Hola! I arrived in Jinotepe, Nicaragua last night. As most of you know, I hate flying, so that part wasn't super fun - we flew nearly through 2 thunderstorms between Houston and Managua, but also got to see the full moon over the Gulf of Mexico so that was beautiful. When we were flying over Nicaragua, it was mostly dark except for the moon reflecting off of this HUGE lake, and we were starting to descend and suddenly Managua appeared out of nowhere with a trillion lights. Leo, our Spanish teacher, met me at the airport. He is a friendly younger guy whose airport meeting tactic is not to stand in one place with his sign but to try to pick out the BaseCamp volunteers and then slide directly in front of them with the BaseCamp International sign right in your face and then wait for some familiar response. It was even funnier watching him do that to random twenty-year-old girls on my flight after I found him, trying to find the other girl he was picking up. The drive back to Jinotepe took us through some of the rougher areas of Managua, the windiest area of Nicaragua (literally, the wind was insane and has pushed over trucks) and up a lot of elevation. It was a beautiful drive and a great introduction to the country even though it was dark. Here, stop signs are basically meaningless, seatbelts often don't exist and the roads around here are pretty much exactly like your basic two-lane county highways in Wisconsin but no one really cares what lane you're supposed to be in. You basically just drive wherever you want to until a car is coming the other way and then you move over. Interesting...
There are two other volunteers here at the moment, both of whom also arrived yesterday. Rachelle is my age and from Vancouver - she's staying here six months to work in a hospital. Jackie Chan (that is actually his name, I am not lying) is 25 and is staying for a month to work on a rainforest preserve on the other side of the country. There is also a young couple with a baby girl living at the house, along with Leo and Catherine who is our program coordinator. And a cat, Robin, who slept in my bed last night. It is a big colonial house with a courtyard in the middle. The 8-person bedroom that Rachelle and I share seems like a ton of space after this summer, but there are 2 more girls arriving in October. My favorite part of the house is napping in hammocks, which I have already done multiple times.
When walking or running in Jinotepe, it is a difficult balance between watching your feet to make sure you don't step in horse manure or break your ankle in a pothole and trying to pay attention to everything in the market or on the street. It's a quiet but busy town - quiet being a relative term, as I woke up to the egg seller on the street at around 5:30 a.m. and our morning class was interrupted by the high school marching band. This is not the marching band that we are used to seeing - it is all percussion and the baton twirlers dance with their hips more than they twirl the baton, even the girl in front who was about five years old. They are LOUD and have a great rhythm and practice in the streets in the middle of the day, every day. There are also a lot of oxen carts and horses in the streets, as well as bikes, taxis, cars, buses and a lot of people walking.
Forgot to say that out of the three of us volunteers, I am the only one who speaks any Spanish at all, which is a big confidence booster and definitely gives me a leg up as I am of course the shyest one by far, but knowing Spanish really helps. Somehow, all the household staff knew that before I got here so they are excited to talk to me, which is sweet, and it made everything from customs to ordering in a restaurant much easier. I guess I just assumed I'd be behind everyone in language, but I feel pretty comfortable with speaking and understanding it here.
So that is about it for now... I might actually head to bed as I didn't sleep much last night and the three of us are getting up early to go take the bus to a volcanco called Mombacho and climb to the top. Should be exciting! Spanish classes and orientation start on Monday and then a week after that I start work, which I am VERY excited for. I just want to get started and meet the kids.
I'll try to write in here as often as possible with a combination of my personal experiences and cultural insight on Nicaragua and maybe some interesting Spanish vocab words for those of you who are interested.
Buenas noches!