Home in Granada, Nicaragua

Let me introduce you to my city for the next 5 weeks. It is wonderful! The trip here was very smooth, with a stopover in Houston. We arrived around 8pm and were met by someone at the language school ,who drove 3 of us to the city of Granada(1 hour by car). Sarah(from Langley) and I live with a wonderful single mom and her 25 year old son, Juan. Our host mom doesn´t speak a word of English, which is great for us! Forest, the other student who arrived with usand is from Texas, lives around the corner and has joined us when we go exploring or dancing. Last night, after putting our bags in our rooms, we went out for cold drinks, walked around town to get oriented and then went dancing. I had fun learningto dance the Salsa and Merengue(fast, twirly and very fun!)

We didn´´t sleep too well because we aren´t used to the heat and humidity, but the bed was comfortable and I´ll do better tonight.

I woke up at 8 and was told to quickly take a shower before the water stopped running for the day. We had a delicious breakfast of fresh bread and guava jam, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, fried potatoes and fresh orange juice. Our house has an open concept , as you can see in the pictures. Everything is open to the inner courtyard, where there are Guava and lime trees,plants ang 8 pet guinee pigs that wander around . Our rooms and the bathroom have 4 walls, but not the livingroom , diningroom and kitchen.

After breakfast, Forest joined Sarah, Juan and I for a grand walking tour of the city!!!! Juan has training as a tour guide so we are truly spoiled. We try to speak as much Spanish as possible with each other. All of us are here for 5 weeks and we all want to do volunteer work in the afternoons. We walked down to the lake, which is immense! you ca´t see the other side and there are sharks in it!

On our way home, we stopped by Calita Feliz, a place that offers free programs and food to poor village and city kids. WOW!!! We were so impressed and they asked when we could start! They really were excited to hear about all of the supplies that I had brought! We will head back tomorrow and on Monday we´re going to help to teach an English class. They want us to make it fun , so we plan to lead songs with a guitar and play various language games. After leaving Calita Feliz, Juan showed us a hotel with a nice big outdoor opool and we´re going to get a 1 month membership. Yeah!!! It really is hot. It finally started to pour half an hour ago and this has helped a bit. Tonight we´re meeting up with lots of Juans friends to go dancing.

So, as you can see, everything is going beautifully!!! Yo hablo mucho, mucho español y la vida es bonita! I can´t wait until Monday when my Spanish lessons start. That will help soooooo much!

Hasta luego!

Jennie