We all love and miss you guys very much. We know you all love pictures so Erin will be putting more on the google doc tonight.

Today, everybody was allowed to sleep in until 7:20, but we were all still completely exhausted from yesterday’s adventure. After breakfast at Alfredito’s, we had a seminar on politics in Nicaragua. During the seminar, we read an enlightening article – “President Daniel Ortega Isn’t a Nice Guy, but Nicaraguans Will Re-elect Him Anyway” by Tim Rogers. It provided some insight for our question of the day: Do Nicaraguan politics affect the typical Esteliano? You can probably find the article somewhere online if you want to check it out for yourself.

Then it was time for our visit to El Museo de Heroes y Martires and a talk with Guillermina Mesa, one of the founders of the museum. The museum was founded by mothers who lost children in the revolution as a way to remember the 5,000 people from Esteli who died in the war. While we were all battling our fatigue, we still felt strongly towards Guillermina’s story. She had lost her 14 year old son, but I’ll spare you the details because they were fairly gruesome. Her story is heartfelt, amazing, and is hard for her to recollect; you could see it in her tears. We are all blessed to have heard that story from this strong woman. This part of the day was really enriching  because her life story isn’t just a story, it’s reality.

After the museum we had lunch and then had a little break before our second speaker of the day, the owner of the lovely Hostal Tomabu, Papa Pancho! He gave us his point of view on the history of Nicaragua. My favorite part was his opening statement, “The revolution began in 1492 when European explorers first came to Nicaragua.” He also sang to us a couple of times. It was fabulous.

Then it was our usual routine of English class, dinner, and the wonderful nightly meeting. Tomorrow is “$1 a day”. Get hyped.