Bonnie wields a big knife to trim yucca. She and Lupe worked hard at trimming and delivering vegetables in addition to making sales.

Bonnie wields a big knife to trim yucca. She and Lupe worked hard at trimming and delivering vegetables in addition to making sales.

Leeza selling mint for 2 Cordoba (the exchange rate is 27 C to $1), Ally and Carla selling peppers, Jenny working at the cafe, and Jessica and ELDD Crystal stirring up business at their produce stand.

Leeza selling mint for 2 Cordoba (the exchange rate is 27 C to $1), Ally and Carla selling peppers, Jenny working at the cafe, and Jessica and ELDD Crystal stirring up business at their produce stand.

Hello to my fellow Glimpsers’ families and friends! Thanks for dropping by and reading my blog. Our theme for today was to work like a local in Estelí and today was our final challenge day. This morning everybody was relieved that our wake up call changed from 4 am to 5 am. Personally I am definitely the worst person for the job to wake everybody up at 4 am when I normally can’t even wake myself up at 11 in the morning. After everybody got ready for the day, we headed to Buffet Estelí as usual but was surprised with a Fruit Loops cereal breakfast with milk and bananas. With a sugary breakfast in our stomachs, we headed to Estelí’s local farmers market. From 7am to 12 pm we were all spread out in different food produce areas and were helping the local vendors sell their products. Jenny worked in a café preparing omelettes and serving them to customers. Sean carried cheese crates weighing more than 60 pounds and put them into the delivery truck. Meanwhile, Rocio became the queen of cheese! Clara and Frannie worked in a vegetable stand and they arranged veggies, sold tortillas, and cut taro root. Ally and Carla sold peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, and chili. Leeza also worked at a vegetable stand and worked with an extremely large knife. Lupe and Bonnie rode a tricycle to where they were to work, counted 200 oranges and 200 lemons, and handled the profit of the business. Amanda and Angelic filled bags with cream and worked with dairy products like cheese. Last but not least, Jessica and I also worked at a local vegetable stand and we promoted avocados, limes, cucumbers, and oranges to passing customers and herded them towards our stand. Overall within the first half of today, we all really enjoyed working with these lovely locals and they welcomed us into this aspect of life.

In this experience of working like a Nicaraguan local, we all learned of the hardships faced in these local businesses. Many of the vendors struggle everyday to earn money to survive. At the moment, business has been very difficult and a majority of the workers are earning $20-$30 a day. Each day local workers wake at 4am and work until 5pm. A nerve wracking problem for these people is whether their products will get stolen overnight for all they do is cover their produce as they do not have a place to lock up their products. Many have to hire a watchman at night and this takes away from their wages to buy food for their families’ meals. Another problem is they don’t have freezers and refrigerators to keep their produce fresh so rotten products go to waste. There is competition between produce prices between the local businesses which decreases wages. But no matter the circumstances, these workers seem content and extremely proud of their work.

After giving the workers we worked with their gifts and saying our goodbyes, we headed back to the hostel and worked as a team to prepare our CAP Delivery Presentation. As soon as we were done, we all headed out for a much needed smoothie or froyo. When we returned, we got dressed in formal attire and got seated for our CAP Delivery Presentation led by Clara, Jenny, and Rocio. This presentation was a success and our project will commence. We continued on to our action plan for the CAP Project. Afterwards we headed to Downing Burgers for American food night! We enjoyed our burgers, tacos, salads, and spicy chicken wings with juice. With full and satisfied tummies, we headed back and had our nightly meeting. Then for Fran to earn leadership of the group, I challenged her to either slow dance with somebody or do the worm. She slow danced with Frannie and we ended the day with our unity clap and listening to Sean sing “Never Going to Give You Up” by Rick Astley so beautifully. Hope you enjoyed my blog and have a goodnight 🙂

Sincerely,

Crystal Lee

 

Clara and Frannie trim taro before inspecting and displaying other produce. Sean and Rocio assist with the creama and this is a picture of the Farmers Market.

Clara and Frannie trim taro before inspecting and displaying other produce. Sean and Rocio assist with the creama and this is a picture of the Farmers Market.