IMG_2506Hi! It’s Mariela here! I had the honor of being leader of the day
today along with Theresa as we prepared to learn about the Nicaraguan education system. Waking up at 4:00 this morning was definitely…an experience, and being a leader was difficult. However, everyone survived the day so I guess I did okay. We had cereal this morning, and it was amazing. All of our meals thus far have pretty much been exactly the same for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so the variation was nice. We then went to a Nicaraguan school- keeping in mind the similarities and differences to our school experience in the U.S.. There was one class that we viewed, which was math (bleh). Because of certain issues, the teachers had to have a very long meeting, which resulted in the majority of the day becoming free time. That wasn’t the initial plan, but it was still a lot of fun, and everyone almost forgot that they didn’t understand each other. The language barrier was overcome by both sides, and for the most part ignored. During this time we got to know a lot of the students, some of us with sports and others with the fascination of braids. IMG_2530I played basketball against some guys with Jamal, Kayon, Jesus, and Frank. It was a lot of fun, but my feet hurt. Dress shoes and basketball don’t exactly mix too well, but we still managed. After saying goodbye to everyone we ate lunch. Fried chicken. It was beautiful. So beautiful… (wipes tear dramatically). We had an academic seminar and then went on a trip to Fabretto, where we met Octavio, who talked about an organization called Padre Fabreto. It is really wonderful; it offers young people the chance to receive extensive educational opportunities li
ke learning about computers or learning English, all while being fed for free. It is a wonderful chance for kids to learn and make an impact on the world with what they know. I got to share a game called “What Would You Do If…?” with some of the students and we were able to provide them with an opportunity to laugh and practice their English.

The rest of the day was fantastic, but I will pass the mic to the other wonderful leader of the day. (Hi family and friends! Break legs in your shows!)

 

Hi it’s Theresa, the other leader of the day who worked alongside with Mariela. To add onto what Mariela already said, we travelled to Vida Joven where we had our first day of English tutoring. Seeing the students being eager to learn English despite their wide range of ages from 7 to the mid 50’s was heartwarming. Everyone was so into the teaching that we forgot we were tired from the schedule we had today. After 1 hour and 45 minutes of teaching, we went back to our hostel to get ready for dinner. After dinner, we had a seminar about our upcoming project and then we dived right into our nightly meetings. A day that felt like months finally came to an end. I would like to thank the E2C group for being awesome as always and helping us run this day. Mucho Gracias!!!!!Priscilla & friends!

IMG_2599 Kay'on teaches american dances