Hello family & friends from today’s Liders Del Dia (LDD) Anabel and Milayzia! As the final 4 days of our trip wind down, we have finally begun our Community Action Project (CAP) delivery. In the past few days we agreed to improve the rooms of Barrilete through various tasks. This includes a seasons-themed mural for the girls’ room, a sunrise to night time mural in the boys’ room, painting the plant pots and the speed bump, and adding other items such as shelves, lights, and screws for the beds. These tasks will all be finished within the next few days.

Today we had an easy going morning with writing letters of appreciation to those who made Global Glimpse possible. Then we made a few pit stops to various hardware stores that took longer than expected, but we used this time to bond on the bus. When we finally gathered our materials we separated into our different committees of construction, creativity, management, and communication to begin the execution of our different tasks at Barrilete. Within the span of about 4 hours, we were able to prepare most of the shelves for tomorrow, paint the base coat and finish most of the sketches for the murals in the children’s rooms, and finally paint most of the plant pots outside. To top off this hardworking day, we had a special dinner of Pizza Hut – which most people were happy about since it was our first American meal that we have had on this trip – and an hour of free time to explore the wonderful city of Leon or freshen up before the nightly meeting.

During the day, we had some obstacles that came our way but we were able to overcome them thanks to some key events. One setback included the low energy in the beginning of the day due to exhaustion that we faced because of all the hard work we have been doing throughout the trip. However, while enjoying our lunch from Imabite, a little friend came to join in on the fun. It was small, cute, and just what we needed to boost our energy for our project. If you haven’t guessed by now, it was a pet cat that Carrie, one of the program coordinators, named Vegetariana.She roamed around our legs trying to capture our attention, which she did. As soon as I (Anabel) caught a glimpse of the adorable fur ball, she immediately reminded me of my cat back home. She even responded to the ways that I use to call my own cat. It was comforting to have her around all day long to brighten up our moods and to give us something to play with to distract ourselves during our short breaks. Another key event that helped us overcome the lack of energy from excessive heat and tiredness was singing popular songs from home. While painting the base coat of the walls for the murals, the creativity team sang songs such as the famous High School Musical song “We are All in This Together”, “Rolling in the Deep” and “Hello” by Adele, and finally “That’s What I Like” by Bruno Mars. This personally reminded us of car ride sing-a-longs with friends, and sometimes family, and the always funny and memorable times we sometimes miss while being away from home for so long.

As LDDs we both we nervous about taking on the day and being vocal. However, with the support of our peers and leaders we were able the build confidence in ourselves and step up to the position as the day went along. Something we both learned today was that we can’t please everyone at the same time because of our differences of perspectives. While some may agree to one opinion, others might argue a different side which caused a bit of miscommunication. This did slow us down at times but we were able to set aside our differences and agree on the best solution for the best outcome.

All in all, today was a very successful start to the two and a half day project. With a positive attitude and the passion to help make a difference in the world, we can eliminate the “unfreedoms” many people face daily.

Thanks for reading today’s post,

Anabel & Milayzia

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