HOLA Day 5 in Nicaragua - Sweat Is the Word

Our group has been working hard with Casa-Nica in Masaya, Nicaragua. Some of us have been introduced to the shovel, pick axe, post-hole digger, and rake for the first time and others of us had to be to be reintroduced to these implements of work. We have worked at the National Nicaraguan Zoo building simple shelters for rescued birds, constructed a garden at a local school in Nicaragua, and other smaller projects that have required a type of work that most of our students are not familiar with - the kind of work that involves sweat. Using a pick axe is backbreaking work and HOLA students are now officially introduced to manual labor.

We have also continued to work on our Spanish skills with Fran, the Spanish teacher at Casa-Nica. We have tried a variety of Nicaraguan foods - including pupusas, fried yuca and plantain, pescado, and the fritanga foods of Nicaragua. Time for us to go eat, so I will try to catch up with the blogging later.

First Day at Casa-Nica

Airport sleeping and microwaved airplane hamburgers and hard tile floors are now a distant memory - maybe it didn't happen and it was only a dream Often travel feels like a dream and time flows differently than with our normal routines. But I am pretty sure it was no dream.

We are now waking up on Sunday morning in Masaya, Nicaragua in the Casa-Nica house. It is around 6:00 am and the town is quiet because it is Sunday - no horns, no fireworks, no bus engines - only the pigeons cooing, roosters cockadoodledoing, a few dogs barking, and few other birds chirping.

Yesterday, Josh Allsup toured the group around Masaya and we walked to the main market and everyone got a taste of the maze-like outdoor markets that are found all over the world. There is no Wal-Mart or Krogers here in Masaya. We discussed our upcoming week of service projects which start on Monday. The HOLA students will be working at the local zoo, assisting in planting a garden at a local school for special needs students, and helping Nicaraguan students learn English at another school in Masaya.

Today we are going to visit the Volcan de Masaya and do a little tourism. Our day starts at 8:00 am this morning and breakfast will be cereal, eggs, and toast.

Since dreams came up earlier here's a poem about our flight into El Salvador and its dream-like quality:

Landing in El Salvador
the upsidedown sky with
sporadic lights clustered on the ground
look like constellations below me
fallen from the sky
sinewy lines of lights
emerging from the dark ground
or maybe diamonds were dropped on the ground
and God bedazzled the whole world

Time to eat breakfast so we will catch you up this evening on HOLA's adventure.

Airport Sleeping 101 in San Salvador

Hey everybody,

After playing "Where's Azure" in the Intercontinental airport for two hours we finally got on the road, or should I say on the sky, with all five people in our HOLA travel group. We are glad Azure found us and made the flight. Thanks to HPD for helping us cut to the front of the TSA line so we could all make our flight. From Houston we flew to San Salvador for a 15 hour layover before arriving in Managua on Saturday. We slept in the airport Friday and the San Salvador airport was actually a nice place to try and sleep on a tile floor. Airport security was very helpful in finding us a location to pass the night away. Everybody had at least a little bit of fitfull sleep while shifting from side-to-side on the not so comfy tile bedding.

We made our flight to Managua on Saturday morning and we are all lookimg forward to an actual mattress when we fall asleep at Casa-Nica on Saturday night. We are all here at Casa-Nica and glad to be at our home for the next week. More later....

Nicaragua Chautaugua - Follow HOLA to Nicaragua

HOLA students will be arriving in Nicaragua on Saturday, May 21. We will be staying at Casa-Nica in Masaya with former HOLA teacher, Josh Allsup. HOLA students will be involved in a week of community service, Spanish instruction, and learning about the history and culture on Nicaragua. Join the students, Seth Omar, Azure Rosas, Josh Snow, and the teachers, Loucious Windom and Dan Zimmerman on their Nicaragua Chautaugua.

Go to Casa-Nica.com to learn more about Masaya and Casa-Nica.

Please follow our adventure!!!