Nicaragua - Day 1

Well, I was up at 4am this morning to shower (and shave my hairy legs for the last time this week).  I left home at 5am for 6:20am flight (30 min drive to airport) - cutting it close on time for sure, but that's how I like it. :) I drove all through terminal C and didn't see "Continental" so I circled around (getting nervous about the time now - after 5:30) and drove through again...and still didn't see it!!  So I got out at at the American line and freaked out.  The line to check in was literally out the door, and I certainly did not have time for that! (In fact, I was so worried I was going to miss my flight that I forgot to get my camera out and take a picture before I left!) :(  Luckily, I found the check in for Continental - down the other way.  There was still a line, but not near as long as for American. It took forever to get to the front just to print my boarding pass - which I couldn't do online for some reason. There was NO line at security. The old lady working said, "Ya'll came through here last month too!" I gave her a weird look and had no idea what she was talking about, until she motioned to my t-shirt and said "Living Water International - what country are you going to?" I told her Nicaragaua, and she immediately started talking bout mosquitos and repellant, etc.  There were people in a hurry lining up behind me...and she just kept right on talking about citronella and citrus instead of deet...I eventually just had to start walking off so she'd check the other people in!

I sat down at my gate for about 2 minutes when they announced a gate change. I got up, walked to the new gate (2 down), bought a bottle of water and sat down for maybe 3 or 4 more minutes before boarding began. Now that my kind of traveling - no wait time! It was a TINY airplane to Houston (always is), and I had to gate check my back pack. It was an easy hour and a half flight. There was a young hispanic guy sitting next to me and he kept snapping pictures of himself on his cell phone!  So weird!  I tried to sleep, and I think I might of dosed off a couple times?? We landed in Houston and taxid for at least 15 minutes. Got off the plane, had to stand there and wait on my gate checked bag forever, and finally got on the train to terminal E. I knew I was cutting it close on time, but I HAD TO pee! I stopped to go and heard them announcing final call for my flight to Nicaragua!! I literally stopped peeing mid stram and ran out...didn't even wash my hands!  I tried to run to the gate, but its near impossible to run with a huge back pack on that weighs half as much as you! NO ONE was at the gate as I handed them my boarding pass.  I walked on to a plane full of people already sitting down - waiting.  Man, that always makes me feel bad!! But it turned out there were 8 more people they were waiting on coming from a connecting flight from New Orleans...so I wasn't the only reason they were waiting! It was actually a medical missions team we were waiting on! They all had these badge things around there neck that said "NOMMT" and there t-shirts said New Orleans Medical Missions Team - I was glad we waited for them. :)

We took off a little late for a 2 hour, 40 minute flight to Managua, Nicaragua! Continental has nice big planes, plenty of leg room and tv's in the back of every seat! They even had an outlet to plug things in and charge them - which was fantastic since I forgot to charge the little phone I borrowed from a friend...whick I'm hoping to buy a SIM card and prepaid minutes for in Nicaragua so I can let my mom know I'm still alive! AND they gave us one of the best breakfasts I've had on an airplane: some sort of cinnamon muffin (which was nothing compared to my moms, but it was okay), a box of raisins, and an egg and cheese omelet folded up in a pita! It looked a little questionable, but it really was pretty good - and only 230 calories (I thought it was going to be way worse than that!)

There were two guys in front of me on the plane - well, technically, one of them was in my spot when I boarded and asked me to switch seats with him so he could sit by his friend (he was in the row behind) - turns out they were going to Leon too, to do 6 heart surgeries!! One was the cardiologist and one was some world-reknown heart surgeon I guess (that's what his friend said about him).  They were from Cincinnati and I already forgot their names! They were super nice and had a whole slew of people with the - nurses, anesthesiologists, etc. I think 80% of that plane was full of Americans going down to help Nicaraguans (the poorest country in Central America)...I thought that was pretty cool! :) So anyways, we landed in Nicaragua around 11:30am...what a morning! (Leave KC at 6:20 and arrive in Central America 6 hours later).

Managua's airport was just another crappy little airport. I finally met my people outside the gate.  They are: a 31 year old pastorof the church they all go to (Frank), his 20 year old brother in law (Nathan), the youth director from the church (Cindy - 40's), and another married couple from the church (Nick and Alicia, 40's). They're all from a small town outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and they're all VERY nice southern Baptists. The pastor came down here and did this same thing last year with Living Water International (LWI).  After some small talk, we made it through immigration and customs easily (I've totally got all that down now). 

We met Douglas, who works for LWI, just outside the airport - and it was HOT and MUGGY there. VERY hot.  Douglas made a quick phone call, and Angel drove up in a white LWI van. We threw our luggage on the racks on top and took off through Managua.

Its a pretty sad and poor city... Worse than Guatemala, but not as bad as the favelas in Rio. Pretty bad though, still.  It still just amazes me...every place I go to like this...Vietnam or Cairo...you'd think I'd be used to it by now, but I don't think you can ever get used to seeing dirty, sad little kids sitting in dirt on the side of the road. :( Lots of horse drawn carriage kind of things...  Any time you stop on the road, kids rush up to your car, doing anything they can to get some money from you.  Angel and Douglas told us not to open our windows. If I would've had any Nicaraguan money, I probably would've done it anyways :) They were SO cute! They tried to sell things, beg, and even jump up on the hood of the car to wash your windshied!! I mean how do you say no to that?!

We drove through Managua for about 30 minutes, and then stopped at Area de Juegos, or Tip Top - a little chicken restaurant. It was a very nice fast food restaurant for Nicaraguan standards.  I had some chicken nuggets with sweet and sour sauce and french fries...really branching out here! ;)  In my defense, there wasn't really anything else "Nicaraguan" to eat. It was decent food though...nothing special.  After lunch, we drove another 2 hours or so to Leon.

 Leon is even worse than Managua I think...but I figured it was going to be...  It's actually pretty big, like 200,000 people I think! Dirt roads and little shacks for houses - for the most part anyways.  Maybe we just saw the not-so-nice part.  LOTS of bikes - bicycles and motorbikes. We drove all the way through town and pulled up to a gated compound...I mean with like 15 feet tall cement walls all the way around it and a security guard with a gun on duty  24 hours! We're on the edge of town, away from all the loud hustle and bustle, but the guy who lives here with his family (Jorge, his wife Carla, and their 3 little boys) said there is so much traffic in and out of here, it draws attention and they just have the security guard to be safe. Well, I certainly feel very safe! :) The place - house, compound, whatever you want to call it - is amazing!! SO not what I was expecting! And Jorge and his wife and their two helpers (cooks mainly, I guess) are the sweetest!! Oh and they have a super cool little dog, Diva - who of course I had to love up as soon as we got there! :) There are multiple bedrooms, upstairs and downstairs, with multiple beds and bathrooms, and a small AIR CONDITIONER that we get to run at night in the bedroom. There is a big balcony with hammocks and chairs, a basketball goal, another little deck area...its just such a neat set-up!!

We all hung out and talked for awhile - got to know Jorge and he told us what the plan was for the week... He informed us that there is no malaria here - which made me feel a lot better because ALL of the other people in my group have been and still are taking malaria pills. SEE mom, I told you it was fine!! He did, however, say they have dengue fever here, which my friend, Laura, just happens to be studying, and he said they call it "broken bone" fever because it feels like you broke every bone in your body when you have it! Ugghh! And there isn't a pill to protect you from that yet!  He also told us he and his family drink the water and they haven't died yet... I'll definitely brush my teeth with it, and would drink it if I was desperate, but other than that, I think I'll stick with the big purified water jug they have for us - I don't need a repeat of my Thailand experience!

Anyways, we had dinner at 6. Taco salad kind of with some amazing juice - mellon and mango maybe?? It was all REALLY good! We talked some more about the schedule for the week and watched the lightning and listened to the geckos crawling all over...  I think we're all gonna retire for the night - after showers. :)

 Just got the ac working and the fan on...so it's bearable really.  I've got a bed and a decent pillow...this is not what I'm used to when I travel! We have breakfast at 8am tomorrow, then Sunday school and church in the village where will be digging the well.  Its a village of roughly 300 people about 30 minutes away from here. I'm really excited to meet the people of the community! They know we're coming (LWI actually built a well there last week too) and apparently they're excited to meet us too!!  That's all for today, more to come tomorrow! :)