IMG_6082IMG_6081Aye Omari checking in! Today, we started off with a 6am wake up call (well most of us). After that we headed to breakfast–after a head count, of course. We were all relieved to hear that it wasn’t  Gallo Pinto but an egg scramble  and tortillas. After breakfast, we headed  back to the hostel for our academic seminar  in which we learned more about poverty by reading an article called “Rural poverty in Nicaragua”. After we read the article, we got into small groups and categorized statements into the 5 P’s place, people, politics, past and peace.

We loaded onto our bus and we headed to the city dump and as we drove there we came upon fields of trash and debris. Once we arrived at the city dump, we were greeted by stray dogs and workers. We took a tour of the dump and a man named Rodolfo was the first to greet us. He had a huge bag filled with glass bottles and when I say it was huge, it was HUGE! That’s not even the craziest part- he was carrying the whole thing on his head. But the sad thing was that he sells the bag and only makes a 20 Córdoba profit which is less an one US dollar. As we continued walking through the dump, the garbage truck arrived and most of the workers rushed to the truck to get first dibs on the items that were in the bags. During that time, we set a place where we served food and drinks to the workers. at first we didn’t have many people lining up due to the fact that the garbage truck arrived when we were setting up. But after about 5-10 minutes we started getting a line of workers and it was amazing to see the various age groups of people, from about 10 to 65, lining up. I had a smile on my face from seeing everyone there so happy to eat. Ena, being the animal lover she is, couldn’t leave the dogs out, so she found a bowl and poured some fresh water for them and oh were they happy to get that. We were supposed to have a member of the church, Alvaro, be our guest speaker tell us his testimony about the dump, but we ended up getting a special treat and having a worker named Patricia and her daughter Anita speak to us about working at the dump and also allowing us to ask them questions. Patricia told us that her primary find at the dump is clothing that she can clean and repair to be sold , and also that she had been working at the dump for 8 years. At the end she came around the circle and gave everyone a hug. As she was approaching me, I couldn’t do anything but stop and look around and just think to myself, “do people really have to live like this?” Once I received my hug, I couldn’t do anything but cry because she gave me a hug that only a mother could and I felt that as she embraced me in her arms.

We  loaded onto the bus and out of respect we rode in silence back to the hostel. I know that was greatly needed and we all got the deserved time to absorb what we just saw and learned. Once we made it back to the hostel, we were all told to take showers. We did a self reflection, but changed it up and we did a full group discussion instead of getting into small groups. We discussed our opinions on the dump and how we felt about what Patricia told us and what we can do differently in our own lives so things like the dump aren’t the only option. We headed to el comedor la Favorita for lunch and we had guiso (zucchini and cheese) and beef stew rice and tortillas. I had just about everything, minus the dead cow.

After lunch, we headed back to the hostel for more free time and also prepared for English tutoring and around 3:45pm we walked to the school for tutoring and to our surprise more kids showed up to tutoring, so we all got to teach (big love to them cause they are on vacation). After tutoring, we headed to el comedor la favorita for dinner and we had guacamole and beans with plantain chips. After dinner, we came back to the hostel and had the nightly meeting with a bonus: PIZZA! yes, pizza in Nicaragua! Each room got their own boxes of pizza and chowed down and went to sleep.

 

Ps: we love reading all your comments at the nightly meetings we love all the love so keep posting and goodnight  from myself and all the other glimpsers

Oh yeah and don’t forget school isn’t a word during the summer.