Friday, June 11, 2010

Day 1

So I made it to the airport on time last night (thanks in part to my dad taking me through the Platinum Medallion line at Delta, which was wicked fast and easy). After about an hour delay from storms over Atlanta, we took off and landed in Managua about a half hour later than scheduled. Much to my dismay, my bag never showed up at baggage claim. I saw Hemby and Jan (the two Manna PDs who picked me up at the airport) waiting for me on the other side of a glass wall, and managed to make ridiculous gestures and let them know what happened. I realized that I was going to have to go to lost baggage and try to figure this out, which normally I'd be fine with if I spoke the language. At that moment my three years of Latin and two years of French didn't do me any good; I was officially the stupid tourist who only speaks English. I lucked out at the counter and got a woman who spoke decent English, and was very understanding (as I constantly apologized for next speaking Spanish and made ridiculously irrelevant comments about how I can speak a second language in order to prove that I wasn't an ignorant gringo). When she asked for my address in Managua, I had to go back to where Hemby was waiting and write on a piece of paper (using a pen that I asked for in a broken Franco-Spanglish hybrid) to ask him. We communicated by writing on paper and holding it up to the glass until I had everything, at which point I went back to the desk and finished up the paperwork. Hemby and Jan drove me back to the Manna House; it's good to be back here. I really am looking forward to this next month down here. I watched an episode of West Wing with Jan and Kelly, read my book for a bit, and hit the sack around 12:30.

This morning I woke up (rather violently, thanks to Ian, one of the PDs down here) around 8:30. We sat around with a little breakfast and then headed down to 13.5 (a place named for the kilometer marker closest to it, where our friend Karen lives) to watch the World Cup opener of South Africa and Mexico. They drew 1-1, which is pretty respectable considering the matchup. Well done, Boks.

For now I'm just relaxing; eventually here we're going to go on some airport runs and pick up the other volunteers for my session and hopefully get my bag sorted out. Tomorrow morning we're going to Leòn to go volcanoboarding and then hit the town at night!

1 comment:

  1. I love how this entire airport situation played out as a movie in my head complete with Hemby laughing and your frustrated hand movements and facial expressions :)

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