My New Home... La Prusia, Nicaragua

"Tom, follow the road by the cemetery to La Prusia if you want to go by foot. If you'd prefer a taxi, call Ernesto," this note from Angel, director of Las Casas de Esperanza, was left for me in my hostel. Two hours later, Ernesto showed up and I hustled to get my cositas in the trunk as traffic beeped at the stopped cab.

We chatted as we drove through the old colonial city, and as we drove out of it, and even as we suddenly turned off the paved road onto a dirt path cut out from a field of grain. Where the hell am I going? I wondered, watching all signs of human life disappear. The road was bumpy, but Ernesto assured me that it was smoother than the road I would have walked down. I trusted him. Suddenly, there were trees and barbed wire fences. Then there were a couple calves camouflaged by the shade and the brush as they grazed alongside the road. Then, there were a couple shacks made from rotted pieces of wood and tarp. "This is the community, but the volunteers live further up," Ernesto commented in his thick Nicaraguan accent.

We pulled up to the barbed wire fence and he said we were there. All I could see in front of me were three brightly colored boxes with roofs. This is where I'm going to live?, I joked to myself, getting a bit nervous. It seemed so empty, so lifeless, so remote. Suddenly, there was a man about 6ft in height with eyes of blue and amber and ashy gray hair parted to the right walking toward me with a smile. It was Angel.

He walked me to my house, the orange box on the left. There was a wraparound porch with a few tattered hammocks dangling along the edge. He opened the door. In the back left corner was the kitchen area complete with two fridges and a tabletop stove fueled by propane. On the opposite side of the room were four sets of bunk beds, each with its own respective mosquito net and naked, beat-up mattress. To be honest, it was much more modest than I had even expected. I got a bit anxious.

There were nine other volunteers there at the time, seven of which were living in the other house a few yards away, but they were not around. I met Mitch and Julio, volunteers from Boston and Spain, respectively. They both had crazily overgrown dreds, but seemed like cool enough guys.

Angel came over and gave me the tour of the place, explaining the projects. Next to my new house, the empty and heavily forested plot would be the site of their second development. We would be building the model house for the inhabitants to follow in a few days. We walked down the street on which I arrived, past the shoddily built houses and their residents happy to greet Angel as he passed.

We reached the first community, and suddenly everything seemed different to me. The 36 houses were built along a mini street inside the community. They were made of concrete and cinderblocks and had actual floors. One even had nice tiling. Children were in the schools built by the Casas project and families chatted in front of their houses as the evening settled in. Angel explained that we were about to start to building the second of these communities, but that if I didn't want to help with construction I could teach, help in the women's clinic, in the health center, or I could start a new project if I had something in mind. Suddenly, despite the clouded sky, the sky seemed a bit brighter.

Back at the houses, we were getting ready for our nightly community supper. We all sat at the wooden tables outside of our house. The tied up guard-dog looked on with jealousy as we sank our teeth into the pizzas cooked by another one of the volunteers. We were from the US, Spain, Canada and Scotland, though mostly from Spain. I suddenly found myself getting excited. The house was feeling bigger, my bed more comfortable, the geckos running around the house more quirky than disturbing, and my insecurities about speaking Spanish were vanishing. I'm still not sure exactly what I'll be doing - whether it's taking a class or constructing, or both - for the next two months, but with my new community I already felt like I was at home.

On a side note, getting into town to get online is going to be tough, so posts will more than likely come about once a week with maybe two or three at a time from now on. I'll be able to gauge it better in the coming weeks, so keep on checking!