Hey guys! My name is Kristianna Chung and today is day 18 of our Leon trip! Today was Politics day and we started off the day by waking up at 7 just in time for breakfast. We followed breakfast with a self reflection on our CAP project and an Academic Seminar on Politics. To continue our busy day, we had a guest speaker, Silvio Balmaceda. Silvio is a political science graduate who informed us about general Nicaragua politics. He covered many topics such as human rights and international politics. We then had lunch with our political speakers. Lunch was traditional Nicaraguan grounded beef with a hint of lemon. It was delicious! After lunch, we had speakers that spoke about the details of specific political parties. One speaker informed us about the FSLN party and the other talked about the PLI party. Following the two speakers, I split the glimpsers into two groups and we had an interesting competition with a quiz for each group! The winning group got to serve themmselves dinner before the group that lost. After the competition, I led a discussion on the similarities and differences between the United States and Nicaragua politics. We got a good discussion going about the different branches and ways of government. Then dinner came with shredded chicken with beans and carrots! After dinner, we all had a chance to play with our hostel cat, Blanca, and her newborn kittens! We had some free time then we continued our day with our nightly meeting and ceremony for passing the torch. To finish the long day , everyone gave each other amazing massages!

Today, my peers and I learned a lot about the influence of Nicaraguan politics on its people. We discovered the corruption within the government and people’s opinion on the corruption. We also all decided that many people don’t have the luxury to choose human rights and stand up to their governments corruption. Since today was a long day, I was definitely proud that my peers stuck by my side and respected all the activities we had planned. Being leader of the day was definitely a different experience. The overwhelming responsibility of your peers is crazy. You have the responsibility to stand up to your friends. Luckily, everyone was willing to contribute and were respectful. Today was a successful day and I’m glad I had the opportunity to become the leader of the day.