Day 0 - Day 1

Our plane from Spokane to Salt Lake was a real small plane with one 4 seats across. Once in Salt Lake City we had a bit of a layover so we passed the time by riding some wheel chairs around the airport. To add to the big layover the plane was delayed coming in delaying our flight even more. From Salt Lake we stopped over in Atlanta then on to Managua, Nicaragua. On the flight down to Nicaragua the movie was Martian Child. It seemed like a good movie but I ended up moving to an open row of seats and laid down and caught up on some much needed sleep. When landing in Managua we circled around lake Managua. It was really cool to see. The airport in Managua was real small and was used by both commercial and Military planes. Customs was no big deal and I got my first stamp in my new passport. The team loaded up into two vans with luggage piled high and headed to our hostel. The weather in Managua was warm and humid but not overwhelmingly hot. On our drive through Managua to the hostel we stopped and got some food to eat at a restaurant that was similar to KFC. As we continued to drive out of town the housing became progressively worse. People live in tiny one room dirt floor houses. The river beds were all dry because it is the dry season right now but they were still filled with trash. Once we arrived at the hostel we were all very pleasantly surprised at how nice the place is. The compound is very well kept. Everyone who lives here is very friendly. We were fed dinner by the hostel, it was a great meal of beef with beans and rice. After dinner we took showers and got ready for the Sunday evening church service in Sandino. The drive to the church was significantly different than the drive through Managua. Sandino is a very poor community. Most of the roads in Sandino are dirt. A lot of people were out in the town but very few people seems to actually be doing anything. It turns out that over half of the population in Nicaragua in unemployed. The town has a lot of dogs running around that are all extremely skinny. When we got to the church it was just starting to get dark. Not very many people have power in the town so we conversed, or tried to converse with some of the locals before church started. We played a small game of soccer in the street with some kids while we waited. Church started once the pastor got there and the generators powered up. The service started with an intense set of music that we all recognized from English versions we knew from back home. Im sure the talk was great too however I have no idea what was said. After more music that consisted of a mosh pit, lots of flags, and even some crowd surfing (no joke) the 3 hour service was over. We headed back to the hostel for a daily debrief. A few of us hunted some geckos then headed off to bed for the night.