Hello everyone! My name is Fiona and I was today’s Leader of the day. Today our focus was Global Business. We had a very chill but important and educational day. We started off the day at 7:30 am with breakfast where we had assorted bread with butter and the most amazing jam, hard-boiled eggs, and strawberry banana juice. After breakfast, we had a quick meeting where we learned a bit about global vs. small businesses. We also learned a bit about the local shoe business Zapateria Arevalo in Guano. After our meeting at around 9am, we set off to Guano to learn more about small businesses and shoe making.

When we got to Guano we met the lovely Dora Avalos who showed us around the shoe factory. We started upstairs in the leather cutting/ tracing room where she showed her stencils and how the leather for the shoes is perfectly cut. Next, we moved downstairs where she showed us how the leather was sewn together and glued to be prepared for molding. The molding station was by far one of the coolest! They used two machines, one sent steam to the leather to soften it enough to be molded by the next machine that stretched the leather around the foot mold and pressed it to the bottom where it was then manually hammered to get rid of any bumps and imperfections. The last steps in the process were to add the soles of the shoes and put on polishes to make them look slick and ready to sell. At the end of the demonstration, we had the opportunity to buy shoes (which was even cooler because we just saw how they were made). Then at around 12pm, we said our thanks to Dora and her team, then headed back to the La Primavera for lunch.

We had fish soup, rice, veggies, potatoes, and chicken with lemonade to wash it down (for our vegetarian friends we had soup without fish, rice, veggies, potatoes, and fake meat). After lunch, we got together from 3-4 pm to talk about our C.A.P (Community Action Project) and the materials necessary to be able to start our work tomorrow. After we came to an agreement on our projects and the materials we needed, 4 Glimpsers and our amazing PC Paco headed off in taxis to the hardware store to get the supplies. The rest of the Glimpsers took the next few hours to rest and recharge for the next few important days of our C.A.P. At the hardware store, we had our work cut out for us with our long list of materials! Alas, we made it out of the store alive with all of the things we needed. When we returned from the hardware store around 6pm, it was time for dinner which consisted of fries, a burger (lentil burger for the veggies ;), and a pineapple dessert. To end the night, we had our nightly meeting where we summed up the day, gave thanks/ big love, and I passed the torch to the next leaders of the day, Adanna and Orion. I am looking forward to C.A.P. one tomorrow!