First days in Diriamba

Well, things are finally starting to settle down here in Nicaragua.  Since I arrived at the end of January, I have been running around the city meeting with all the public schools and all our host families, as well as compiling a curriculum for my new English students. What I thought would be a couple of days’ worth of work turned into about three weeks and the laid-back notion of punctuality, which is a part of the culture here (and in Central America in general), did not exactly speed things along either.  But to reiterate, everything is starting to fall into place and I could not be happier to take on my role as English teacher at La Asuncion Inmaculada Elementary School, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro Elementary School and the Asociacion Pro Ayuda a la Niñez nicaraguense Community Center.  Pedro and I also have just about everything ready for our first volunteers and await them eagerly.

Segueing from the business side of my stay here, this country is absolutely astonishing.  On arriving, the volcanoes that punctuate the plains like sentinels keeping guard seemed to welcome me as well as herald the news of my arrival to the rest of the country with the smoke billowing from their peaks.  But as far as tourism goes, that’s pretty much the extent of what I’ve done with the exception of a short trip to Granada.  However, now that my schedule is fixed and most of my preliminary tasks are finished, I plan on getting out of Diriamba a more often to acquaint myself with everything Nicaragua has to offer.  Ok, well that’s all I’ve got for now.

Until Next Time,
Patrick