Our first free day began with delicious pancakes with a side of Pico de gallo for breakfast! Soon after we all walked over to the central park to have our academic seminar under the gazebo. The academic seminar consisted of comparing the education system of the United States and Nicaragua, which shocked most due to the poor circumstances set forth by the government.

After discussing the education system in Nicaragua for an hour we made our way to Soppexcca, the café we visited earlier in the week which provides locally grown Nicaraguan coffee. Although Tony took us on a detour we eventually made it to our destination to enjoy some flavorful and fragrant coffee. As soon as we entered the café Tony and Brittany ordered their Café Cubanos and all the Glimpsers ordered seven café helados (Frappuccino’s). While sipping on our drinks Tony and Brittany enjoyed some free time while the Glimpsers participated in a couple of games of Mafia.

When we finished enjoying our stay at Soppexcca we made our paseo to Buffet La Familiar to grub on some lunch. For lunch all of us were given fajita meat, which consisted of vegetables and beef with rice, plantains, and mango juice, while the vegetarians in the group got soy meat to replace the beef. Of course on our first free day all the Glimpsers as well as GG leaders were homesick so we made our way to the internet café to call our parents although sadly the internet was not working so we couldn’t check any social media. Although it was hard for all of us to speak to our loved ones back home it gave us more motivation to have a fun filled time during this trip to bring back interesting stories.

After the internet café all of us walked back to our hostel to do English prep for English tutoring that was going to take place on Monday night. All of us chose to move the nightly meeting up before dinner in order to have more free time to rest for the busy day ahead. During nightly meeting I passed on my torch to Sai the next leader of the day. Who then took us to dinner where we grubbed on some delicious taquitos. Sai took us back to enjoy some free time for the rest of the night. It was a fun filled day with positive attitudes that will hopefully continue on to the next day!