Question of the day: What are some of the cultural similarities and differences between Nicaragua and the US, and how can we link them?

Parker showing off his thizz face during our morning culture seminar

Kalia challenging Parker with her thizz face
Which is better?

Dance classes at Arabesco to start off our adventurous day

Carmeena and Didi showing off their beautiful smiles after dance class

Malia and Crystal were killing it with the salsa!

Monica and I(Jade) striking our awesome salsa poses

Yes, the Nacatamales were THAT delicious

Mujeres del Plomo came to visit us at our hostel

Before

After

Parker and Rochelle showing off what they learned today at Centro Cultural Guanuca

After getting ready in the morning, we all started off our day with some fresh watermelons, papayas, toast with butter, and delicious Jamaica flower juice. Afterwards, we had a quick Culture seminar led by our awesome GG leaders, John and Ben! Because we were still so tired and drowsy, our leaders decided to wake us up by playing “the thizz face game” where you throw your thizz face to another person, making the receiver give an answer to the question. In this case, we had two questions: What is the culture like in America? and What is the culture like in Nicaragua? This seminar was a fantastic way to kick off our Culture day!

Norman and I (Jade) led the group to Arabesco, a small dance studio. There, our dance teacher jumped right into the lesson with some warm ups. Everyone was surprised that he turned on “Yeah!” by Usher, but it really got us all pumped up and excited to dance. Our teacher began with teaching us the traditional salsa dance popular in Nicaraguan culture. It was extremely hard at first, for me at least (definitely not Malia because she was showing everybody up with her dance skills), but after about 10 minutes, we all got the hang of it. The lesson only lasted for about an hour which included water breaks, however we were all sweating as if we danced for five hours. These two hours was definitely a great bonding experience within our group, and I felt that we all got a lot more comfortable with each other… especially since we all had to chest pop and booty shake within one feet of each other. I’m really proud of everyone for getting out of their comfort zone while maintaining a positive vibe and giving it their all, even John, Ben, and Norman!

Once we arrived at the Hostel after stopping by El Parque Morazon on the walk home from Arabesco, we had a little free time until lunch. Our lunch was super delicious (as seen in Carmina’s photo). We had nacatamales, which is a very popular, traditional Nicaraguan food that’s mainly eaten on Saturdays. It isn’t your average tamale.. this one includes chicken, rice, potatoes, tomatoes, corn and a side of tortillas or bread.

After lunch at about 2:00 pm, we were glad to welcome the Mujeres del Plomo to our hostel. They are a group of women from the small rural community of El Plomo, and they created a small business in which they make jewelry out of hand-collected seeds to sell to generate an income for their community and their families. We all found it very inspiring that these single mothers took initiative and created a business out of something so simple. (I hope this encourages those who are reading this blog to follow your dreams because they definitely inspired all of us!!) So they allowed each glimpser to create their own bracelets and also buy some jewelry and souvenirs for our families at home. The picture posted up there is actually the bracelet I made today!

We had a little free time to get ready for the activities at Centro Cultural Guanaca, so most of us girls took advantage of this event and dressed up in skirts and dresses! We also ate fantastic gallo pinto, fried chicken, fried plantains with cheese, and vegetables for dinner. They served us carrot/orange juice for drinks. Once we finished dinner, we all sat in the front of the stage and listened to some traditional Nicaraguan music. It’s a mixture of smooth jazz and up-beat rhythms as well.. (if that makes sense) It took us all a while to build up the courage to go up and dance, but Kalia, John, and Crystal were the first to go on the dance floor. Their courage motivated the rest of the glimpsers to get up there and show off our dance moves that we learned in class today.

Being leader of the day was a great personal learning experience because I never fully understood my leadership capabilities until today. I was very nervous at first but my group was so supportive of me, so that gave me a huge boost of confidence. I learned that i’m a very organized person because John pointed out during our Pluses and Wishes that I was on top of the agenda and I knew most of the things we were doing today and even the little details as well. However, one thing I hope to improve on in these next couple of days is raising my voice. I guess it’s because tiny people come with tiny voices. )-:

Overall, today was definitely an action-packed and adventurous day where we had a deeper insight on Nicaraguan culture by doing a bunch of different activities ranging from learning how to dance, eating nacatamales to experiencing the night life of Nicaragua.

P.S. I miss you dad!! Tell the family I miss them too. <3