It's morning in the Casa Blanca, the guest house where visitors and volunteers stay while at Armonia. The air is cool, almost chilly; a very unexpected and welcome change.

Erin and I arrived here yesterday evening, around 5:30pm, having been brought from the airport by two people from Armonia: Alejandro, the driver and former student of the Armonia program, and Veronica, a younger student currently in the program and just about to start her first year of college.

Upon arriving we were greeted by Wes and Stephanie, a wonderful couple about our age who serve at Armonia as general administrators. While we got acquainted, Dinner was being prepared by another student in the program. Armonia's method includes teaching the students the importance of being a servant, and preparing food is one way this is exercised. Other activities require learning practical skills such as carpentry. The Casa Blanca is run almost entirely by the students here. They cook, clean and prepare things for visiting guests and volunteers.

This installation of basic skills is one of the more subtle elements of Armonia's program, and in my opinion one of the most important. Most of the students here came from environments where they had very little in the way of a future: they could stay home, care for family, work the fields and live in poverty. Not some blend of pseudo-poverty, glamorized by yuppies wanting to live off their own food grown in a communal garden or through local co-ops, but actual poverty. These simple skills give them two other things critical to leadership: confidence and self-reliance. Armed with these and an education, community transformation can take place from within.

More coming soon - I can't wait to share how I met Nico and Lupe and gave them Armonia shirts (with pictures)!