inside view: nicaragua host family

When I arrived in Nicaragua it was about 8pm on Friday, August 29th.

We waited for one more flight of students to arrive, and then got into a van with all of our luggage to drive straight to our host homes. My roommate Kristen and I were dropped off second. We rang the doorbell and went inside.

Once inside, I was shocked to see our living conditions. I guess I expected something a little more modest. Though we didn't see the rest of the house right away, there was a main house with a living room, kitchen, bedrooms, etc. In the back where we stayed, there was a 2-story "dorm-style" building with 5 rooms for anyone who might be staying at the house.

I soon came to learn that my "host-mother," Alba is a business women, and very good at. She had about 5 other Nicaragua students living in her house during the week while they attended classes.

Adjusting to life with a new family was difficult for several reasons,

the first being the obvious language barrier. I could understand and speak Spanish when I got there, but I didn't have the confidence to strike up a conversation. It was a little easier with my host brother who was closer to my age at 27 years old, especially when we could talk about baseball! But, my roommate was a little more outgoing in the beginning and I think that helped her adjust better than I did at first. The family definitely responded to that, so..

if you're going abroad, don't be afraid to be yourself!

It didn't take long before that house felt like our home. "I want to go home" came to mean "I want to go back to Alba's house and turn on the fan because it's so hot" rather than "I want to go back the U.S."

My host mother, or her Aunt Chila, cooked us breakfast and dinner everyday. It was nice when sometimes we got to eat with the rest of the family or other students staying with us. I never would have guessed that I would ever be sitting at a kitchen table in Nicaragua, eating rice, beans and plantains as part of a family!