Fredderick: 
CHYAAAWMP!! Fredderick here! Shout out to my bros and sistas’ back home! Especially those who influenced me to go and give this program a chance! (Mom, Ate , Marahya, Alina, Lucas, Josh, Satish, etc.) I really appreciate it!

Let’s get started though. Today, along with the help of our lovely GG (Global Glimpse) staff and leadership coaches, Celia & I lead the group in our trip to the lovely farming community of La Garnacha! Although this day was one of the more physically demanding days considering we worked on a farm and also had to wake up at 5AM, I’m proud to say that our team toughed through it!

Celia & I started the day by waking up at 4:45AM to wake up the rest of the Glimpsers. At 5:30AM we all boarded the bus onwards to our route to La Garnacha! When we arrived at La Garnacha we split the groups into two, half of which milked goats and the other half milked cows! All of which by hand! We then gathered to eat a beautiful breakfast which consisted of gallo pinto, tortillas, eggs, and lemongrass tea prepared by the La Garnacha staff!

Afterwards, the group transitioned into groups of three where we each focused on main parts of La Garnacha’s farming! Some of us initially started off by feeding goats then using their manure to fertilize the coffee beans that are grown in La Garnacha! Others were cutting and cleaning onions and carrots that were harvested. Another group also husked coffee beans naturally with a wooden bowl and stick!

The group then ventured to the natural preserve part of La Garnacha. This area came with many great sights, one of which was a forest-like path that lead to a great view! This view showcased many camping sights around Nicaragua; it also showed us many different volcanoes around the area!

At this great view, Celia decided to present our guest speaker, Don Pablo (Leader of La Garnacha), with a present from Global Glimpse for allowing us to have the opportunity to actually work like a local and experience farm life first hand! After that, we took our trek back to the main part of La Garnacha’s community.

Celia:

Hello! It is my turn to tell you all the rest of our experiences from this beautiful day! Before I get started, a quick shout out to my family back in the Bay! Los amo bastante, y gracias por dejar me ir para garar una experiencia tan bonita!

After taking many group pictures at this beautiful viewpoint, we headed back towards the farm for lunch. Our lunch was prepared right there at the farm’s restaurant and was served with more gallo pinto, homemade goat cheese and a little salad made with ingredients that were grown in the farm.

As many of us were finishing our meals, Ena and Christa told us that it was finally the time to support the community in the way Don Pablo highly suggested: shopping for their homemade crafts and produce! A lot of us ran straight to their coffee and bought bags upon bags of it, and others were plenty satisfied with their handmade tusa dolls, woodwork, or even simple key chains and bracelets.

By the time the delegation satisfied their shopping needs, it was time to head back to Hotel “El Chico” to not only prepare for our English tutoring, but to also prepare to meet with the ladies from INSFOP about our decision on what we want to do for our Community Action Project. We got to the hostel, rushed into the showers, and dressed in our fanciest attire to greet Maricela from INSFOP once again and talk about probably one of the most important tasks we would like to complete on this trip.

When Maricela arrived, the delegation had a vision in mind and organized who would do what in this very important meeting. I took charge of welcoming Maricela back, explaining that our purpose for this meeting was to reveal our project idea and ask for her feedback, as well as translating for both her and the delegation. Fredderick revealed that our idea was to help beautify the location to bring a happier ambiance for the preschoolers by painting a mural that featured a tree with hand prints of both the delegation and community members as its leaves, and a religious quote that would give more of a personal touch and connection to the community members. He also explained that we would also like to build cubbies for the students so they could store their belongings, or have as extra storage in the room, and that the painting would not stop at the mural, that we would also like to paint the other walls as well to try to create a happier environment. Harsh talked about what materials we were expecting to need, and how we as a group have donated $460 from our own pockets towards this project. Justin talked more about the logistics, how we would work on this project for three days, and how we have divided ourselves into different groups that would be responsible for things such as time management, moral support, communication (translators), the actual artistic part of it, etc. After that, Mika asked for suggestions and feedback for our project. Maricela gave us a few suggestions, but she was most importantly very proud and happy to see the youth helping a community and be so passionate about helping a community they have only visited once. She loved our idea, explained how she would meet with the people of the community to ask for their feedback, and how INSFOP has their full support for this project because “this was exactly what we wanted.”

After a quick dinner, we got ready for another day of English tutoring at Mas Vida and headed towards the school to greet our students. 8:00 rolled around, class was over, we said goodbye to our students, and headed back to the hostel on Ena’s lead. However, we noticed that Ena took a turn towards the main streets, and not towards the hostel, and we soon noticed that we were headed to La Colonia for a surprise, ten-minute shopping spree. We ran in there, grabbed our favorite snacks, were surprised by two quick power outages at the store, and met Ena with time to spare.

Once at the hostel, we had our nightly meeting, and reminisced about our time at the farm feeding the goats, milking the cows and goats, holding the baby goats, and seeing a beautiful view that Nicaragua had to offer. We realized that our days are trailing off one by one and that we have been experiencing so many unique situations that have been turning into wonderful memories.