Hola familia,

As the last adult “lider del dia” we had quite an epic day focused around the culture of Nicaragua. The students had a rough start waking up at 6AM, but throughly enjoyed their yoga session with Stuart before a massive pancake breakfast provided by the awesome hostel staff. We set off to an environmental reserve to give the students a beautiful view of the Esteli countryside. After some selfie pics we piled back on the bus to meet Don Alberto, aka Jalacate, who is a local stone carver. Unfortunetly the locals were building a road so our plans changed a little and we serenaded our bus driver the entire way home! The students will get to visit Don Alberto another day to see his art. After lunch was probably the most enjoyable part of the entire day. We walked in the rain to the casa cultura and got a class in Tusa! Tusa is the husk of the corn plant that the locals dye and then use to create beautiful mosaics on cards, pictures, boxes and furniture. This process has been developed over the last ten years and students were able to create cards with tusa and recycled paper from vegetable scraps. You may be lucky enough to see these cards later. Once the creative juices started flowing the kids channeled it into dance. We were taught cultural dances from all areas of Nicaragua by a dance teacher and his three students. Elsa, David, Jessica, and John dressed in traditional dance clothes and performed some partner dancing with everyone else following along. After a long, sweaty, and fun session the students taught the Nicaraguans some of our moves from back home. This experience was so much fun and what the students appreciated most from the day (thanks Henny and Bev). Tonight I passed the hat to Hana and you can look forward to her blog tomorrow night!!

buenas noches