Hey Friends and Family, it’s Paulette and Kam here! Today was an emotional yet exciting rollercoaster.

We woke up all the Glimpsers at 6:30 and had a nutritious breakfast at Buffet Estelí; there was beans and sour cream with avocado and a delicious star fruit juice. YUM! We then came back and had a mental warm up about our upcoming field trip to the city dump, Las Cruces. The dump was an eye opening experience, in which all Glimpsers got emotional and saw the reality of what a developing country deals with. The conditions were breathtaking and harsh, yet all of us appreciated the experience because we realized that happiness doesn’t always rely on having a life of luxury. Our host, Dona Francisca, spoke on the community’s humbling conditions and graciously answered our questions.

The group traveled on a speechless bus back to the hostal where we all took a mandatory shower and then held a group reflection on the similarities and differences of poverty in the United States and Central America. Everyone shared their emotional and honest opinion about what they experienced; it was insightful, inspiring, and memorable.

 

After a much needed lunch and refreshing passion fruit juice (which is almost everybody’s favorite), we began the process of our CAP (community action project). This entailed a trip to La Montañita, an elementary school where we are contributing our community service to help better the students’ learning environment. It is bittersweet that we have the opportunity to make such a great impact in their lives. We talked to both the students, teachers and student families about their wishes and desires for their school.

 

On our way back in the bouncy bus,we prepared for our next English tutoring class. We had our second session, which was fortunately much less chaotic than yesterday. We are glad to see how education is taken seriously here in Nicaragua and how ambitious “Nica” students are about learning English. Right after tutoring, we headed back once again to Buffet Estelí and had another scrumptious authentic dinner. The long day closed with the nightly meeting and passed the torch to Maricela!

 

Much love, Paulette and Kam