Water...
Well, the first exciting thing I have to share with folks is about some pictures that are available online from one of my fellow volunteers. If you go to the website, www.flickr.com/photos/egruen and find the pictures from Nicaragua you will see where I am. There aren't many picutres of our dorm, or the community, but you can get a sense of what things look like around here. They are actually really beautiful, and at the end there are a few pictures of our group with the delegation that just left, so you can see me on in one of them.
Things are going pretty well here. I have survived my first week, in what I would deem is a succesful manner. I found out the hard way that doing laundry in traditional Nicaraguan style is not only exhausting, it can lead to some problems. Doing laundry here is essentially like using a washboard, and it's certainly difficult to get the soap out, and to get them dry enough to hang up. I did my first load, and probably used too much soap, and then because it has been so rainy here I had to hang them up inside, and they didn't dry. Clothes that smell like mildew are not fun to wear. So this morning I washed them again, I'm hoping it's not going to rain. It is the rainy season here, which means it rains at least once a day. I've heard that when the dry season starts, somewhere in November or December it gets so dry that everything gets covered with a fine layer of dust. I don't think I've written yet about the water situation here. We have water from about 6 or 7pm until about 5am. Then the water gets turned off for the whole day. So we have to fill large barrels full of water at night, and then we use that water to wash our hands, fill our water filters, etc, for the next day. We also had quite the fiasco with water last night. I woke up at four am and found that there was lots of water on the floor. I walked out of where we sleep and found that the bathroom was filled with about 2 inches of water and had leaked out into most of the rest of the building. At first I thought it was from the rain, but later learned that the toilet had overflowed for most of the night until someone woke up at 2:30 and fixed it. Yeah. Luckily the floor of our dorm is all stone, so basically we spent a good hour this morning washing the floors and getting the water out. (Luckily it was clean water that had been running, other wise I might not have been very happy.) So here you never know when you're going to get water and what kind of water you might be getting. It keeps you on your toes.
Yesterday was the last day that the delegation from South Carolina was here. We spent their final day being a bit touristy. We started out the day going to a National park where there is a volcano that is not currently active, although it spews out a sulfur like gas all the time. Then we went to go see a potter who has been the recipient of a microloan from the community. He gave us a demonstration of his work and then happily allowed us to buy his work. He is a very gifted artist. We then went into Masaya for lunch and we went to their craft market. Masaya is a town about fourty-five minutes to the south of Managua and it has a large artist population there, so the craft market is impressive. After this adventure we made our final stop for the day at an establishment called The Monkey Hut. They cater to gringos in Nicaragua, and offer rooms for rent nightly or for longer stays. You can also go for the day and spend time swimming in the volcanic lagoon that they are located on. The water was amazing. It was warm and clean and we spent a few hours lounging on the side or swimming. It was a great break from our daily life. I think a few of us have thought about returning for a longer period of time.
There are a few of my latest experiences. I'm hoping that this week will provide a bit more of a routine and rhythm. I'm looking forward to getting to know the Nica's around me nad the community a bit more. In two weeks we have another delegation coming with 25 doctors, that will be quite a trip considering the delegation we just had was only 8 people! I'll write again soon. Oh, I've been having problems with my hotmail account, so if people want to try to email me you can use the following email address, hewesem@earlham.edu .
Things are going pretty well here. I have survived my first week, in what I would deem is a succesful manner. I found out the hard way that doing laundry in traditional Nicaraguan style is not only exhausting, it can lead to some problems. Doing laundry here is essentially like using a washboard, and it's certainly difficult to get the soap out, and to get them dry enough to hang up. I did my first load, and probably used too much soap, and then because it has been so rainy here I had to hang them up inside, and they didn't dry. Clothes that smell like mildew are not fun to wear. So this morning I washed them again, I'm hoping it's not going to rain. It is the rainy season here, which means it rains at least once a day. I've heard that when the dry season starts, somewhere in November or December it gets so dry that everything gets covered with a fine layer of dust. I don't think I've written yet about the water situation here. We have water from about 6 or 7pm until about 5am. Then the water gets turned off for the whole day. So we have to fill large barrels full of water at night, and then we use that water to wash our hands, fill our water filters, etc, for the next day. We also had quite the fiasco with water last night. I woke up at four am and found that there was lots of water on the floor. I walked out of where we sleep and found that the bathroom was filled with about 2 inches of water and had leaked out into most of the rest of the building. At first I thought it was from the rain, but later learned that the toilet had overflowed for most of the night until someone woke up at 2:30 and fixed it. Yeah. Luckily the floor of our dorm is all stone, so basically we spent a good hour this morning washing the floors and getting the water out. (Luckily it was clean water that had been running, other wise I might not have been very happy.) So here you never know when you're going to get water and what kind of water you might be getting. It keeps you on your toes.
Yesterday was the last day that the delegation from South Carolina was here. We spent their final day being a bit touristy. We started out the day going to a National park where there is a volcano that is not currently active, although it spews out a sulfur like gas all the time. Then we went to go see a potter who has been the recipient of a microloan from the community. He gave us a demonstration of his work and then happily allowed us to buy his work. He is a very gifted artist. We then went into Masaya for lunch and we went to their craft market. Masaya is a town about fourty-five minutes to the south of Managua and it has a large artist population there, so the craft market is impressive. After this adventure we made our final stop for the day at an establishment called The Monkey Hut. They cater to gringos in Nicaragua, and offer rooms for rent nightly or for longer stays. You can also go for the day and spend time swimming in the volcanic lagoon that they are located on. The water was amazing. It was warm and clean and we spent a few hours lounging on the side or swimming. It was a great break from our daily life. I think a few of us have thought about returning for a longer period of time.
There are a few of my latest experiences. I'm hoping that this week will provide a bit more of a routine and rhythm. I'm looking forward to getting to know the Nica's around me nad the community a bit more. In two weeks we have another delegation coming with 25 doctors, that will be quite a trip considering the delegation we just had was only 8 people! I'll write again soon. Oh, I've been having problems with my hotmail account, so if people want to try to email me you can use the following email address, hewesem@earlham.edu .
posted by Emily at 12:55 PM
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