weekly La Esperanza charity bulletins

I've decided that it would be nice to show you all what happens at La Esperanza (the charity I'm working for here) so I'm going to copy in our weekly emails so you can what's going on for the charity as a whole. It will hopefully put my blog posts in context too so you can better understand what goes on with life here and what it's like working as a volunteer... Following here is this week's one:

Dear All,
It’s been a great week this week and a very productive one. The books in the library have been inventoried, and all the new books listed, covered, and taken up to the Library. The tutoring kits are all up to date ready for the new year. The high school children are just about complete with all the many things that they need to start the school year, not to mention the fact that the High School Prep team has been continuing classes with those starting 1st year. It is an enormous job with each child having to be enrolled, and last years re-enrolled, collecting letters for sponsors, copies of report cards etc. Even such things as sizes of shoes, socks, shirts and many other things. The supplies for their backpacks, notebooks etc. have been delivered to the office and this week we will have the backpacks ready to fill.

Childrens activity group have been having fun – and will continue this week for the last week before the start of school.

I am adding the notes of last weeks meeting to this email. Since then we have another four new volunteers who have joined us. Lynette Fairclough from the U.K. who is a TEFL teacher and will be teaching English, Colin Williamson from Ireland, Laura Manganello from Italy, and due to arrive today Liz Gage from Switzerland. These four will all have orientation on Monday.

On Tuesday we will have a meeting at 2pm which Erin will lead just to give some preparation to those of you who are already here who will be working in the primary schools. Erin will give you each a tutoring kit as well because we will have so many more new volunteers by the following Tuesday it will be good to get some organizing done in a advance.

We had some great donations this week. Lizzie Dipple who arrived last week brought some lovely childrens books in Spanish, plus skipping ropes and toys, Becca Alban had sent down from the U.S. some books/booklets in Spanish pertaining to Mental Health which should be useful in the community. Laura Mangenello brough a cash donation from her family of $250, and we had a paypal donation today from Celias Cottage in Antrim, Norther Ireland of $500. We also received the news that Iain Smy, a friend from Canada has obtained 40,000 childrens vitamin tablets for us and will be bringing them down with him in March.

On Friday we found that the school at Las Camelias has changed their class times with grades one two and three in the afternoon this year, though pre school will be in the morning. Christy will talk to those of you who will be at Las Camelias at the next meeting on Tuesday.

We had a visitor this week David who works with the Discovery Channel, he spent lots of time with La Esperanza Granada during his stay and we are very hopeful that we may be shown when they do the filming of their Granada segment of Passport to Latin America from 16th to 20th February.

THE OFFICE HAS TO MOVE !!! We will only be moving next door but in order for the new hostel to open behind the office they have to dig up the floor of where we are currently to install grey water pipes. The office next door is larger, has a bathroom and has been freshly painted. So we will plan the move for Wednesday – any helpers appreciated.

Be prepared to see lots of new faces arriving during this week and next weekend – Jodi Winemiller, Michael Kent Smith, Norm and Lulu Green, Armando Sotero, Lily Laban, Margaux Vulloid, Louis Koenig, Jason Wofsey, and Linda Yu will all be starting the new school year with us.

See you all through the week,
Regards, Pauline.

Notes from Wednesday 17th Meeting – Present, Fenna, Judith, Christy, Torey, Erin, Becc, Lizzie, Johanna, Carolyn, Jesse, Mark, Pauline, Mara, Karolien, Carolyn, Chris and Fiona.

Posters for the schools incentive prizes will be done by Johanna, Karolien and Jesse.

The Obra was cancelled for Thursday 18th, and will now be on 29th in both La Prusia and La Epifania.

Materials in the office to be sorted out to take to the various schools will be done by Erin and Lizzie.

Tutoring session will be in the office on Tuesday at 2pm for all those who will be teaching/tutoring in the primary schools.

Womens working group will change from Tuesday and Thursday afternoon to Monday afternoon.

Team leaders in each school will organize the placement of volunteers in that school e.g. first grade, second grade, pre school.

Team leaders/volunteer meetings will be on Tuesday from now on to see how that works. We will have the team leaders meeting in the office at 6.30 – any other volunteer who wishes to attend for any reason can just ask their team leader to bring them along, then we will have the volunteer meeting the same night at 7.30 at the Central which will now be next door to our office.

P.S. for new volunteers who don't know we will be making a trip to the isletas on Sunday 4th February - this is optional, on a Sunday afteroon - the boat is paid for and it is a great chance to get out of town and relax together for the afternoon.

daily life

Granada first impressions

As usual, I am hot, tired and sticky by the end of another Nicaraguan volunteer day (and considering how best to put across the simple but extreme pleasure of washing your hands at a moment like this!). But happy because I got what I needed to buy at the market this afternoon.

Most days I wake up around 7am because that's when it gets hot and light, plus noisy from the workmen building things next door. To be honest it gets so hot in the day that actually it's good to get going by 8am before it's too much to take. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I walk up to one of our schools (called Las Camelias) which is just outside Granada. Then at 8.30am I help bring a group of kids preparing for high school back down into Granada for their 30 mins of computer "class" at the internet cafe. We're then taking them to the market to help buy the school uniforms (it was girls on yesterday's trip, so quite different again to the boys). As everything here is rather chaotic it's hard to describe what this can entail - for instance we only found out yesterday that the high school will only accept students wearing exactly one sort of uniform so some of the kit we've bought isn't right. And then you've got the kids wanting to swap the style of socks they've each got or running off to buy refrescos or something from other stalls, or us having to find and pay people to mind the kids' bicycles... Mayhem just isn't the word. But the children are nice, if quite lively! In fact it's interesting to see the difference between the "rougher" urban kids and the country ones from a village further out. Anyway, there's just two more sessions like that to go before school starts.

By noon you're tired and hungry and so we often stop off for a fantastic second breakfast. As Granada is a small town you very often bump into the other volunteers (or hangers on that we get to know from other projects or just passing through) several times a day at one of the many spots where people pass by, eat or watch the world go by. There are two particular breakfast spots that everyone goes to too. Then afternoons could involve tutoring training, inventory of schools materials, or my seemingly interminable search for the kind of room fans that are missing in two of the rooms in our house. On Monday and Thursday afternoons we have the women's group meetings (held at the community centre - a concrete hut up a hill out of Granada where mosquito repellent is essential and you either bus, walk or hitch a lift in the back of a truck back down afterwards), so Tuesday and Thursday mornings involve work for those sessions as well, checking inverntory, doing accounts and trying to expand things (like me talking to a Nica lady today who is interested in teaching the women to weave bags, but first we have to set up a meeting to see samples and work out the cost effectiveness plus whether the possible markets are there. But everything always takes a very long time compared to how long you think it might. The women often bring their children with them, so part of the job (which I leave to the other two volunteers) is to play with the little kids and keep them out of trouble. You could say we're keeping pretty busy.

Then there are house things and shopping and washing (you have to wash your clothes pretty much every day because they get sweaty and dusty so quickly, so it's a good job we have a decent washing machine at the house) and so on to fit in around the day as well. But it's so social at home and out and about that actually it's fun too. I normally take a (cold, becasue that's all there is, but actually it's fine) shower in the evening since that's when there's water pressure. And given that we haven't been getting the same number of power cuts as were happening last year you can do that too (showering in the dark might be a step too far!)

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...

Nicaragua contact details

I´m at a terrible internet cafe with a very slow connection and a sticky keyboard, so I can´t write the interesting piece I was going to on my first impressions of Granada, or upload my first photos.

However, I will at least give you my postal address, in case anyone wants to send me a letter or card, or something:
Lizzie Dipple
La Esperanza Granada
Hostal Central
Calle La Calzada
3 Varas Oeste
Granada
Nicaragua

And I´ll write more next time from a better internet cafe.

Nicaragua here I am

Last night I flew in to Nicaragua (to the capital Managua) and then came down here to Granada by taxi. Just as we were leaving the airport my taxi driver Felipe got a phone call to say that he had to pick someone else up at the airport, so we went to a nearby petrol station and stopped there while he invited me to a juice and a chat whilst we waited for the other person´s plane to land. Felipe was full of thoughts and discussions about the new president of Nicaragua (old-time Sandinista Daniel Ortega) who had been sworn into office the day before, and what he´s going to do to the country. I have to admit I was a little worried sitting there at the garage with all my travelling worldly goods on me, but actually it was pretty cool talking to Felipe.

So this morning I popped in on the charity´s office to say hello, and to find out where and when I have to get started (9am on Monday for an orientation session) and I´m spending the rest of today hanging out with another newly arrived volunteer, Torey from Montana, getting to know the town of Granada and getting used to the heat. We´ve already met a few US ex-pats over breakfast, who´ve given us some tips on cool places to go. The other girls at the house are off for the weekend to the beach for some surfing, but I think I´d like to spend at least 24 hours here in Granada finding my way around before I head off...!

Mexico City catch-up

I had a few problems with Blogger on my last two attempts to write an entry in Mexico City, so I´m afraid I´m now having to do a quick catch-up on what I was up to there...

The lovely Artus put me up in his flat very close to Coyocan metro station (for those of you reading this who know Mexico City), and I spent my first couple of days just hanging out, wandering around and remembering to speak Spanish. It was lovely to relax after all the craziness of packing up in London. Then on Friday night Artus organised a tradtional Fiesta de la Rosca and invited many of my old Mexico friends. This is a party where you cut and eat a traditional cake ring to celebrate the Dia de los Reyes Magos (6th Jan) when Mexican children receive their Christmas presents from the Wise Men. Of course our party involved more drinking wine and chatting than anything else, but even so... I´m having difficulties downloading photos from my camera, but if and when I manage it, I´ll put up a couple of fiesta photos here (click on the photo to see the rest of the album).

Fiesta de la Rosca

It was funny how my Spanish improved greatly as the evening (and the drinks) wore on! It was extremely nice to see many of the friends I´ve hardly been in touch with since my last visit to Mexico almost five years ago.

Artus has also had his Maltese boyfriend Chris staying with him, and we three had a touristy day on Sunday, first taking the new Turibus open-top bus tour all around the city (so much has changed it´s incredible - all new shiny skyscrapers being built in the Zona Rosa and around, and now La Condesa has moved on from hip to a bit passe). The centro area has also changed loads, as it´s lost its sketchy, edgy feel and now is (comparatively) much smarter and safer. I have to admit though that secretly I sort of miss the old cool too. Then later on we went to the Ballet Folkorico to see a show of traditional Mexican regional dances (along with a theatre full of gringo tourists). The following day we took a trip out to the state of Michoacan with Artus´s mother to see the Monarch butterflies which come through and spend winter here in their millions.

Mexican sightseers

Las Mariposas Monarcas en Michoacan

A couple of things I´d wanted to do in Mexico as part of the Latin American acclimatisation were to travel around by pesero/microbus and also to wander and eat in the markets, both of which I managed to fit in in between my photoshoot with Toño for Artus´s friends gallery of photos (and let me tell you this was quite an experience!) And then, horribly quickly it was my last day and night - I met up with an old friend Pancho for a traditional comida corrida lunch and then we had a dinner and drinks de despedida (goodbye) in the evening with everyone. Funnily enough all the lovely Mexicans were on British punctual time and I was the Mexicana arriving 20 mins late! We had a fantastic evening, and I felt very sad to be heading off the next morning... But I have made lots of promises to return to Mexico very soon.

Mexico City farewell dinner

Mexico City arrival

Despite all the craziness of finishing off packing up my flat, I did manage to get most of it done by the skin of my teeth, and then I packed up my rucksack (rather chaotically) and got on the plane yesterday. I arrived here in Mexico City last night, and my goodness was I glad to see my friend Artús waiting for me at the airport to take me home... I think I´d used up all my reserves of energy for the packing and sorting out and then the 11-hour flight on top of it all was just exhausting.

But today is a new day and I´m out and about re-acclimatising to the Latin American vibe. I´ve already eaten quesadillas and nopales (cactus) and I´m wandering around on a sunny afternoon not needing my fleece jacket at all. I think with all the frenetic activity of getting prepared for the off I had forgotten what going away for 5 months really means, so it´s only now that I´m pausing for breath that I have realised what I´m doing - scary stuff!

Now I have a few more days here before I head to Nicaragua for the real purpose of this trip. More to follow once I get there...