The online space of Caroline Bach
On the second day in Granada, I went out to take a walk by myself around the town. Masa, my friend Den’s colleague from the UN University of Peace in Costa Rica, joined me for breakfast and we decided go to the little islets in the lake just outside of Granada, formed after an eruption of the Mombacho volcano thousands of years ago.
Hover for description, click for full screen.
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Yep. The sun did it again. I was using sunscreen all the time in the weekend, I promise! But this happens every time I find myself in a sunny country after letting my skin turn almost see-through after a couple of weeks in the sunless Nordics.. I’m pink again.
On the work side, one if my projects is almost finished and I’m super excited to see it in print!
And here’s a simple DIY trick to distinguish between those annoyingly similar keys. Nailpolish!
Founded in 1524 and referred to as the oldest European city in mainland America, Granada offers a potpourri of colours, smiles and contrasts. Walking by myself the entire day, I met with many interesting individuals, all equally open to telling me their stories and having their picture taken. Here are some glimpses from the first of my two days in Granada. Hover the photos for descriptions, click for full screen.
Granada, what a wonderful town! Just an hour away from Managua, this gem is completely walkable, accessible, and swims in colours and kindness.
I have been enjoying ‘being a traveller’ to the fullest today despite the fact that I will be going back to the capital tomorrow afternoon to be at work on Monday. It’s a little bit sad that I’m not able to just relax fully and take all things in, however, to get the most out of it my way, I skip museums and statues, and focus on people.
In the morning, I spent some time in the main square talking and hanging out with an NGO group of women that bring children’s books to teach street children and young vendors how to read. Instead of sniffing glue, that is.
On my way to the beach, I met two young guys that I continued walking with. We found a nice bench where we got stuck for a couple of hours speaking intensely about religion and tradition – the boys had a great load of knowledge and abilities to argument and we had a great exchange of values, ideas and laughs.
They took me to a side road where I could take some nice photos and walked me back to the center when it started to become dark. Suddenly, while standing in front of a restaurant where artists were playing traditional Nicaraguan music and people joined in dancing, one of them went: “Today, I have felt something I have never felt before..” followed by a second of awkward silence and an inner red alert alarm from my side.
“I have appreciated the colours, sounds and details of my own city in a way that I have never noticed before.”
Thank you for a fantastic day, boys!
I hope I can hold on to my camera until I’m back in Managua – I have a million photos to share with you!
I’m on the bus to Granada. A one hour ride with the local bus leaving every 15min from the UCA station. One pays only 1USD and the loud reggaeton music is included in the price.
My read for the road is a document on the progress of the key MTSP indicators.
The four focus areas are:
– Young child survival and development
– Basic Education and gender equality
– HIV / AIDS and Children
– Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse.
Now you know.
As there was no water when I got home after a very long day, I started ironing clothes until I had gone through all of the dresses, shirts, skirts and blouses that had been so badly abused in my backpack.
Then the water was suddenly back on. A wonderful shower and kizombas in the background filled me with saudades for the city of dancing and sunrises.
The music immediately confused my overloaded brain, throwing it straight back into ‘maningue’ mode.
I might try to keep my Portuguese alive this way just in case. I did it with my Spanish while in Moz, listening to a lot of Bebe and Vetusta Morla and writing my emails to Ady in Spanish instead of English, haha.. it seems to have worked, I’m back on track now and learning new random words every day as about 80% of my meetings, emails and documents are in Spanish.
Probably my favourite thing about this city. Come on, Managua. I’m sure you can do better than this…
Anyway – I might go out of the city and do some exploring tomorrow. But first I will need some hours of proper sleep. My room has been fumigated and most of the bugs seem to have checked out. Who knows though, maybe they are just waiting for me to turn off the lights. *dramatic music*
Good night, all.
Fail:
Leaving the office thinking “Ohh, it’s been such a long day – I can’t wait to take a nice shower!”
No water.
On the other hand:
Today I have been working with a designer for six hours on the graphics, details, contents and outline of a UNICEF Nicaragua publication. We made a million corrections in the strive for perfection – it’s going to be so, so beautiful, I can’t wait to see it printed!
And my landlady just called:
“The water is out in the entire area – this never happens, I’m so sorry. But hey, I left you some fresh mangoes from my garden in the kitchen!”
I’ll deal without water.
It has been released! Quickly flip past the horrendous cover page of UNDP’s Human Development Report 2013, launched in Mexico City today, and indulge in a year of research, the genius of Khalid Malik and freshly squeezed goodies that are extremely reference-friendly.
For those of you who only care about the numbers: Norway is still in the lead, Mozambique is the third poorest country in the world, and of the 185 countries researched, Nicaragua finds itself on place 129 making it a medium human development country. In the gender inequality index, Sweden has lost its first place to the Netherlands.
But then again, all of this is a numbergame, I’m usually more for qualitative data than for raw stats although the HDR numbers are among my favourite one’s and fantastic to refer to. Unfortunately I haven’t read it yet to share any proper observations, however, I’m very proud of my Ady – she was there and met the genius!
Here’s a throwback to theLaunch of the HDR 2011 in Copenhagen. I can’t believe it was two years ago.
Click the picture above to go to UNDP’s HDR page.
My new closet made me think of you, Cicirella, and look – I even closed all the doors to your honour!
It took me one week to look around and decide on where I will be living here in Managua, and I’m really enjoying my new place. My room is airy with a high ceiling and big windows both to the east and the west, the closet is huge so I can hang all my stuff up and don’t need to have anything laying around, my bathroom is mine, mine and only mine, I have my own patio for breakfasts im the sun or wine under starlit skies, and I’m fifteen minutes by foot from the office.
As a bonus, I have the funniest landlady ever. She is a super fit, energetic and positive 60-something year-old that looks at least ten years younger and lives a couple of minutes away from here. We went grocery shopping together when I had moved in today after work and decided that we should continue doing so because we had so much fun. Haha. And she bought me new towels!
It’s all a lovely deal – the only problem is that I’m not the only one loving it. Wait, what’s that? A spider, a mosquito, a fly, a big, red ant? Oh darn, they’re all over!
Good thing that I generally don’t mind bugs, but if any of them starts sucking my blood I’ll Baygon the soul out of every living creature in this place.
Hear that, you evil things!? My blood stays in my veins, this restaurant is closed.
