Kathleen, Sophie, and Cristee with a family they were helping.

Today was a long and stressful, yet still insightful, day for us glimpsers. We got to experience living like a local. We started off with a wakeup call at 6 am. We also got the chance to shower using buckets! Yay. (JK). We then ate a simple breakfast that consisted of gayo pinto and a tortilla to get a feel of what a local would typically eat. Afterwards, we headed to the Llano Grande community where the glimpsers were split up and put into different families. They did a variety of things like make tortillas, pluck a dead chicken, and plant crops. Glimpsers got to spend time with the families to get an insight of what poverty really is. Although these families may seem poor to us, they seem to be full of happiness. They have their own reality, which is what the world really is.

George and Grace planting crops with a family.

Children of the community enjoying the piñata we brought them.

As a gift to the children of the community, we brought along a piñata for them to destroy and enjoy. We got to see their faces light up with joy as the candy fell on the ground. The kids thanked us and even hugged us, which makes our hearts melt. Afterwards, we handed out lunches to the families who were present. This lunch consisted of rice with chicken pieces, bread, and a cabbage salad. Along with the lunches, we gave out citrus juice. The kids and adults seemed to be really thankful for our kind gesture. Us glimpsers also ate the same lunch later on in the day when we left. When we left, people hugged us goodbye. This demonstrates how kind Nicaraguan people really are. I am sure we all got to learn from this experience.

Group photo from the top of the lookout.

Another group photo of us looking out at the amazing view.

After leaving the community, we took a short bus ride to Mira Dor, a city outlook. There we ate lunch, enjoyed the beautiful view, and took a lot of pictures so we would never forget it. After lunch we came back to the hostel and had a lot of down time due to changes in the schedule. During this time most of us took much needed naps after all of these long days.

Answering questions at the nightly meeting.

After napping and relaxing, we had a seminar on human rights where we learned what human rights are and how around the world people don’t have the same access to human rights that we may have in the US. It was very insightful and I think we’ll take this knowledge with us forever. Then we had a quick dinner and nightly meeting and went to a community celebration at the private school some of us shadowed at Friday. This party was for the 102nd anniversary of the school, so there were a lot of community members present. We reconnected with some of the students we shadowed and even some of the older students who attend our English tutoring classes. It was very loud, but we still had fun dancing and talking to community members. Overall it was an eye-opening and pretty fun day.

Aliya and Amari having fun dancing at the party.