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Today was June 22, 2013, our second day on the CAProject in Chacraseca. It was quite difficult waking up at 4:30 in the morning today, however we all got up on time and were very enthusiastic to finish our project. First of all, there was an major issue with the paint that we used yesterday, somehow the nice green color that we all agreed on the day before didn’t come out as we expected. As a matter of fact, it looked more or less just like the white primer. Anyhow we began the day with a fresh start. Arriving at 6:30 in Chacraseca we got to work right away. Because there were more of the rollers today they saved us huge amount of time. The majority of us painted the room green in just two hours. While outside, our talented artists Zena, Tyler and Dung continued working on the mural. We as a group agreed on writing on the flower petals three very motivating words: hope, believe and dream because the students are dreamers. We are hoping that they will believe in themselves and dream big, and we know they will become successful and that they will be able to help their community in the future.
Our lunch was amazing. We had chicken with vegetable rice and beans. Very, very healthy and yummy indeed. And it tasted even better, especially after 6 long continuous hours painting the four walls on the room, building desks so that they would be able to fold neatly against the floor with the help of Vivian, Aaron and our most amazing and most devoted volunteer, our bus driver that day. Also before lunch we moved all the classroom objects outside to get ready for the floor.
At 12:45 we went back to our project. Honestly I never knew how hard smoothing the floor can be until today. There were so many steps involving in smoothing the floor (1) sweeping and washing the floor (2) applying a thin layer of white liquid and spreading it all evenly over the floor (3) adding the first layer of cement and again evening it out with a long straight rectangular wooden block (4) adding another fine layer of cement and spreading it evenly with the llanas (planes or concrete smoothers) (5) waiting for another hour and (6) smoothing the floor even more with sponges. Patience was practiced through out the long and tiring process of smoothing the floor, but it was possible and easier when all 18 of us glimpsers were very considerate and took turns with the floor with the help of some albaƱiles, or concrete guys. Through intense teamwork we got a lot more closer by the end of the day than anyone of us ever could have imagined.
There is a quote that stated “leave the world better than you found it” and we definitely accomplished that today. We did the mural, desks, electricity, and smoothed the floor. All our hard work, effort and sweat made us very exhausted by the end of the day. The memories of the satisfaction and the appreciation those parents and their children had on their faces by the end of the day was really priceless.

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