Hola famila y amigos mandamus nuestro amore de Nicaragua. Today was our first day attempting to experience a day in poverty here in Matagalpa, and it actually started last night when we cut off the power at our home. Today we woke up bright and early at 5:30 and had our first plate out of many of Gallo Pinto and bread. After that we made our way to Matagalpa’s mountainous town of Llano Grande where we met the families that we would be spending some of our time with.  Personally, I really enjoyed the time that I had with my family which contained a mother named , and her two kids Larry and Emely. While with them me and my partner Tanya helped out around the house and played with the neighborhood kinds.

After that we had carried out the G.G. tradition of breaking some pinatas with the kids, said some teary good-byes and made our way back to the hostel.

I think the aspect of our day that struck the members of the group most was how happy the people we interacted with were capable of being in despite, or maybe in tandem with the situations that they live amongst every single day. It definitely made me realize that one, we are so privileged, despite our different backgrounds and two, that people live in a constant state of poverty every single day and for them, it’s not a reality challenge, it’s simply reality.

All in all, though today was a difficult day to get through, for many reasons, I hope that we all recognize how important it was to experience, and how important it is to let influential days like this stay in our minds long after they’ve passed, and remind us to be thankful.

Much love, Imani!

(p.s. Hi mom, dad, butter and geezy!<3)