¡Profe!

Apologies for not updating for quite a while now...you may well be wondering what I've been up to these past few weeks. Apart from a severe bout of v&d which stopped me in my tracks somewhat I have been really very busy. The building site still needs some supervision: buying materials and communicating with the foreman who is little by little completing bits and pieces as our funds dictate. I have also been doing some English teaching in a Christian school in Santa Teresa, about 20 minutes from Jinotepe to cover for another Latin Link short termer for 3 weeks.

Profe, short for profesora (teacher), is approximately equivalent to Miss in English and it is what I have become accustomed to hearing at every interval. English teaching was perhaps the one thing I did not either want or expect to do at any formal level while in Nicaragua. I have given, and continue to give classes one night a week at church informally but suddenly becoming the person responsible for educating 5 years worth of secondary school pupils is quite a different matter. I agreed to take the classes to get my friend out of a bind but soon discovered that I had signed myself up to a whole load of work. Classes need prepared, homework tasks thought of and subsequently marked, tests set, discipline maintained and most importantly knowledge successfully imparted. For me this takes hours of prep and then al of my concentration and energy in the delivery. Frankly, although I enjoy the teaching, it is way too exhausting to consider doing it full time! Much respect for teachers.

Another piece of notable news is the sad loss of my camera. The main control broke while I was on holiday and on the recommendation of a friend it was taken to be repaired. However, the story goes that while in the repair shop the camera was stolen by two guys who broke in while the assistant wasn't paying attention. The owner of the shop has replaced for me the camera with what might be described as a "thoroughly inadequate piece of semi-technology". Ahem. I think I make my feelings clear.

Building: finished. Or just about.

We have a complete building...walls and roof and a floor of sorts. There are still a lot of finishing touches, some of which will get completed soon (for example the electrics) and some of which will have to wait for more money to come in (including doors, windows, paint, floor tiles...).

However, it is very exciting to have the roof on as it feels so much more complete and we now have a wonderfully usable space!

From the road, behind the San Lucas fair-price pharmacy

Doña Gladis, who runs the pharmacy, Dr Francisco, Kirsty, Dra Reyna

Volcán Mombacho: beautiful Nicaragua

The stunning view accross Granada to Lake Nicaragua The four of us after not having climbed very far...later pictures show more of the effort we put in

El Principe Azul: beautifully common in this part of Nicaragua

Prospects

A couple of weeks ago I had my half-time evaluation with my Latin Link supervisors Barbara and Lukas. It was a kind of review of the first six or seven months I have spent in Nicaragua, good points and bad, both personally and in the role I play at work and church. It was also a chance to evaluate the purposes I have here, what I am hoping to do with the rest of my time, and a probing into what impact this year will have on the rest of my life. Many times I have been asked if I might stay more than just a year, many times I have been asked if I might not consider a long term stint... But I have a job in the UK to return to, the possibility to complete my professional training in a relatively secure position, the opportunity to work on interesting projects, the chance to gain a level of economic security, the option to put aside money towards a house, a car, travel...

Actually I have been wrestling with the question of staying a few months more in Nicaragua. The rainy season is not far off and there are many projects for which I have a much better vision; with another summer here I could see out some more building, things that we have been talking about for ages but which haven't yet come to fruition.

Maybe I will stay, maybe not: it is a major point of prayer currently, the thing that strikes me the most though, is that I have such power to decide. Many, if not most, of the young people that I know have no such good prospects. Those that complete school can choose, really very cheaply, to study a career at one of the universities here in Jinotepe or in Managua. "Pure" academic subjects are uncommon, few will study literature or mathematics, history, geography or physics. Popular subjects are those leading directly to a career; pharmacy, nursing, engineering, computation, accountancy or with good enough grades, medicine. However, even with a degree under your belt there is no guarantee of work.

Those that don't study look for a job, maybe in a shop or in the market, maybe as a cook or a laborour, a taxi driver or a domestic. Many that have studied look for these same jobs. Sometimes the key to a job is to align yourself politically. Work directly for the political party; organising other young people, supporting rallies, campaigning. Or maybe a political link gets you a job at the council or as a teacher or in some other post or even a scolarship to study in Venezuela or Cuba. But the work is often demanding and such strong political ties are restrictive.

Those that don't find a job wait.

There are many young people waiting.

In fact, in general, there are many people waiting.

Unemployment in Nicaragua is a big problem. Young people can still dream their future but after a few years what becomes of the dream. With my contemporaries in the UK, or maybe those that are slightly younger, coming up out of school, into uni, into work, the future is more or less bright. No, not everyone studies hard or gets the dream job - not everyone gets a job - but there are options, possibilities, clear ways of moving forward. Prospects.

So what can I say to these young people I know? Well, there are not always clear answers, but just as I am certain that God has a plan for me, whether that be in the UK, Nicaragua or somewhere else, I am certain that he has a plan for their lives. Each one of us is created with purpose, and when we seek to be living out the will of God that is revealed. Maybe Nicaragua needs more of its young people to understand that truth.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

Then, it is no bad thing that youngsters are waiting, if they are waiting on God and in dependence on him. I pray that their wait won't be too long. We are created to work for God's glory and at the same time the economic needs are obvious. I too am waiting to see what God has in store for me.

I have a bike...

The weather here is now really quite hot and so I spend most of my days sweaty and dirty as my work at the moment requires that I am out of the office a fair bit.

But, in other news: my Nica mama acquired me a bike. It is a really very nice one (a whole lot prettier than the bike I rode in Cambridge) with a women's frame. I now have to look for opportunities to use it. I fear that this means more sweat...

The walls are up...

Just a wee note building-wise. The walls are pretty much finished and work on the roof will start any time now (when we get an electricity supply approved for the welding).

Sadly, the building will have to be left as a kind of grey shell for the moment: no doors or windows, no toilets or permanently wired electricity, no paint. Funds, of which we started with none, have run out. There are a few possibilities for other sources of funding and we are waiting, and praying to see what will happen. We have been very blessed to get this far, but it would be great to be able to finish...

Good times in Matagalpa

Last weekend our team meeting was held in Matagalpa...closer to where Joel, a fellow Strider from Northern Ireland, has been living and working, in the North of Nicaragua.

All in all it was quite a cultural experience. As well as meeting together as a team we spent Saturday afternoon taking in the city, including a trip to "El Museo de Café", a museum not only explaining the history of coffee in Nicaragua (a money making scheme after the failure of the gold-rush in Nicaragua) but also the history of Matagalpa itself. I always encounter slight apprehension on entering small museums where it appears nobody else has chosen to visit but our lively guide and some interesting text made it a fairly informative hour or so.

Afterwards, inspired by the explication of the coffee making process we went in search of a good cup of the stuff in the city. Unfortunately we only managed Nescafé (probably from Brasil) accompanied by an odd selection of cakes, a disappointing state of affairs.

We then wandered through the city streets and stumbled upon a group of men in bright yellow suits, tuning up their various instruments to begin a street performance. This was a group of evangelical Mariachis from a local church, obviously popular with the local residents. Their singer cannot have been more than 12 years old but had an amazingly powerful voice...and beautiful shoes! I must try and look for a similar pair.

Matagalpa Mariachi

The beautiful shoes of the youngest Mariachi member

Then, as we walked back to our hotel a "hípica"; a parade of horses stepping in time to music blasted from a pick-up truck at the front of the group, passed us by. It was slightly surreal to see horses, essentially dancing, to Boney M Rivers of Babylon in the mountain city of Matagapa, Nicaragua.

Dancing horses: una "hípica"