Hola,
I arrived safely last night after a long 18 or so hours of traveling. After leaving the airport, a guy from the language school was supposed to be there with a sign with my name. Well, when I went outside, there was no guy and about 5 taxi drivers bombarded me speaking crazy fast spanish and trying to get me into their taxi and trying to take my luggage cart. Thankfully, there were luggage carts so I didnt have to carry it all around. Anyways, they were all trying to get me to get in their taxi and I was on Dramamine which makes me very groggy and I couldn´t think of any spanish at that moment, for whatever reason. I just froze. Finally, I was able to blurt out that someone was coming for me and they brought me inside and kept asking for a propina (a tip). Well I only had 20s on me and there was no way I was giving them one of those, so I just kept saying that I didn´t have any money and they eventually went away. After a panicked 30 minutes of freaking out and wondering what the hell to do, my driver showed up, THANK GOD. We loaded up my stuff, along with another taxi driver who asked for another propina, which I said no to and we were off.
One of the first things the driver says to me is, ¨es muy peligrosa manejar en la noche¨ (its really dangerous to drive at night). Fantastic! I thought, what was I supposed to do with that? So we were driving through Managua and the poverty there astounded me. It is like nothing I have ever seen. I knew it would be bad, but I was very shocked. Oh, by the way, its HOT here, unbelievebaly, crazily, hot. I walked out of the airport and it was like a wall of heat and humidity. It is only in the 90s but with the humidity rate it feels like 110 or hotter. I am just dripping with sweat. Anyhow, I was in a fleece, yoga pants, shoes and socks when I arrived, so needless to say the drive was very warm. On the way to my homestay family we nearly missed hitting multiple dogs, people walking, people on bikes and 4 people on one motorcycle. It was pretty crazy. There are no light on the highway, and they apparently dont believe in lanes either. But, I arrived safely.
My host mothers sister is the one that was at the house when I arrived, my host mother was in Managua due to a large accident of some sort, but I couldn´t understand what kind. She was very nice though. They have a perro (dog) named Fiona who is very nice so that makes me happy. The house is like a large square horseshoe made out of cinder blocks. The middle is open to the sky and has grass, plants etc... I was showed my room which is nice, has a bed, desk, FAN! (the only in the house) and little table. The bed is the creakiest bed I have ever slept on and I toss and turn constantly throughout the night so I am sure I made a shit ton of noise throughout the night. The bathroom is an experience. They have a toilet behind walls and then there is this huge basin like structure full of water for brushing your teeth, hand washing, laundry etc... Their shower is enclosed in a large cement room closet thing with no ceiling. The shower is a pipe that shoots water. Apparently, the water does often not work and when that is the case I was directed to a large blue barrell where water is stored. Not sure how that is going to work....But anyhow, this morning I got the shower to work. Washing my face and brushing my teeth last night was an experience though. I wasn´t sure how it was supposed to work and didn´t want to look like an idiot. I managed though. I can tell the bathroom situation will be one of the biggest adjustments for me!
I went to bed around 10 because I was utterly exhausted having slept less than an hour the night before and 2-3 hours on the plane. By the way, first class wasn´t all that great. Way nicer on Virgin! And they didn´t have any vegetarian options, boo! So I ate salad and cheesecake. The seats were at least comfy!
Today I woke up and had to deal with the awkwardness of adjusting to living with total strangers. I finally met my host mom and she is nice, her name is Raquel. She is a lawyer but is currently not working. Her 5 year old sun and 17 year old niece live with her. There are 3 (?) bedrooms aside from my own, a living room that faces the courtyard area, a kitchen and dining room. They have a computer but it looks like it is from 1995 or so, I don´t know if it works, a towel is covering it. I had rice, beans and a tortilla for breakfast. Then my hostmom also made m fresh squeezed lemonade which was deliciosa!
I ventured out to try and find a phone card. I was told you cant use phone cards for pay phones. Fantastic. You can only use a cell phone. I don´t know what I am going to do about that one. I called my Mom to tell her that I am alive and the connection was really bad. Before using the phone, I wandered around for about an hour looking for a bank to get cordobas (Nicaraguan currency). Once I did, I went back to the internet cafe I had first found that didn´t take US mnoey or credit cards, and was told me 200 cordoba bill was too big. What the hell? It was the second lowest option at the ATM! It turns out 200 cordobas=$10 USD. So I called my mom and was told to use the internet for an hour or she couldn´t break my bill. The hour of internet will cost 15 cordobas, so very cheap.
My spanish is pretty good, my comprehension is suprsingly better then I thought. I have already had a conversation with my host mom about abortion being illegal in this country and all of the deaths that have resulted from it. I was very proud of the conversation, being able to understand her and being understood! She thinks what I will be doing in SJDS is a really good thing.
So, I think that is about it for now. I hope I can find my way back. I am on the street I live in, I just cant remember which door is mine...they all look the same! And I forgot to ask what number it was...woops! I guess I will just have to try the ones that look like it (there are about 10 potential ones) and hope I don´t become the crazy white girl on the block that tries to break in to other people´s houses. Wish me luck!
It is hot......I cant wait to get to the SJDS where it will be much cooler with the ocean! I will take pictures of my house soon and probably upload them next week at the language school where they have wireless internet.
Adios for now!
Kimberly
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