head first

Its incredible that it has not even been a week since I’ve been here and I feel like so much has happened. After a nightmarish episode of catching 3 planes to get here, all of which I nearly missed, I arrived exhausted Tuesday morning to the Managua airport. A friend from work, Dennis, picked me up (without my luggage, which of course got lost amongst the craze of my transfers) and brought me to the house I am staying at. A lot of details of unfortunate events such as not having a room ready for me, or a bed, or clean clothes, so long story short I found a little sofa and passed out for the majority of the day. Aside from these preliminary complications, I adore the family I am staying with. The woman, Mirna, is a dentist along with her 23 year-old daughter Pamela and they work together in their own private clinic. The husband, Pablo, works with some security company and an avid reader (Schopenhauer over breakfast? Not my favorite way of starting the day). And then there is their son Pablito who’s 25 and does something, hasn’t really given me the time of day and seems too serious. Despite liking the family and the convenient location of being about a 15 min walk from the school I am working at, I am looking for a new place for next month. The room I have barely has a window, horrible light, tiny with plaster walls, and no air circulation.. not somewhere I can call home for a year. Plus I’ll need a place where all my friends and family can come stay with me!
The day after arriving, Wednesday, I went to my first day of work. Of course, a la Nicaraguan, I hadn’t hear anything from the woman who hired me regarding the where or when of the day, so I just showed up and hoped for the best. Upon arriving, the new teachers, a group of 6 of us, were given a tour of the school in which we saw our classrooms to-be. The rest of the day was dedicated to a meeting with all the teachers where we learned more about the school, the upcoming changes, and did introductory games. One of the women invited me to her house for lunch where I met her son who will hopefully be in my class. Then I found out my bags arrived so with a lot of difficulty of finding a ride, arriving after the airline’s pickup hours, running all over the airport, by some miracle I finally got my bags. By the time I got home I had to run to my first Junior Board meeting at APROQUEN. Basically I was feeling totally overwhelmed and on day one hit the “Oh Shit!” part of my trip when I seriously beginning to question why it was I had come back here given the fact that nothing in my trip had yet gone as I expected or hoped for. With that said, it was such a relief to arrive at the office and see familiar faces of friends/co-workers who were the one’s who inspired my return. The meeting itself was rather uneventful, my understanding is that we will just be planning a bunch of monthly social events to fundraise and spread awareness about APROQUEN. I suppose another avenue for meeting people and getting involved.
Thursday and Friday I spent at the school roaming around without too much direction/instruction. The classrooms are beautiful, the majority have an open garden in them. While mine doesn’t, it is huge with lots of wall space. So I got to work decorating with the materials left over from the previous teacher, working with the other first grade teacher to decorate the wall outside. She is also new so we are both on the same page of being in over our heads and just having to jump right in first. While at some level I feel like I have no idea what I am doing, it’s a friendly environment where I feel comfortable asking anyone for help or a question. The main part that will take some getting used to is being addressed as “Profesora Alana”.
By Friday night I was exhausted and conked out in order to wake up early and go with the parents to el Huembe, a huge and chaotic market place where you buy pretty much anything you need, from fans, pots, shoes, hair producats, piñatas, fruits and vegetable, freshly cut cow and other farmhouse goodies. Definitely an experience in and of itself, useful to where to get things for cheap, but totally overwhelming and an easy spot to get ripped off as a tourist. After that I went to a beginning Salsa class that a co-worker of mine was teaching at the dance study I spent all of my time at last trip. While the class was seeeeeeriously for beginners and a few unnamed people who cannot hear or hold a beat to save their life, it was great to be back in the familiar environment and see some friends. Afterwards my friend/surrogate mother (don’t worry mama! You’re not getting replaced!) la Dra. Ivete Icaza, her 13 year-old son Claudio who is the younger brother I always wanted, and her brother picked me up and we drove to Leon, a city about 1.5 hrs from Managua. It was one of the many days spent in honor of the Virgin Maria. The story is that there is a volcano near Leon that used to spew ash and sand over the city, which would destroy not only people’s health but also their houses and the city’s infrastructure. So one day (some time in the 40s) the city’s priest prayed to the virgin for her protection. Since then the volcano has not erupted..or so they say. So the 14th is a day of celebration in honor of the virgin. At 6pm there are fireworks that go off by the cathedral with someone ringing the bell and las Gigantonas dancing. The rest of the night is some version of Halloween with kids (and some adults including myself) going to different houses and asking “quien causa tanta alegria?” the people respond “la asuncion de la virgin maria!” “Que viva la virgin!” “Que viva!” and then you get candy! Or rice, or coffee or matches, etc.. For most people the night is spent sitting on their doorsteps chatting, watching the procession of people, or for people like us, scurrying inside when you hear someone has a knife… meh. I guess some teenager got really overprotective of his candy or something.
After that episode we wound ourway to a little discoteca where a band from the north coast was playing live music interspersed with some bachata and reggaeton, danced a couple hours, some Nicaraguan rum and then went to bed… since we brought a 13 yr old in with us who wasn’t quite used to the nightlife scene…whoops.
This morning we woke up and went to the beach where Ivete’s mom has a restaurant on the beach. Spend about 4 hrs hanging out, chatting, eating delicious sea food and then hit the road back to Managua…
So here I am and gonna start my first full week tomorrow with the students coming on Wednesday! Feeling pretty uprooted and missing home and family which I guess is normal, but since I don’t think ive gotten homesick since I was in middle school, it’s a bit weird… anyways, I know once I get up on my feet and get into the rhythm of things ill be fine…. Besos!!!!!! Please send updates this way!!