Today was quite possibly the simultaneously best and worst travel experience of my life. (Not exaggerating). I left the house at 3:30 AM to get to Boston for my flight to Atlanta- flight was fine. (Although the middle seat- I usually don’t mind it, but after an all-nighter, when you literally can’t keep your head up, the middle seat is a rough one to have!) But then my flight from Atlanta to Nicaragua was amazing!! I was able to check off an item from my bucket list- ‘have a deep conversation with a complete stranger’. The guy sitting next to me asked me why I was going to Nicaragua and so I told him that I was interning down here this summer, and then I returned the question and found out that he’s down here with a missions group. (if that’s not the right way to say that, my bad) Anyhow long story short, we ended up talking for probably about an hour on all kinds of things related to religion and missions and relationships with Christ. It was just so cool. (I never really talk to my seat partners at all- but this was way cool)
Unfortunately the following 3 hours were not so cool. I landed in Managua (which the airport is tiny, I wasn’t expecting that) and my worst travel nightmare came true. There was no one waiting for me. I panicked. So I first made rounds through the huge group of people with signs of names, but after about half an hour I was confident that there was no one there for me. The logical thing to do at this point would be to call one of your contacts- but oh snap, the person you were expecting to pick you up is the one lending you a phone for the summer. So maybe the next logical thing would be to e-mail one of the people in Nicaragua and find out what you’re supposed to do. I couldn’t find wifi in the airport. So then I start asking random people if they’ve heard of the hotel I’m staying in. No one- not a single person of about 5-8 random surveyed individuals had heard of it (because its like half an hour away from the airport…). At this point I’m sure there are much better alternatives in how to proceed than crying, but that’s what my mind and body decided to put their efforts into. A stranger tried to comfort me and started asking what the problem was, and God bless her soul, she listened to my whole broken-spanish story and then brought me to a cell phone kiosk. They let me make a call (which I paid for), and I found out that the person who was supposed to pick me up had car troubles but was driving and asked me to call him back in 10 minutes. The cell phone kiosk wouldn’t let me call back. (I don’t understand—I mean I paid for the call, so I’m not sure why they wouldn’t let me do it again) So I started asking where I could go to get wi-fi. I needed to contact people to find out if I was supposed to keep waiting at the airport, or if I should take a taxi to the hotel, or what. In the post office in the airport they had an “internet café”—aka 3 computers- and oh boy was I happy to see them. Long story short, Mary Simms basically saved the day for me by calling people at wake who called people in Nicaragua and figured it all out. So all I had to do was wait at the computer and talk to Mary.
A man named Daniel picked me up (he drives the other people from the Foundation I’m here with when they come down) and I just wanted to fling myself at him and give him a hug. Instead I wiped the tears of my face and said hello as he apologized over and over (even though it wasn’t his fault). Let me tell you about Daniel- he is amazing. He is fluent in English (and Spanish, in case that wasn’t assumed) because he went to college for teaching English as a second language (or this was part of his degree…I got a little confused because later he said that he went to college for Business Management, so idk…). He thought originally that I didn’t speak Spanish at all, and so when he found out I did, we instantly transitioned to this half and half Spanish to English to mixed language exchange. It was sooo cool. We talked the whole way to the hotel (which was probably a good 25 minutes). He gave me some information about Nicaragua and Managua and actually talked about how a ton of Nicaraguans immigrate to Spain—and then we went on a tangent about Spain. It was just really awesome.
I haven’t left the hotel since then (at 2:30) except for when I went across the street and bought a bottle of water. I took a 3 hour nap earlier, and am about to hit the sack now. Game plan= to sleep about 10 hours then wake up have a delightful Nicaraguan breakfast with coffee and then I’m meeting with people from the foundation who I think are going to guide me around the city and give me information about my internship day-to-day schedule.
I think my body and mind are seriously exhausted. But it’s pretty amazing that even when the worst happens, we manage to overcome. 9 hours ago I was crying in an airport feeling overcome with helplessness and fear of being somewhere so unfamiliar and not knowing what to do. And here I am now safely in my hotel room. And I’m counting my blessings for wonderful friends who will drop what they’re doing to call strangers for me to get me out of trouble, and also for Daniel- who I’m considering my first Nicaraguan friend. J
Goodnight!
<3 Rachel
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