This beautiful day started bright and early at 8:00 am when we woke everyone up and headed to Santa Rosa for another amazing breakfast cooked by our mom Isabel. Today we had sausage links, bread, jam, dragon fruit, papaya, apple slices, yogurt, and some yummy tea. Then after our meal we got on the bus and headed to Utopia. Utopia is an organization that gets rid of the middle man when it comes to buying groceries. They focus on building the relationship between the farmer and buyer and making that connection strong. (Peep my black flats on the bottom left). We met a lovely woman named Gabriela who introduced us to this organization and explained how important this is for the community.
Back at the hotel, we broke into groups and focused on planning each part of our Community Action Project (CAP) project with Utopia. While here we are going to work on helping with finishing their bodega, organizing their office, and completely renovating the kitchen. We focused on our budget, which resources we needed, and assigned each member to a task. This is also the day that we all made donations to make these happen. After working on this for about an hour, we headed back to Roma Santa for a DELICIOUS, I repeat DELICIOUS lunch with rice, seasoned beef, papas fritas, salad with delicious Ecuadorian native beans and avocado, amazing passionfruit juice, and a delicious brownie cake with chocolate sauce. We played in the yard after lunch doing foosball, bike riding, and basketball and then it was time to head to the hotel to prepare for English Tutoring.
After being scared for the first day of tutoring, two hours in we realized it was already our favorite part of the trip. The basic group is 6 to 12 year olds, my class (Jordan) was the intermediate class which had 12 to 15 year olds, and the advanced group with all of the older teens. We taught our students verbs and how to put them in the past tense. We also played hot potato and a name game to get to know each other. After all of our hard work, we ate pizza with pineapple and salad with some Coca Cola. AMAZING.
Tonight’s nightly meeting was full of emotions and many undiscovered talents. Alex and I passed the torch to Tenzin and Akida after they sang a beautiful rendition of Mama Mia! Today was very challenging but it has definitely been my favorite day so far.
MOM I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND MISS YOU, DAD I MISS YOUR SNORING, VV HAVE SO MUCH FUN IN SOUTH CAROLINA, LOVE YOU GUYS #badoof #whoisHOHthisweek
Having a blast! Jordan (and moral support from Alex)
AWWWW!!! JJ!!! It makes me so happy to see how happy you are! Sounds like a truly amazing day! What incredible things you are doing there! So happy for you and all the global glimpsers for having this incredible experience! Keep up the good work!
PS…..So jealous of all the delicious meals you have been having, wow!! I better step up my culinary game when you get back!!
Miss you, love you, #Bayleighevicted #HayleighHOH
I’m so happy to see that you are so happy! What incredible experiences you glimpsers are having! So jealous of all those delicious meals! Going to have to step up my culinary skills when you get back! Miss you, Love you! #Bayleighevicted #HayleighHOH
Hi Bebe, Im sorry I missed your call and i’m really bummed about it. I miss you sooo much!!! It looks like you’re having a great time and absorbing the history and culture of your heritage. This was an amazing opportunity and very proud of you. When you can, please call me and I’ll make sure to pick up. Love you Dad!! God bless.
Hello Global Glimpsers,
I am quite impressed with your daily blog. It is a wonderful way for us (parents and loved ones) to share your adventures. Everyone seems so happy. What an amazing group of young people coming together and making a difference.
I look forward each night to reading your stories and I love the pictures, not to mention your Ecuadorian mommy seems to be doing a fantastic job preparing such tasty meals.
I guess we all have to step up our culinary skills when you get back home.
I missed you Chris, dad and Richard send their love. We love you very much Chris, have fun.
Until tomorrow, sweet dreams Glimpsers
Hello
Asma & everyone!
This is amazing, I’m sure the community will learn a lot from you all and will always remember their English tutors!
So jealous of the food, everything sounds so good!
(We miss you & love you Asma. So happy I got to hear your voice today. ❤️
Love,
Jenny
Hello Global Glimpsers.
I am impressed with the blog each day. It is a wonderful way for us (parents and loved ones) to share your adventures. It is amazing to see a group of young people coming together and making a difference.
Chris, we missed you. Richard and Dad send their love. We love you very much, take good care of yourself, have fun and make lots of friends.
Have a good night glimpsers and sweet dreams.