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Hello everyone! My name is Ivy Decleto and I am from San Francisco, California. I go to Abraham Lincoln High School with one other Global Glimpser here. Today´s theme of the day was Aid and Development and we were able to learn and hear the stories of people trying to make a difference in their country or community and people making a difference in other countries far from their home.

During our seminar for Aid and Development, we learned the statistics of aid given by the United States and other countries. Right after that, we had a Peace Corps Speaker named Roger come into our hostel and tell us about what the Peace Corps is and what his experiences was like being a volunteer. The Peace Corps is an organization founded by President John F. Kennedy and their motives were to help give aid to developing countries. Peace Corps volunteers live in a developing country for a certain amount of time creating sustainable systems that can help the community they are placed at. After learning about the Peace Corps, we went on a field trip to a rural community outside of Leon called Chakraseca. We arrived at a place where volunteers of the community have a place to stay and it was called Casa de Paz. Right when we got off the bus to say hello to the people living there, we saw a woman selling her hand made jewelry. We also got to see how fabric is made and turned into a beautiful bag made by the women of Chakreseca. To most people, creating jewelry or bags from recycled items is considered a hobby or something to do to pass time. To the women in Chakreseca, it is their living and how they can feed their families and themselves. It was very empowering to see the women turn their talents into a way of living that makes people smile.

We ended our day by going to our daily English tutoring class that we teach at the university in Leon and today being the third day teaching, my partner Christine and I got to really connect with our students who are far more older than us by asking them simple questions like what their favorite movies, foods, and colors were to practice conversations. Even those simple questions can turn into a conversation that´s full of laughter. They even taught us some Nicaragua slang words and helped us with our horrible Spanish!

Overall, being leader of the day was so much fun and I felt the respect received and given to my group. After seeing the strong women of Chakreseca and meeting a courageous Peace Corps Volunteer, I hope to find a way to help my own community and maybe even think about becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer myself.

Now I’ll leave the rest of the blogs to my new amazing friends to share the remainder of our trip. Adios!