As one of the most emotional days this week, Poverty Day was the most impacting.

On July 29, 2014, we visited a community who depends on Esteli’s city dump. The day started with a field trip to a Fabretto school where we were able to see the last Global Glimpse group’s Community Action Project. On our way there, none of the students were allowed to speak on the bus in order to attain everything that we’ve seen. Once at the Fabretto school, the guest speaker, Willmar, gave a general description of the school’s programs, faculty to student ratio, and a description of the many ways Global Glimpse has helped them.

After learning more about the Fabretto schools, we headed to a community called La Cruz. After a couple of minutes of silence in the bus, we met an inspiring woman named Dona Francisca. As an amazing woman, Dona Francisca talked about her daily life and the hardships she had to go through. Her life story begins when she was married at the age of twenty, and moved with her husband to the community where she lives now as a seventy-five year old. Dona Francisca bore twenty-five kids, but had to see seventeen of them die. Some children died as little as two years old. These issues where due to unsanitary conditions and intestinal problems. Dona  Francisca was the first to move to the plot of land where she lives, and now, a whole community made up of mostly her children. She once had dreams and aspirations for herself and her kids, but after years of seeing no one make it out of poverty, she has lost hope. As an inspirational person, Dona Francisca has impacted more people than she knows. Some people go living without even impacting a single person. I believe she is more than she thinks of herself. She has warmed our hearts, and she will forever stay in our hearts.

After visiting a great person, our next stop was the city dump. As part of an activity, we worked for about an hour doing what some people do their whole lives. Many of the Nicaraguan citizens who don’t have jobs earn a living by digging into the city dump in search for recyclable products. After forty minutes of work, we were exhausted. One can imagine how labor-intensive working at the city dump must be. People must obtain six pounds of plastic just to make eight cordobas (30 US cents). It may take a whole day just to make that amount of weight. Another eye-opening fact was seeing people actually living in the dump. Many of the people are making so little money that it is almost impossible to get out of poverty.

On our way back, the bus was completely silent. We were ordered to take showers and meet up for our self-reflection meeting where each one of us had the opportunity to express our feelings about what we had just seen. After a long conversation of expressing emotions and thoughts, we ate lunch.

After lunch, an hour of free time was allowed. Some people stayed in the hostel while others visited and toured the town. We then had a couple of hours to prepare for our English classes and our CAP project. Overall, the day started as an emotionally intense reaction, and then ended with a positive vibe. We all had such an amazing day that will stay with us forever.