Arrival in Managua

I made it!  Safe and sound.  Staging in DC was fun and interesting, in terms of learning about the future adventure we're about to embark on.  Tuesday morning before official PC stuff began, I met up with a business volunteer Chalin (who's blog link can be found on this page) and walked around to see the sights: The White House, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam and Korean War memorials, and walked around the National Mall.  So cool to finally see these sights, but so tiring!!!  I'm still in some serious pain from walking around in my flat, not-arch-supporting shoes. 

Staging was a lot of ice breakers, info sessions, skits about volunteer issues, craft time (yes, we used colored markers to draw pictures on butcher paper), and logistical stuff like money and travel.  We HAD to check out of the room at 2 AM!  So needless to say, I only got one hour (maybe) of sleep last night, seeing as I had to go out and have my last US dinner (baby back ribs!) and re-pack both my bags for the future two flights to Miami then Managua and retreat here in Managua for the first 3 nights.

Let's just leave it at this: I'm super tired from no sleep and lots of heavy bag carrying, plus it's hot here, and that tires you out.  The retreat sight is really nice.  Hostel like rooms with bunk beds, prepared meals, air-conditined classrooms, electricity, and hot running water.  Although the hot aspect is unnecessary, really.  Cool showers are a must here. 

This afternoon mostly just consisted of meeing current voluneers at the airport who will be staying with us for the next 3 days/nights during the retreat, and having some early introductions/orientations to what's coming ahead in training.  Tomorrow's vaccinations and language assessment time!  Woo hoo! I'm more nervous about the language than the shots, to be honest. 

So tonight's plan is to catch up on some much needed sleep!  Haven't really seen much yet, just the bus ride from the airport to our retreat site, but it's the end of the dry season here in Nicaragua, so mostly everything (except the bigger trees) are brown and crispy.  Coming up real soon is the rain, for the next 6 months.  Lots of it, it sounds like.  But that makes everything green and beautiful, and clean and cool. 

More later. . . we have interent here so I'll try to post again before we leave for our training sights on Saturday.  Love you all, and miss you too!

~Sarah~