Hello fellow family and friends! Tara blogging today so hopefully this isn’t too horrifying for you as it is for me being El Lider Del Dia.
We Glimpsers started off our day at the ungodly hour of 5 am. We went to breakfast at about 6 and we were served a delicious bowl of fruit loops. We then left to go to Liceo Catholics Maria Auxiliadora in our incredibly diverse school uniforms, where we each shadowed a high school student to be able to compare and contrast the schooling system of Nicaragua and the USA. The class that I was able to observe had Algebra, Economy, and P.E. on this lovely Wednesday morning. Based on our nightly meeting, what we experienced at the high school was definitely not what we were expecting, but still expanded our knowledge about the world we live in.
After recess with our fellow Nica partners, we took pictures and were off to our home for these two and a half weeks. However, this obviously wasn’t the end of our day. Glimpsers were able to change into more comfortable clothing before going to Fundacion Cristal. To give you more background information, this inclusive school is for the disabled and for students that come from low income families. We were all presently surprised with a cute presentation from the kids where they sang and actually challenged us to a sing off!
The students would sing Nicaraguan songs while us Glimpsers ended up singing Nursery rhymes we learned growing up. I feel that they most enjoyed, “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” due to many of the children wanting us to sing and dance the song multiple times as well as doing the song over faster every time. The children and teachers got up on a stage doing a creative dance with string and proceeded to allowing us to join them. After doing a little dance that didn’t look to be as tiring as it actually was, two of our fellow Glimpsers, Hermione and Fatu, volunteered to learn to dance Ballet Folklorico. We joined them shortly after.
After the little performances, we were served lunch at the preschool and then split up into four groups. My group actually made some kind of Play-doh like substance and danced to some songs playing on the radio. After all the groups came back from their own activities, we took a group photo with all the kids and made our way back to the hostel.
We received a short break but soon went to our Education Seminar in the Common Area lead by Jeanie. We were able to talk about the comparisons of the schooling system here in Nicaragua and the USA. Many facts we found out were incredibly shocking.
After our education seminar, we were able to work on our CAP for a bit and I am glad to say that we are incredibly excited about it. We were actually able to finish early and go to dinner after a ten minute break.
When dinner was finished, we headed off to Centro Recreativo and had a speech from a breakdancer here in Nicaragua, speaking of how beakdancing is a way to express himself. We were able to split off into groups, learn a few moves, and present them to one another. While I can honestly say that I was unsuccessful in this genre, many of our students surprised us all. Michael and Sara stepped out of their comfort zone and definitely showed us all that they had a good time dancing and expressing themselves.
After a long, but eventful day, we headed back to the hostel and began our nightly meeting. All tired, but still pushing through the last few activities of the day. I’m glad to say that I handed the ELDD title to Maiya, but you’ll still be hearing from me tomorrow for my second and last blog post. Hopefully you didn’t cringe reading my post, but if you did, I deeply apologize. Thanks for reading this and catch me blogging again tomorrow night for Global Business Day!
P.S. Thanks for the comment mom. I’ll (hopefully) contact you on my next free day. Hope you’re all doing well and tell everyone I said hello and that I’m fine. ((-: I love you all!
I’m so proud of you my dear daughter. I was never a good writer unless it’s a patient case presentation, but you and your group there are amazing. Whenever I read all your blogs every night, I feel like I am there too. I’m glad that you seem to be enjoying as well as learning a lot. Take care and be safe all of you. Mom loves you so much.
Wow…. Look at break dance!! Is this requirement before go to bed? 🙂
If so, I would said it is great activity. You will sleep well and your body will appreciate you doing break dance. Ha-Ha Seems, put head in to floor is first step to do break dance I guess… LOL
All Glimpsers, be well and make long last memory in Estelí.
Love
Mom
Rafay, we all miss you.
Very nice blog Tara . So happy you are enjoying your stay in Esteli. Even though we are missing you so much just take good care of yourself there, always be safe and see you soon We love you.