A slow start in Nicaragua

Hola, mi familia y amigos (Hello, my family and friends).

I arrived safely in Jinotepe, Nicaragua, on Tuesday, March 27 after uneventful travels.  The house that was rented for Keri and I is wonderful and large - a large back yard, porch, large living room that will hold all the students, a large kitchen, separate large office space, and hot showers.  There are regular breezes - much more than what I remembered then when I was here last year.  Maybe it´s the time of year. 

The slow start has been a good reminder of the difference between the Latin American culture and the US.  We are still waiting for internet that was expected to be installed at our house when we arrived.  There was a lot of misunderstanding all around about if it had been ordered or not, but it is finally supposed to be installed today.  But we have been told that the last four days, so I am a little skeptical.  I am not usually that depedent on internet access, but we need to have access to all our work files, so we haven´t been able to get a start on several planning pieces that we would have liked.  I was able to successfully download some files onto a flash drive while at an internet cafe so I should be able to work on some things offline today. 

Otherwise the transition and getting settled in has been going well.  Our house is about a 15 walk into the main part of town.  I was able to successfully cash a check at the bank on Thursday, get money out of an ATM, go to the supermarket and outdoor market yesterday, and find my way around town.  Today I am going to tackle washing some clothes in the "pila" - the non-electric washing tub machine/tub.  I´ll post a picture when I can.

So things are going well.  Jinotepe is a friendly smaller town that I am enjoying so far.  I am excited for the students to experience it when they arrive.