Schools; La Epifinia

I have been at La Epifinia for the last week and its been really interesting to now work at a third school as they are all so different. This school is quite a bit larger that the other two schools in terms of space and number of pupils. The day is split with secondary and grades 4-6 in the morning and about 100 or so Preschool, and grades1,2,3 for the afternoon, who the volunteers work with.

This school appears very well appointed and when in the school working with the kids who are all fairly well presented in school uniforms its easy to think this isn´t so bad, these kids haven´t got it that tough, whats all the fuss about? Its not until an escaped pig runs past or you leave the school gates and experience the villages that you realize from where the kids come and the challenges life throws at them outside the school gates. I will go into that more in a future blog.

Wednesday was parents meeting. Us volunteers were invited to participate and were given a very generous welcome by the area director. It was after two hours of quite significant lectures by the teachers to the parents, most on the theme that it is the parents responsibilty to assist with education out of school, that the director looked at me and asked me to address the room. I was not expecting this and naturally just when I needed it the most, in front of 12 teachers and 5o odd parents the Spanish part of my brain decided to freeze and I spluttered out an embarasingly poor speech. Truely awful. In desperation I got Armando, a Cuban volunteer to offer a few more words and out flowed something tantemount to poetry which made me feel all the more small. Oh well, that´s how it goes.......

Thankfully at Thursday´s parent teacher meeting in Elba Zamora I was a little more prepared and was able to speak for quite sometime in front of the parents on all the areas we cover as an organisation and even managed to lecture them on the importance of using the library we are providing and encouraging the children to read at home. Glad to make up for Wednesday´s disaster!

Melting

Shit it´s hot!

Volcanic Asthma Attack

We were taken to volcan Masaya on Saturday but our nica family and it was quite a shock. I had no idea there was such a active volcano so close to us here in Nicaragua. Casually walking up to the side you are greated by a savage vent belching foul gaseous smoke. In the bumf about the volcano it says for those who have asthma to take care, yeah yeah I thought until we were engulfed in a sulpherous cloud and then suprised when the lungs stopped working. Little by little I respect nature more and more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGM94DPClxk

Miguel de Jesus

Last Sunday I escaped the heat of Granada and headed to Jinotepe for the day. Whilst not a lot to report it was nice to go to a place where I was the only gringo and get to talk to some friendly Jinotepenos. My Birkenstocks have done some miles over the last years and were looking truely dead and that´s where Miguel (photo right) stepped in and half an hour of stitching and polishing and 5 cordobas (25 cents) later they were looking as good as new. 25 cents for such a job, I felt truely guilty.

What a nice guy.

His shoeshine neighbour was a friendly sort as well however I was unable to decifer his name from the alcoholic drivel he insisted on sharing with me. Once he had had enough talking he went back to his stash of aguadiente cunningly hidden amougst his shoe-polish. Aguadiente is a cane sugar based liquor which is just one very small step above drinking petrol. It is however very cheap and the scurge of Central America. He was nice enough to offer me a swig but trust me unless you want to go blind don´t go there!

(drunk shoe-shine guy)

Baseball and Discovery Channel

Last Sunday the villagers of La Prussia held a baseball match to which I went even though I know very little about baseball. Baseball is the Number 1 sport in Nicaragua, a throwback to the US military invasion of Nicaragua in the 1920´s. Along with a smattering of volunteers and highly enthusiastic village supporters we were also joined the crew of Discovery Channel.

They were in town filming a show on Nicaragua for their new Latin America season and have featured in the the show some of the work of La Esperanza and the lives of the people the organization works with.


(fans!)

I was filmed in a very canned take eating a hotdog (nice traditional fodder!) served by Fatima whose house you can see in the background of the pictures enclosed.

Monday the crew came to the school in La Prussia and filmed 'a typical day' of schooling, I had expected bedlum but I think the kids were as excited about the rice and frijoles provided as the crew themselves. Although naturally seeing themselves on movie image was pretty cool for some.

The series is due to start in the US in June and then a guess it will find its way over to Europe. It wasn't something I imagined to be involved in but if you ever see the adverts for a Discovery Channel show on Nicaragua watch it and you might see the villagers of La Prussia, the work of La Esperanza and maybe even see me standing looking confused watching yet another sport I don't understand or stuffing my face with a dodgy perro caliente!

Schools: Elba Zamora

This is the school I have been working in the past two weeks. Elba Zamora is the smallest of the four schools we work with having 3 class rooms and with about 70 pupils. Approx. 30 preschool are in Room 1, 25 grades 1 and 2 share Room 2 and finally 20 pupils in grades 3,4,5,6 share Room 3. All the schools look similar having been built by the Japonese government about 15 years ago. Before construction this school was a single wooden room with dirt floor. Since being built many of the schools have suffered significant disrepair and La Esperanza has carried out many updates on the schools themselves.

A team of 4 volunteers help the 3 teachers on site by individually tutoring children in grades 1 and 2 and working in preschool with the teacher. There is also a visiting english class once a week for the older kids and a visiting volunteer music teacher.

Generally the kids are pretty good and enjoy the extra attention given. The school starts at 7am and should continue 'till midday but this rarely happens as there is generally an excuse to close early. This Thurday for example we closed early for Valentines Day! Whilst this sounds quite strange it didn't really effect us that much as half the school wasn't present that day. Most of the children are some how related to each other and Thursday the upper grades teacher had an exam which meant no school at all for the grades 3,4,5,6 and as many have brothers and sisters in the lower grades they didn't come either. Attendance is an issue.

This morning as I was trying to teach the school filled with acrid smoke as the kids burnt all the school yard rubbish, in the school yard, just next to the swings as the kids continued to play! (see photo with fire just behind cheeky child). Heath and safety execs from home would be wetting their pants on a daily basis but here no pasa nada. Its just another one of those things which goes to make each day slightly different from the other!

General Update

Its Friday night and I have now finished working two weeks and am very much looking forward to the weekend. This week the current volunteer coordinator has been away and I have been working as team leader in one of the schools and also working as volunteer coordinator. What with the constant heat working full-on days has been a bit of a shock to the system! Ready for a day at the laguna tomorrow relaxing and swimming

There are currently a great group of volunteers here and with Granada being quite small its doesn't take too long to get to know many other faces around town too.


Bit by bit I am getting more sorted. Have bought a bike to get around town although I question the sensibility of this action as I am still having problems acustomising myself to looking left whilst crossing roads and have had a couple of near misses with mad taxi drivers and horse drawn carts. I also have a mobile (number above) so please call or text away but remeber there is a 6 hour time difference from England. I am also on Skype (www.skype.co.uk) so those who have yet to get please get busy.

Finding a house to rent is proving somewhat challenging. With the significant influx of expats now living here full time property prices are zooming up and up so its taking somewhat longer than expected to find an affordable place. The upside of the searching is that I am getting to know all the parts of town
I would never have seen and getting to talk to a wide variety of Granadinos as the only way of finding somewhere is to stop and ask random people in the strret. In the meantime the current house is serving me well, pictures attached.

Hope all's well where ever you are.

Cheers from Nica.

Poetry Festival and Steet Parade

Culturally, poetry is very important to Nicaragua and Granada has been full to bursting with both Nicaraguan and foreign visiters who have come to listen to to over 100 visiting poets representing more than 40 different countries for the annual International Poetry Festival. Is been great to be able to wander the streets and sit amoungst crowds listening enchantedly to poetry. It's no a bad way to spend a hour or so on a balmy evening
The picture attached shows one of the main recitals held outside the church of La Merced.

In addidion the various towns of Nicaragua came together to put on a very impressive parade which brought even more colour to an already vibrant city.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5yCpdJhvus


Its been great but now the festival is over its nice to have some tranquility
return the streets of Granada.

General Update: Greetings from Nicaragua

Hi and welcome to my first blog entry. Those of you who are up to date with my goings on know that I ended my trip last year working in Nicaragua. It is to Nicaragua that I have returned, arriving last week after an exhausting 2 day journey via Toronto (-10 degrees!) and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Returning to a place one knows but has been away from from some time is always going to stir up a mixture of emotions. Innitially I was quite freaked to be back in familiar settings and not to have with me those who made much of my past experience so special, aswell tourism continues to grow in Nicaragua and Granada has changed significantly. However it didn´t take long to get into the swing of things again. Its great to be be sitting drinking cold beers on hot street corners speaking spanish, hearing the familiar sounds of chirping gekoes and ladies selling fruit in the street and of course most importantly working with the kids once again.


I have not found a place of my own to live yet but in the meantime am renting a room in a substantial colonial house in the centre of Granada. Those of you with ideas of "3rd world slumming it" might be quite suprised. Granada is a pearl of a city and this house is a classic corner colonial home, tiled roofed with a central garden courtyard in the heart of the house. I have an upstairs room, a luxury in Granada as it comes with a very welcome breeze and the added bonus of a view of the cathedral over the rooftops.



Before I take on the role of Schools/Volunteer Coordinator for La Esperanza Granada (for more info. see link, right) I am going to spend some time working at all the schools/projects we work with and these will be described in subsequent blog entries. At this stage I can say there does appear to be a general increase in the learning of the children. I am pleased to report that most of the kids I worked with last year have passed their exams and progressed to higher grades, which is excellent news.


So, as I promised to keep blog entries small I will bring Blog 1 to a close, more to follow shorly.

Cheers from Nica

Nigel