Life in Granada has been pretty good to us. Apart from enjoying an average of two to three ice cream cones each per day (who could RESIST at only 7 cords/ 40 cents a scoop?!?!?), we are really enjoying our work in the schools. Summer vacation starts next week, so our duties will be changing a little bit, but right now, we are both teaching math, art, and reading and assisting the teachers in two different schools. 

 Laura, getting fat

My third grader, Jaime, working on his multiplication tables. My biggest challenge is usually not the language barrier, but preventing him from cheating by pulling multiplication tables our of his pockets, notebooks, and getting the answers from other students.

The kids are locked into their classrooms every morning. Here are a couple kids trying to climb into another room.

And a few others giving me the eyes...

Other volunteers at work

I have been working with third graders at the school, tutoring three kids over the course of a day. Yesterday, I actually got a spitball and paper airplane thrown at me during the lesson! I failed a little on the disciplinary front…and just burst out laughing.

Los Estudiantes

 

Low point of the week? Definitely have to say falling into the river on my walk to school. Well, it is hardly even a river—mostly urine, both human and horse shit, and trash. The water is nowhere near clear, it actually more closely resembles milk than water.

The stream we cross every morning

A huge problem I have become aware of in Nicaragua is that none of the locals know how to swim, despite the proximity of Lake Nicarauga, which is just down the road, and the Ocean, which is a two hour bus ride to the southeast of Granada. My Spanish teacher told me that even the adults cannot swim, and that there are no teachers available to instruct. Drowning is actually a huge problem because there is so much water around, and the locals are terrified of water. One local told me that there is a legend that Laguno de Appollo (where Laura and I went last weekend) “sucks people into its depths” because there is a dropoff about four feet out in the lagoon where the depth rapidly increases. Because the locals cant swim, they fall off the ledge unaware and drown.

I have been trying to figure out how to provide swimming lessons because this just seems like such a basic skill. And beyond that, these people are so poor and have so few joys in their life, it seems like they should at least be able to take advantage of the natural resources so close to home. However, the lake is so polluted that only the locals can swim in it without falling ill or developing a skin condition, and the private pool is so expensive that I can barely afford a membership, and joining is out of the question for the kids a work with, who cannot even afford to eat three meals a day or buy pencils and paper for class. However, today I met with the owner of the pool, who is an American from New York, and he agreed to let me conduct swim lessons once a week in the mornings before the pool opens. So my friend Lotte and I are going to bring my third graders, one auydante (a teaching assistant who is 20 and articulated that he wanted to learn to swim), and my Spanish teacher every Monday morning for an hour. We are hoping that over the next two months, we can teach them some of the basics, and that the agreement with the pool can continue with other volunteers after we leave.