Hi everybody! My name is Mimi An Nguyen and on July 10th, day 13 of the delegation I was the leader of the day. As I am writing right now, the day would soon be ending and I’d be going to bed at 10:30 pm. Today, everyone woke up at 7 am to eat breakfast at 8 that included sliced bread, brown sugar, eggs mixed with sausages, cantaloupes, and hot chocolate! The theme today was Fun Day so everyone got to relax and have fun. We had time to walk to the supermarket before getting on the bus to Rancho De Angela to buy any needed supplies or snacks. At 9:30 am everyone was ready to get on the bus to our destination. The ride to Rancho De Angela was about 10 minutes long so it wasn’t that from our hotel we were staying at. Angela, the owner of the ranch, was also the owner of the hotel we were staying at! We were all very grateful towards Angela as she offered us to play at the ranch for free also providing us lunch there. The ranch had all the things you would want on a relaxing day, a pool, pool table, and cards to pass time. Lunch that was provided to us by Angela included chicken, fried corn balls, salads with choice of dressing, yellow rice with saffron, and as desert: jello. Before we left the ranch at 2 pm, we all thanked Angela and gave her a big group hug. The highlight of being at the ranch for me would be waiting for the bus. As we waited for the bus everyone gathered under the hut and started to have a dance off! The dance off had everyone leaving the place full of laughter.

Playing some pool at Rancho Angela!

Playing some pool at Rancho Angela!

When we departed back to the hotel, we had a two hour break that consisted of people taking naps and people munching on their snacks. At 4:30 pm we had a CAP project meeting, (Community Action Project). We discussed into detail of what we wanted to propose and questions for the community leaders that were coming at 5 pm. At 5 the community leaders had arrived and gave their thoughts and suggestions on our plans. As the meeting concluded at 6:30 pm, the groups finalized what they were going to do, the roles of each individual, the budget, materials needed, use of materials that were given, and back up plans if the following Sunday were going to rain or not. At 7 pm we all left to eat dinner, inviting the community leaders. It was raining pretty hard so we all took out our own rain ponchos, umbrellas, and rain jackets, and always carrying our water bottles.

Getting ready with our rain gear…tropical storm Chantal we’re ready for you!

Dinner was also delicious as it included small slices of beef and onions, rice mixed with beans and more meat, and two small thinly sliced fried cheeses. We humbly took a picture with the two community leaders outside the hotel and had free time up to 30 minutes till our usual nightly meetings. At 8:50 the nightly meeting began and ended roughly around 9:40 pm. We got to talk about the thorns and roses we had today. Many said the day overall was their rose since they finally got to relax and have fun with other glimpsers. Overall, today everyone had a very relaxing day with delicious food all thanks to Angela! Tomorrow we’ll be writing drafts of appreciation letters for all the providers of us Glimpsers. 🙂