As I woke up today, I immediately started to contemplate about how I could be the best Leader of the Day as I possibly could. The minute I rolled out of bed, I was as familiar with the schedule as I was with the back of my hand, and I began planning how I could be both a fun and efficient, leader of the day. Surprisingly, the pressure of such a tight schedule for such an important day did not intimidate me. I began my day, carrying on as usual, waking up everyone at 6:30 and played a special birthday song ((In the Club (It’s your birthday) by 50 Cent)) for the special birthday girl, Idalis. I then got everyone downstairs for a delicious breakfast of toast, beans and eggs, and immediately afterwards, we began our seminar on politics.

Throughout our seminar, we had a heated discussion based on the politics of not only Nicaragua, but throughout the world and all of history. We then quickly began to realize how politics intertwined with economics and everyone was truly engaged. But unfortunately, our guest speaker, Dona Sonia, had to arrive a bit late due to a medical situation in her family, so we utilized that time to continue working on our CAP project presentation, which we had to present later on. So, once she arrived, we took a trip up to Cerro El Calvario, where you would experience the most grand and beautiful view of Matagalpa.

DSC_0589Here, we were able to hear Dona Sonia tell us her bizarre and moving story of her experience as a guerilla revolutionary. She told the story as to how she joined the Sandinistas out of fear for her life when a soldier pointed a gun to her head when she was mistaken for someone else. She continued to talk about her 18-day-journey on foot in order to escape the Samozan soldiers wrath, and the misfortunate death of her closest friend. In fact, her friend died right in her arms after being shot by a Samozan soldier. Such a moving story while taking in a breathtaking view was in fact a memory to cherish. It was both inspiring and insightful as to the affect that political corruption can actually have on the people. Dona Sonia told us that her friend always gave. She always prepared to cook food for Sonya before herself and there was even a time where she found Boa Constrictor meat and saved it in her backpack so she could share it with Sonia. It is the same thing as what we are trying to do through Global Glimpse, trying to serve people to show love and compassion. When Sonia’s friend died in her arms, she told her to keep on pushing through everyday struggles, and to make sure she dedicates her life to always helping others. I honestly don’t know which was better, so all I can say is kudos to Global Glimpse for planning such grand experience for us Glimpsers.

After the speech, we headed back to our hostel where we were able to enjoy a delectable lunch with the amazing Dona Sonia, and ask a few more questions as to her opinions on current political affairs such, as the construction of the new Nicaraguan Canal. So after an intriguing conversation and wonderful lunch, it was straight back to work on the CAP Project presentation, making sure it was flawless when the leaders of the HOPE Project, Farrell and Raul, came to view what we would be working on for our community service project. And even with the limited amount of time we had, we were still able to successfully get Raul and Farell on board with our project after listening to our stellar presentation.

As Leader of the Day, I was especially proud of my peers to see how fast and proficiently we were able to put together such an intricate presentation. Seeing everyone utilize their talents, and work together to create this one project melted my heart, and made myself pleased to be amongst such great minds. I can honestly say that at this moment specifically, I was proud to call myself a Global Glimpser.

DSC_0659After a successful presentation, we were able to take a quick break, and then it was right back to working. About 15 minutes later, all of the Glimpsers gathered into their English tutoring groups, and prepared today’s lesson plan for our students. Each and every group came up with both a unique and active way to teach their students English, rather than just having them copy out of a boring workbook. As we teach our 4th class, all of students have become accustomed to our unique teaching styles and bring more and recommend their friends to learning English with us as well, welcoming more and more students’ everyday. It brings a smile to my face, every time I see my students walk in to class with a smile on their face, and just the fact that these students genuinely love coming to this optional class.

Finally, after a long and successful day, we were able to return to the hostel for a true Nicaraguan dinner of fried tortilla chips, with pulled chicken and salsa. Delicioso! Then, we had our nightly meeting where we were able to reflect on our day, and how we our perspective on politics may have changed throughout the day after listening to Dona Sonia’s compelling speech. We then ended the night with a self-reflection on how we believe the corrupt politicians affect the world and how we may be able to improve the quality of lives around the world through a decent education and knowledge of the world’s political history. It is true when they say that history repeats itself, and by knowing your history, you can prevent problems from the past from re-emerging.

Looking back on today, being Leader of the Day was an exceptional experience and allowed me to step back and really observe how my peers and I all come together to form one of the most talented, motivated and powerful groups, many have ever seen. Today really allowed me to realize the eminent potential of each and everyone of my peers, as well as myself, to become the world’s next great leaders.

And last but not least, we could not end the night without celebrating Idalis’ birthday, so we enjoyed a delicious Nicaraguan cake and very intense session of card games and dominoes. Happy Birthday Idalis!!!

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