Today, Monday, July 30, 2018 our focus of the day was “Aid and Development.” We started off at 7 am and we ate breakfast at Funjido which is our dining and meeting area. We visited the baseball field in Las Flores in order to meet our guest speaker Juanjo and the children of Cristo el Rey. Juanjo experienced a lot of adversity growing up in poverty and having problems with the police. Through his experiences he realized that he wanted to change his ways and do something to help his community. He decided to get involved with the church and sports (baseball). He established a developing group to help keep children, especially young boys ages 8-16 years old, off the streets, educate them, provide spiritual guidance, and fatherly love to each of these teenagers. Cristo el Rey provides Catholicism, English tutoring, and baseball to all kids in his organization. After he introduced us to his organization we had the opportunity to play baseball with some of kids. The kids were very welcoming and thrilled to meet us and spend a few hours playing baseball with them. Immediately afterwards we returned home to the hotel where we prepared ourselves for lunch. After lunch we had some free time to explore the city of Constanza. Then we took a “siesta” (a nap) and then changed clothes to prepare for the first English tutorial session at “Arroyo Arriba,” a school. We all had a lot of fun teaching the kids of Constanza, and we’re really impressed with how quickly they are picking up the English language. We then walked home to eat dinner. After dinner we celebrated both Cindy and Malachi’s birthday with cake and presents. They talked about how they’ve never had a birthday away from family, but the day still felt like they we’re surrounded by family. That made all of Glimpsers feel good to hear we are considered their family. Later that night after an hour of cards, soccer, and other activities at Funjido, we went into our nightly meeting and discussed the importance of today.
Our job today was to discuss why it is so important to integrate sustainability into development projects, and to define sustainability. In order to create a successful development project, it is crucial to maintain sustainability within the group. If your group cannot sustain itself, it is difficult for the project to grow. For example, the students of Cristo el Rey must keep a good attitude and good grades in order to play baseball. They must learn to sustain a good standing point with their teachers, and community for them to grow. It was a pleasure to lead our peers, because they we’re really cooperative and made leading the group easy. We feel as if the essence of Global Glimpse was really captured and that we set a good tone for the future leaders.

Cindy and Augie