I dug a hole, Dad

Hi again everybody,

Well, after having a lot of fun in Guatemala I decided it was time to move on to different and exciting things in the rest of Central America. So after two very unexciting days on buses I made it Nicaragua. I went straight to a place called Isla de Omtepe, a volcanic island in the middle of a huge lake! Ok, so I know I have written a lot about volcanoes and a lot about lakes - they are a recurring theme here in Central America - so I won´t bore you with too many details except to say that it was lovely and relaxing.

From there I made my way to Granada (Nicaragua, not Spain) which is by far the nicest town I have visited in Central America. Its a great colonial city with heaps of churches, outdoor cafes and salsa bars! I have doing salsa lessons and attempting to shake my booty with the best of them, although I am not quite sure how successful I am at times.

My main reason for coming to Granada was to volunteer on a project called Houses of Hope. This is run by a small NGO and assists people from a slum on the edge of Granada to build proper houses with running water, electricity etc. So what does this mean for me?? I am now a house builder!! And so at the end of most days I can legitimately tell my dad that I dug a hole and, since it rains a fair bit, often they do fill with water. I have also mixed cement, carried bricks, painted windows, moved buckets of dirt, done lots of hammering and nailing and various other random house building jobs.

Just want to point something out here - because I am in Central America, there are no machines or efficient tools or labour saving devices of any kind. So when I say I am building houses and digging holes, this is all being done by hand with picks and shovels. The toughest thing is mixing cement with a shovel - oh lord what I would do for a cement mixing machine right now! Needless to say I am pretty stuffed at the end of each day.

I live in a house near the project with a bunch of other volunteers. Its a lot of fun because we are living in the community and get to hang out with the locals a lot and see how they live. I am trying to blend in by riding my bike everywhere and speaking with my best Nicaraguan accent, but I think the red hair gives it away....until next time my friends!

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