Greeting from San Juan and your glimpsers! My name is Silvana Padilla, and I currently attend South San Francisco High School in South San Francisco. I’m lucky to say I was Leader of the day today and working with all of your amazing, bright teens. Our trip is almost coming to a close, but today was probably one of the most important days of the whole trip because it was CAP Delivery day 1. For those of you that don’t know what CAP stands for, it is a Community Action Project and our project was to fix a ludoteca which is a child care center somewhat like a daycare. Well today we started the morning off by waking up at seven in the morning. We all went downstairs and walked down to Onaney. Unfortunately due to mechanical difficulties, we were running an hour late due to a change of our bus. When our ride arrived, (provided by FUNDASEP) we had an uncomfortable seating arrangement because of all the materials we were bringing!

When we arrived to the welcoming town of Sabaneta, we were greeted by a huge group of community members ready to work. Each committee separated and began with their projects. First the education board, (JD and Alex) began to work on the bookshelf then they built the table. Then a couple of community leaders aided them and finished their two projects in less than 2 hours. The park and rec committee began to work on the open field right beside the ludoteca. They worked really hard on pulling weeds, removing rocks, and finding palm leaves for their enramada (shady area built of palm tree leaves and tree trunks). The next committee (my committee) is the decorating committee; we began painting blue mountains which evolved into actual ocean waves with Ginny and Evelyn’s artistic abilities. The sun looked amazing as well thanks to Derek. Finally the last committee, the maintenance crew (Eliana and Ohmneha only two and they’re girls!), cleaned up the bathrooms. They also helped the park and rec committee with pulling palm tree leaves. The day was a lot more stressful than what we had perceived it to be but we all pushed through and made a lot of progress with the time being.

Once the clock struck 3:30 we began to clean up and the inside of the ludoteca really did feel like an ocean. The outside looked much more presentable, and the shelves and table were built. The group then came back “home” to D’Angel hotel and it was free time. Students were allowed to go out and most of us went to go get frozen yogart. It is truly soooooo good here in DR! We met for dinner and walked to Onaney’s. I convinced our adult leadership team to take us to Fiestas Partonales which is a huge party/ fair in San Juan. It was a great way to end the day! Day one is over here in Sabaneta! May day 2 be great as well! Good Bye all from San Juan! Passing the torch to Evelyn!

PS Happy Late birthday to my sister Natalia!

-Silvana Padilla

Eliana working with the girls from the Sabaneta community to create portable sinks made out of recycled materials.

Eliana working with the girls from the Sabaneta community to create portable sinks made out of recycled materials.

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The Mural committee working on the ocean themed room.