Initial impressions...

Dear Family and Friends,
Saludos de Nicaragua! I hope this finds all of you doing great as you get ready for school breaks, Christmas holidays, or whatever else you have going on right now. I wanted to get a brief update to you to let you know how life is treating me so far in Nicaragua, so hopefully this will give you an idea of what I’m up to.
Although I’ve only been here for four days, this is quickly beginning to feel like a new home, at least for the next stage of my life. I met up with two of my fellow first year Jesuit Volunteers, Thomas and Andrea, during my various flights toward Managua, and the three of us all arrived together on Wednesday evening. We were met at the airport by the current volunteers and immediately went to our new home.
The house is a simple structure in a decent neighborhood in Managua called La Luz. We each have our own room and share communal cooking and living spaces. While we still have two volunteers living in the house who are just finishing up their second years, we will eventually have four of us in the Managua house. There is also another house of volunteers in Ciudad Sandino, about and hour by bus from Managua. We hope to see each other on a consistent basis and maintain a sense of a connected community beyond our individual houses.
The first few days have been relatively low key as we settle into day to day life in Managua. On our first full day, we went out to the Ciudad Sandino house to have a talk with the second year volunteers about safety around the city. The following day we were able to go on site visits to our respective work placements. Although it’s still unclear exactly what I’ll be doing, I do know that I’ll be working at an organization called Cantera. I was able to meet some of the staff members there and see the site. There isn’t a lot going on right now, however, because many Nicaragua schools, organizations and businesses close down near the end of the year to take vacation. In fact, I won’t actually start formal work until early January. While I am certainly ready to get to work and find out more about what my day to day schedule will look like, I’m also grateful for the time to settle in and adjust rather than hitting the ground running. The second year JVs have also planned quite an agenda for us through these next couple weeks to help us settle in as well as learn about the history, politics, etc of Nicaragua.
The other night we had a wonderful meeting with an American woman who has been living here for over 20 years. She is a history professor at a local university, and in just a few short hours she briefed us nearly all the significant events in Nicaraguan history from colonial times up until today. This was highly informative but also raised many new questions about the impact of Nicaragua’s Revolution as well as the current state of its convoluted political sphere. We hope to continue to ask those questions and understand the current situation in the months and years to come…
Yesterday, Saturday the 5th, we went on a city tour of Managua with Fr. Joe Mulligan, our “In Country Coordinator” for JVC. Joe is a Jesuit priest who has been in Nicaragua since 1986, so he is exceptionally familiar with the country and the issues important in Nicaragua today. He generously treated us first years to a day tour as well as lunch, and all of us agreed afterward that we are fortunate to have him as a friend here.
Currently the country is in the middle of celebrating “purisima”, a uniquely Nicaraguan nine-day holiday in honor of the conception of Mary. People here go all out though. I’ve been told it’s even bigger than Christmas! This means there are fireworks going off every night (last night sounded like we were in the middle of a war zone with fireworks exploding practically on our roof) and lots of treats given out. It’s almost like a cross between Halloween and Christmas…Tomorrow is the culmination so we’re getting together with the other JV house to go purisima trick-or-treating.
In other news, Thomas and I went exploring around the neighborhood this morning and came across a competitive and organized soccer game at the field just down the street from our place. It sounds like the new league starts in January so I’ll have to investigate a little and see what it takes to join a team…
Finally, this week we’re heading off to do home-stays in the campo, the countryside here. I’m SO GRATEFUL this was included as part of our orientation here because although we’ll be spending lots of time in urban Managua, I feel a great connection to the rural life of Nicaragua. I’ll have to write more once we’ve returned from that experience next weekend and update you all on our week with even less connection to the U.S. than we’ve had in Managua.
Thank you all for your support! I know I’ll miss everyone more as the time goes by, but I hope it is comforting to you to know that I feel I’m in a great place surrounded by supportive and awesome people! Much love,
Sean