mls12

So I arrived here in Nicaragua yesterday, specifically in the capital city of Managua. I was picked up by one of the only two people who work for La Esperanza Granada fulltime: Felipe, a jolly, rotund Native Nicaraguan with only half an index finger on his right hand. We booked it out of the rather unsafe city and headed for Granada. Before leaving the city we saw Daniel Ortegas massive and heavily guarded mansion, along with tons of his propoganda buildboards which were all colored pink, as Felipe explained, Ortegas favorite color.

We arrive in Granada about an hour later and I headed to the apartment where Ill (note: there is no apostrophe on a Spanish keyboard. ¿who knew?) be living for the next 9 weeks. There are 15 volunteers total there, all around my age or a little bit older. There is another house of volunteers a few blocks away with a similar number of people, but I have yet to venture over there yet. Of the volunteers in my building, there are 3 from Germany, one from Denmark, one from Holland, two from Sweden, one from switzerland, a brother and sister from Canada, one from Oregon and the others I cant remember. Conversations switch rapidly from Spanish to German to English to Swedish to any mixture of them. Fortunately, everyone does speak English pretty well and, moreover, I have already been deemed the person to go to for English help which is pretty fun.

The city of Granada itself is nice and seems rather laid back. Ive learned to navigate from the house to the grocery store and internet cafe at least already. I went to the Cathedral in the center of town today for Easter Mass. Despite not understanding hardly a word from the priest I could follow along with the mass pretty well as it is the same all over the world. Two noticeable differences though that might speak to the overall idea that Granada and Nicaragua are a little more laid back than the states: the greeting one another with ¨peace be with you¨ part seemed to last about 3 times as long as usual because everyone made sure to shake everybodys hand in the surrounding quarter mile and seemed quite happy to do so. Next, instead of processing in a regimented orderly fashion to receive Communion, everybody walked in an ad hoc mad dash to the altar. All in all, it was an interesting experience.

Tomorrow the schools are still closed due to the Easter holiday but the new volunteers have our orientation. Im sure tomorrow will be just as interesting as this weekend. Hasta luego

written by

mls12 on April 4, 2010 from Granada, Nicaragua

from the travel blog: Volunteering with La Esperanza Granada in Granada, Nicaragua

tagged Arrival and Easter

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Trips:

Shorthand link:

First Week

Granada, Nicaragua

Florida: The Coconut State

Granada, Nicaragua

Happy Easter!

Granada, Nicaragua

Getting started stateside

Palm Harbor, United States

Heading South?