Personal Narrative: My Journey To Nicaragua

The first time I met my little brother I was five years old sitting on a bed in Guatemala. My family decided that we wanted to add a new edition. When he was in Guatemala he was named Juan Carlos. We had to take two trips to Guatemala, one to visit my brother and one to then take him home. There was a long amount of time in between these trips. Once enough of the paperwork was done we were able to visit my baby brother.

Each house-- painted a very vibrant, dazzling color, purple, orange, yellow, green, and pink. I had never seen houses like that in the United States the usual house colors are gray, white, tan, blue, very dull colors. The sight of these vivid houses was just a small glimpse of this beautiful country. As I nervously traveled without my family for the first time the lush terrain of Costa Rica dotted with colorful houses welcomed me.

The classic saying, “There’s always someone who has it worse than you” (Shaggy- Keepin’ it Real), didn’t come true to me until I had first-hand experience. As a child, I grew up in the lower middle class. So I wasn’t rich nor super poor. My mother came to the United States from El Salvador in the 1980’s. She has never taken my brother and me to her home country.

As I stepped out of the airport, followed by my family, I was unprepared for the snowfall and icy pavement that is so commonplace in January in Michigan. If I had thought enough about it, I would have worn winter boots on the plane and maybe brought my puffy white coat to block the wind. Instead, I stood shivering in brand new, pink ballet-flat shoes, while snowflakes filled my eyelashes.

Last summer, I flew to Nicaragua for ten days with a team of sixteen girls and boys. I knew a couple people who have gone to mission and service trips like this and they said it was a really good experience, so I thought about and eventually made the decision to go. It was both one of the most terrifying and amazing experiences I have ever had. When we landed and arrived in Managua, I saw people living in extreme poverty left and right. People lived in houses with large rusty metal sheets for walls and roofs. Kids played outside

Imagine a time where you were at your lowest, a time in your life that nothing seemed to make

My father had cardiac problems. He used to Nicaragua. I was eleven when he suffered a stroke. Immediately my brother toke him to the hospital but there was not a cardiologist not a neurologist available. The only neurologist available was in Managua the capital which is approximately four hours away from Jinotega It was too late when we arrived to Managua he had passed away. Three hours later he started breathing .That was defiantly miracle. My father had an intestinal surgery two weeks after. Then he returned back to the U.S. My Father couldn’t move half of his body and he was losing weight. He saw the doctor and they found out that, Nicaraguan surgeon mistakenly left a small residue of a contaminated gauge in his body due to that my father

To be an expert at something is to do something multiple times until you're good at it and it becomes easy. I can honestly say my experiences this summer were something to remember forever, I learned about so much new culture, tried so much new and interesting food, and experienced so many new things from different places. One place especially was Costa Rica, but not just one part of Costa Rica, I went to six different cities in two weeks. From horseback riding and zip lining through a tropical rainforest, to exploring the beautiful volcanoes and waterfalls, to getting involved in the folkloric dancing, I would say I'm becoming more of an expert in experiencing new things and being adventurous.

It was a Monday in the summer of 2015. I was riding in an old 11 passenger van with 30 other people, on our way back from playing soccer. Most of the people were Guatemalan children screaming at the top of their lungs as the van rocked side to side as we drove up a narrow, winding, mountain road without guide rails. In the summer of 2015, I went to Guatemala for ten days, on a mission trip. My team (18 youth and pastors of East Side Church of God) and I visited four different Indian vilages: Chupol, Paquisis, Sacbichol, and Agua Escondita. We spent two days in each village and slept in each village’s church.

The day has finally come to go on vacation and my family, and I departed promptly from our house at 4:30 in the morning. Our flight was scheduled for 7 in the morning at Pittsburgh International Airport. We had to arrive there early because all people flying international had to be there two hours before the flight. All of us boarded the flight out to Punta Cana, which is located in the Dominican Republic. I can remember that I was so excited to go, and I was the first on the flight. I am almost positive that it took over three hours to get to the Dominican Republic from Pittsburgh. It was a really long flight to me because I could not wait to get there, and I just wanted to land. Finally, the moment has come, and we landed. When we departed from the plane, they had hula dancers dancing around us, and it was the coolest thing I have ever seen. They had people that would take pictures of you when you got off the plane. My family and I obliged and got our pictures taken. After all our pictures were taken, we went inside the airport and

Moving to a new country is very difficult for every person, even more, if it does not have anything in common with your origin country. Crossing borders, taking airplanes, and risking your life can become part of the immigration process. In this essay, I am going to explain the history of how I get out of Cuba. Also, I will be explaining how I reached this country. It was hard, but not impossible, and it was paid off already.

They say home is where the heart is and I’ve found out to be very true last year. I stayed in Palacagüina, Nicaragua for three months with an absolutely wonderful family with four of my friends. The five hour bus ride up to the dry dusty Nicaraguan mountains made me think this was quite an uneventful place. Don’t get me wrong.. Palacagüina is quite a boring place but the people there are so real and so truly amazing and it brings so much light to that city. Nicaragua has a way of making everything brighter. As soon as we met our family we were staying with they made us feel right at home and apart of their family. They started loving on us like my parents or any of my family would, which was so comforting.

I was always careless about all of my valuables,that was until they were all gone. It was Christmas vacation of 2011 and my mom was planning a flight to go to Dominican Republic to escape the cold Boston weather. My mother could only pick between me and my sister to go with her and naturally she chose my sister. She was probably still mad at me for times she has bought me electronics and video games that i don’t even touch anymore. I wanted to stay home by myself while they were away but she practically forced me to go to New York where my dad lives. I wasn't against the idea of seeing my dad I just didn't want to go a state where he was the only person I knew. But it was already decided so I got my stuff ready and got ready to leave and left in a transportation bus to New York. When I arrived there my dad was waiting for me in front of the apartment that he lived. Before even entering in his house his took me out to eat.I didn’t even have time to unpack. About the time we were eating my mom and my sister were arriving to Dominican Republic. After me and my dad finished eating he asked me

When I was in 9th grade, my family went on a missions trip to Nicaragua. This was not an ordinary one though. Instead of just going for a week or two, we went down for six months as a whole family. My parents, my brother, my 3 sisters and I all went into this experience wanting to serve, but not knowing quite what it would look like. When we got there, we encountered extreme poverty unlike anything we had seen here in the United States. While there, we painted countless schools, did art projects at countless others, worked with the local lending libraries, and simply loved on the kids down there to the best of our abilities. When the trip was over, I left with a feeling that I had somehow failed. I felt as though I had not given my all to

Serving other people has always been one of the most important things to me. What I would consider one of my most cherished project was a mission trip I took to Jinotega, Nicaragua. I went on this mission trip during the summer between my sophomore and junior year of high school. I was beyond worried going into the trip, my fears of something going wrong were over taking the joy I knew I would be bringing to the people there. Not only would I be going to a country I knew little about, but it was my first time out of the country ever. I pushed all of those feelings to the back of my mind because I knew that I would be protected and enjoy my time there.