Salutations everyone,

Today I had the honor to be Leader of the Day. Not only did I have to worry about being a leader, I also had to live on a dollar today. You’re probably thinking WHAT the heck! Calm down it´s nothing like that, its actually interesting. All Glimpsers, GG and PC´s had breakfast on the bus ride to Robledal, one of Nicaragua´s poorest community. As you may have already notice today is “living on $1 / Day”, which means no lights, no running showers, and six to seven hours living with Nicaragua´s poorest families. The ride to Robledal took about one and a half hour so of course some of us slept during the ride. By the time we arrived at Robledal it was around seven in the morning. All the Glimpsers were paired up in groups of two or three to one family. I partnered up with Michael and we were paired up with a household of five (a husband, wife, and three daughters). Michael and I helped the wife, Neidy, make tortillas, fix the bed, and clean the house. We also played Uno with the three girls named Dayana, Ceey, and Narelis. Then we taught them the Alphabet and few English words.

Later on we accompanied Neidy to the lake to do laundry. Yes, we hand washed the clothes on a rock . While doing laundry I asked Neidy how often she washes clothes (yes I had Michael translating for me. Times like these, I wish I knew Spanish.); Neidy said she  washes clothes EVERYDAY! To say I was shocked will be an understatement and I still can´t get the idea off my mind. Like, I can’t even  imagine myself doing laundry on a daily basis. Can you?

After relaxing a bit, Michael and I had lunch with the family, though the husband Alex wasn’t around since he went to a baseball game. Anyways, we headed down to the community school for a little retreat of Pinata for the kids in the community. I enjoyed how everyone in the community was so excited and dressed up in their best clothing. What I loved even more was seeing how happy the kids were. It melted my heart and gave it a warm feeling. About a hour later, we head back to the hostal. Most of us tried sleeping but the roads were so messed up we couldn´t. During the ride though, however, I thanked God for everything in my life even the things I don´t enjoy. Seeing those people today and how much they struggle to get their basic needs broke my heart. For that reason I am very grateful for all that God has given to me because those people we met today barely had anything yet they were still laughing, smiling and happy with life and all its beauty. To me that was very impressive because some of us have so much more than those people yet we stay complainning about what we don´t have. If anything we should be thankful for what we have and stop worrying so much about what we don´t have and probably don´t even need because there are people out in this world that have so little and wished they had what most of complain about.