I had some strange, vivid dreams.

In the cold light of day it didn't seem like such a complete nightmare as it had at 1am, especially since I know that although a scorpion sting here is excruciatingly painful it's not fatal, or anything close. But I still had to rid my bed or room of the beast. So I put on long trousers, thick socks, carefully checked my boots for nasties lurking inside them, and then set about gingerly pulling off all the sheets and so on. And then 5 or 10 minutes later I felt something moving around under my right big toe INSIDE MY BOOTS!!!! In a matter of moments I had my boots off, and sure enough, curled up in the end was the scorpion, now half dead after me walking all over it for a while. We finished it off and buried it in the garden. Most likely it hadn't been able to lift up its tail to sting me, penned in by my feet - thank goodness. And apparently they cling on like crazy, so even when I banged my boots around to dislodge anything inside that wouldn't have worked. So I spent the rest of the morning a little shaken up and decided to treat myself to a really nice lunch in a very restful atmosphere... Now we've just got to hope there's no more beasties lurking around at Casa Santa Lucia (and check everything really carefully).

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Volunteering joys and despairs

I guess from my photos it looks like all I do is travel to tourist destinations and go to parties, but that's just because normally those are the places I take my camera. However, the week before Semana Santa (Easter week) I did manage to remember my camera for a meeting of the women's group - one of our best sessions yet.

Women's Group at Las Prusias


So the good news for the women's group is that we're going to be trying something new to sell the handicrafts: an afternoon set up on a stall on the Parque Central (Granada's main square). Apparently we've been given permission by the vice president of the artisans who usually sell there (or so the boyfriend of one of the volunteers, who works there himself, tells us), but we also need to speak to the Mayor's Office. Anyway, come what may, assuming all permissions are granted and we can borrow the required table and chairs, Friday afternoon will see Fiona and I taking turns in supporting Mirna with the sales pitch! The bad news is that the reason we're taking this new step is because we have way too much inventory at the moment, and sales are starting to drop off after the tourist season peaked and now the number of visitors to Granada is starting to fall. The rainy season is not long off (in fact, we had a big rain storm at 6.30am this morning)...

This week has also been a bit troublesome for the dentist project. Yesterday morning, when I checked in with the clinic about our newly rearranged timetable of visits to fit in another one session per week from the school whose visits are paid for by the New Orleans Catholic Missions, it seemed there was a big crisis. After numerous phone calls to the clinic and its director we were asked to suddenly halt the school visits until we had an emergency meeting to sort out the accounts. That was all a complete frustration because actually, as of a meeting we had a fortnight ago, La Esperanza has been waiting for a bill to come from the clinic so that we can pay it. Just the usual Nicaraguan crisis out of an easily solvable situation! But we had our meeting this morning, sorted it all out (hopefully) and things are back to normal, with a few tweaks, as of tomorrow. But all the work I put in arranging the new timetable - visiting the schools, talking to the teachers and sorting out a volunteer helper schedule for this week wasn't needed after all. Oh the joys of volunteering... But never mind, we're back on track now, and I've just this afternoon finished the mammoth task of updating the spreadsheet in which we record all the children's dental visits and details of the dates and treatments. I think I deserve some cake and ice cream in celebration, so it's a good job I'm going to a volunteer birthday party tonight.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Latest weekly La Esperanza newsletter

Dear All,

Hope that everyone has had an interesting week during Semana Santa. It has certainly been different than a regular week here in town, large crowds of people everywhere - of course I missed seeing all of the volunteers (though some did pass by from time to time).

We had another problem with school locks - this time it doesn't look like there was any robbery. Raul Planas was up at La Prusia and noticed that there was no padlock on the school gate; he informed Nigel who went and put a padlock of his own on the gate that same day - the key for which is now in the office.

New volunteers starting this week are: May Chappel from Spain, Juliane and Karsten Kreutzieger from Germany, Rebekah Ramsay from Australia, and Lucy Fratantoni from Italy. You will also meet Mali Kedward, from Wales, UK, as Mali is already staying with us, but this week will be studying more Spanish and starting with us the following Monday.

We received some donations this week - a regular friend Jason Moody came to the office with $100 cash donation, and Jenny Herring while in the office buying some of the women's goods gave us a $20 donation. Future volunteer Wayne Sprouse sent us $40 through PayPal.

I'm not aware whether the bi-weekly tutoring session is planned for this Tuesday, or not until next Tuesday - so suggest team leaders check in the office on Monday.

For the next few months we have yet another house for volunteers. Arnold Jensen who has been volunteering on the project of Casas de la Esperanza has returned to Holland for a few months and has asked that we look after his house while he is away, and had made it available to volunteers at the same rates as the other houses, which is really good of him as he has a mortgage to pay.

Now that the housing situation is growing to almost hotel booking proportions - to avoid confusion - I will put a small notebook in my shelf in the office (on the bookshelves) and can anyone who has any date changes please mark them in that book for me. Messages can get lost, and it is easy to forget with so many details - so please, if you are staying longer, leaving earlier, or want to put your name down to change room etc. If it has anything that relates to the houses please write it in that notebook for me and I will check it each time I am in the office. If you can't find the book make a note on the whiteboard please. Also can everyone in the houses please pay their rent this week either on Monday or Tuesday.

Based on memories of the first day after Semana Santa last year be prepared for anything in the schools tomorrow - from teachers meetings to total confusion - it will quickly settle down again.

Look forward to seeing all of you, if not in the office tomorrow, then at the meeting on Tuesday night.
Regards, Pauline.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Jan & Eva's leaving party

And since I'm doing a lot of photos at the moment, here are the photos from Jan and Eva's leaving party last month. I have to say it was the best Granada party I've been to (even including the Santa Lucia ones) - maybe because of the real mix of people who came. Jan and Eva had been living and volunteering in Granada for six months, and they rented a house in Las Camelias, one of the barrios just close to town where one of the schools we help is located. So many of the guests were local neighbours, school children and other Nica friends and family, as well as volunteers and other foreigners. It was quite an event, I can tell you...

Jan & Eva's leaving party

St Patrick's Day Party

Yes, I made it back from the San Juan river trip - all went very splendidly well - and am as usual back in Granada thinking that I ought to put up some of the many photos I have taken recently. So, whilst I load up the photos I took on my trip (and it really does take hours quite literally), here are the pictures from our Casa Santa Lucia St Patrick's Day party:

St Patrick's Day party


As you can see, we really went to town with the decorations (and my goodness did we need help blowing up all those green, white and orange balloons). We also made a sort of green rum punch - I wouldn't ask what went into it to make it quite as vibrantly green as it was! Everyone who came had to wear at least something green. I think pretty much everyone managed that. And we even had 8 cans of Guinness kindly shipped in from the one Irish bar in Managua (apparently the only place in Nicaragua where you can get hold of it). It was probably one of our most successful parties yet and something close to 40 people came, with a pretty high proportion of Nica friends too. So all told, a very good way to celebrate with Fiona, my Irish housemate. The only party house damage was to my room door, when a friend managed to lock it with my keys still inside, so rather dramatically he had to kick in the door (or at least break the lock) so I could get back in. However, now our helpful household handyman Jose has subsequently repaired my door and I have everything back to normal...

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Isla Ometepe part 2

Well, although I didn´t climb the volcano today (unlike the two couples with whom I travelled here - and only two people completed the hike, as the others made it just half the way up!) I did hike for 4 hours (up and down) to a nearby waterfall, partway up the Maderas Volcano. My guide was the hostal owner´s 12 year old daughter, Alma, who was much braver than me at the difficult bits. At one point we even had to go up and down one slope using a rope to pull ourselves up it was so steep and just earth, with no grip - a first for me. So I think I earned the grilled chicken supper that I´ve just been told is now ready for me... But before I dash off to eat, let me just say that tomorrow I´m starting the slightly more adventurous half of my Easter holidays, as I (hopefully) board the overnight boat to San Carlos, at the edge of Lago Colcibolca and the start/end, depending on how you see it, of the San Juan River going to the Caribbean coast. I´m not going that far myself on this trip, but I hope to have some interesting experiences in a new part of Nicaragua.