Nicaragua

Managua... our first venture into something quite a bit different. We had a quick flight straight from Miami to Managua. A taxi driver accosted us as we exited the terminal and once he worked out where we were going, quoted us US$20 for the trip, about what we expected... except that he already had 2 other customers in the cab :-) Made for a slightly fuller car, but all was well.

Managua's set inland on a large lake surrounded by lots of volcanic mountains. It's really hazy, I'm not sure if it's pollution or smoke or both, although we could smell smoke in the air when we arrived. We saw lots of little ramshackle building on our way from the airport to our hotel, and not much in the way of infrastructure. Indicators seem to be optional, and lanes on the road (when they're painted) are more of a guide that actually important :-P Horns are used when you're cutting in on someone, or overtaking in a narrow two way street. It's dusty, poor, hot and busy.

I read a few travel blogs on the internet talking about Managua which generally spend as little time here as possible, or that it's not the most exciting place to visit as a tourist. That said, we're here to experience the real culture and visit one of our Compassion sponsor kids, Sandy (on Monday) which we're pretty excited about.

Our hotel is kinda a cross between a hostel and a caravan park; lots of single story bungalows surrounded by rain-forest. We've had some communication issues (there's far less English spoken here than in Mexico), such as the restaurant that was advertised as being open until 10:30 at night not really being a restaurant at all. There are a whole stack of people staying here from a college in Virgina who are visiting an orphanage all week, so the restaurant is being run more like a camp kitchen, which is fine, except when we arrive and there's *no one* else there! No menus, no self service, no guest kitchen (which was also advertised), so for the first night we ducked down to the supermarket 500m down the road and bought a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter :-) It's been better since then, although each meal seems like a bit of a battle!

Today we asked if we could tag along with the group from the US to go to church. They were more than happy, so we caught the hired bus with them to the little orphanage. The church service was great, (albeit in Spanish except for the sermon which was translated), it was exciting to spend time being a part of another group of Christians. A little surreal when as background music at one point was a midi sort of version of A Whole New World from Aladin... bizarre! After the service we stayed for lunch (hotdogs :-P) and then a few hours hanging out with the kids. They're the most cute kids, so many smiles. It's beautiful to seem them without inhibition attaching themselves to all the US crowd (who they met the day before), they just revel in the attention. They had some board games - Twister transcends language and culture... one of the US students was trying to find the word to explain what it was, but as soon as she pulled it out of the bag some kid said "ah, Twister!" - and I played 6 a side soccer with some of the bigger boys (they're too good!). The girls enjoyed nail painting and beading, such simple things keeping them happy, it was a joy to see.

Here are some photos, as usual there are more on Nik's Facebook.

Our unit is the left half of this building

This is actually in the middle of the city, it's a big water reservoir.

Church service

Chalk sticks were simple pleasures

One of the US students with orphan attached

Our departure was delayed by an hour, so we all got off the bus, but half the kids were content just play on it :-)