IMG_0747Hey guys it’s Mia and Sophia.  Today we were the leaders of our first fun day! We began the day by waking up at 8am and leaving for Cascada Blanca, (The White Waterfall) a place were people can swim by a waterfall, get massages, eat delicious food, and even stay the night if they wished.  The bus ride was about 30 minutes long and even rained a b it on the way there.  We picked up to Red Cross lifeguards named Elvis and Julio who were coming to supervise us white at the waterfall.  When we arrived it was extremely humid, hot and in the middle of a beautiful lush forest.  The view of the falls were breathtaking.

IMG_0753We met a man named Don Victor who took us to a cave behind the waterfall to take pictures.  By the time we finished, all of our shoes were covered in mud but we were ready to finally go swimming!  Unfortunately the lifeguards said that the waterfall was too dangerous for us to swim in, so we were taken to another area where we could sim until lunch.  The walk to our little oasis was peaceful and serene.  Time flew by as we swam, jumped from rocks, and relaxed by the water.  Lunch time had arrived before we knew it and we headed to the restaurant to enjoy some great food.  After lunch most people swam for an hour or two while the rest of the Glimpsers stayed up at the restaurant reading or playing card games.

DSC08816After our day of fun we headed back to the hostal to clean up ourselves and prepare for our Community Action Project (CAP) presentations.  We were going to present our ideas to the teachers to help make an impact and improve the school.  We spent an hour of free time creating posters and memorizing speeches for some ideas we came up with help make the school a better learning environment.  The process for choosing the three ideas were democratic. We dressed in our business casual attire and set it up like the show Shark Tank and talked about what we wanted to do, why we wanted to do it, and how we could do it. We presented ideas about a staircase and a slide for easy access to the school yard, storage area for the teachers because they have to carry around their materials all day, and a multi-sports playing field for the kids because their field is run down and difficult to use. After we presented and the teachers deliberated, they prioritized the storage area for teachers’ materials.

IMG_5186Right after the teachers left, we found out that we were finally able to go to the Do Portugal Circus! Our leaders let us go because it was the last day that the circus would be in town. Some of us stayed behind because they were not feeling to well but the rest of us walked over to the circus. The tickets were 100 cordobas each (only about $3 US dollars for front seats!). The circus tents were in sight and we walked in. The circus was full of amazing acts. There were acrobatics, funny acts, crazy magic tricks and outfit changes and three men riding motorcycles in a round steel cage. At one point, Anna, Elsa, and Olaf came out. They invited people out on stage so the boys decided to go to the center of the ring and give them hugs. We ate chocolate covered apples, popcorn and hot dogs as we enjoyed the show. When the show ended we were all very happy that we were able to experience a form of entertainment that most locals do. Instead of helping locals we were able to live like them.

After our first day of fun we learned that teamwork always makes the dream work. Glimpsers encouraged each other at the waterfall when some were facing their fear of heights and jumping off of rocks into the water. During the CAP preparation everyone did not agree deciding on ideas to present but, when the presentations came around everyone was on the same page. We all conquered fears, challenges, and new things this day.

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