Work All Day, Fiesta All Night!!
Student Trip Blog
Good evening, families!
We’re today’s leaders of the day, Daouda and Stephen.
Today was a bittersweet day, as today is our last full day in Panama with this group, but we can look forward to returning home to our friends and family. We started the day with our last breakfast at Villa Tableña, served by our wonderful cooks, Tamara and Mayrodis. It consisted of scrambled eggs, beef sausages and/or salami, pancakes with maple syrup, almojábano, bread, melon, oats, and fruit punch. It was delicious as always, and we truly appreciate them for serving us delectable meals for the majority of our time in Las Tablas.
We then had some time to finish packing before our final reflection seminar. In the seminar, we first created our own individual journey maps that showcased our highlights of the trip as well as valuable lessons learned. We shared our maps to a couple of peers, and then showed our appreciation for our peers and leaders through two different activities; one through tapping shoulders, and one through writing messages of “Big Love” for everyone else. After that, we had our final free time of the trip, allowing us to quickly pick up any final souvenirs we may have wanted from the nearby dollar store before lunch. Lunch included beef meatballs/chicken stew, rice, lentils, coleslaw, and a different fruit punch. We ate up and then gifted our lovely cooks custom Global Glimpse items.
Of course, we had to recognize the rest of the staff as well, gifting the faces we often saw at the front desk and cleaning crew gifts as well. We said our goodbyes to them as well as to the dog, Becky, and the little boy we nicknamed Mini Mbappe.
The bus then arrived and we boarded it, watching as we left Las Tablas, where we made many memories that we’ll forever hold dear to our heart, behind for the last time. On the bus ride, we bonded through games and music, further strengthening our relationships with each other.
Daouda here, being leader today has helped me grow as a person and made me feel so much more responsible: waking up early, waking everyone up, and ensuring everyone was doing well and enjoying their day. Everything I have done today was a valuable lesson and will forever stick with me and will help me grow as a person. A highlight from today would be the bus ride and everyone bonding and singing together. One thing I learned throughout this trip is that leadership can be shown in many ways even if you’re not the leader of the day. That can be telling people to listen when the leader is speaking, go to your rooms before lights out, and many more. I will forever be grateful for this experience and without my GG Leaders and PC’S, I wouldn’t be who I am now. Thank you to all the families and people at Global Glimpse for making this an amazing trip.
Stephen here!
Being leader today has been interesting. On one hand, it’s felt nice to lead the thank yous and parts of our meetings. On the other, it hasn’t felt much different from any other day apart from that. This program and group of kids have cultivated a space where everyone gets to be a leader at all times. Leading today and being on this trip in general has helped me realize that you don’t have to be the designated “leader” to be a leader; there are many different ways to exude leadership, such as making sure everyone knows the activities of the day, making sure everyone ate, taking responsibilities for mistakes, covering for a peer when they are unable to do something, holding peers accountable, and many many more. A major highlight of the day is definitely the bus ride, when everyone sat in the back together and had lots of fun bonding. This experience has been one of the best of my life, and I want to thank Global Glimpse, my Program Coordinators Yosselyn and David, my GG Leaders Miriam and LeShawn, and all of the students here for making it so unforgettable.
P.S. Hi Mom, Dad, and Anna! I’ll be seeing you guys very soon; we have a lot to catch up on.
Also, hi Ella, Norah, Alice, Lou, Dottie, Thúy, Chloe, Cassidy, Jake, Sean, and Alex! Love you and miss you, I’ll see ya soon 🙂