March 10, 2012

This is Alex. Yesterday we arrived in Managua around noon. When we walked out of the airport the students from La Nicaraguita were all waiting for us with paper flowers they had made and a big sign welcoming us. Right away they were asking us questions and giving us hugs and kisses. We piled onto the bus and went to the school. After we ate and had some time to talk to the students, we got to go home with our families. Even though we were all exhausted from our early start the day before, we tried our hardest to stay up and talk with our families. My family espescially liked my pictures of the snow in Pennyslvania and they were extremely welcoming, constantly telling me "My home is your home."
Today, we all arrived at Raphaelas around 8. We all shared stories from our nights as we ate. My family woke me up at 6:30 singing Happy Birthday! After our breakfast, we took a bus to Tiscapa park in the middle Managau. The park was the presidential palace years ago but it was destroyed in an earthquake. At the park we all got icecream and took photos of the lake in Managua. You could see all of managua from the park and it was extremely beautiful. Once we spotted there was a zip line, we made our job to convince Cheri to let us go. As the pictures reveal, we suceeded. While the first time was scary, after that it was just fun. Some of us were more brave than others and went alone, but we all had a great time. Around one, we returned to our barrio and had lunch. Then there was a celebration for the 25th anniversary of La Nicaraguita. The little kids chanted and did little dances while the older kids did salsa and other more difficult dances. Excenia sang while Julie played the guitar and Jess, Zoe, Jackie, and I all did a step dance. Afterwards, some of the girls wanted to learn our dance and they tried their best to teach us salsa. Finally we returned to Raphaelas house for dinner and then to our host families houses for the night. It was a full day and were all exhausted but I think everyone had an incredible time. Everyone here is extremely nice and very welcoming. I think were all looking forward to meeting our classes on Monday and getting to know everyone better.