a wedding and the stupid Nicaraguan government

It's been a while since I've written! At the end of September I left for the States to go to the wedding of my friend Jessica. I left here on a Monday, and stayed in Managua overnight. My flight left early the next morning, and after a stop in Miami, I got to NYC's JFK airport about a half hour early. I met up with Meg, another bridesmaid who was flying in at the same time (but from Minnesota). It was a good thing we both had cell phones, because we arrived in different terminals, and then had to meet up. We found each other without too much problem, and got a cab to Penn Station. The Amtrack people were helpful and told us which ticket we needed to buy to get to Hudson, and they told us to watch the board to see which platform our train would leave from. So we watched... The train was scheduled to leave at 7:05, and by 6:45 it said "stand by". From watching other trains, we noticed that usually a platform number would show up a few minutes later. BUt at 7:00 ours still said stand by. A few minutes before, a train scheduled to leave at 7:00 finally got its platform number up and there was a mad rush of people, so we were ready. Sure enough, a few minutes later they finally got it up, and we followed the mad rush of people onto the train.

Once we got out from underground we discovered it had gotten dark, so unfortunately we got to see very little of the pretty autumn scenery. I think the lady working on the train could tell we didn't really know where we were going, because every time the train slowed down, we'd look out the window to see what station we were at. They would announce it too, but we decided it must be a requirement to work for Amtrack that you mumble, 'cause we could never understand what they said. BUt the lady came and told us when our stop was next, so we knew. Jessica and Fred were there to meet us, and they took us to dinner before taking us back to the hotel.

Wednesday we did a lot of prep work at Fred's house. We also went to a grocery store, which was probably the biggest culture shock for me. I think my friends didn't quite know what to do with me, because I was so excited about the variety of things. I stocked up on baking supplies, so I'm ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Two other bridesmaids and a groomsman arrived Wednesday night, so on Thursday we had more help. Thursday afternoon we went wine tasting because we all needed a bit of a break.

Friday started the busy days! Friday morning we (minus Jessica and Fred) went to finish setting up for the shower. Then the shower was from 12-2. After that we went over to the wedding site (the grounds of a Victorian mansion) for the rehearsal. Then we went to a Japanese place for the rehearsal dinner. That night I met up with my parents to get my dress (it fit hooray!). And then after that we had the bachelorette party.

Saturday was the wedding. The day started with getting our hair and nails done, and then we went and got something to eat. We went to a different hotel (right by the hair salon) to get ready, and then headed over to the wedding site. Everything went fairly smoothly, but we did have to make an emergency run to buy a cd player for the music. The wedding was really beautiful. The weather cooperated wonderfully (I wasn't even cold in the sun) and the ceremony was really nice. Afterwards we took pictures, and then decorated the car. The reception was on a boat in the Hudson river, which was really nice, even if it did get a little chilly. When we got back to shore we did a hurried switching of stuff from this car to that car, so that Jessica and Fred had all their stuff (and only their stuff) and the gifts got into Fred's parents car, and then headed back.

Sunday morning I left fairly early with my parents and Meg to head back to NYC. We dropped Meg at the airport, and then found our hotel. We took the subway into Manhattan and wandered around until it was time for our Broadway show. Oh! And we bought falafals for lunch from a stand, which I was super excited about. They don't have falafals in Nicaragua. Go figure. So anyway, that afternoon we saw Wicked, which was REALLY well done. It's not my new favorite musical (I think Aida still wins there) but it was really fun. And then we went to a nice Italian restaurant for desert. I think I had more different kinds of food in that week than I have had here almost all year... Mexican, US, Chinese (well, at the mall, if that counts...), Japanese, Mediterranean, Italian.... it was really nice! The food here isn't bad, it's just a little monotonous.

Monday we had to get to the airport fairly early, and I flew to Miami while my parents flew to Minneapolis. The flight to Miami was fine, but once I got there, they kept switching gates around, and then they canceled the flight altogether. The said they were going to put us on one at 6:30, but then that one filled up, so then they were putting us on one at 4:30 (on another airline) and then that one filled up, and so then they were putting us on the same flight, just a day later. I wasn't really very excited about sitting in the airport all afternoon, so when they told me things were full I said ok, just give me vouchers. I didn't really care about staying an extra day longer, I just didn't want to pay for anything. SO they gave me a hotel voucher and food vouchers and I had an extra day of vacation!

Tuesday the flight left on time, and I got back to Managua in time to catch the last express bus to San Jorge, so I made the last ferry and got all the way back to the volunteer house that night. I was tired, but I was glad to get all the way back at once! Wednesday I thought I would be able to work in aula de recurso, but we had a junta, so that didn't happen. Thursday I was able to work all day. Then Friday we were going to have another junta, but we missed the ferry, so we just had to write reports instead.

The reason for all the juntas and reports is the stupid Nicaraguan government. They have this new program, "Programa Amor", which basically aims to get all kids out of centers (like NPH) and off the streets. It sounds great at first, because they talk about how it's better for kids to grow up in a family and no one's going to argue with that. But it's not like these kids are in centers because they have great families. The government is right that a good number are in centers only because of poverty (not because of abuse or death of parents or anything). For them the government wants to help the families to be able to support themselves and their kids. Which sounds great, but do they really have the personnel to make sure that the money actually goes to feeding the kids and making sure they get an education? I doubt it. Also, a lot of kids are here because of problems with their homes, and it really doesn't make sense to send them back. And some kids simply don't have families. So anyway, the real issue is that the government has already started shutting down centers. NPH has a decent chance of surviving, because of all its international support, but it's not certain. I think the directors have a meeting with the government tomorrow. So we'll see what happens.

So this past weekend was mostly just a lot of studying, because they have exams again this week. So that'll be all this week, which'll cut down on aula de recurso time. Oh well, I'm getting used to it!

So that's what's up here in Nicaragua! Oh, and the weather is WAYYY nicer. It's so much cooler. It's also rainier, but that's ok. At least so far, that's not bothering me. I was just getting SO sick of the heat!!