Hello families and friends of our Global Glimpsers! My name is Julia Jung, and I am a proud member of Nicaragua’s Global Glimpse. Alona and I were leaders today, and we had an amazing time guiding our fellow Glimpsers!

To start off, we woke up at 7:00 in the morning tired yet determined to finish our Community Action Project (CAP), which we’ve been working on for the last two days. We began with myriads of ideas for our project, such as a gazebo for the students at escuela de Gabriela Mistral, science lab materials, a long slide, and numerous more. However, we democratically voted on making a portable volleyball net since the students at the school loved to play volleyball, a fence to keep balls from flying over to neighbors’ houses, and a teachers’ cabinet to place their personal items.

Yesterday we placed cement in tires to keep up the post for the volleyball net, but we arrived at the scene to find the cement cracked. Glimpsers who were working on the net, especially Austin and Victor –please do not misinterpret this because every single one of us were working like never before–, were bummed at first but were eager to fix them. In other words, we were all realistically optimistic, which is a characteristic of a true leader–one that we are all becoming. Daniel, Austin, Cyanna, Victor, Coco (Johnice), Aditi, Nick, Ryan, Jackson, Melanie, and I were strenuously working on putting up the chain-link on the fence; Isabelle, Thomas, Teddy, Emigdia, and Olaniyan were arduously cutting pieces of necessary wood; and Keilani, Mia, Sophia, and Alona were meticulously sanding out the cut wood. The level of energy and determination we Glimpsers had today were undoubtedly one of the most prominent throughout this whole trip.

As leaders, Alona and I had to remind our fellow Glimpsers to drink water and take breaks to the point where I was annoyed at myself for the repetitive reminders. Well, at least nobody was dehydrated or feeling dizzy! Alona and I felt like mothers watching their babies take first steps because the unified cooperation happened without much guidance; we all contributed to the work and respected each other through each process. Within the first three hours, our fence was completed along with a wall of rocks, which we built by working in a conveyor belt system. Thomas, who gained tons of appreciation from everyone for his amazing construction skills and considerate leadership, guided others to help create doors for the cabinet, which was later painted. As anticipated, we were able to fix the cracks in the cement for the volleyball nets! Alona and I also felt like fathers watching their children graduate high school because the students of the school immediately started playing volleyball as soon as we were finished with the nets. There was not a single Glimpser who didn’t sweat today, and I would be lying if I said we felt energetic by the end of the work. Matter of fact, everybody was extremely exhausted from all the painting, hammering, measuring, placing, and attaching, but we sure felt proud. The fact that we created something tangible by scrap and saw the benefit we created for the community made us think about the true value of volunteering and helping others.

After finishing our CAP project, we pushed ourselves to go teach English to students, which we’ve been doing for over a week. Sadly, the graduation for them is tomorrow, and we all feel unprepared to let them go. By teaching them about English and spending time talking about our personal lives, we were able to get an insight of how a normal Nicaraguan student’s life is like and build a new relationship with awesome people. Turns out, despite the lack of resources and education they have compared to us, we both enjoy nice music, spending time with family and friends, eating delicious food, and worry for our future.

Speaking of letting go, we Glimpsers are two days away from our final day together, which feels very unrealistic. We all started off as complete strangers, but later transformed into to a large, supportive family. Perhaps it is weird for me, a high school student, to say, but I cannot thank you mothers and fathers for having such amazing children. They make me super proud to be part of Global Glimpse!

Thank you for your time,

Julia Jung

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