Today was our third adventurous day of our Community Action Project. The day had an amazing start when we were served pancakes for breakfast which is always a group favorite along with orange juice. Immediately after we cleaned our plates we headed straight on over to the elderly home to continue our work. Fortunately for us, our amazing PC’s invited a few of their friends and community members to aid us in our construction of the laundry room. Construction is not an easy job for 19 teenagers but we worked hard today and learned fast. Today was one of the best as far as our togetherness and working as a team. There was never a moment today that someone’s mind and body was taking a rest from our Community Action Project. This project takes huge mental and physical toll on every member of the group in some moments but it is all worth it. Three days of struggles for us provides years of better conditions for the laundry workers at the elderly home. In the United States most of us get so caught up in our own lives and our busy schedules that we forget about everyone else. We become consumed by our own problems and struggles. This project has made our group realize that just a little bit of time and hard work from us can go a long way for someone else.

Today was also our last night of English tutoring. The learning never stops so we taught until the last hour of class. In the last hour our classes came together by level and celebrated. We danced, sang, played games and enjoyed some great snacks. I’m excited to get home and to accept all of the Facebook requests that my students have sent me. Saying goodbye was hard because of the great relationships we have formed over the last two weeks. People think that language is a barrier between connections but it’s not true. I was so surprised by one of my students that brought each of the four teachers in my class a bracelet with our names burned into them. Not all of us speak Spanish and not all of our students speak English but we were still able to create amazing connections with each other personally.

Today was definitely one of the longest and most tiring days of the trip so far but it was also a whole bunch of fun. The experiences that we have endured today can never be recreated but will remain with us. When things don’t turn out the way we expect we usually turn to others for blame but instead we now know how to ban together to move past the struggles instead of dwelling on them. We’re learning a lot and I’m excited for the last few days of this amazing experience! -Jody Sturholm