¡Hola! Sorry for the late update! We were very tired, but we are all well rested now and had a great day you can read about in the next post. Yesterday was Living Like A Local Day! To have a genuine experience, starting the night before, all electricity and running water was turned off. Therefore, students had to collect water in buckets for showering and bathroom necessities, and carried around flashlights.

We woke up at 6 a.m. and had a light breakfast of bread and hot chocolate. We traveled to Guanito to spend the morning with El Centro de Madres Lirios del Valle whom “adopted” us for the day. Each group was assigned a mother, and performed chores around the house such as sweeping, mopping, and cooking while getting to know our “mothers.” We all learned to value having access to 24/7 running water and electricity, because we had to carry around buckets of water to perform our chores. After finishing our chores, all the families came together for lunch. Lunch was delicious, and some groups even contributed by helping prepare the food and drinks. Although we only spent a couple hours with our “mothers”, when it was time to say goodbye, it was hard to pull ourselves away from the mothers and children of the community. Having the opportunity to share such a unique experience with the community was an incredible memory we will never forget. Together we learned to appreciate family and being around the people you love should be valued more than materialistic items.

From there we traveled to our Community Action Project location to present our ideas to the committee representing the community. Three groups presented an aspect of the project and were given feedback by the panel. After much debate, we narrowed down our ideas to best help the community.

Next, we rushed to English tutoring where many students did not attend due to the rain. However, some groups chose to hold their classes outside to enjoy the rain.

We then enjoyed a simple dinner of bananas and salami. Everyone was very tired by the end of the day, but none regretted all of the amazing experiences that we enjoyed.