XIII. Masaya and a lot, a lot of work

I'm checking in again from the midday heat of Granada. There's a lot going on right now, so I haven't had a chance to tell you about the excursion to Masaya last weekend.

Masaya is the name of the next volcano (which I can see from my room), but also a town right next to this volcano. And that's where we volunteers were on Saturday.

For that, I finally took a bus for the first time. They're yellow retired school buses here, packed with people and luggage, rumbling from place to place. They don't stop at bus stops, instead you can just wave them down. The journey to Masaya only took about three quarters of an hour, I had a window seat, but also a strange child on my lap - I guess that's called equal justice.

In Masaya itself, all buses arrive right next to the INCREDIBLY big market. I had lunch there, it's like a big buffet. Grilled corn with lime and salt, fresh corn tortilla, ice-cold starfruit juice and banana muffins - delicious! And I didn't get a stomach ache either, another sign that I'm acclimating better and better.

Speaking of climate. It was pretty hot that day, so we sweated a lot (and I got my first sunburn) when we trudged to the other end of the city to see the lagoon and the volcano from there. It was truly worth it for the view and the photo unfortunately only shows relatively little.

Afterwards, we walked back to the center to go to the arts and crafts market, the most famous one in the country. Here you could find all sorts of 'Nicaraguan' things, hammocks, drums, jewelry, coffee, chocolate, dolls, etc. I'm definitely coming back when it's time to get souvenirs ;)

This week we're working on planning the program for each day of the week. Now that we're complete with the two new Germans, we can finally offer several workshops for the children every day. For me, that means thinking about how to warm up for the slackline, how to offer a photo and video workshop with two cameras, and how to get shy children to participate in the clown workshop. At the same time, I'm also working on the little documentary and acrobatics training every evening. Phew. It's a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to offering workshops every day starting next week.

Hasta luego!