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Hey there, Danny and Deepka here! We have had the honor of being Los Liders del Dia for the first day of our delegation’s CAP (Community Action Project). The Community Action Project represents the beginning of the end of our journey here in Leon, Nicaragua. This project is our way of showing our gratitude to this beautiful nation for kindly welcoming us with open arms and housing/nurturing us for three weeks. It is also a way for us to leave our mark behind.

We began the day by waking up at 7:00 AM and made our way to the Comedor by 7:50 AM. There, we had Nicaraguan-style eggs, traditional gallo pinto, a whole tortilla, and a bowl of sweet, juicy watermelon before heading back to the Hostel for a presentation preparation. By 8:15 AM, we met with Los Poscitos community leaders Cesario and Fulgencio to discuss the ideas for our project. Prior to this meeting, our group of 20 students decided to paint a mural (one for which the purpose is to beautify the community center of the Los Pocitos neighborhood while also raising awareness on local challenges such as water and waste management) and also provide water jugs in  each classroom so young school children will have better access to water.

image1 (7)Afterwards, we set out on a hunt for the best quality paint and water jugs that were within our budget. Soon after, we had a scrumptious chicken salad that brought up memories of our salads back home 🙁

At around 1:30 we set forth to the Los Pocitos community to begin on our two-part project; half of our team worked on painting primer onto the wall and the other half picked up garbage around the community and played with the local children while fending off mosquitoes and other pesky bugs. Despite much confusion on how to spend the remainder of our money, we solidified our plan to buy more paint and paintbrushes in order to repaint the ENTIRE interior.

So now it is our time to wrap things up and say goodbye. (Goodbyes are always so hard.) Overall, a tiring day would definitely be an understatement but it was necessary. We’ll see you all tomorrow. Buenas noches y hasta manana!