June 18, 2013

We started off our Global Business day by waking up at 6:45 (which was great because we were exhausted after so many long days). We had breakfast at Alfredito and went on a short walk to our Nacatamales class, where we had the chance to make & eat delicious Nacatamales and learn how the Nacatamales industry works in Estelí. After lunch, we walked to Tabacalera Santiago, a cigar factory, where Leo (our tour guide and a specialist in cigars) showed us around the building and explained to us the process of tobacco cultivation and cigar production in Estelí. Did you know that 4 out of the 25 best and most durable cigars in the world are produced in Nicaragua?

Through our Nacatamales class and our tour of Tabacalera Santiago, we not only had a chance to experience how businesses are run in Nicaragua, but we also learned how different the lifestyles of Nicaraguan and American workers are. Workers here need to work so much harder than those in the United States just to make the same amount of profit. Many American goods are imported from places such as Nicaragua, the Honduras, El Salvador, and other Latin American countries, where working conditions are undesirable and workers receive minimal pay. When American brand names distribute & sell these products in supermarkets such as Lucky’s and Safeway, those U.S. industries make 10 times the profit than those who struggled to produce the goods in developing countries. I think this was eye-opening for all of us: it made us realize how priviledged we are to live and for our parents to work in the United States, and it contributed to our overall Global Glimpse experience.

Después de our tour of the cigar factory, we RAN to our English class at la Casa de Cultura (because we were running behind schedule) and taught for 1 1/2 hours. After, we had dinner at Alfredito’s and concluded the day with our nightly meeting.

It was an incredibly busy, tiring, and hot day but we learned a lot about local and global businesses in Estelí, and we had a good time! Pictures will be uploaded soon!

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