Day 1

So far everything has gone very well. Flew into Washington DC on Tuesday and meet some other peace corps members in the airport. We rode together over to the hotel and stayed in a very nice place somewhere in Washington. We turned in our Peace Corps registration forms and had some ice breakers and information sessions to get familiar with what was going on during the week. We had the session from about 12:30 to 7:00 and went to get dinner around Washington.
After that we got some beers and a few other Peace Corps members hung around the hotel and talked and got to know each other a little bit better. Our flight was early the next day and we had to be ready to go at 1:00am. I got a few hours of sleep but was still in a daze the next morning. We got to the airport around 2:00 and it was almost completely empty, there were a few people scattered sleeping but for the most part we took over the place.
Some people took the time to nap others playing cards and a few listened to music. I decided to hacky sack in the airport. Another member brought one and we played for about an hour in the empty airport. Eventually people began to show and we started loading and checking our bags. It took about another hour (its around 3:00) to get all our baggage settled. We flew down to Miami then into Nicaragua. The flights weren’t that bad. I was so excited to get a window seat on the way down but the other Peter in the group took my seat and I was stuck in the isle. With little more than 6 hours of sleep the past 2 day I was out pretty quick on the plane.

Flying into Nicaragua was very interesting. I got to see a few Volcanoes and some lakes from the plane. Then we landed in Managua. As we landed on the strip I could see animals and some lookout towers it was pretty interesting looking around cause everything was so green and lush. The second the doors opened it felt like 100 degrees. Since Ive been down here all Ive done is sweat. We got off the plane and the airport was generally normal. It just looked like a bit smaller and rundown compared to most in the us. I had no problem going through customs and baggage check the process was pretty rushed. As we got out of the airport we meet some Peace Corps members, the director of Nicaragua (David) and our trainer for the 3 days (Naomi). All very pleasant good people. During this time we all just hung out and went to meetings from about 8 in the morning to around 5. There was a pool and food was being served it was pretty cool. Ill stop here for now and give a post in a few days.

May peace be onto you
Peter