Hay Mas Tiempo Que Vida!

Today is the day we embark on our Nicaraguan adventure! I could not be more excited to be traveling to Central American for the first time. Now you may be thinking who is we. Well, I will be exploring Nicaragua with my Mom, Dad and sister, Meryl as well as the Richman family: Jim, Deena, Sarah, Louis, and of course Avi, who is a Peace Corps. volunteer living in Nicaragua.

So after about a two and a half hour flight my parents, Meryl and I arrived in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. We were greeted by Lester, who was wearing a Gator hat. (I guess a little something Avi gave him to make us feel at home). After packing our much too large suitcases into his much to small trunk and squeezing one suitcase under our feet we took a one hour drive to Granada, which is Avi's Peace Corps. site in Nicaragua. I must say the drive was a bit unnerving. It was filled with a mostly awkward silence, with random attempts to communicate, as Meryl and I attempted to use our very broken Spanish to talk to Lester (who spoke no English). Through the minimal light from the car we could see small broken down homes, people walking along the streets and every so often we had to swerve to avoid hitting a stray dog.

Eventually we arrived at La Casa Roja (the red house), and from the street through the steel gate I could see Jim and Louis sitting on the couches in the living room of our rented house. We walked in and were in aw! The house is so incredibly beautiful. It is Spanish-colonial inspired and massive. You walk in the front door into a large room with couches in the center facing a TV and a modern looking lamp hanging over. Then, you walk through a door way and directly in front is a pool table, to the right is a bedroom and as you walk to the left there is a beautiful courtyard with an open roof and plants all below it with a hammock hanging in front. As you walk further and turn the corner you walk down steps into the kitchen area, and further down is the indoor pool, which also has an open roof over it.

After exploring the house and the sheer aw settled, Avi poured us all drinks of rum and coke using Nicaragua's famous rum Flor de Cana. The rum was delicious, and he proposed a toast. He welcomed us to Nicaragua and told us we were now on Nica Hora (Nica time). That things were run differently in Nicaragua and the here saying is "Hay mas tiempo que vida" meaning "There is more time than life." We all laughed as us Americans were obviously uncomfortable with the idea of not running on a very tight and structured schedule, and the fact that there actually were no working clocks in the whole house. He continued by expressing his excitement for the trip and to have the opportunity to show all of us his life there. We then lit the last Hanukkah candle and continued to have some drinks and catch up before we all went to bed.

My first few hours in Nicaragua were filled with many different emotions; nervousness, excitement, discomfort, but then with surprising familiarity and a new sense of comfort as we reunited with our very close family friends and started what will hopefully be a trip of great fun and new experiences.