Fast and Friendship

Day 1.

I was relieved to find no bugs/geckos in my bed this morning as I had spotted some scurrying around the walls the night before. Waking up from a not so restful sleep around 6:40 we (the girls room) slowly took our turns getting ready before the 7:00am breakfast, which was a wonderful surprise of pancakes, scrambled eggs and fresh fruit. Leaving for Centro de Fe, our always cheerful and hilarious driver Lester, picked us up and off we were to spend our first day at the school. Lets just say there's one word to describe the traffic in Nicaragua, Intense. No rules are followed with the speed limit, how close vehicles can be to each other, what lanes you can drive in and the insane way you will see motorcyclists weaving between larger vehicles or driving up on the curb to pass, just because they can. And that was at 8:00 in the morning. Besides being shocked by the vibrancy of the Nicaraguan culture and noticing the differences between our two countries, excitement filled the van as the realization of what the next 10 days would hold came to life. Turning that corner and seeing the brightly painted Centro De Fe sign made all my emotions finally sink in. Fear and anxiousness was replaced with wonder and amazement as the day moved forward and we were introduced to each grade. Being welcomed with big smiles and a blessing from every class the contagious joy spread throughout the team. Cultural dances, animal costumes and many other talented displays from the Nicaraguan students showed us how loved we truly are by our second family. As the younger students left for home we set up for lunch with the grade 11's and began the mix of struggling to communicate with one another but soon broke the barrier through abundant laughter. It was exciting to see how much the students wanted to engage with us and learn about our Canadian ways. Since we will be connecting with the older students the most over the next week it was a great start introducing ourselves and finding ways to spark relationships. After a very filling lunch both our team and our new friends loaded in a bus to explore a national park and play some games to hit everything off. Basketball, volleyball, soccer and some new introduced Nicaraguan games were played as we spent the afternoon enjoying each others company while also experiencing the anticipated heat. As we said goodbye to the students for the day, we were already anticipating the next time we would see them again. We came back to the Nehemiah Center and hung out in the hammocks (pun intended ;) ), ate, debriefed and cooled off for the night. I am so excited for tomorrow and all the new things I will experience!