Back to reality

Matagalpa was so much fun, but yesterday was time to return to reality. The other half of our group met up with us in Matagalpa and we had a time for reflection on the week, including sharing most challenging moments and funniest moments. It was a good time to hear stories from everyone, especially those from the Jinotega group. We then went out to lunch before coming back. The ride to Managua was about 2 ½ hours, but we were in our Peace Corps microbus, so it wasn’t too bad. Then, we had to take a bus back to San Juan. This was the worst part. The ride to Managua on Sunday had been pretty bad (waiting forever for a bus, they were all full, having to ride to Masaya and switch buses, etc.) so we weren’t looking forward to getting on the bus again. We found a bus in the terminal that would take us right to San Juan, so we got on there, and fortunately there were seats. Well, this just meant that we had to wait until the bus filled up of course. After waiting for awhile, we pulled out of the terminal, but picked up several people on the way.


Kellie and I were squished against each other on a seat with people pressing against me because I had the aisle part of the seat, and Jess was across the aisle from us sharing a seat with a lady and her crying child, but we couldn’t see her because the aisle was crammed pack with people. We finally made it home after an hour and I had never been so happy to get off a bus.

I arrived home and was welcomed by my family. I was unpacking my stuff and found out we had water!! I was so hot from lugging my stuff around and traveling all day, so a cold shower felt nice. Then, since we had water, I was able to use the washing machine which was awesome! After eating dinner, I unpacked the rest of my stuff and relaxed because I was so exhausted.

I’m really excited for this week because we get to find out our site assignments on Friday! Then, the next week we’ll get to meet our new counterparts, visit our sites and meet our new family :) But, we do have a lot of work to do in between…back to the reality of work and class.