Dear families, friends, and this group’s passionate readers,
My name is Henry Top and today I had the honor of leading this delegation. I can gratefully say that these students are honestly the best and easiest students that I’ve worked with in my life (maybe that’s not saying too much considering that I’ve only led elementary schoolers and 9th graders but I still mean it). Regardless, I still learned about being a leader. I have learned that being a leader is not just about my experience but about emulating leadership for future leaders as well. I have learned to keep a positive attitude and continue to be flexible despite changing plans and unforeseen issues. And most importantly I have learned that mutual respect between leaders and students is the key to a functioning relationship. Enough about me though, y’all are here for your favorite kids so let’s indulge on our day. After a spontaneous mix-up in our itinerary, we visited a local panaderia (bakery) called La Paulina. The owner, Ana, graciously let us into her behind-the-scenes where we watched, learned, and enjoyed bread, rolls, and sweet treats. And we’d all love to go again despite the sizzling heat of the ovens. Following that, we took a more professional outlook and discussed how “foreign business impacts local business in Las Tablas.” I’m proud to say that almost every student asked a question to continue our conversation with Ana about her family business, its history, and how she works with other businesses so that all businesses can thrive. She mentioned how foreign and local businesses depend on each other for goods, expansion, and support; and that she is proud to continue her father’s legacy in the food industry. After our final thank you’s and goodbyes, we left for the local supermercado (super market) to further explore the city and enjoy our time here. Unfortunately, not much of interest on this excursion other than some fun purchases of food and Jose being his usual self chatting up the local people. Then we headed back home for lunch and locked in for some project preparation work. Another amazing aspect of the students that I was impressed with was everyone’s decision to use much of their free time to collaborate and prepare for our presentations tomorrow to Maruquel – the head of our partner organization. So from roughly 1 p.m – 4 p.m we worked on posters, budgets, and logistics in our groups then spent the rest of our free time in the pool. This was a lot of glimpsers “rose of the day” as we spent a couple hours playing and laughing together. After our hard work and fun time, we hungrily scarfed down our dinner and I held our nightly meeting. I personally enjoyed leading this as it was a great time to get everyone to participate and have an opportunity to express my overall gratitude to this group (if it wasn’t implied hard enough, my constant reiteration of “gratitude” and “honor” is just me trying to tell you that you can rest assured knowing that you raised great children).
That’s all for today, tune in tomorrow to the next update with… Angelina and Bryanda!
Hi Las Tablas participants, Looks like you are getting busy with your projects and plans. Are you learning lots of Spanish? Glad you can keep cool in the pool. Have fun Alicia……………EM
Yum! visiting a bakery and hearing how foreign business impacts local business. Then relaxing in the pool, in addition to all the hard work on the posters. Impressive.
Alicia your pug boys miss you!
Let’s go licia!!! Sending colossal ❤️ in chat!
sending so much big colossal humongous love licia <3 – sophie 😛
Thanks for the update! The panaderia sounds great! And the pool looks lovely. Hope there was some excitement for Panama’s win in the Copa America!
Thank you so much for the wonderful updates!! It’s exciting to follow up the group’s activities and the lovely pictures
I see you, my little Pip Squeak 😉
…again, hoping your having a fabulous time- how couldn’t you with a pool for recreation??!
Loves you my baby! Can’t wait to hear from you soon- stay safe & happy!
Lava You,
Mango 💋 😘
Angie! Hope you’re having a great time! Looks like you are.. Can’t wait to see your post later today 😊 we miss you and love you. Ana can’t wait til you get home.
Way to go Henry👏👏 thank you for your compliment it gives peace to my soul🕊️
Furthermore, because we talk to Emilio and made our day shine again💕💕💕🥰🥰🥰🥰 was very comforting to hear that you are happy Emilio and learning a different culture🤗🤗
Blessings for everyone 💐💐💐
Looks like such a great day! How wonderful to learn from a local businesswoman 🩷
Moni – love you!! Miss you!! I hope you had a great time today 🩷 Love you so much 🩷 – Mommy
Hello Henry! Love to see your writing and hear your thoughts on these things. I can almost hear your voice. I want to hear more about what Ana said about small business and what it’s like in Panama, the intersection of the world.
Love you! Mommy
(hey! Shelby and Moni aren’t afraid to say “mommy”, why should I! 😍 Thanks Shelby 🙂
The highlight of my night is reading these blogs! Thank you for sharing, looks like you’ve all built a great team! I look forward to seeing your CAP project come to life as you’ve clearly been putting a lot of heart and soul into it.
Love seeing the pictures and all the fun you guys are having. Miss you Mikaela, love seeing you enjoying this amazing experience 🥰
Raquel, it looks like you’re having so much fun! I can’t wait to hear all about it when you’re back. Miss you very much! The kitty misses you too but I think I’m becoming her favorite now >:)
Alba and Julian – You all look like you are having so much fun! I can’t wait to hear all about it when we get back to school in August. And, hi Bridgett and Dina 😁