Hola from Nicaragua!
Its official Penn State Women´s soccer has invaded Central America!
Zoey, Kay Dwyer and I arrived on Saturday night to an extremely crowded
Managua airport. Thankfully all 4 of our bags filled with soccer gear that
we checked arrived safely. Over the past several months the 4 of us have
been tapping into our soccer resources and collecting old or unused soccer
gear (cleats, balls etc) to bring down here to Granada for the Soccer
Without Borders Girls camp. We were pretty successful in our efforts, we
filled four HUGE soccer bags to the brim. Its amazing how many old pairs of
cleats I had just laying around my room and in my locker, and what is even
more amazing is the face on the girls when they get them.
Anyways, we were greeted at the airport on Saturday night by 3 girls who
play at Dartmouth and have been down here in Granada since Janruary working
with the local girls by conducting practices and creating an office for the
organization. Two other volunteers for the week also arrived on Saturday
night so we all piled into a black van, and made the 45 minute trip from the
airport in Managua to Granada. When we first got into town we went straight
to the Soccer Without Borders (more commonly referred to down here as:
Futbol Sin Fronteras) where we were greeted by Ann and Mary. We were
all so excited for the week to come and had no idea what to expect.
After greetings and introductions at the office we took all our luggage and
went to meet our host family who so graciously opened their house to the four
of us for the week. We could not be more lucky with the host family we were
given. They are the kindest people and so much fun. They have four kids in
the house, Marino is 14 and we just found out the we have the same birthday
which is pretty cool, then Alexa who is 11 I think and she is so smart, she
speaks pretty good English and has been helping me learn more Spanish all
week. The two youngest kids Larissa and Beding are so cute and full of
energy all the time. The mother is the best cook ever is constantly
preparing authentic Nicaraguan meals for us. Speaking of food Nicargua has
the BEST FRUIT I have ever tasted in my life, so far a day has not passed
when I haven't bought fresh sliced mangos, bananas, papayas and pineapples
from the street. They also have these wonderful drinks called "frescos" they
are fresh squeezed fruit juices served in a bag with a straw (yes a bag) and
they an EXCELLENT job quenching thirst in the warm temperatures down here.
The weather down here is rather different than Happy Valley. Everyday the
temperature tends to stay around fiercely sunny 90ish degrees and then drops
to an amazing 70ish at night. The past two nights there has been a full moon
which is absolutely beautiful to look at. My skin has definitely had a rude
awakening to the sun, I have thus resorted to using Dwyer´s 70spf sunscreen
multiple times a day.
There are a million other things I could talk about however I want to leave
some things for the others to talk about! I am having an amazing time
here, and making some memories I will cherish for a life time. I love the
people and the culture and am so thankful I have had this opportunity!
Enough blabbing for me and time for a fresca naranja (fresh squeezed orange
juice)!!
Hasta Luego!
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