Hello, this is Yerielis Rivera and Rainbow Elliston, the GG Leaders of the day (lideres del dia), reporting to you from the Hostal del Rey about our day entitled, “Working as a Local”. Yesterday, we were told to think about the question, “How hard do you think their jobs are in comparison to the profits they make?” We needed to keep this question in mind as we worked with a local business. We had a general idea about the question, but we had no idea what we were getting into until the moment our day started.
Everything started when we woke up at 4 AM so that we could get ready and wake everyone else up in time by 4:28 AM. Waking up at 4 AM is not something a regular American teenager does, so making sure that we were prepared for the day was very important. Part of our responsibilities as the leaders were to make sure all of the Glimpsers dietary needs were dealt with during every meal, that the dress code was followed, and keeping everyone hydrated.
The day was very busy. After everyone was ready by 5 AM, we got on a school bus and went to the “Finca Carnavalia”, a 97 acres farm that grows a variety of crops and cares for many different animals. As part of working like a local, we got to eat breakfast at the farm and hear a speaker (Selena) talk about the daily routine on a farm. At 7:30 AM THE WORK began. We split into 3 different groups; one went to pick the dead plants out of crops, another weeded out unwanted plants from cacao crops, and the last shoveled and swept cow manure. This lasted for 3 hours until 10:30 AM. Once that was over, we all gathered and exchanged stories about our strenuous, tiring, and aching bones work on the farm. We ate a snack and got back on the bus for a very bumpy road home to take very needed showers. Our amazing leader Silvan (Nicaraguan leader)encouraged us to keep doing what we’re doing and complimented our leadership skills regularly.
We started our lunch at 1:00 PM and then had our “Living Like a Local” and “Human Rights” seminars with an energizer in between. During the “Living Like a Local” seminar, we discussed how some kids don’t receive an education because they work to make a living for their families, and mothers who gave up their food for their children. Some locals even have to take showers with buckets because they don’t have running showers. We are going to do this when we live like a local on Sunday. During the “Human Rights” seminar we talked about the importance of human rights and played a game to show how people with money and better educational backgrounds have more rights.
At 3:30 our free time started and while the rest of the group was relaxing and bonding at the hostal, we ran an errand with Silvan (our Nicaraguan leader, who bought dishes for us to use for the bucket showers for our next activity day, “LIVING Like a Local”. When we returned at 5 pm, we gathered everyone up for dinner and enjoyed some white rice, beef, and plantain chips, with a salad. By 5:45 pm we were on our way to the public school to tutor students, varying from small children to adults, in English. To our surprise when we got there, there was no electricity, but the beginner children were so excited to see their professors, Kevin and Yerielis, that they still wanted to have class even though it would have to be in the middle of the basketball court. Because of their excitement, all classes stayed for 1 hour, which was when it got too dark.
We got back to the hostel by 7 PM and had our regular nightly meeting at 7:15 pm, in which we discussed our entire day, shared comments and love, and passed the torch to the next leaders.
That now leaves us here at 9:50pm, finishing our blog for the day and getting ready for a much needed day off tomorrow where we are so excited to call home.