CAP Delivery Day 2

Hello Glimpser family and friends!

This is Arianna Standish and Kaylyn Ta, today’s Liders del Día! Today we woke up bright and early, excited to finish our Community Action Project at Arroyo Loro.

Accompanied by our fellow Youth Ambassadors, we arrived at the community and immediately went to work. Yesterday, we weren’t able to finish the fence due to the lack of resources. The fence was short by about 40 feet, but many of the Glimpsers donated more money, which bought us another roll of chain-link, and the fence was finished. We were worried that because of yesterday’s rain, the mural and concrete would be ruined. But to our surprise, they both turned out amazing! The basketball court was finished, with lines, hoop, and backboard painted. In addition to the colorful geometric pattern, Benjamin used his beautiful calligraphy skills to paint two inspiring quotes on the walls, “Que tus sueños sean más grandes que tus miedos.” and “Yo no studio para saber más sino para ignorar menos. “Your dreams are bigger than your fears.” and “I don’t study to know more but to ignore less”. After finishing the CAP an hour early, we bonded with the community members, played with the children, and celebrated the completion of our project with everyone. We thanked the leaders of the community for welcoming us into Arroyo Loro, and they in turn thanked us for working alongside them to create a better learning environment. They closed with a prayer for us, and we gave them donations of school supplies. We were sad to leave Arroyo Loro, but we left with a smile on our faces.

We boarded the bus back to the hostel, and had free time to pack. We can’t believe our trip is almost over! Then we finished writing our appreciation letters for the supporters of Global Glimpse, and had a group discussion reflecting on our CAP. We accomplished so much in 2 days, and it felt good knowing that we were part of something much larger than ourselves. By listening to the needs of Arroyo Loro, we learned the importance of serving a community rather than helping. For us, helping implies that we believe that we are better than the members of this community, but serving means a more equal partnership between Global Glimpse and Arroyo Loro. We also discussed our strengths and weaknesses as a team. Our passion, trust, and drive led us to work together, but we were also hesitant to explore different jobs. Overall, we were extremely proud of ourselves and each other for coming together as a team, and the experience of working with Arroyo Loro is something we will never forget.

Afterwards, we had dinner at Onanaye the very last time. We ate by candlelight, said goodbye to Sheila (the owner of Onaney) and came back for our nightly meeting. We continued our debrief of the CAP and talked about how we are going to take back the skills we learned during this time back home. And just when we thought we were done, Brayan showed off his dance moves (let’s just say there was a lot of twerking) and we had our own little dance party, which was so much fun. Tomorrow, we are having our final reflection and heading to Santo Domingo. Although we are excited to be coming home, we know that all of us will miss San Juan with all our hearts.

Shoutouts!

Ari: Hi everyone! I’m having so much fun here and I don’t want to leave even though I miss you guys! Give hugs to the dogs for me J

Kaylyn: Hey Mom and Dad! I miss you a ton but I think I’m going to stay here in the DR because I love it here too much. This trip has been absolutely amazing, and I’m going to miss everyone so much!