Hello, my name is Aaron Alvarado, I am from Redwood City, California, I am 16 years old. I will be attending my senior year of high school at Summit Prep this coming fall. I was leader of the day today, along with Timothy Ford. Our group had a very challenging but exciting day today. Some students sold cheese, cereal drinks, or fruit drinks at the local market. Every student worked a total of 5 full hours at the market this morning. Last night, the entire group of 20 Global Glimpsers were divided into 5 groups of 4 students. The first wake up call was at 4:00 am, done by Timothy and I. The first group of students left the hostel to prepare the cheese they would sell at the market at 4:30 am. The second and third group of students left the hostel at 5:45 am, to also prepare cheese, as well as cereal drinks to sell at the market. The remaining two groups left at 6:50am and went to the market to sell fruit drinks and cheese. I was in the last group that left to the market, to sell fruit drinks. Each group was paired up with a local vendor, and taught the way their product was made, advertised, and sold at the market. Overall, the Global Glimpse group had a blast experiencing the sights, sounds, and smells of the market. This was a very humbling and eye -opening experience for me personally. After reflecting on the little time I spent working at the market this morning, I began to think of the blessings and abundance of resources and material things we have in the US, such as clean water, sophisticated and modern tools in which to do our work with, and our wealth. Although the people we worked with had little of these things, they were still joyful in their attitude and actions. Their satisfaction and happiness did not come from the electronics, money, or material things they had, but the company they enjoyed from family, friends, and customers. In addition, it came from the love and passion they had from their work. This morning was an extreme reality check for me personally, and I am sure it impacted my fellow peers as well. I will leave the rest of the blog space for Timothy to share his experience from this morning, as well as the rest of the day. Buenas noches todos! – Aaron Alvarado
Hi, I am Timothy Ford as you perviously read but I am from Oakland, California. I am 17 years old. I will be attending skyline high school as a senior. I was also the co leader for today with Aaron Alvarado. So today as leader I had to wake up super early to wake everyone else up. I left with the first group this morning at 4:00 to help make, cook, and sell cheese. The experience of the host family getting up early everyday to make the cheese, sell it , and good to school later that and also doing this for generation. Show me how much opportunity we have and how much we take it for granted. After we finished working at the market we all came back to the hostel for a warm group lunch. Then after lunch we all had free time which some used to sleep, shop, get ice cream, or go to the super market. Then we all came back to get pumped up by an energizer which was 2 truths and a lie. After the energizer we planned for mondays english tutoring lesson. Shortly after we had a nice delicious dinner then shifted into are nightly meeting. We later finished off the day with night run for ice cream and little soccer. Also Buenas noches to everyone, until tomorrow.