Hello parents, teachers, friends!

Today was such a great day. The group of glimpsers were so ready to get to know the city once they had a great night to sleep and rest from the long day we had yesterday.

Today, the group divided in two for the city tour. Our Site Manager, Margarita and Program Coordinator, Heysell, took us around town, showed us the church, the murals  the park and told us how much of an impact the Sandinista Revolution had in the lives of the Estilianos. Esteli has been famous for the murals that you can find in almost every other block in the city. All of them, reminding of the past and sending messages of identity.

After an amazingly tasty lunch we were treated nicaraguan snack “chocobananos”, tasty chocolate covered bananas that were greatly appreciatIMG-20160608-WA0001ed 🙂 Also, we got to have our money exchanged into cordobas (very exciting!) After playing mafia and bonding with our peers it was time for our fieldtrip to Casa de la Cultura. We had the opportunity to meet Julio and his family. They are part of the group of muralists who teach painting to the community and who have painted many of the murals in town. It was such a nice experience to get to know him, his work and understand the history of Nicaragua through his story. After asking him lots of questions, it was time for us to paint our first impressions of Nicaragua. There were some really cool results!

IMG-20160608-WA0002Finally, we came back to a delicious dinner, had our nightly meeting, self reflection and now, while I write the blog, a group is having a Mafia session in the other room.

It is very nice to see the group bonding and having such deep discussions about our experience in the trip already. It is just day 2. Tomorrow, it will be culture day, and we will get to know more about nicaraguan culture through the locals.

Please keep sending your messages to the students, as they will be able to get them at the nightly meeting!