Work Placements and all that jazz

So we´re finally beginning our work placements. There are 9 work placements, with 2 volunteers per placement. One Nicaraguan and one Canadian. Each work placement is in a separate rural community, mine being the community of Las Cruces. Las Cruces is a small farming community (only about 30-40 houses, max) which produces basic grains and tobacco. Very poor, composed of crumbling adobe houses.
The Organization we´re working with is called INPRHU. This is the first year in a five year partnership between INPRHU and Canada World Youth. In all five years they will be working within these 9 communities. Our project will be aiding in the diagnosis of the communities. Its our job to find out what the members of the community need most, and the logistics required to accomplish the development goal.
We will be dealing with the youth and adults of the community equally. I´m more than a little nervous, as I still barely know any Spanish. The Nicaraguans will be responsible for the majority of the work here because of this handicap, and vise versa in Canada.
Nicaraguans have a completely different sense of time than we do in Canada...and it´s driving me nuts!!!! You can always expect them to be at LEAST a half an hour late, regardless of the importance of the meeting. We were late for a meeting with a representative of the Mayor´s office today, and they were stopping to sit and talk along the way! This isn´t something I´ll miss from my time in Nicaragua. I think it´s starting to drive all of the Canadians a little nuts.
I´m happy to say that Josue (my counterpart) and I are getting along very well. He´s a really nice fellow, and is really working hard to make sure that I feel at home. I´m trying my best to prepare him mentally for his visit to Saskatchewan, but I don´t think any amount of explaining will do the trick. I just hope that the cold isn´t too much for them.
Sorry for the infrequency of my posts. I´ll post in a day or two with more details about life in Somoto.