Hi everyone!

Today’s theme focused on the History of Esteli and Nicaragua. We started bright and early at 6:30am and had Doña Elena meet with our group this morning.  Doña Elena is the host of our group at Hostal Tomabu in Esteli.  Typically we start our first day with her to talk about house keeping rules but due to our schedule and the students energy, we thought it was best to have her start our day instead. Below is a picture of the beautiful accommodations we are staying at.  All of the boys are in one big room together at one side of the hotel and the girls are sharing rooms throughout the rest of the place. Everyone has their own bed and the venue is very safe.

Quickly after a delicious breakfast, our Program Coordinators brought us on a tour around Esteli.  This was our first time walking around our city and we split up in two groups. On this tour we walked around the city to get a sense of the community and shops that the students could check out when we have free time. The first major stop we made was at the Central Park where many locals congregate to.  The Park is also home to the main Cathedral of the community and some of us got to walk in and see the beautiful architecture. While checking out the confessional booth, Kendall was startled by a bat that flew out!

We continued our tour where we saw more of the beautiful buildings and stopped by to learn about some of the murals and the statements that the artists are trying to make with their pieces.  Many of the students found it fascinating how art impacts the Esteli community and were completely engaged.

We ended our tour with a local treat from our PCs who provided Eskimo ice cream for everyone! The weather here is really humid so the treat was something that everyone was grateful for.

We got ready for lunch and shortly after the students started to group up and prepare to create their lesson plans for the students that they are tutoring English to.  Many of the students have never created a lesson plan before but they worked together to understand the impact that their service will have on the local community and were able to come up with something really intentional and great.  This will be a project that the students will continuously work on and will help the students graduate!

The rest of the afternoon was spent on reflecting on their experience thus far in Nicaragua and thinking about their life back in the states.  They are also spending a lot of time getting to know each other and building very strong friendships with one another. It truly is inspiring seeing them all grow together.

This should be the last post from a staff member as we wanted to model off what our expectations are to the students. From here on out you will be hearing from the students themselves about their time here and what they are learning. Our first student post will be braved by Kendall who is going to be our Leader of the Day tomorrow, so stay tuned!