Hola familias, this is Alejandro and today I led Deconstructing Poverty Day. Everyone today had to wake up bright and early for a busy day. (GGL NOTE: we were not able to take pictures today due to the sensitive nature of our morning activity)

We had breakfast and headed towards Hogar Leonistico para ancianos de Azuero (Nursing Home of Azuero).

Once we got there, we had a tour around the building and learned that nuns founded the nursing home in 1979; however, in 2014, the nuns had to leave the nursing home due to the fact that there weren’t enough vocations for nuns. Therefore, volunteers are now the ones who help the nursing home. Afterwards, we had an amazing experience with a 93-year old resident of the nursing home and artist of Panama named Bolivar Rodriguez who sang to us and gave us some advice: “The best way to live life is to do things by heart and keeping a humble smile is worth everything.” With this quote from Mr. Rodriguez, the group realized the value of having the heart and care for the elders and to do things that we are passionate with heart. From there, we had some fun with the elders putting music so they could dance and have a good time when we were there.

After coming from the nursing home we had lunch and a bit of free time to have our reflection meeting. Then, we had our English Tutoring Prep and then had our English tutoring. Everyone felt way more confident than yesterday with teaching English.

Overall, the day was busy and fun but we made it through the day. I hope you enjoyed the blog and we will keep in touch with you families on the next free day. CHAO!