We began the day waking up at a refreshing 8 a.m. After getting breakfast from the comedor, our usual spot, we presented our community action project (CAP Project) to our partner organization The Peace Project via Skype. Our idea of building a garden seemed to go over really well, and after discussing the logistics, we went off in groups to find supplies for our project from local stores. We did this in order to support the local economy here in Nicaragua, rather than bringing our own materials from the U.S. After taking note of the various prices and availability of certain materials, we regrouped, briefly discussed our findings and had free time for an hour.

We then had lunch at our usual spot, and walked as a group to meet our guest speaker Luis Mora at his house. He studied sociology, and fought in multiple wars in Nicaragua. He shared his knowledge, experience, and opinions about political issues both in Nicaragua and the U.S. We had the opportunity to ask several questions, and talked with him for over an hour. This was a unique experience because we would most likely not be able to learn about so much of Nicaraguan history in politics in school, or any other time in our lives. He was a very passionate speaker, always animated and lively when he talked, and deeply cared about his duty to educate and our duties to receive new information. We returned to our hostel using local transportation for the first time during our trip and shortly after ate dinner at the comedor. During this time, we had a quick seminar about politics where we learned more about specific Nicaraguan politicians and how media influence and propaganda play a huge role in their (re-)election, similar to the U.S.

After a tasty meal, we held our English tutoring session with the college students at UHISPAM and every class had major success. We are learning a lot about ourselves as leaders in this process, and are growing more and more everyday. We returned to our hostel for our nightly meeting and reflection, recapping and discussing the day. We discussed answers to our question of the day which was “How important is it to involve people of a country in politics?” and our quotes of the day which were “The accomplice to the crime of corruption is often our own complacency”-Bess Myerson, “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government when it deserves it” -Mark Twain and “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” -Lord Acton. Overall, we learned to challenge authority when necessary, see past propaganda and bias, and to expand our overall perspective. We have only 5 full days left, and have been enjoying all 12 days we have been in Granada. Thank you for following our blog and we hope this gives you a glimpse of our freshly formed global perspective!

Thank You!

Nia Lundkvist