Category: Nicaragua 2013

Caroline Bach1 Comment

All closed!

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My new closet made me think of you, Cicirella, and look – I even closed all the doors to your honour!

It took me one week to look around and decide on where I will be living here in Managua, and I’m really enjoying my new place. My room is airy with a high ceiling and big windows both to the east and the west, the closet is huge so I can hang all my stuff up and don’t need to have anything laying around, my bathroom is mine, mine and only mine, I have my own patio for breakfasts im the sun or wine under starlit skies, and I’m fifteen minutes by foot from the office.

As a bonus, I have the funniest landlady ever. She is a super fit, energetic and positive 60-something year-old that looks at least ten years younger and lives a couple of minutes away from here. We went grocery shopping together when I had moved in today after work and decided that we should continue doing so because we had so much fun. Haha. And she bought me new towels!

It’s all a lovely deal – the only problem is that I’m not the only one loving it. Wait, what’s that? A spider, a mosquito, a fly, a big, red ant? Oh darn, they’re all over!

Good thing that I generally don’t mind bugs, but if any of them starts sucking my blood I’ll Baygon the soul out of every living creature in this place.

Hear that, you evil things!? My blood stays in my veins, this restaurant is closed.

Caroline BachLeave a comment

Nica mini status update

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My bruise, apparently a natural spark for many random questions, is in the process of transforming from brown to yellow-ish. See? Very exciting if you ask me. I’ve never before had the opportunity to study the development of a bruise as profoundly as now. Haha..

And I worked until 8pm yesterday. Today I had a very fruitful meeting with the Rep and another one with operations which both gave me a lot of clarity on what I can work on in the area of resource mobilization and external communications, apart from what I am already working on. It is really exciting as I will have to create new strategies, mobilize the entire office, improve and ensure more priority to areas that I believe are crucial – and be creative. Of course I want to stay here until late if I get to have this much fun! Let’s see how difficult this will all be – I am hearing very a bit too often.

And I have decided where I will be moving in from tomorrow by the way, maybe slightly more interesting news for the rest of you.

Caroline Bach1 Comment

Batsch

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Passing a new guard this morning on my way to enter the office, I was stopped to provide my name and show my ID.

“Let her pass – it’s Carolina Batschh!” another guard shouted from far through the walkie talkie.

The guards learn our names by heart and we say hello every morning. It’s very pleasant and feels safe to know that they really check everybody and that you don’t have a ‘free pass’ just because you don’t look like a local (like in some other places I have worked in) – it would just be far more nice if I somehow managed to make them stop adding that tschh sound in the end of my last name.

Caroline Bach1 Comment

First day in Managua; a proper update.

So yesterday I had a hectic but very informative and efficient first day at the office.

I arrived at 9am and started off with a meeting with the representative, the deputy representative and the operations manager. Thereafter, I was toured around to meet with and get introduced to all the staff members. Slightly overwhelmed by a million faces and names, I was happy about speaking Spanish and only accidently let “obrigada” slip through three times. The Portuguese was very much present on the tip of my tounge throughout the day and it took some efort to hold it back but I felt that I will be back on Spanish ground very soon as there only is four international staff in the entire office and the working language is Spanish. Joking about the language issue, I found out that three of the internationals had been to Portuguese speaking countries before coming here and were all very familiar with the battle, we played a couple of word games, laughed and moved on.

Back in business, I was briefed on security issues and earthquake precautions, got practical information, a ton of documents to read, and a couple to sign. I went to arrange my Nicaraguan sim card and UNICEF id, made sure that my banking details in the system were updated and all the previous administrative mess was cleaned up, got my computer and email set up, received the keys to my office, looked at four different apartments, and completely forgot to eat lunch.

In the evening, we came back home and ate a nice Nicaraguan dish, worked a little, played with sweet Ayane, spoke for a couple of hours over a bottle of white wine, and decided not to go out.

Caroline Bach4 Comments

Safe and bruised in Managua

I have arrived at my final destination, Managua in Nicaragua, after 22 hours of adventures, surprises and “stay calm and find a solution” scenarios.

The 8h flight to Miami went well, I sat next to a nice English girl who was going for a trip around South America and shared some Lonely Planet pdf’s with her, then I watched Wreck it Ralph, and worked.

Upon arrival to Miami airport we got the confirmation that we would need to pick up our luggage and pass customs to get to our connecting flights, everything seemed clear, and my 2,5hours to connect wouldn’t be a problem. Anyway, as a rule I always make sure to find my gate before starting to explore airports so I rushed on in the front of the big stream of people, following the signs. Suddenly an airport worker started separating us into the categories of US citizens, and visitors – where US citizens seemed to walk on, and visitors quickly became a huge line of desperate people missing connecting flights, bachelor parties and guided tours. It was chaotic. “Don’t ask me, ask the government” the information man responded. Somebody handed out leaflets explaining what was going on. I negotiated my way to the front of the line. “This will take at least a couple of hours” was still the answer.

Suddenly the airport security man said “You know what? Screw this” and removed the block – so we ran. Slaloming between people and babies in carts I got lucky again and managed to get into a a line for customs that was one fifth smaller than the rest.. My boarding time was in 25 minutes. “Once you get in that room, it will take you at least an hour to exit” an officer had said before. I stood in line with very stressed people “The next flight to Barcelona doesn’t leave in three days!” and a particularily angry lady who said that “Even on a good day, it will be a bad day at Miami airport – I have missed three flights in this airport this year already.” I guess that’s somehow valuable information. I know that I will try hard to avoid a stop-over in the US and particularly Miami in the future. All the hassle about having to check out and in again, getting a US Visa, and being questioned on what I do for a living doesn’t make any sense to me at all if I’m on American soil for less than three hours, I just wanted to shout: “Stop taking yourselves so damn seriously!!”

So the officer in the booth of the line I stood in walked away for a coffee break, and a moment later another guy came who had the energy to actually make things happen. He was nice, said that Nicaragua was cool and that I should try his job if I want to be in a rush. I got my stamp, and continued to the luggage reclaim. The amount of bags was crazy, they were covering the floor all over the place. I ran around for a moment until I found my bag, and then I continued though the exit and to the bag drop-off. In the Miami airport, a luggage cart costs 5$. In coins? And my bag was in a flightbag that doesn’t have a strap. So I grabbed the 23kg’s with one hand, broke a nail, and dragged it, looking fairly strange, for 10 minutes until I got to the dropoff point, passed security once again, and found my gate. Workout for an entire week.

With a couple of minutes left to boarding, I ran off and bought myself a portable bluetooth speaker – a small gift for successfully having solved all those little adventures during the day. And I got a discount for being funny. haha

After a couple of hours of pleasant company on my Managua flight, a long taxi-ride where Chaves was the main subject of conversation, wonderful hospitality provided by an office colleague, and a long hot shower – I am now finally in a bed, 26 hours later, after 40 hours of not sleeping properly. It’s 1am.

And I have bruises on my arms – from carrying those 23kg’s, plus 10kg´s of hand luggage, in the strangest ways, while running. haha

And now I say good night from Managua with two taxi photos.

Caroline BachLeave a comment

The list

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Almost all items on the list of lists have been ticked off. In two hours I’m boarding a train to the airport with the beautiful wooden floors.

My biggest dilemma? Which external harddrive to bring. The almost full one, or the empty one? I can’t seem to live without my database, but who really needs 2TB of stuff? “But what if I need one of my photos from 2006? Or want to listen to the Pink Floyd discography?!” Life is complicated sometimes.

I do actually have bigger things to worry about right now – speaking Spanish again after an entire year of maningue, muito bom, posso, agora, então, isso, depois, obrigada and many, many boa tarde’s, for example.

Here’s part two ofthe packing process, by the way, all packed now:

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“What, you’e only bringing 23kg’s + carry-on?!” Well yeah, and myself.