A whole new world.

I left for Nicaragua Monday morning without having gone to bed the night before. I have been kind of a bum lately, and this carried over into my packing and preparing. I had a fairly enjoyable flight to Miami. To my left was a chubby 11 year old boy who informed me that he usually flew first class. He said that this time his dad was in first class, but that he was in coach as there was only one spot left in first class. I suggested shooting spit-balls at him as payback for this great injustice. He told me proudly that he weighed 120 pounds and that he just sits on his dad when he is mad at him. He did not sit on me, so we got along quite well. To my right, was an older man who was taking his wife, children, and grandchildren on a cruise. We had a nice long chat and then I spilled my tomato juice and ice on his crotch. He dealt with it pretty well.

I was probably a minority for the first time on the plane ride from Miami to Managua. I was one of the few people with white skin and one of the few people who spoke english. I now realize that this will be the norm for my whole trip. There is almost no English spoken here outside of the volunteer house, and I will certainly be in the minority wherever I go.

After going through customs, I found Felipe waiting with a sign with my name on it. Felipe is a big Nicaraguan with a big personality. He speaks almost no english, yet we were able to communicate through a series of words, gestures, and laughter. Riding with Felipe is quite an experience. You would think he was driving a woman in the middle of childbirth to the hospital. He passes when cars are coming, he passes on the right, he tail-gates, he honks and honks, and sings jollily the whole while. The ride over was very interesting. It seems like everybody is outside, but almost nobody is doing anything productive. The streets and ditches are full of trash. Children play in the trash and wander in the streets. Skinny animals stumble around, often outside of fences or drug along by someone. People on bikes are all over, and many of the bikes are double, triple, or quadruple occupied. Felipe and I cruised from Managua to Granada in no time, with Felipe saying, ¨Welcome to Nicaragua! You like my country? Beautiful, eh?¨

We arrived in Granada and stopped in the La Esperanza Granada office. I chatted with Paulina for less than a minute and I was taken to the volunteer house. I was happy to find that the other volunteers are friendly, helpful, and that all but one speaks english. I soon headed out to exchange American dollars for Cordobas, which are necessary to get around. It turns out American dollars are often not excepted or you get ripped off when they are. We wandered the city a little, stopped at a grocery store, and walked through the market. It seems I will be able to get a lot of what I will need while here at the grocery store. The market was fun, but very run down, dirty, and smelly. I kind of question buying fruits and vegetables in such a filthy place, but I bought a few bananas anyway. Most things are pretty cheap here. Though, you need to pay for many little things so it can add up.

In the evening we had a house meeting to plan for a New Year´s eve party that we are hosting for all the volunteers. It was mostly a waste of time. There is some worry that a lot of random people will show up. This can be dangerous as things can be stolen or broken and fights could occur. So, the main point of the meeting was that the party was meant to be for volunteers and a very small amount of local friends of volunteers. I think we settled on each volunteer bringing no more than one guest, but this was not too solidly agreed upon. After this, we just chilled out and chatted. There is a decent amount of gossip among the volunteers, but I enjoyed the conversation. I was pretty worn out, though. We all turned in at about 11.

Today, I met with Paulina in the morning. We decided that I would spend this week working on my Spanish and start working with the kids next week. With New Year´s there is not a lot going on this week anyway. I then walked to the lake for the first time. The breeze felt very nice as it is 90 degrees here(they say it will get hotter in a couple months). The lake, like everything here, is very dirty. I am pretty disappointed in this fact. Some of the locals swim in it, but the volunteers avoid it for the most part. Being able to jump in the lake after a long hot day would have been really really nice, but I will have to do without it. The walk down to the lake seems to be where the locals really target the tourists. I was approached a number of times by guys that spoke some english. One wanted me to take a boat tour, another was from the east coast and talked to me quite awhile. He did not ask me directly for money, but told me that he was looking for investors for his fishing operation. Apparently, I could make quite a decent return on my investment. I told him I would like to visit him on the east coast since we were friends but that I did not have much money and did not know if I could afford the trip. I thought this might cause him to lose some interest, and I was right. He very quickly said, ¨I must be going now, goodbye.¨I smiled and left.

There are beggars and swindlers everywhere. This country is full of con-artists. The little kids are the most persistent. They learn that white=free money. They walk up to you, tug at your shirt gently, and softly beg for some money. I am sure this often works with American and European tourists. Paulina teaches us not to give money to these children. The intention may be good, but these children then learn to rely on begging rather than education and work. They then grow up and do not know what to do with themselves.

I will head in for 4 hours of Spànish lessons in about half an hour. It should be interesting as my tutor will only speak choppy english. It sounds like I might travel to Leon with some of the volunteers this weekend and do some hiking. I must be off, though I have much more to say. I will save it for another day.