Nicaragua 2014: Day 1

Saturday/ Sunday/Monday Morning

Last week we packed 10 bags to bring down to Nicaragua and Belze- over 400 pounds of soccer gear! The amount of gear donated was incredible. Almost 20 volunteers showed up to help pack and immediately got to work. We had all 10 bags packed, inventoried, and stored for the trip within 3 hours! 

Go Eagles!

1 week later and I was on the flight to Nicaragua! Usually, when flying down to Nicaragua I fly American Airlines. This time, however, I ended up on Spirit Air. I was already worried because I have heard of others having negative

experiences flying to or from Central America on Spirit. Despite being delayed, I ended up running into an old high school friend, Go Eagles! Annnd, despite the duck-tape holding the seats together on the second flight, I landed in Nicaragua safely! Needless to say, that will probably be the last trip on Spirit Air for me.

I landed in Nicaragua at 3:30am and as soon as I stepped off the plane I could smell Nicaragua and a happy feeling came over me, like the smell of "home". Not a negative or positive smell, just different front he US. With 4 enormous gear bags in tow, I had to get through customs all by my lonesome. Usually, this quantity of luggage would raise a red flag for security, potentially launching into a lot of questioning. However, my friend Helen's cousin, works at airport security on the luggage ex-ray machine and so I came through without any problems! 

Tonny and Enmanuel

Mike and Luis picked me up at the airport. I was so happy to see them and this was only the beginning of all the happy and exciting greetings of with beloved friends here. Poor guys, had to wake up in the middle of the night to get me. I stayed at Mike's house Saturday night and then we woke up Sunday morning, ate breakfast, and picked up some groceries for the week of camp! Sergio, Helen's brother, picked us up back at Mike's house with a big hug and a new haircut! We headed over to the Central church in Managua. 80 youth from all over the country met us at the church at 12:00. Some had even had to leave at 4am from their communities to get there by bus on time! Here I saw Enmanuel, our friend that stayed in Maryland for 6 weeks this past summer, Tonny, who stayed for 4 weeks the previous summer. Kevin, Alexander (Luis's brother), Helen, Solliette, Rabin, Esvin, and several of the campers from last year! (I will introduce all of my friends later)

From here we left for the youth camp in Rivas, Nicaragua- about 2 hours south of the capital city, Managua. Sergio, Solliette, Mike and I  were in the truck with the gear in the back of the pick-up, the youth were in a big yellow school bus, and all of their luggage and a few more youth were in a big truck. So our caravan of pick-up truck, bus, and school bus drove through 2 hours though Nicaragua countryside- fields of farm animals, crops, mountains, and volcanoes. 

Upon arriving here, Mike and I unpacked all of the gear, laid it out and everyone who wanted to participate in the soccer program signed up. We ended up with 32 girls and and 32 boys! Which makes 6 teams of 5 or 6 players each! Last year we only had 4 girls teams, so its very exciting to see more girls step up and be interested in the program! 

Enmanuel, Tonny, and Alex were responsible for assembling the teams making sure that people were not put on the same team as someone from their hometown community. Also, to make sure the teams are fair and balanced. This way, everyone makes new friends when they would otherwise spend the camp with their hometown friends and stay in their comfort zone! Last year was the first year we decided to mix up the teams and at first the players were very bummed out and skeptical but everyone ended up having a great time playing with new players and against their friends. It was a big hit! While we were making the teams, the mosquitos came out. When I asked them if they would like bug spray, they said, this is "normal"! 

Last year, LTRC Baseball donated 700 jerseys which were also very good for soccer and they were a big hit last year. This year we had a lot of LTRC soccer and SAC soccer jerseys and a lot of variety in brand: adidas, diadora, etc. This was also a very big hit with all of the players! We called each player up on each team individually and presented the team with their jerseys in front of the entire camp. Everyone cheered for each other when their teams were up! It was fun to see the camaraderie and to see the players get excited over which team they would be on! 

After a delicious beans and rice dinner (and a cucumber I brought from the supermarket), Sergio gave the rules of the camp- no going in other peoples rooms, no romantic relationships, in bed at 10pm, breakfast at 7am, and NO cell phones! 

Finally, it was bed time and boy did I need a shower. The rooms here are awesome. Everything is clean and white tile and I have my own room and bathroom! When I was getting ready to get in the shower last night I saw a HUGE spider. I don't know what spiders are dangerous in Nicaragua! All I know is that this was a spider and it was BIG. So I ran into the hallway and got my friend Kevin to come in and get rid of it. He pretended to kill the spider and turn around and scare me but what he did not realize was that the spider started chasing him when he turned around to scare me! Luckily he crushed it with his shoe in time! Very funny. 

Nothing like following up an awesome shower with a shower of bug spray. Last year I literally had hundreds of mosquito bites all over my legs, ankles and feet after one tortuous night with the bugs- it was worse than the chicken pox. (and the mosquitos only come out at night!) Not likely to make that mistake again. Luckily, OFF! now has the "clean" spray that is not sticky at all. So I slept like a baby. Well, until the roosters started going off at 4am! I was ready for those roosters with a pair of headphones next to me! 

This morning all of the campers are participating in a "spiritual retreat" where they spend half of the morning in bible study and the other half of the morning with the bishop doing an exercise. This is my perfect chance to work on the blog and set up the soccer field for the afternoon tournament! Enmanuel wrote the game schedule and all of the team names on a huge white board and we are ready to go! 

Thanks for tuning into the blog! I hope you enjoy the stories throughout the week and continue to follow! 5 days more in Nicaragua and then off to Belize where I will meet a team of 6 volunteers that includes my 2 brothers and best friend! 

Wish me luck this afternoon! The referee is also in the hot seat, especially here in Nicaragua! I'm still hearing about calls from last year that they disagree with!