The excitement grew along with the stress of first semester exams. The seven students and myself had the strain of writing our exams earlier than the rest of our schoolmates since our flights were booked for January 22nd and February 1st. It became real when I saw the money raised by our school community and neighbouring communities to help our small group on this North, South Awareness Project. Approximately $10000 was raised to help us, the small group of students and teachers to go to Nicaragua and help a community as much as we could. .
The day of departure arrived. Both my parents were at the airport to say their goodbyes. I had never travelled out of the country without family before, so I found it really hard to say my goodbyes. For the first time in my life I felt scared and unsure and this new feeling I had never experienced before. I had had been camping for weeks at a time without family, so I could not understand why it was so hard to say goodbye. At this time I think it was because I still was unsure about what I was actually going to witness in Nicaragua. Our group had heard so much, but still had not experienced it.
A long day of nervous and smooth flights passed after many stretched hours. The Texas airport was our last bit of urbanization for the next ten days. When the plane landed in Nicaragua I felt a burst of excitement run through me. I m almost certain that everyone else must of felt that way too. It was dark outside so it was hard to see the new world we were entering. The young representative that we had met in September greeted us and helped us load our bags onto a different type of vehicle than what we would see in North America. The air was humid but a nice welcome to us Canadians who had left the winter cold behind. The bus ride was filled with loud chatter. Everyone at this point could see and feel the excitement on one another. As much as I tried to conceal it, I know it was quite apparent.