Adventures – Page 17

Whatever is restful

January 27, 2014
Adventures
Life on the Field

Blog post 1/26/14 We finally made it to Nicaragua! Saturday was a long day of traveling, and was very tiring but we made it safe and sound! We had like a 2 1/2 or 3 hour drive from the airport to Chinandega, and we took this truck that we just sat in the back of the whole time! It was literally just the bed of a truck with benches on the side for us to sit on and then our bags were just on the floor in the middle. We were able to see the beautiful country of Nicaragua during this time! We went through the city, saw the big lake, the ocean, as well as the volcanoes and mountains. I...

Wood is Heavy

January 27, 2014
Adventures
Training Camp

We have arrived in Chinandega, Nicaragua but our journey didn’t start here. Training camp wasn’t what I was expecting. At all. I happened to learn a few things like… I DO in fact have an accent (apparently I say “y’all” a lot), you need to bring a LEFT and a right shoe (I just brought two right ones), and that Wood is Heavy. I’m assuming that you all know those things, and I’m also assuming that you know wood can get heavy. Not at first but if you keep carrying it for a while, it can. We did this exercise where...

Living All In

July 31, 2013
Adventures
Reflections

62: Days since I left Pittsburgh for training camp in Atlanta. 56: Days I spent with 18 of the most wonderful women I have ever met 50: Days spent in Nicaragua ??: Days still to come When I signed up to go to Nicaragua, I was running. Running from reality, from growing up, from the future (futile), and mostly from fear. My college graduation loomed large only a few weeks away, and I was spending entirely too much time wearing suits, shaking hands with other people also wearing suits and talking about where I saw myself. The trouble was I didn’t see myself anywhere. While...

You know you lived in Nica for 2 months when…

July 29, 2013
Adventures
Reflections

Our team made a fun list of what becomes normal after being in Nicaragua for two months. 1. You respond to "gringa" 2. You eat prunes for a snack 3. You frown upon putting toilet paper in the toilet 4. Going to get a coke means walking for 20 minutes 5. It's normal to clean the toilet and the sink with the same brush 6. You have in-depth discussions on which bug net color is the most affective 7. You have to decide whether to shower with yellow-jackets or tarantula's 8. You become immune to the smell of B.O. 9. You cry over burgers 10. It's shocking when there...

The Nicaraguan Corner of My Heart

July 25, 2013
Adventures
Reflections

My heart is heavy as I write my final blog post. Tonight is my last night in Nicaragua, as we leave at 3:00am for the Managua airport. Leaving CICRIN was a tough time for all of us today. It is hard not to weep when you have loved the kids and staff as your family. The little girls started the tears, and consequently we couldn't hold ours back. After we finished lunch they sang Cambiare mis Tristezas to us and prayed for us. They wanted our sadness to be turned to joy. With 19 girls and kids crying, I think we could've filled up a bathtub with our tears. Our bus ride down the...

A Battle Worth Fighting

Last week my team in Nicaragua split up again and my half went to the other side of Ometepe to a town called Balgüe. While I knew that Nicaragua was a developing nation, I don’t know if what that meant really registered until this past week. Pretty much every house has dirt floors and a tin roof, pigs stumble into soccer games, and…there’s no ATM. I know, right? But Balgüe is also a place where everyone knows each other and the community pulls together for the common good. The men in the town have been working to dig a trench to stop the houses from flooding,...

Author: Adventures