Today was our first step to making a difference here in Nicaragua at the Barrilete Organization through our community action project (CAP). Our group of passionate, incoming leaders worked especially hard to design an intricate vision and put it to life. The task was challenging because of the lack of experience that was necessary to complete our mission. Although we got up early, we were able to keep our energy flowing continuously throughout the long, hectic day. Despite the skepticism about the difficulty of the project we had planned, we maintained an eager mindset which was our accomplice to achievement.

Everyone put their full effort together into transforming our picture into reality. However, we don’t deserve all the credit, considering the amazing, selfless volunteers from the Barrilete staff and our English learning students. By putting all of our creativity to work, we thoughtfully brainstormed multiple ideas to improve the Barrilete. After assessing each idea for feasibility, necessity, time, money, and passion, we decided on four main projects. These include fixing broken chairs and tables, painting murals, adding shutters to open windows, and creating ways to spread the word about Barrilete to gain support from the community. The director of Barrilete admired our vision and believed it would impact the children’s lives that are supported by Barrilete.

In addition to the incredible progress we made on our first day of the CAP delivery process, we also had our last English teaching class tonight. (The photos of our classes are in this blog: Anna’s class is the one with the funny faces and Tatum’s class is the other one. There are 5 classes of different levels.) Teaching Nicaraguans of all ages with the freedom of lesson planning was a difficult initially, we adjusted after the first class. As we taught our students, we were exposed to a unique learning opportunity as well. The experience of teaching the Spanish speakers was smothered in obstacles, yet the students made it enjoyable by being so eager to learn from us. The gratitude we received from the students was a beautiful feeling. The gratefulness they had towards the educational opportunities of learning English, made us appreciate the more extensive  education opportunities we are fortunate to have back home.

Overall, today we accomplished and exceeded our expectations. We are grateful to have had the learning experience of teaching and to have started a project with life changing impacts.