And so it begins

Well, after just about two weeks of Nicaraguan excursions, it seems almost impossible to know where to start, so I guess there is no better place than the beginning.

On January 6th a group of 15 Marietta College students and faculty arrived in Managua, Nicaragua fairly late in the evening. After what seemed like an early wake up the next day (it's been the latest that I've slept in since), we became oriented with the organization we would be working with - Bridges to Community. Bridges is an organization that works in a few different countries to assist communities with different sustainable projects, structuring their leadership systems, and finally building homes for members that absolutely need it - which is where we come in. The community of Eduardo Contreras, Ticuantepe has been working for about a year to prepare themselves for a Bridges group to come in and build homes for them. Our group, along with a group from William and Mary, came together and built three houses for three different families in five days. Upon our arrival, we were created at their community center with balloons and delicious juices, and the hospitality never ceased. Despite different language barriers for most of the students we were all able to develop excellent relationships with the community members that were a part of the building process with us. I impressed myself with my ability to communicate with the community more than I had anticipated and they were nothing less than wonderful. They accepted my grammatical errors with smiles and assisted me in becoming more and more comfortable with being more open and speaking Spanish as frequently as possible. We concluded our time with the community with a fun-filled celebration including lots of music, pinatas, and dancing.

We then traveled straight from Ticuantepe to Leon, a touristy city that allowed us to walk around and shop a lot. The next day was a day filled with adventure with activities such as climbing up a volcano and sledding back down it, swimming and zip lining. It was a great conclusion to an excellent trip. On the 15th we all woke up at 2 am and started to travel to the Managua airport where the rest of the Marietta group went back to begin their spring semester. Brett and I left them at about 5 am, and after an extremely (highlight, bold, and underline extremely) interesting day of traveling on buses, taxis, and ferrys arrived at the Hacienda Merida Hotel on the island of Omepete, Nicaragua at about 3 pm. We relaxed for the night and today plan on catching all our family up on our adventures so far and getting to learn a little bit more about the island.

So far we have been really lucky with all that has happened, but the difference between having adults plan a trip for you and being in charge of your own life has hit us pretty quickly - and we are by far the youngest people that we have seen so far hanging around. It should be an interesting few days hanging out here and the lack of plan has been exciting me far more than it has been stressing me out, which is a new and fun adjustment. As the clouds seem to be clearing away for the day, I'm excited to see where the sun will take us.