Rice and beans. Beans and rice. Beeeeeans to the left! Beeeeeeans to the right! Beans criss-crossed! Rice with a bean. Beans with a grain of rice. That is what we ate all day yesterday. By the time I had woken everyone up, we all grumbled our way over to Quiero Mas. To our complete and utter surprize, we gazed upon the greatest feast known to burgers and fries alike: gallo pinto. The owners of the shop were so shocked to witness our amazement, they began to laugh. Just kidding. We were so sick of eating the stuff that we chose the fruit and the quesadillas and passed on the gallo pinto. Hey, we are not to be blamed. Sometimes you can just have too much of a good thing.

When we came back from eating, we began phase 2 of our Community Action Project (CAP), which is Design. Our project will involve working with a children’s home run by a nun by the name of Madre Maria. Last week, we visited the home and listened and asked questions of Madre Maria about what the needs of the home were. Today, we had to plan and present our project to Madre Maria, and we  were faced with the grueling task of choosing the ways we were going to help our little kiddies out. As we began to throw around ideas, we found that the hardest part was finding out what we couldn’t do because, of course, we wanted to fix everything, but we had to come to a consensus about a project that would meet the following criteria: feasibility, personal passion, community involvement, and impact. This means we had to figure out a project that we could accomplish in two days with a total of 14 hours (9am to 4pm each day) with the resources we had that we had the most passion about, would involve the community, and would make the greatest impact. As for resources, we collected 500 dollars as a group to put toward our project! Woo!! In cordobas (Nica currency), that is 13,400! Which means we have a pretty substantial amount of money to work with.

Design Time!

As El Lider Del Dia, leading the planning discussion was by no standards easy. We wanted to do everything possible, and I had to make sure that I thought of all the reasons why a project may or may not work. I played a big role in what direction this project was going because I needed to make sure what we decided on was going to make a lasting impact on these kids’ lives. For me, that’s a big deal. The future outlooks of 25 children are dependent on how well I am able to think about things and how well I am able to communicate with my GG fambam. It wasn’t always easy to go against what someone was passionate about doing, but I knew that if we were ever going to come to a group consensus and feel good about it, I would have to put all of my feelings aside and be as direct as possible. I made sure to look at the project with fresh eyes and objective emotions for the better of the children we were doing all of this for. After a few hours of talking everything out, we came to the conclusion that painting the kid’s dorms and the dining area of the home would be the focus of our attention. We also agreed that with whatever money we have left, we will buy the home supplies such as pillows, sheets, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, rice, beans, corn flour, and various other essentials. Then Madre Maria came, and we presented our ideas to her. Thankfully, she loved our ideas and gratefully welcomed our help! The girls’ room will be painted a lilac purple with flowers, butterflies, and tinkerbell. The boys’ room will be mint green with soccer players and soccer balls on the wall. The dining area will be a light blue with a mural. We are all excited to begin working on our project, and all the supplies have been bought. Let the painting begin! OLÉ!

Excited to change a life or two,

Jasmina