This morning, Isa and I got everybody up bright and early at 6 am, beginning to prepare all of our clothes and stuff for a fun day at the beach.  After getting a nice breakfast and having a nice mental warmup for the events of the day, we hopped onto the bus for our trip to the beach.  We got to know somebody better during the ride with partner interviews, and we switched into sandals and flip flops as we got off the bus and into some boats.  On the ride to the beach, and island of the mainland, our guides educated us about the mangrove trees, the wildlife, and the efforts to preserve the ecosystem that protect the community.  The mangrove trees are being replanted, as they helped preserve the community from a previous hurricane, while the beach serves as a refuge to endangered sea turtles.

Once we got the beach, everybody was changing and running onto the (burning hot) sand.  With giant, crashing waves, some dived straight in and others pushed their limits trying to go deeper than they had before.  There might have been a few wipeouts, dragging people down, and knocking into each other.  I myself scraped my knees when a wave crash took me, but everybody, especially me, had an amazing time.  We headed back through the canal we came in from between the mainland and the island, and watched as the low water in between sand banks wasgone under the waves.  We got off the boats and had a wonderful meal of either fish, chicken, or pasta with tostones (fried plaintains) or fries.

Getting back on the bus, we all headed to Fundacion Xuchialt, an art center with historic and cultural roots trying to teach the youth about the indigenous Sutiaba culture and to provide artistic opportunities who wouldn’t be able to have them otherwise.  After a brief introduction surrounded by brilliant art pieces, we headed to the roof to learn about Sawdust rugs.  Traditionally made on Holy Friday, sawdust is the primary ingredient that is mixed with dyes to create beautiful art pieces.  Dyes made from soil or tree materials, would be placed into a plastic bag full of sawdust, then mixed in with water.  It was a surprising process, that seemed almost magical when a dark green dye was thrown in, but once the water hit it with the sawdust, the sawdust became a rich rose and red color.  After creating various designs and putting all of our love and heart into our work we waited to have the rug finished. The final touch? Destroying it all!  We had to walk all over our work of love, leaving no noticeable trace of what had been, but taking our ideas and inspiration into our hearts.

To finish off the night, we prepared for the following day, beginning to take in some statistics about global life in poverty, as well as local Nicaraguan struggles.  We discussed with our groups as well, getting to know each other better through questions we wrote.  As we moved into our nightly meeting, lots of love was shared over the events of the day, passing the torch to the next Leaders del Dia, and having Isa share her beautiful voice as she belted out If I ain’t got you by Alicia Keys.  Overall, people have had their great shares of fun today, and we all are having a great time as we get to know each other and experience more and more of Nicaragua’s culture.

P.S.
We apologize for the grainy pics, wi-fi has been really slow and we are still trying to figure out how to post pics that are clearer.

Pablo and Isabelle