Yesterday, the journey began. We took the 3:30am shuttle from our hotel to the airport, exchanged bins of supplies with one of our classmates (because we had mistakenly given them the wrong one), and made it to the gate with plenty of time. We flew into Nicaragua with few complications. Like last year, at the airport, we were met by a hundred or so people pressing their noses up against a long glass window, looking into the baggage claim for their loved ones. This time though, we quickly found someone holding up a sign that said FIMRC, and we were off. (The journey didn’t go quite so smoothly for one of our classmates, who upon trying to check in, was told that his passport expired 5 1/2 months after his scheduled return. Who cares, right? Well, apparently the government. He wasn’t allowed to board the plane because he has to have at least 6 months wiggle room, apparently.) We drove from Managua (where the airport is) to Granada, arguably the oldest city in Central America, for the night with the FIMRC site coordinator, Greg. We explored the city for a bit and took a nice horse-drawn carriage ride. Got some decent food at a Thai restaurant and then went out for ice cream. I had a delicious Sundae Tropical which consisted of amazing orange and pineapple ice creams (that were almost sherbet-like) with some strawberry sauce and whipped cream. Mmmmm...
Neil at Lake Managua 
Alisha, enjoying her and Libby's Granada hotel room 
Our dusk carriage ride 
Walking in the city 
In GranadaToday began with breakfast. Alisha and Libby explored the city and came back to report the results of their scouting mission: apparently, conveniently, almost suspiciously, the ONLY restaurant open was called the Chocolate Café, and almost every item on the menu had some sort of chocolate with it. Hmm... I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.
Anyway, we went there, and surprisingly enough, Libby ordered fruit and granola (or as they called it, “Healthy Person”). I ordered the Chocolate Fever. We ended up trading, though, when one of the fruits included was banana (Libby’s favorite allergen).
The drive to our clinic site took a couple hours. It’s basically in the middle of nowhere. The clinic looks pretty nice. We just drove by, and haven’t seen inside yet. Our accommodations are nice. We’re at the Surf Sanctuary (www.surfsanctuary.com), which is owned by some American ex-pats. We have one big room for the four of us, and apparently the Surf Sanctuary people are providing two of our meals per day.
We arrived around lunch time, but they weren’t prepared to feed us, so we walked to the beach. A nice little stroll 5 minutes down the road, passing some wild horses on the way, and we were at a beautiful beach on the Pacific. Life’s tough.
We went to a restaurant at a resort on the beach (www.ranchosantana.com). Pretty good food. The highlight was probably fresh calala juice (passion fruit). So far, no guanabana, but I’m definitely still holding out hope. And we’re told that the mangoes are not quite ripe. Hopefully that changes before we leave.
Now, we’re back at the hotel (Surf Sanctuary), and as I went out to sit on the hammock chair on the porch to write this, I was greeted by not one, but five of our new closest horse friends. So far, they haven’t bothered me, and I haven’t bothered them. (One mean horse, just kicked one of the not-so-mean horses, though. I’m not sure how well they get along.)
We don’t have internet at the hotel, but apparently the resort on the beach does, so if I posted this, it means we’ve made it there successfully.
That’s all for now. We’re going to plan our first aid teaching strategy, since that’s apparently what will be taking up most of our time over the next four weeks.
(Addendum, Feb 4 - The Resort’s Internet is down, so we only have access to the web when we’re at the clinic two or three days a week.... and we’re supposed to be working during that time...)
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