Cadbury's & Caesar

What a day....what a week!

Today we pulled together lunch for 30 pioneers plus instructors. The "fun' part was that after Gary had made all the arrangements (via translators & Spanglish) to prepare the yucky Spanish meal on the schedule, the C/O found him and requested that we make the same meal that we had made for him and the D/O when they came to our house for dinner! No small feat here in Nicaragua as it was Chicken Caesar & Garlic bread with Chocolate Cake for dessert. Plus they wanted it with a side of beans (!!) and a special juice called Jamica that has to be boiled in the flowers with Cinnamon & cloves. Mass panic has ensued as it all had to be plated and arrive at the hall at 11.45 sharp today. But we did it, with a crew of Spanish & foreigners alike, despite the fact that the Romaine lettuce we ordered in didn't arrive. Now we have to do it again in two weeks, but at least we have had practice.

Saturday night we were treated to a night at a friends place up on the Laguna. He has recently arrived here from England, a single guy in his late 30's. He is not short on funds (he was a banker) and likes to live well....and we like to be his guests :) His place offers incredible views along with an infinity pool....as well as chocolate mousse made from Cadbury Chocolate brought directly from the UK. Incredible! Not so romantic though as Nikki felt very vulnerable in the downstairs bedroom, which was all glass, so Gary slept alone while I made the sacrifice of sleeping with Nikki who is a horrendous bed hog & snuggler! It is a sad truth here that despite the beauty, you never feel safe & secure. I slept with one eye open all night. You can't even get up to pee without taking along a flash light in case you step on a scorpion. There is so much about life in Canada that we took for granted.

Walking to get pizza last night, a drunk on the street tried to kiss Nikki. I thought a fight was about to break out as Gary rightly took great offense and the drunk then started to take off his back pack. He was at least 40....she's 11...gross! She gets leered at alot and will ultimately be one of the major reasons that we decide against making this home for any length of time. I get leered at too (thank goodness!) but it's different when it's your 11 year old!

Coming home from Pizza, we had leftovers in a bag and were hit up for it at least three times before we got home, aggressively. People really think should give it to them. We managed to hold on to it till we got to our house and then gave it to the security guard at the house across the street. He was very grateful....and at least this way we have used it to make friends.

I think that's it for today. We have moved our bedroom downstairs (yes we are all STILL in one room!) as it is smaller and cooler. Our electricity bill for last month was horrendous despite the fact that we only allow ourselves to use the AC at night. Life here is certainly not cheap.