The volunteers arrived late in the evening on Wednesday, June 11. After a full morning of running errands to get everything put together for briefing, I went to Managua with Cheka and two of the supervisors to wait for the volunteers at the airport. The rest of the staff went to the briefing sight, Casa de Retiros Tepeyac, to set up and await our arrival.
All but one of the volunteers (missed flight!) arrived at about 7:00 PM and blue-AMIGOS-polo clad adolescents took over Managua. I spent most of the hour or so that it took them all to get through customs scurrying around, sending the volunteers in the right direction, and trying to figure out the lost luggage situation. As per the AMIGOS usual, 2 volunteers' suitcases didn't come in, so I spent the better part of the next 3 days making calls to try to figure it out...
Anyway, so we crammed all 54 volunteers on the bus plus a couple of supervisors and we were off to Tepeyac. Cheka and I, naturally, rode behind the bus in the luggage truck. The Ministry of Health was kind enough to donate this transport for us, so it gives us some nice buffer room in the budget, not having had to pay for volunteer transport.
The volunteers were so pooped that night at Tepeyac. We just had dinner, did some quick introductions, and went to bed.
The briefing sight was absolutely gorgeous. It is a sort of meditation center owned by a bunch of nuns in the mountains outside of Granada. It was significantly higher in altitude and therefore significantly cooler in temperature, and there were monkeys in the lush, green trees. Needless to say, the volunteers were enamored.
We started with out briefing activities early in the morning on Thursday. Thursday was a pretty fun day, packed with Nicaragua-specific activities and typical AMIGOS things. I wouldn't know, of course, because I had the fun task of going to Managua that day to pick up the late volunteer and try to get the lost luggage worked out. I left at about 10 AM and came back at about 5--the volunteer's flight ended up being several hours late and the luggage ordeal turned into quite the fiasco. Good thing I brought my book!
It was really surprising how well behaved the volunteers were. Usually there are some homesick ones at briefing, plus a few who are convinced they have malaria or dengue because of a few soft stools on their second day in country. Not this group! They were all such troopers!
Thursday night, staff stayed up late for couple hours to figure out partnership assignments. All of the supervisors were pretty mature about it, understanding that they can't have EVERY volunteer that they want on their route and accepting that they have to take a couple of the weird ones for the sake of the team. During the day, staff had conducted interviews to ascertain Spanish levels and preferences, so we made sure to put at least one functional Spanish speaker in every town. I think we did a pretty good job.
On Friday morning, the volunteers played a game to figure out their partners and routes, and there were no tears, which is, again, amazing. What a good group of volunteers!
Friday was packed with presentations from our partner agencies and route and partnership bonding. All of the volunteers got to hear about their communities and host families in depth--this is one the most fun times!
Henry Greeley came and did a 45 or so minute presentation about working with rural Nicaraguans, Nicaragua history and politics, and general advice from the viewpoint of a past AMIGOS volunteers and one-year Nica resident. The volunteers had a ton of questions for him, and they seemed to really enjoy the presentation. On their evaluations of briefing, several volunteers named his talk among the most interesting and useful activities!
Saturday morning, all of the volunteers left for their communities! We had all of them gone from the briefing sight by 11, which has got to be some sort of AMIGOS record, given that it's generally an all-day affair. Briefing was fun, but it's good to have them GONE. Now the summer can really finally start!
It's Sunday afternoon and the house is full of sweaty supervisors, their shoes, and about a million dirty cups. It's fun to have everyone around, but 9 people in a house is a lot! I'm ready for the sups to head out on their first week of route tomorrow. :)
I'm healthy and happy, and I love hearing from everyone from home! The two Austin Chapter volunteers are doing really well--very optimistic and excited.
Life is good!
1 comentario:
Lord it is a miracle that you guys were out of the briefing site so quickly! We sat around for HOURS waiting to leave. I'm glad the Austin vols are doing well. And it sounds like you are, as well. And I am super jealous that you got to see Henry!
Publicar un comentario