True to form for this trip so far, this has been another day to remember! Our last day in Monkey point involved an exciting football match, and a VERY scary boat ride!

But before I tell you about those - I had more time to interview Carla yesterday and she definitely made it clear how the simple addition of this solar fridge, lighting and nebuliser will make a huge difference to the lives of the Monkey Point Community.  

A day of mixed feelings – excitement at heading off to the “edge of the world” to meet the community at Monkey Point; a little bit of fear when I saw the size of the boat we had to travel on to get to Monkey Point (small) and the size of the waves outside the bay (large!); and finally being a little overcome by emotion when Carla, the nurse at Monkey Point told me that Renewable World had made her dreams come true.

Today we left Managua to go to Bluefields, and meet our partner there, blueEnergy.  It was only a short ride by plane, but the Caribbean coast is almost like another country.  You can’t get there by road – the road stops at a place called Rama, and you’d have to take a river boat from there.  Once you are on the coast the main way of getting between communities is either walking, or by boat.  

Its been a really long day but packed full of great experiences.  We visited a community called Cajiniquil, with our partner Asofenix. Cajiniquil's wind turbine, paid for thanks to donations from EWEA, WPD and International Power went into operation last May, and it has been a life-changing experience for the people of this small, remote community.

So Betsy from Rivas was finally crowned Carnival Queen and the party finished at around 1am.  Then the staff had to clear up, and then this morning at about 6.30 guys started taking down the scaffolding of the stage.  So I wasn't at my best this morning. Betsy might get by without her beauty sleep but I need all I can get!  

Woke up early (body clock doesn't know what time it is!) so I took the chance to have a quick swim before breakfast and then caught up with emails and started writing a trust funding application. What did we do before laptops and wireless?! Its great to be able to keep in touch with the office and do my job from half a world away.  

Just a quick note today, as I am exhausted!  The time on this blog is local time - and Nicaragua is 6 hours behind, so that means I have been up for more than 24 hours!  

Hello everyone, my name is Melanie Matthews and I am Renewable World's Marketing Director. I'm responsible (along with my small team) for our communications and fundraising. Over the next week or so I'll be blogging from Nicaragua where I'll be visiting Renewable World's programme.  Its my first visit to Central America, and my first experience of Renewable World in the 'field', so I am sure I'll be learning a lot!