I had trouble sleeping thinking of how we are leaving Nicaragua so soon, but still, we all had to wake up bright and early for our last day in Leon. At 8:15am we went to el comedor to fill our bellies in preparation of Final Reflection Day.

 

As soon as we returned to the hostel, we had a session of self-reflection, regarding our finished CAP project: how we worked as a group and how we worked individually. Though there were definitely improvements that could be made, we all agreed that we all worked really hard and collaborated well.

 

After that, we had a 3 hour-long seminar, which consisted of a series of activities that required us to reflect about our trip as a whole. To begin, we made maps of our experience: five significant moments, what we learned about ourselves, what we learned about leadership, and the one person who inspired us the most. We continued with an activity in which we decided one thing to start, one thing to continue, and one thing to stop in order to be better global citizens when we return home. Following that activity was my personal favorite, big love! Each of us was given a paper, which every person anonymously wrote what they love about us. Feeling warm and fuzzy, we continued the love with an open-mic. Everyone got to voice their love for the group, which I had a lot of. We ended the seminar with a unity clap, yelling the phrase “Don’t forget”, which is one thing we heard from almost every Nicaraguan we met. With that, we left to have our very last lunch at Déjà vu. We thanked the workers at the comedor, and then we embarked on our last free time in Leon, which we used for last minute shopping.

 

Besides shopping, we had to use our time to pack because, with tears in our eyes, we said goodbye to Leon! We were reunited with our original party bus, which took us to eat dinner at the first comedor we visited in Managua. After a meal of pollo frito (sadly no gallo pinto), we went to the hostel we stayed at on our first night in Nicaragua. It is there where it was really clear to see how far we have come as a group. From being total strangers and complaining about everything, to cuddling together and tolerating our bug-ridden hostel rooms.

 

When I see you next it’ll be from the cold, foggy comfort of the bay! Now I must leave so I can enjoy my last moments with my lovely fellow Glimpsers!