Day 1 January 29, 2009

Finally got on the plane. Said my last good-byes. Bittersweet. On one hand, I am terribly sad to go for I will miss the comforts of home, my family, my language etc. On the other hand, I am about to embark on a journey not many others are as fortunate to take in a lifetime. The plane rides were fairly short. 3 hours from Chicago to Houston. 3 hour layover. Then 3 hours from Houston to Managua. This trip includes Daniel Sealy from Trinity, Stephen Winkelman from Cornerstone and myself. Jeff DeKock is the program director who also traveled with us. We are all very very different people with different personalities so it'll certainly be interesting to see how this all pans out over the upcoming months. Dan and I speak no Spanish while Stephen speaks a little. He also has been all over to different places around the world like Dubai in India, Germany and most recently in Costa Rica. All for mission trips. Here we are, a unique group of students on a journey abroad. 

When we first arrived...ok even before all this, as a side note: The flight from Chicago to Houston was a jet and it was so small that my small carry-on bag wouldn't fit. I was in the second to last seat and every time I looked out the window, I could see the engine by my face. No me gusta! Okay anyways, so we land in Managua and many passengers were North Americans on vacation or mission trips. Needless to say, when we arrive we certainly look like we don't belong.  So we go through customs and it takes FOREVER well just the line I happened to be in. So after that, you pick up your luggage and stand in another long line to get questioned about your luggage before you leave. Well when we were in Chicago, Jeff checked some of his video equipment as my second bag. As I'm standing in the customs line, I find out that it's all super high-tech equipment that could seem suspicious. GREAT!! (sarcasm) Yeah so I basically lie to the girl because she asked if I had clothes in one of my bags and I said yes. Personally this can't really be my fault because she could have phrased the question better.  Anyways, that's done but then it's real Nicaraguan people. These people certainly hustle well. Everybody's trying to get something especially from all the super "rich" Northerners that just arrived.  Learning to say "No" used to be hard for me but I think it'll become my favorite word after this trip.

Going through traffic is one surprise after the other. First of all it was shocking. Red lights and stop signs are optional at night. Usually during the day too. If you pause and honk the horn to warn people, that's considered safe driving. Buses are the cheapest form of transportation so those are every where. We saw one barrel through a red light and totally could've killed anyone on the road. Another was absolutely packed with people and had spanish music blaring. A moving party they are.  Roads are terrible and every corner like in some Chicago neighborhoods or all around Miami are people. People are every where all on the grind. Washing windows, begging, selling fruits which I would never ever buy. I've seen this before so that's no big deal but something I hadn't seen was a man dressed as a clown juggling between cars at about 10 pm. This is truly another world. I mean Talk about culture shock.