Today was our delegation’s very special one dollar a day experience in which we had the privilege to visit a small town outside of Jinotega called Saraguasca. It is an extremely inviting community that struggless to get by without many of the luxuries we are so reliant on. We began to prepare ourselves for this last night by giving up our running water and electricity. We went about our nightly activities by candlelight and bathed using a bucket to pour water on ourselves. This, along with a powerful seminar given by Alex, one of our trip coordinators, gave us a slight glimpse into the lives of the people we would be meeting today and set the mood of humility, compssion and respect.

We were able to learn so much from the people of Saraguasca about what really is important in our lives and how we we value what we are so lucky to have. The people live in tiny shacks with little more than the clothes on thier backs and food for their families yet they were still so grateful for what they had. Thier lack of simple things like doctors, clean water or even somewhere for the children to play was quite saddening but they weren’t focused on that. They were just happy that they had a dry place to sleep and warm food to eat. It really put our lives into perspective.

I think what most surprised me today was when a little boy fell and cut his head on a rock, we were trying to find his mother or any family to take care of him, but the people told us that he just wanders around and they didn’t know where his mother was. There was no one to bring him to a hospital and they told us if they called the ambulence it would not come. It seemed crazy that we could only do for him what we could with the contents of our medical kit. This, I wasn’t expecting.

I am proud of the way our group represented Global Glimpse and how we represented America today. The people of the town hadn’t had much previous interraction with the Americans and we carried ourselves very well. We offered our help wherever we could, we were interested in their lives and we genuinely cared about them and their children. We left a good impression there.

The most inspiring person I met there was a woman named Ramona. She had lived in that town her entire life. She had two children and her husband living  with her in a 100 sq foot structure of corrogated metal, branches and adobe. She didn’t have much more than the love of her famiy and that made her so happy. She was so glad to meet us and have our help around her house. It was really touching how appreciative she was when she had so little. When we told her how beautiful the view of the mountains was, all she could think to respond with was an apology for how poor they  were.

Today was a really special special day to be leader. It was a hard day for everyone and I had to do my best to keep the mood respectful  and still upbeat. I was glad to be able to keep everyone happy and having a good time with the people of Saraguasca. It was a great experience overall and it lent profound perspective to our lives. We were very lucky to have such a great unique experience. Thanks for reading!