Day 5

Today we had the opportunity to work closely with the Niçaraguan students in the learning center.  In small groups students introduced themselves to each other and asked simple questions as a way to practice Spanish or English.  Then, each student was reintroduced to the larger group by their counterpart before working on other Spanish or English practice sheets in small groups.  It felt good to put in a different kind of work to make an impact at the learning center.  There were a lot of eye opening moments. 

After lunch we had to pause our work effort due to some unforeseen foundation and construction issues with the learning center.  The contractors continued to work hard but the level of work was too skilled for volunteers to assist with and must be completed before the next steps in the process.  We are expecting to be on track tomorrow.

We spoke after dinner last night about some of the socio economic demographics of Niçaragua, what they mean in context of what we've been seeing and in relation to our own lives.  We learned that 76% of the population in Niçaragua lives on less than $2 a day.  In recognition of that many travelers had that in the forefront of their brains today as we challenged ourselves to make choices that would coincide with living on $3 a day.  There are no pictures for this post because my phone/camera stayed put away for the day for that reason.  We found that it is extremely difficult to live on so little but also that the way that our trip is designed makes it difficult to participate fully.  Many agreed that if we were to do a social experiment like this again, we would need more rigid limitations up front and a clearer desired outcome. Nonetheless, a level of awareness was reached that will hopefully stick around for a while.

Sarah and others did take pictures from today, so don't worry.  

Tomorrow is our last day going to the learning center!