Hey guys, it’s Taya here once again writing my last blog to give you another glance into our day. Just to let you know before I start, our day was PRETTY packed. So don’t fall asleep on me. Just kidding, I know you won’t do such a thing. Anyways, to start off or day, we all had to wake up at 6. Well I woke up a bit earlier since I was the leader of the day. After everyone dragged themselves out of bed, we all walked over to Esteli Buffet where we had an omlete and toast. YUMMM!!! After our delicious breakfast, we then headed back to the hostal where we had our poverty seminar.

During this seminar, we mostly talked about statistics and facts about poverty in Nicaragua. We then watched a documentary called, “Dreaming Nicaragua” which showed the harsh living conditions that LOTS of Nicaraguan people face with. I’m gonna warn you, their living conditions are very heart breaking. Okay so let me just spit it out, there are many people here in Nicaragua who live in the DUMP. For those who don’t know what the dump is, it is the place where garbage is discarded. Now I don’t know about you guys, but this really broke my heart when I heard this. And that is only the beginning. Not only did we watch an documetary about the dump, but we also went to visit and talk to a few people who live in the dump.

One of the people that we went to visit was an lady named Dona Francisca who was 76 years old. When we went to visit her, she greeted us with a huge smile and big hugs. As we were there, she was telling us how she lived by the dump in an community called Las Cruces for most of her life. If you think that is sad wait till you hear this part. She told us that throughout her life, she has had 25 kids. YIKES! But wait there’s more. Out of those 25 kids, 17 of them passed away. Hearing this was very heart breaking. With such a huge lost, she held herself up pretty strong. But an interesting thing that was said when she told us about her lost was that she was actually thankful that God put matters into his hands and took the 17 kids to live with him due to the fact that it was very difficult to care and provide 25 children when she could barely survive and provide for herself. This really made tears want to come eyes when I heard this. Though her living conditions were very harsh and she didn’t have much to live on, she was still grateful for what she had and what God will provide for her.

After our talk with dona Francisca, we then thanked her for sharing her story by presenting her a gift which was a picture of the global glimpse group. While saying our goodbyes, we could see the happiness in her eyes due to the fact that we came to see her since some of her kids that now live in Esteli doesn’t visit her at all. Couldn’t imagine not visiting my mom. Anyways, after our meet with Dona Fransisca, we then went to visit her daughter who was working in the dump. Just to keep you informed, there are people who both live and work in the dump. As for Fransisca, she only works in the dump from 7-3. As we’re were meeting her, we asked her a few questions. From the questions that we asked she told us that she has lived in Las Cruces her whole life with her mother. She also said that she has been working in the dump from the age of 22 and she is now in her 40’s. Crazy right! We also asked her about the working conditions there in the dump. Wait till you here this. They have to gather up plastic bottles and cans which then determines how much they get paid by the pound. So every pound is worth 1 cordobas. ONlY ONE CORDOBAS!(that is only 4 cents). Continuing with the working conditions, she mentioned how it is difficult to gather a lot of cans and plastic bottles due to the fact that there are many others that are working in the dump trying to make the little money that they can earn. And lastly, we asked her one last question which was, ” if you can wish for anything, what would you wish for?” Her response to this question was, ” I wouldn’t wish for anything because I know it wouldn’t get it but I do have dreams.” Hearing this made me feel bad because it’s pretty much like she gave up on hope. After saying our goodbyes and presented her a picture of the global glimpse group, we then headed back onto the bus to the hostel.

From the hostal, we had an self reflection where everyone talked about their experiences at the dump and what would they do if they can change anything about the dump and the people living there. After our self reflection, we then headed over to get some lunch which was then followed by a trip down to UCA Miraflor. At UCA Miraflor, we finally got to meet the organization that we will be working with. While meeting with the organization, we were told that our contribution to the community could be to fix up the school in the community we went to, Robledal. So after finalizing and asking our last questions to the organization, we then went back to the hostal. At the hostal, we came up with ideas that we can do for our cap design which was pretty hectic but we got through it. Im not going to go too much into detail with the cap design since we haven’t made our decision of our top three ideas but you will hear about it soon. Last but not least, we ended our day with dinner and our usual nightly meeting where I passed down the leadership necklace to vega. Overall, today was a very heartbreaking, hectic and inspirational day.

Ps: Happy birthday to Teresa’s mom. Though she is many many many miles away, she still sends her blessings. Hope you enjoy your day.