gringo times

The last two weeks have been interesting

After chaos at the airports I got to Nicaragua and arrived at the charity. Casas de la Esperanza (in a nutshell) is a charity in La Prusia. La Prusia is a neighbourhood of poorly built homes in Granada, Nicaragua. Most of the people build on land that they don't own. The charity buys land,(which is overpriced due to foreign investment), and if a family who is currently in a shack wants to build on it they can get the materials and help from the charity[ok quite a big nutshell]. The family can they pay back the charity for the price of materials over a period of time. Other things like community education and workshops in welding, computers etc.[thanks to those who donated laptops] all help for building a real community, employment prospects and paying back the charity for more development. . .[more at http://www.casas-de-la-esperanza.org/index.html]. . . The new plot has just been started with some architect designed houses featuring a butterfly roof to collect water. Lots of trees are protected on the site (as trees are fairly essential for hammocks..a fine invention) and the houses will sit between them nicely, giving shade from sun and hurricanes!

There are volunteers of course(it being a charity, and one you don't have to pay to stay at), mostly Spanish (amazing cooks who smoke like chimneys), Americans ("sup yaal"), and me, a castaway Scot ["aye pal"]. The minimum stay is 2 months, just to stop freeloaders taking advantage of the accommodation. I know the essential cuss words in spanish now, but might try getting some Scottish words into the local dialect. Any suggetsions you can comment on the page; I was thinking munter, or mingin' might sound good or "que pasa..pal".

The locals are very friendly although there was a machete fight earlier in the week where a Nica guy got his arm chopped..not really, just an exaggeration [don't let reality spoil a good story they say]. They talk a bit slower than Spanish people [hooray] but I've not quite grasped the language yet [damn my ignorant brain!]. People with vans often give free lifts down/up the very bumpy road to la Prusia. Today some friendly cops gave me a ride down the 6km to town.

me "is that an AK 47?"
jose the cop "yes"
me "can i have a go?"
jose "jejeje..no"

Not sure why being in a poverty stricken county I would ask to get a shot on a cops AK47 though, to many movies perhaps.

The wildlife is awesome. I've seen some cute mini parrots, which I think are called loros, an iguana, loads of geckos, and today I rescued a scorpion (possibly the coolest looking animal ever) from the bathroom. The landscape is dry as its summer but there's banana trees near the volunteer house and orange trees (a certain type of green oranges..very tasty).

So its all good in the hood although I'm still suffering from culture shock. Tonight its my turn to cook. Tuna Burgers is the plan for the volunteers. Interestingly there are no vegetarians, which I thought would be the case for the alternative lifestyle here, but that's just more stereotyping i guess.

Any comments please and I'll try write something next week.