Today, we explored the connections between education and development. We visited two pre-schools, Los Ositos y Las Barriletes.  Meeting with Margarita from Las Barriletes, we were inspired by her ability to care for 115 children from the neighborhood despite challenges.  Many of the children have come from homes torn apart by violence, drugs, and alcoholism.  During our visit, we saw a group of men sniffing glue (pega) near the school. Pointing to a student picked up by an uncle on his bike, she mentioned how her mother passed away two weeks ago. Watching her interact with the children, her motherly qualities created warmth and purpose for the pre-school. She is a solid force in their lives that offers an alternative to the negative choices the children are surrounded by. Some of us played a pick-up game of soccer, eating dirt here and there.  The highlight of our visit was having the children tearapart a piñata, which is shown in the below video.

Piñata bust at Las Barilletes

The existence of Los Ositos and Las Barriletes illustrates the need for people in Nicaragua to rely on donations and outside resources to obtain child care and educational needs. We got a glimpse of this teaching our first English class. One glimpser shared in the debrief session that one of her students could not afford the expensive English classes that are usually offerred in Nicaragua.  While stressed, nervous, and feeling unprepared, we delivered differentiated instruction to a group of almost 100 people.  We shared best practices and our mistakes to see what we want to do better tomorrow.  We are all excited to teach again tomorrow.

Greg and Sally leading a socratic circle

Rubin and Hannah doing their thing

Keanna and Thu seeing things through

Tomorrow we will start looking at the location of our Community Action Project. This is going to be an exciting and important day.

Besos your way, 😉

Global Glimpse Uno