Donations please!!

This afternoon I came into the office to sort out some information for next week's dental visits, and for the different Children's Day celebrations we're planning at each of the four schools. Every volunteer gets involved with these half-sports-day, half-prize-day, half-party-mayhem no matter what other projects you normally work on.

Anyway, I've just been talking to Pauline, the long-term volunteer (she celebrated her second year in Granada last month) who manages the La Esperanza office and organises all the volunteers here, and apparently we have used up the remains of our dentist program funding, so we're now looking for new donations to keep it going. I have put forward some money myself, given that this has been one of my pet projects, but now I'm extending the opportunity to give to an excellent cause to all of you, my friends and family...

As a reminder of what La Esperanza is and does, you can see more details on our website at http://www.la-esperanza-granada.org/

And the donations page is http://www.la-esperanza-granada.org//esperanza/Help%20Donations.htm

So if any of you can join in and help it would be very much appreciated here, by the kids (OK, well many of them don't actually enjoy having teeth pulled or filled, but they will in the long run!) and by me too.

Love,
Lizzie

(P.S. Sorry about the lack of hyperlinks in this entry but the Blogger insert hyperlink function seems to be on the blink today - so you'll have to copy and paste these addresses into your internet browser.)

Mango season and the rains begin

I'm just now holed up in an internet cafe waiting out a sudden rainstorm (and hence two power cuts that made me lose part of this entry) - the winter rainy season is finally beginning. But it's also mango season (you can buy a dozen small, ripe mangos for just around 10 pence) so I'm not complaining too much. Although it's so easy to eat a lot of mango (you can get a bag of peeled mango slices, about two mangos' worth, for 6 pence on every street corner) and apparently they have antibacterial properties, which are great until you eat way too many and they kill off the good bacteria in your stomach... Fingers crossed that doesn't happen to me.

At the moment I'm on a short trip out of Granada in the east of Nicaragua - travelling through the cattle highlands on my way to the Atlantic coast for a crazy music and dance festival called Palo de Mayo. I've learnt one or two moves for this dance, but it's so fast and mad that even my salsa-ing hips just can't keep up. So far I've visited small market cow towns and tiny tranquil pueblos, passing through stunning mountain scenery on the buses in between. Round here there aren't any volcanoes, although the land is still seismically active and the rocks are volcanic in origin, so the skyline is completely different to the dry, flat Pacific region studded with huge volcano cones. And it's relatively green too, although there have been such water shortages here, with the drought on (rainy season is way too late and still not as much as normal), that I've stayed in hotels without any water whatsoever. You learn to wash as and when you can... and not mind the sweat.

I had to pop in on the pretty village of Santa Lucia (my street in Granada's namesake) where I was befriended by a lovely family who took me in for the day, fed me, and the three young cousins aged 12 and 13 took me around all afternoon to visit their favourite spots. I met their friend Luca, who owns a piece of land up on the hillside and who showed me all his current crops (including the eponymous mangos). We then sat in his pristine front room for 45 minutes, trying to make conversation - i.e. I talked non-stop to fill the gaps because he wasn't the most conversationally-able (probably not getting that many visitors, especially from overseas). It was later that day that I headed over to the cow town of Camoapa, where I ended up in a restaurant/discoteca dancing ranchero, bachata and raggaeton with the local cowboys (everyone had either a seriously curved baseball cap on, or a stetson!)

Anyway, here I am now in Juigalpa: doing washing, catching up on internet correspondence and checking out the local museum, as well as eating fantastic beef and dairy products (yes, I'm still in stetson-wearing country). And tomorrow morning I head off on the bus to the river town of El Rama...

Latest La Esperanza news

So you keep getting the idea of what everyday volunteer life is like, and what we do at La Esperanza, here's the latest weekly newsletter from Pauline.

Dear All,

The first of the primary school excursions was held on Friday with grade 2 from La Prusia and La Epifania visiting Posintepe for a picnic. It was a great success and the children really enjoyed it, and the teachers are following through with questions about their trip to help make it a learning experience too. For the monthly news we would like to continue with what we did this month, putting a link to an album of photos. So anyone with some good photos of the children's excursions please bring them into the office and put them on the computer (mainframe one), and this will be the photo link for next months news.

Planning to do it each month, we will do one in the coming months of each school, health, womens working groups etc. and probably it would be fun to do one of some of the photos from a volunteer party.

Elba Zamora now has a basketball hoop and backboard which Nick put up. We want to do the same for La Prusia - they have asked for a full scale basketball court though and the quote Agosto got was $8000 so we don't think it is on our priority list.

Next week excursions are on Monday, Grade 2, then Wednesday and Thursday, Grade 4 - so it will be a busy week.

Big party last night to farewell Annabel who is travelling on to Cuba. Just one new volunteer arriving this week, Charlie Rann from Australia.

We had a visit from a former volunteer who worked at Las Camelias, Lauren Bloch - she arranged with Laura to go and visit the childrenat the school while she was here which was fun for both her and the children. Friends of former volunteers Shane and Andrew also visited Granada, Daniel Colins and Sarah Jane Caldwell. They went on the tour to La Prusia, and then gave us $100 donation. Shane and Andrew had taught English in the schools.

We had a cash donation too from Andy Pinker, friend of Julia Penny, who gave us $20. We received paypal donations this week too, $100 from Phil Smy, brother of Iain who brought us the vitamin tablets, and $150 from Robert Keddy, another Canadian. Robert is processing Nicaraguan coffee in Canada, Casa Silas Coffee, and has offered to give us $1 from each kilo sold.

Another cleanup session was held at the Community Center on Saturday - and we are going to start painting soon. Would like photo's please of the clean up and of the painting, plus putting the new cupboard in for the library as all of this work to the community center is being funded by a village in UK called Adstock, they want to form a sister village relationship with La Prusia. Any ideas on how we can help make this work for the people of La Prusia would be appreciated.

Mark is back in town once again. He brought with him some photos we had ordered prints of and these will be made into blank greeting cards to sell in the office - to help pay for some of the office costs. If anyone has a couple of hours to spare next weekend we could do with your help in the office to put these together, make the envelopes etc.

Good to see Colin back this weekend.
Hope to see lots of you at the Isletas this afternoon,
Regards, Pauline.

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.

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.

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).