Our first full day in Nicaragua!

Waking up at 6:30 wasn’t fun, but we all felt pretty rested even though we had been up for more than thirty hours the night before. After breakfast we sat together as a group and did our culture, safety, and history seminars. We learned how to stay safe in Nicaragua and about the Nica way of life and history.

After that we went on a city tour with our leaders. It was really fun to see Matagalpa and to experience what the city looks like on a normal day. We found the good places to buy coffee, ice cream, and fruits. One of hardest parts about the city tour was turning down all of the children pan-handlers on the streets. It was difficult for many of us to turn them down even though we knew that the money was not going to benefit them.

Then our leaders, Norman and Asha, thought that we had been pretty good so they took us to a little Eskimo (ice cream) shop. The scoop of fruity ice cream definitely brought our minds off of the humid Matagalpan weather. We were all pretty happy after that sweet treat.

After a delicious lunch at the hostel we took a short bus ride up to Cerro Calvario where we met Donna Sonna and experienced a breathe taking view. Donna Sonna shared her amazing story of how she fought as a Sandanista in Nicaraguan revolution during the 1970’s at the age of only 17. Her story was extremely powerful and gave many of us a deeper understanding of Nicaragua in general.

Once we got back to the hostel and ate dinner we had our nightly meeting. We then had a lot of free time so most of the glimpsers played some card games out in the hostel patio. All in all today was really fun and we are excited to see what these next few weeks will bring us.

Too bad we have to wake up at 5:15 tomorrow!

See you tomorrow!

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