Today was our first day waking up at five in the morning to find out there was no water running in part of the city, including ours. It was a big reality check for all of us but we managed to have a positive attitude and remain calm knowing that we still had purified drinking water and each other.
Which ties to today’s reality challenge, experiencing the life of a “Nica” high school student. We all got separated into two groups, one group went to a private school called San Luis and the other to a public school called INEP. Every one got the chance to shadow a “Nica” student, it was a wonderful experience learning about them and how they view the world in their perspectives. This relates to my title because my group went to the public school and the school was run down but the students were dedicated to learn. They did not have any textbooks or worksheets for any of the students, the teachers had their own textbook they can teach their students with and sometimes for homework the student were required after school to purchase copies of the day’s assignment on their own. In the social studies class I visited I was saddened by seeing that the kids had to rewrite text from a textbook word for word on paper because there weren’t any textbooks. Even though there weren’t enough supplies, the students wanted to get the education they had available to them. This made us have more awareness and appreciation for how many resources we have back at home. As for the other high school, it was the complete opposite, yes, they did have more resources and supplies but the education level that the student had was still insufficient. After shadowing the high school students we had a delicious lunch that involved mashed potatoes with a salad, carrots, and plantains.

Later in the day we started prepping for our Community Action Project (CAP), which we will go into more detail about tomorrow. This is for us to help the community and also teach them to have a positive long term affect for the community, making it a better environment. Our CAP will be located at Los Pipitos, an organization we will be visiting tomorrow.

From 6-8PM, it was our first day for our English tutoring class. This was by far the best part of my day. With my group, we have a class of 20 children from 10-12 which was a big challenge because they are beginners in learning English. I had a big advantage because I am fluent in Spanish and could communicate with the children as well as my group. My group taught them how to say “my name is…,” “my favorite color is…,” and, “I am …years old.” We managed to teach the majority of the kids these sentences in less than 2 hours. By the end we decided to sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” with the students which they already knew. It brightened up our night how much everyone here wants to have the best education they can get with the few resources they have.

This demonstrates that it’s possible for anyone to have a successful future with your health and amount of education you have.

 

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