Day 1:

  Arriving at the airport late, I tried my hardest to not show any emotion. I couldn’t believe that after working so hard for the last seven months the day finally came. Greeting and smiles, joy and happiness welcomed me. Despite this, I felt very anxious and stressed. I don’t know if it was because I was leaving my parents behind or just the fact that I was going to another country with people I met a few months ago. The sad part came around, eventually, we said our goodbyes. I kissed my mom and godmother and gave them the biggest hug ever, as if I may not see them again. After saying our final goodbyes, joining the team felt like real. We got along amazingly, it was the start of a great friendship. We enjoyed eachother’s company with a great game of UNO. As the clock was ticking, it was time for us to depart to Atlanta. This was it! The start of our trip has begun! Two hours and a half passed by they were the longest two hours and a half of my life to be honest with you. We arrive to Atlanta around four and of course the first thing we looked for was the food court! As we were done ordering and about to sit down, Karlie hustled her way to us, telling us to grab our things; our plane was ready to go! As we prepared to get on the plane I couldn’t believe I was merely hours away from being in Nicaragua. And, three hours away later we finally arrived! We met Lisa Marie and Javier our driver, at the airport. We slept at a Hotel in Managua due to the protest. People are protesting because the government decided to take money away from them and the people decided to stand up for themselves by protesting!

Day 2:

  The next morning we woke up and got ready to go to Rivas. It was a good two hour drive, we arrived at Hotel Hamacas, this beautiful yellow building. We placed all of our belongings in our rooms, got time to change and made our lunch. We headed to “La Escuela Especial San Maria” the school we are volunteering at throughout the trip. Lisa Marie gave us a tour and I immediately felt how hot it was. We each got assigned a classroom to clean. I got the physical therapy room. I had no idea where to begin. The classroom was huge, it was full of wheelchairs, had a bed and tables. I began taking out everything and started cleaning up top to bottom. Once we were done we took our lunch and had a conversation, touching on how crazy it is that students live this way. They’re in a room, Monday-Friday from 7am-12pm. We finished having lunch and Ana, Sophie and I cleaned a classroom together. It was a lot less dirty from the physical therapy room. It’s shocking to think that this is one of millions of other schools where children learn in these hot, filthy, old environments. We finished cleaning classrooms and we began picking up trash. Trash was everywhere! We filled up at least five big black bags! At this point, I had no fuel to continue, the sun and all the hard work took over me. It felt as if I was stuck in the desert for a few days with no water. Finally, we said our goodbyes to Aleyda, Margory and Christian. Aleyda is our translator and Margory and Christian work at the school. We arrived to Hotel Hamacas and had a little bit of free time, we enjoyed the pool and the music they had is similar to what I’m used to at my home and made me feel like I’m close to them again. We started to prep for our lesson plans. We concluded day two by having dinner together. I had a delicious dish called Capricho with a side of platano maduro.

Day 3:

The school got cancelled due to the protest. We went to home visits with Ana, Ana is the physical therapist at the school. We each got a partner and got to visit a home at a time to not overwhelm the families. I got to meet a little girl named Maritza Elena. She’s about to turn three in May. She’s the daughter of Alina Elena and Wascar Darilo. Alina and Wacar met in Spain nine years ago. Alina is from Romania and Wascar is from Nicaragua. Wascar wanted to come back to his homeland and they did. Maritza has epilepsy, autism and struggles with motor functions. Maritza gets bad seizures constantly and one of those times at the hospital she was given the wrong medicine. Her skin began to peel off, she has really bad scars because she bites herself all the time. Maritza isn’t able to sleep at all, so she’s given an adult medicine in order for her to fall asleep. All these “what if’s” popped into my head. I began to think “what if Maritza never gets to wake up again due to the medicine.” Maritza was happy when we were in her home. She’s very aware of her surroundings. Maritza isn’t able to crawl or walk but she tries really hard! I had a very deep connection to Maritza because my brother was recently diagnosed with epilepsy. I’ve seen the change it’s been in his life and it’s completely heartbreaking. It’s been a huge impact in my family’s life. I feel sacred for my brother, I constantly worry for him. I worry he won’t have the future he was building. Derrick is a dreamer, he works hard in every single thing he does. He’s a strong little boy! I once wrote on a blog, “These kids are warriors and I admire them. No matter how hard life has hit them, they are still fighting a battle and aren’t giving up. That’s what true champions do. They carry on with life no matter the struggle.” That’s where Maritza and Derrick make my quote true. Maritza impacted my life in seconds. Little does she know that she’s going to change the world some day. I had a big eye opening experience where I realized how fortunate I am.