Hola me llamo Nadia Merino! And today was the first day of El Lider del dia. It was a bit difficult knowing we all have to wake up at 5am and I was responsible for keeping us all on schedule. But in the end it was extremely rewarding for me and the rest of us.

We traveled to la Garnacha which is an inclusive community where they grow their own coffee and vegetables as a job. It was so amazing seeing how coffee was made because they didnt just use a machine to do all the work, they did it all by hand it, 8 hours a day, little by little to take the shell from the coffee and not damage it and we all got to try it out ourselves which was really cool. Not everyday 17 year olds get to try coffee straight from the source!!!

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Also we tried out the different sections and saw how hard it was for a worker here in Nicaragua. They all not only work for hours but don’t have the right equipment and still stick through it. It’s really inspiring and I feel like we all realized that because when we talked about it today during the nightly meeting, we all had insightful reflections. It was really fun! I feel we’ve known each other longer than it has been. We went to La Estanzuela which was a waterfall where after along hard working day , we got to relax a little and let go of all that was going through our mind too. Not only that but we also got to meet Eliza and Madai, the Executive Director and the Nicaraguan Country Coordinator, as well as board members and donors. I was a bit nervous because they sounded so official and a huge deal but they were really calm, chill, friendly, and really interested in all of us by asking us questions. Also we played a game called “wa!!” that made us all laugh and have a goodtime before they left it wasn’t what I expected and I was glad for that.

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One thing that is on my mind right now is when a couple of us swam all the way to the waterfall and we looked up to the water falling it was so cool because I had never done that before! Today was overall a fun learning experience and I know that the upcoming days will be even better!

Chow 🙂