We all had an enlightening experience today. Our experience consisted of a trip to a very poor community far away from any form of “civilization.” In fact, the nearest hospital was more than 4 miles away. The nearest source of fresh water was more than an hours walk away… can you imagine walking for an hour or more in the blistering sun just for a drink of water? We can’t. We started off our morning with bucket showers (not as bad as you might think ;) and then had a simple breakfast of gallo pinto (beans mixed with rice). Everyone loaded onto the bus and we took an hour and a half ride over to “Nuevo Amanecer” which means New Dawn.

When we arrived at the community, all the families were ecstatic to see us, but one woman stood out to all of us in our minds. She came over and hugged all of us, even though she didn’t know any of us. We split the glimpsers into groups of 2 or 3 to spend time with the family that we chose for them. We decided to make groups of glimpsers who don’t know each other very well. In the community we learned about the culture and the people there. In order to facilitate the communication of culture, we all enjoyed brilliantly prepared lunches made by the staff of our Hostel: Leon Imperial Hostel. After lunch, some of us socialized while others played games with their families. We are both going to speak for everyone here when we say that everyone was extremely sad to leave. Even though these families have very little material possessions, they are very happy with the little things they have, and care dearly about the things that do matter, like family and education. We all now have a deeper respect for everything we have as a result of our trip to New Dawn.

After we returned from Nuevo Amanecer, we conducted the first student lead seminar. Our seminar helped to develop our CAP Project. We went through the long and complex process of selecting and then prioritizing our projects. We ended up deciding on several projects to improve the education opportunities and environment that the students study in. A few of the more important projects the group decided on were to add in new floor for the classroom and to build new desks and chairs for the children. We also wanted to incorporate a boom box and electricity in the classroom to enhance the student’s educations in the arts. After the seminar, we started the nightly meeting where we went over the experiences had during the day and received feedback on our leadership qualities. After the meeting, we “passed the torch” to Mercedes, the next Leader of the Day. Hope everything is going well over where you are, we are having a wonderful time here, thank you for your continuous support and interest in our endeavours. Talk to you later!