"We're not in Kansas anymore Toto..."

Blimey. Where to start.

Yesterday morning I lay in bed from 5 til 8 having intended to get up at 5, but finding I had a sort of inertia. 5 is a perfectly acceptable time to be getting up it seems, and I´m finding going to bed at 9pm remarkably easy. But the getting up… I just don’t know what to expect when I go out there. And my room is nice and safe. So I left my room at 8, obtained some milk (more about milk later) for my granola and thought I´d do a bit of pant washing out the back. In order to give the project coordinator time to come up with a few more problems. I couldn’t quite bear to go back to the `computer` room and see it exactly as it was 2 weeks ago again. ..

Sure enough, the coordinator finds me washing my pants and tells me we have more problems. The electrician came, the price is very high, we have to get it authorized, the guy to authorize it is out in the campo, and when I ask what are the chances of us actually starting lessons next week – we don’t know. And we should have started this week. So I’m standing there in an outhouse, underwear in hand, and I’m thinking I’m an English teacher. How did I get to be talking to a guy about electrical cable with not a lesson of any kind – English, computing, whatever – in sight? And what do I do? Yup you guessed it. I weep. Then I hang my washing out and go back in the house, and a very friendly but incredibly fast talking family member starts asking me what to do with his laptop, as one of the drives appears to be faulty and he can’t get it to start at all. He’s asking ME?! So I give him advice. What the hey. I’m getting to understand how people get sucked into these fraudulent lives, when they pretend they’re doctors and stuff. They think I know loads, and that my Spanish is bad. Truth is I know nothing!! And my Spanish is bad!

Which isn’t true actually. The one useful thing I did yesterday was take the administrator of the cooperative to the internet café (thank god that internet café is there. Thank god.) and search for accounting freeware. We found 3 programs she thinks might be useful, I’ve downloaded them onto a memory stick and installed them on the computer in the office and she’s going to have a play. You’ve no idea how hard it is to find free software in another language about a subject you know nothing about! But we did it somehow…

So. Back to the morning. I pull myself together and think well I can at least check the computers one by one and make sure they’re all configured the same. So I go over to the building, and the priests aren’t there. And the computers are being kept in the priest`s quarters for safe keeping. So once again I have nothing to do.

So I draw a big picture of a computer and label it with Spanish and English words. And then I go home and watch tv. My home, whilst a little crazy like all families, is friendly and comfortable. We have Grandma, Mum, 2 boys 6 and 12, and an uncle. The uncle is the one that talks unfeasibly fast. The Mum, same age as me, is more than happy to talk to me about all sorts and is extremely patient when I don’t understand. And last night I paid her back by doing English with her. Wow, I got to teach English. Hurrah!!

And there are more opportunities in that regard. A possible training session with the teachers here in Yali, who are a mix of locals and Peace Corps volunteers. And some self study groups near Esteli who are using the Nest Trust Book but would like a teacher too. And the aforementioned Priest, who eventually came back... And a week long intensive course in June for the school teachers of Ometepe.

And, by end of day yesterday we had a computer up and running, a lock on the door and were halfway to getting the printer to work. Which, I think, is pretty rapid movement in these parts.

Milk. The Family I live with have a house in Yali, and also a farm nearby. They have cows, and every day there is a great big vat of milk out back in the kitchen. And, as well as selling it to other little shops, they sell it out their back door. A steady stream of people wander along with strange shaped bottles and get a refill. This morning, a young girl turned up and got a lesson from grandma in maths in working out how much 3 litres would cost, and then a little lecture about how you need maths in all of life. I think. She could have been talking about something entirely different but I like to try and fill in gaps!

And the best thing about the house - it´s this close to the internet place...
















...But then everything's pretty close in Yali. If I was a local I'd stand in the middle of the basketball court in the town square and shout people's names, and see how many I could get to come running. Not a good idea for me right now, as I get stared at enough...