Day 1 over

Everything got off to a good start today. I’ve got 6 people that I’m working with for the next 2 days. Of the 6, I’ve met (personally) one before. The others again are people I’ve emailed over the years but never had a chance to meet. The networking that is going on is just wonderful.

We all started the morning with a meeting with the Mission Director. I am so impressed by this man’s demenor and approach. He met with us for about 25 minutes this morning to just say hi and to get to know us all a little bit. Later at lunch, he joined our table. A number of times he commented on how pleased he was to be able to host us all and how important he thought it was to get the staff from different Missions together. He really is genuinely happy to have us. I know that doesn’t sound too outlandish, but the Mission Directors are really very highly placed people (this man had been a political appointee before) and it is very unusual to get this much of their time. In fact, we usually don’t even show up on their radar. Good stuff.

The training was pretty normal. After 4 years of doing this I think I’ve had every curveball thrown at me that is possible. Now that I’ve said that I’ll get a real whammy tomorrow. Just wait.

This evening, after we all got back to the hotel, 4 of us walked up the street to the mall. Yes, there is a mall that would fit right in anywhere in the US right smack in the middle of Managua. It has your Payless shoes, Radio Shack, Beneton, etc. It was worth it for the walk up and back. We grabbed a little dinner while we were there in the food court — I passed on Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Subway to chicken at Tic Toc, the local version of KFC. Afterwords we wandered back to the hotel and settled in the bar to just talk about anything other than work.

I think we are going to try to make arrangements on Wednesday or Thursday to start the day a bit earlier and then knock off a little early so we can all head out to one of the local markets. Every one of us, except the Nicaraguans, needs to take a little something home to prove we were actually here. I don’t know what is typical here, but I’m sure I’ll find something. I have to make sure I leave room for some goodies from Mexico, too, though!