Today’s adventure begins at 5:30 am, waking up to the loud motorcycles riding past my window, the hot air surrounding my twin size bed, and the bright blue skies of San Juan De La Maguana. Ready to co-lead Lider Del Dia with my fellow Glimpser, Ashley. Breakfast for the day was toast, scrambled eggs and bananas. By 7:15 am we began to head out to Suarez to start our morning as working like locals. Arriving there around 8:00 am, we were welcomed by the locals as we were heading up a trail towards the top of a small hill, surrounded by open gardens and green grass.

After having a warm welcome and introduction, us Glimpsers were separated into two groups so we could all have the chance to try different activities locals do on a daily basis. In one group, we were picking dry beans from a garden and collecting them into a bag to harvest, while in the other group planted spinach seeds in mini flower trays for about 25 minutes and then switched groups. Although it was super hot that day, picking beans and planting seeds was a very humbling experience that made the day very inspirational. The cool, quiet breeze hit along with the sprinklers and the hot sun. After about another 20 minutes of picking beans, we gathered to talk to a local named Leivy Cueves about how he worked his life in the field. Leivy explained the way he enjoys working and the way his family motivates him to work hard everyday. He starts his day by waking up at 5:00 a.m everyday by milking the cows and selling it to make money. Working in the fields is something that is inspirational and should be recognized because of all the hard work that is put it in. Leivy also told us how he invented his own organic way to minimize pesticides using chili peppers.

After being at Suarez, we departed back to our accommodation around 2:00 pm to get ready for our tutoring session at 4:00 pm. After getting ready and having a brief meeting with my tutoring group, we headed to our session, only to find out that it was delayed because of rain which caused only a few students to show up to class that day. In my tutoring group, Angel, Ashley, and I only had two students present that afternoon, so we joined another group that had only one student in their session. Although one student had to go due to a problem at home, we still managed to have fun with the two students we had and seven Glimpsers. We first did a vocabulary review called Snowball fight, where you crumple up a piece of paper with a verb and throw it to another person, where they change the tense of the verb. After that activity, we played Pictionary, using words our Global Glimpse Leaders provided, and I believe it was the best part of the day. Seeing how the two students were engaged in the activity, even though they didn’t know much English, was amazing because they had these huge smiles going from ear to ear because of how fun the activity was. The competitiveness of both the students and the Glimpsers took over and we ended up playing for the remaining time of the class. Seeing them learning English, as well as speaking English, was phenomenal!

After class, we finally went back to our accommodation to get ready for dinner and our nightly meeting. During our nightly meeting, we had a moment to reflect on the different ways people work and still manage to live their lives happily along with their families. Working with their families and supporting local businesses plays a big role in Suarez. Finishing the night strong, we ended off the day in a great mood and everyone had a blast today.