What is the difference between being a boss and being a leader? That is the question we asked ourselves through todays journey as working like a local and throughout our experience we were able to get some truly inspiring answers. Today was full of emotions and life changing experiences that we will all carry with us forever.

We started off our day by eating at Don Carlos’ restaurant La Favorita Center where we enjoyed our delicious eggs with gallo pinto (rice with beans). We later walked over to El Mercado (the market) where we all got the amazing chance to work like a local. There was a wide variety of sales positions such as selling cheese, fruits, veggies, chicha (juice in a bag) and everyday items that are found at convenient stores. It was really fun because we were able to interact with the business owners and local consumers. What made it really exciting is that we were the vendors! We were all put into teams at different shops and were in a competition with each other which really pushed us to improve our Spanish speaking and selling skills.

Working Like a Local:

After our two hours of working at the market we were able to enjoy a delicious lunch at El Cafe de las Sonrisas where we were greeted by our speaker, Tio Antonio Prieto Bunuel. He is a Spanish chef that found his way to Granada when he was traveling to Leon, Nicaragua in hopes of opening up a restaurant but insteadended up spending 9 days in the local community due to a downpour of rain. In his time there he became really close to local members of the community, especially a 14 year-old boy who grew up deaf, a condition that prevented him from communicating well, therefore he was unable to live a normal life. Tio Antonio had met several youth that dealt with hearing or speech impairment and other disabilities. This really affected him on a personal level because he noticed how they struggled to survive. Many of them were abandoned or had family that weren’t able to communicate with them. This encouraged him to provide funding for them to continue their education, however he had noticed that even with his help no one wanted to hire them; employers thought of the idea as a joke. He took it upon himself to start a hammock business in Granada, Nicaragua in order to employ those with such disabilities. Therefore he opened up El Cafe de las Sonrisas, where all of the employees greet you with the biggest smiles. It was really inspiring to know that even though they face challenges on a daily basis they don’t allow those to keep them from executing daily tasks such as being waiters, chefs and entrepreneurs.

Tio then gave us a heartfelt speech where he talked about his how his business came to be. He said, “A boss provokes fear but a leader inspires others.” What really opened our eyes to their lives was when we finished our lunches and we were each handed packets titled ” Bienvenidos a nuestro mundo” (welcome to our world). Inside the packet were earplugs that we were asked to wear meanwhile using our hands to communicate with each other, this was really an emotional experience because although we may not fully understand what they deal with on a daily basis, we were able to get a glimpse of what it feels like to not be able to fully communicate. After this activity we were asked to join in several other activities such as weaving plastic bags into their current never ending hammock project. They collect plastic bags that are found in the community in an effort to clean up their local streets and encourage others to do so as well. We were also invited to weave actual hammocks in their workshop that they had going on which was truly fun.

All of us in a giant hammock <3

Us with some of the smiles crew

We then went back to our hostel and were able to exchange our money because a lot of of us were running out of cordoba. We began preparing for our English tutoring which consists of creating a lesson plan that both engages and captivates the kids. After, we ate dinner and headed down to the school. We then ended our day with our group reflection and nightly meeting.

Stephanie:
“I truly enjoyed my experience as Lider del dia because I was able to go through a really inspiring day with such an amazing group. My favorite part about today was our trip to Cafe de las Sonrisas because I was personally able to connect with some of the workers and Tio Antonio. Reason being is I have a an older brother with disabilities, and to hear what he was doing to help people who also faced some of the same judgement really touched my heart. It made me reflect on life back home and the limited opportunities that my brother has dealt with. Although it was an emotional time for me, I had the support of my group members which really made me reflect on the question of the day. It made me realize that me and my partner, Karen, were being leaders because we didn’t spend our time telling people what to do, we all worked as a whole in order to make this day as enjoyable and successful as it was.”

Karen:
“Being leader of the day was truly interesting. At first I thought being Lider del día was going to be easy. I saw it done so many times and I thought it would be breeze. I later realized that I was sadly fooled. We were expected to be a few steps ahead of the group; as in making sure everyone’s hands were sanitized prior to every meal and to make sure to take a head count of the group before entering and exiting buildings. As you can probably tell, I was out of my comfort level. Although I was out of my comfort zone, it pushed me. It pushed me to be the leader that I don’t usually show. This experience brought out a side that I was scared to bring out because of judgment. But honestly, I realized that people are going to judge you anyways. I chose to embrace it.”

-Karen & Stephanie