Operation Nica
VOLLEYBALL NICARAGUA JOURNAL (Written by Maddie Staub)
Monday, May 11, 2009
The last day of our trip was filled with as much activity as possible so we could squeeze a ton of Nicaraguan culture. The day began with a boat tour of many of the small islands in Lake Nicaragua. We caught a glimpse of the vacation home owned by the richest family in Nicaragua, as well as an island inhibited by a handful of curious monkeys. Many were intrigued by our presence, and a few got as bold as to take nuts out of ours hands.
Our tour guide, Brooke, then took us to the Messiah Market located within what appeared to be a castle. We shopped around and bought small trinkets like jewelry, picture frames, and clothing. The most popular items were beautiful hammocks and hammock chairs that at least half of our team acquired. We then stopped at a more Americanized mall back in Managua where half of us shopped, and the other half decided to catch the flick, Wolverine. Luckily, not everything in the theatre was in Spanish.
Finally it was time to face the national team one more time to obtain a much desired win. Our team fought hard and took the team to four battling sets, but we were unsuccessful in getting the victory.
As I sit on the plane, I think about what we did walk away with, for this trip greatly improved us not only as athletes, but as people. Some of the lessons I feel we learned are:
1. You honestly don’t realize what you have until it’s gone.
2. A little can go a long way.
3. Money doesn’t buy happiness.
4. A love and passion for the game is always needed.
5. Sometimes, it’s just not about us.
6. We are a family… no matter what.
VOLLEYBALL NICARAGUA JOURNAL (Written by Patricia Gandolfo)
Sunday, May 10, 2009
It was 10 am and we all got on the bus to head up to the Volcano Mombacho to do some hiking and appreciate some really cool scenarios that Granada has to offer us. This time instead of worrying about bags falling off the bus, we were watching out for cows crossing the streets. After 40 minutes listening to the driver talking non-stop we finally got there and they told us that the only way to go up in the volcano was riding the tourist bus, which was coming to get us shortly. While we were all waiting for the bus I found out that instead of writing “hombres” (men) and “mujeres” (women) on the bathroom door, they have chickens drawn on it, yes, I said chickens! I asked Brooke what it meant, but she had no concrete answer, I would say it was there just for the simple pleasure of drawing chickens around the city! Anyway, right beside the bus Coach and Christina fed a really skinny dog with a cereal bar and water in a bottle lid. I guess it was its lucky day, because we could see its ribs popping out!
As soon as the tourist bus got there, we all hopped up and headed to half way of the top of the mountain. They usually have two stops: half way and the top, of course. In the first stop they had this little store selling coffee and other things that I didn’t figure out what it was. Since they had free coffee, some of us decided to get some, but some bees decided to come around and bother Jamie and her cup of coffee. Well, neither the bee nor Jamie were happy with this situation, that actually ended up with one running away spilling coffee all over the floor (Jamie) and the other drowning on the puddle of coffee and later being smashed on by Val’s big foot (bee). OK, minutes later the second bus came to save us from getting messier in the store.
On the top we were divided in two groups, mine had Julio as a tourist guide, while the other group had Eric. All I can say is that Julio was a great tourist guide that spoke English very well with us and talked a lot about every living thing that was around, I mean everything. The hiking has an hour and a half long, and we experienced things such as observing a red lady bug walking on the stairs, to clouds touching on the edge of the mountain. The view was amazing, and not even the rain stopped us from enjoying the great scenarios around the volcano. But there was always the fear of a wild puma appearing beside us, or even a simple frog jumping on our ankles. No worries, nothing happened … as I can remember. After knowing the past, present and the future of the 365 different species living in the “cloud forest” on the volcano area, we all sat down to eat at a local restaurant on top of the mountain. When you think you already saw everything, there is always something else to surprise you, so Rafa decided to show us the newest entertainment for the team: the “Sleeping Plants.” Whenever you touch this kind of plant, they close it up and crawl down, making it look like it is “sleeping”. I can guarantee this is the best time killer if you have to wait for the bus to come get you while you are on top of the mountain.
Well, on the way down since nothing too exciting was happening the clouds decided to help a little bit and suddenly it started to rain pretty bad. Since the bus is open, the only way to protect yourself from the water is pulling down a plastic curtain on the side. That meant that whoever was appreciating the view from inside the bus, was automatically promoted to be the “window” holder.
So, we got in the bottom of the volcano and we headed up to the hotel, it took us no more than 20 minutes to get there. We had an hour and a half to take a shower, go shopping, take a nap … do whatever we wanted before we meet at 7 pm to eat dinner at a pizza place. At 7 pm we walked to the pizza place, which was two blocks from the hotel, and we all set at the table craving for any kind of food that is not rice and beans! We decided to order six pizzas for everybody, but since we didn’t finish it all we gave the leftovers to the poor kids that were behind us at the table. There is no goofier team than ours, so we decided to start a “muscle competition” with those boys behind us. Those tiny arms were competing against Jamie’s and Val’s “Muscle Milk” made arms, but I still have my doubts of who was the winner in this game.
After we all get stuffed with pizza, we came back to the hotel and since I was in charge to write the blog today, I came straight to the computer room. Well, like I said earlier, as soon as you think you are done seeing strange things, there is always something else to pop up and give you a good laugh. Coach was right beside me in another computer and out of nowhere, she started laughing out loud, and read us the funniest email ever. A guy from somewhere in Nicaragua saw our game and fell in love with three players, number 7 (Chelsea), number 3 (Kristen), and last but NOT LEAST number 14 (Jesse). He could not put in better words that his true love was Jesse and wanted really bad to meet her. Well … it’s not everyday that somebody has a secret admirer looking up in the Internet trying to figure out your coach’s email address to contact you!
VOLLEYBALL NICARAGUA JOURNAL (Written by Valissia Brathwaite)
Friday, May 8, 2009
Today was a very cool day. We started off being split up into groups and my group got to go to the Special Education school. At the school, there were 8 students, 1 director, 2 therapists, and families supporting the kids. The school was founded by 2 Canadians that started it, and left, and needed someone to keep it going. Now it is owned by a non-profit community program.
The kids’ ages ranged from five to 41, and they were all so happy, and sweet. We played with them with blocks, made piñatas, painted, and danced with all of them. It was so much fun that we lost track of the time, then it was time to go back to the hotel to rest before the game.
VOLLEYBALL NICARAGUA JOURNAL (Written by Jesse Keroack)
Friday, May 8, 2009
Today my group of five went with Marla around to different community out reach projects here in San Juan del sur. The first place we visited was the women`s center. Marla explained that almost every city has one and that it is a safe haven for woman and children. The main focus at these places was to educate women on how to become more financially independent. She told us that the director was supposed to be there after 7 but upon our arrival around 10 the director was not there, a perfect example of the lack of time sense down here. We dropped off 2 bags of socks to a woman and her son who said they would be there most of the day.
Next, we visited the library. This is a far shot from any American library. It was only a few small rooms and no electronic catalog, and everything was done by hand. As we looked through the few rooms I found a Harry Potter book in Spanish and several others I recognized from my childhood. Two little boys came in the library to borrow crayons and paper to draw. We immediately flocked to the two children asking them questions and quizzing their vocab with picture flash cards. The boys were 5 years old and absolutely adorable, and we all wished we could have taken them home with us but Marla jokingly told us ¨that we could neither adopt them nor marry them.¨
Next we were driven past the redlight district and up the hillside to a resort with a terrific view. The view from the upper pool deck made this place seem truly like a paradise. The ocean was bright blue and the bay was dotted with boats, you could see the surrounding hills and the Jesus statue on the highest point overlooking it all. We all sat at the bar and drank the best lemonade I have ever tasted. We chatted for a bit, all revealing our fantasies about the life we could possibly live in this paradise. We were introduced to the pool jazzercise ladies who were both in their 60s and post work out eating breakfast.
Next we went down several levels of condos and pools to the animal rescue hospital supported by the resort. There were several monkeys, hundreds of cats and a few dogs all of which had been rescued. The monkeys were by far the funniest creatures there, and one happened to escape from her line while we were walking around and we were witnesses to her stealing fruit, playing with the dogs and leading the trainers on a chase. After the mischievous monkey named Bonsi was caught we left our little paradise and visited a local craftswomans house. This was one of my favorite parts of the day. The woman named Ruth, taught crafts classes and made all of her projects out of recycled materials. She taught other women so that they too could reuse their own possessions and sell them to make a profit, another lesson of recycling and financial independence. She showed us many bags, boxes and blank books she had made from couch cushion covers to pajamas to seashells.
I was so impressed with her work and was reminded of my own mother´s love for crafts that I ended up buying several things from her as gifts for my mother for mother´s day. Many of the other girls bought her crafts as well and we made the decision to go into town later to help Ruth buy the materials she needed to continue the projects. To find simple materials like fabric scissors, thread, needles, glue and paints we had to go to several stores around town. We ended up finding almost everything after about an hour, a typical shopping day for Nicas. We dropped Ruth off at her house and returned to the hotel very tired, hungry and hot. We grabbed a bite to eat at a local restaurant and waited for the others to get back. As they trickled in we got the hear stories from their days and slowly drift off to a much needed afternoon nap. We all vegged out at the hotel for most of the afternoon, waiting for the sun to set and our much anticipated volleyball game to begin.
VOLLEYBALL NICARAGUA JOURNAL (Written by Kristen Wimer)
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Today was such a blast! After we woke up and had a little breakfast we all grabbed our towels and headed to the beach to do a yoga session. You would be surprised how warm the sun is in the morning and how fast you can get completely covered in sand! We didn’t mind though because afterward we jumped right into the ocean. It was kind of tiring but we were all so glad that we did it.
After yoga, we had a few hours to walk around the town and do some shopping. Most of the little stores were just a big room attached to where the owners lived. We saw some pretty interesting things.
Here’s where the real fun began. We got into our suits and our tour guide, Tim, drove half of us to a dock where we jumped in a little boat that took us to the middle of the bay to a pretty big sailboat. We jumped on and began our sail to the beach where the other half of us were going to by truck. The boat ride was amazing. We rode along the coast all the way to a remote beach. We ate a lunch of chips and dip and a delicious chicken sandwich on the boat. Once we arrived to our beach we were instructed to swim to shore where everyone else would be meeting us. Though it looked like a short distance, this swim was quite difficult. We laughed the whole way in. About 10 minutes later, the trucks pull up with the other half of our group and about 25 little kids from in the village. They were so excited that once they stopped it was a stampede of children running into the ocean. We were all able to do different activities with the kids like beach volleyball, surf, play in the ocean, and Chelsea and I built sand castles with a few kids. The kids laughed the entire time we were there. I enjoyed seeing how extremely happy they were over something as small as a sand castle, or jumping over waves again, and again, and again. It was wonderful.
As the sun began to go down, we loaded everything up and those who were riding back on the boat had to begin their swim back out to it. We were told that the swim back out to the boat was easier than the swim in, it was not. Hobie and I were giving each other pep talks as we tried not to drown in the huge crashing waves. Once we finally made it out there we were all joking about how hard the swim was and were given Oreos to eat on the ride. The sun was beginning to set, we had Oreos, and we were on a sailboat in Nicaragua ... how much better can it get?
We cleaned up for dinner and ate in a restaurant down the road. They gave us a buffet with a good variety of foods and a group of locals did some folk dances for us. It was pretty cool. Overall, today was one of the best days here. I can´t wait to see what tomorrow will hold for us!!
VOLLEYBALL NICARAGUA JOURNAL (Written by Jamie Nichols)
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Last night we arrived at the Best Western which was across the street from the airport. After blasting the AC for a couple of hours, we could finally stop sweating.
This morning we went to breakfast at the hotel. Our first stop of the day was at an active volcano that is smoking and smells like sulfur. The best part was the view. Chelsea, Christina, and I kept volcanic rocks.
Next, we drove through the town of Managua. There were a lot of horses, cows, and dogs running around. Our tour guide, Tim, was telling us the history of the town and how it was run by dictatorship, then revolutionized, then hit by a terrible earthquake that knocked everything down, and they haven´t come back from it yet even though it has been 30 years. So they are really in a strange time right now, and the people here are okay with it. He told us that most of the people are doing the same things their families have been doing for generations in the same way, without innovation. They learn very slowly and seem content with their way of life.
We went to the part of town that used to be the central town square and it was deserted. I made friends with a little girl who I took a picture of and showed it to her and in return she gave me a flower made from dried banana leaves.
After that, we went to eat lunch in a restaurant, but it was quite an ordeal getting there. The roads are tiny and the drivers are crazy. There aren´t many traffic lights or street signs. After we ate, we were all fighting over the leftovers, especially the plantains. We went back to the hotel and took naps before going to our game against the National Nicaraguan team.
On our way to the gym it started thundering and pouring. The bus driver was trying to figure out the best place to let us out so we wouldn´t get too wet. We had a few local kids help us with this. Tim conversed with them in Spanish telling them to run out from under the umbrella and back to show us how wet they got. Then the kids jumped onto our bus, said something about shoes and then started laughing hysterically and ran off. The gym was pretty much a warehouse with bleachers. The ceiling was leaking puddles onto the court. Obviously it wasn´t air conditioned so we were completely soaked by the time we finished warming up. Other than that it wasn´t too bad. Once the game started it took us awhile to get acclimated, so we were behind 2-0 games. Then we started playing well and fought back to 2-2. The 5th set was a great game. We had some really long rallies but ended up losing 15-13.
We had pizza waiting for us at the gym. The little kids stood by giving us doe eyes, staring at the pizza. Rafa and Pati gave in and gave a girl a piece. Then they all flocked in like seagulls. Christina, however, was feeding the wild dogs the pizza.
After a long day we went back to the hotel for the night.
