The title of this blog is no mistake… I know, it seems counterintuitive- let me tell you something- riding the bus in Managua can be quite the workout!! We leave for the bus at 6:30 in the morning. When we get on at about 6:40-6:45, there is standing room only- so you hold on to the overhead bar and brace yourself for the ride. Maybe you’re thinking it sounds like the subway- no big deal. But the subway doesn’t have potholes, speed bumps, sudden braking, and quick turns. I’m pretty sure this a full-body toning that goes on during the bus rides. That being said, I do enjoy my morning bus ride. It takes about 35-40 minutes, which is the perfect amount of time to do some thinking and reflecting before arriving at work. (The 6:30 AM part isn’t my favorite- it’s only been two days, but I have found that the bags under my eyes have bags—I didn’t really sleep my first night here—and that has taken a toll on my rested-ness. But after the 4-day weekend coming up, I think I’ll be back and ready for action!! (as in, ready for 6:30 AM action.)
Perhaps you are wondering how my first couple days with the new organization have gone. I’m not gonna lie- after day one I was overwhelmed and trying to calm myself by remembering that there only remained 19 work days with this organization, and that I could do anything for 19 days. My first day was spent reading a couple hundred pages worth of documents about the company, and meeting a lot of new people- and then asking a lot of new people to repeat things, and slow down etc. etc. It really is stressful to not understand what people are saying to you. So, I was awfully nervous about what day 2 would be like, that is the day I would meet the other students I would be working on this project with. Would you like to know my current favorite place in the entire world?- that would be Barcelona, Spain. Why, you ask? That would be for nurturing the God-sent, Cristina and Laura, my two partners for creating this business plan. Why do I love them, you ask? Let me tell you a story called these two girls are fluent in Spanish, catalan, French, and English, and prefer to use every opportunity possible to speak something other than Spanish or catalan. After initially meeting, we spent the entire day creating a business plan outline so we have some direction, and we did so in a nice mix of Spanglish and English (and even a little bit of catalan…which is a little bit of a doozy, cuz I don’t speak that language…and I sometimes have to think whether they’re speaking Spanish and I just don’t know what they’re saying, or whether they’re speaking catalan—it’s been the latter). But they are the nicest girls- and they are darn smart. They actually have a ton more business background than I do (part of their degree requires multiple internships and kind of like a co-op program where you are working for companies while in school). I love that they have so much experience, because it helps me to be able to really learn and grow, while also contributing. I’m hoping this English trend continues!!!
Tomorrow we are meeting with the Director of the organization; she is going to give us all the information we need and a time line for our time here- and then we’ll be going full-force ahead for the next 3 and a half weeks! But now it’s bed time!
Until next time,
Rachel
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