Saludo (hi),

For those of you who don’t yet know what the responsibilities of leader of the day are, our first task is waking eighteen other exhausted teenagers up. As two people who crave sleep, this seemed daunting. Fortunately the rooster outside our accommodations accomplished this task for us. By 8:15am everyone was up, dressed, fed, and on our way to work on our sidewalk project. When we arrived, we immediately could see why the school of Loma de Yaque needed a sidewalk. The night before, it down-poured, (maybe why the rooster was so upset this morning), causing the ground to be a sea of mud. Within the first few seconds of stepping on campus, there was a man down. This, along with our muddy boots, proved to be our purpose of constructing a sidewalk. Our manual labor team was hard at work shoveling and transporting dirt, mixing cement, and laying the foundation of the sidewalk. Although the manual labor team was quickly getting tired, our kid zone staff was equally as worn down. There, they kept the children occupied and away from the construction by playing with balls, face painting, and trips to the park. After a short break for lunch to regain our energy, our sidewalk was completed with the help of the locals. Even though we had accomplished so much, our day still was not over. We headed back to the accommodations, and with only thirty minutes to change into formal attire, we were on our way to tutoring. Back in Mass, we have snow days, but unknown to us the Dominican Republic has rain days. Many students did not show up, so even after hours of lesson planning, most classes were unable to teach their designated students. To end the night the delegation came back to the hostel for dinner and a very reflective nightly meeting on our last few days.

Heyo, Karissa here!

I am trying not to fall asleep while I write this, as I am sure you have read about that annoying rooster. On the previous day of working on the CAP project, I mainly stuck to working on the manual labor aspect. However, today I spent most of my time in the kids room, as no one wanted to go back after their first experience… I have never been so tired in my life, I swear there is more wear and tear on my body from endless piggyback rides and burns from going down the scolding hot slide, than when I was helping with the construction before. Apparently when you tell kids that you do not want to have your face painted, they take that as “Let me chase you until you have at least eight different colors all over you.” Today I learned that although there are different tasks at the construction site, we all equally contribute in a way.

Audios from your favorite Aussie, -Karissa

Howdy, Lauren here!

I have never before worked on a construction project of any type, just as many other Glimpsers here. It surprised me how quickly the project was completed and the quality of our work. I realized today between heaving shovel-fulls of cement and pushing the wheel barrel how hard working the locals are here. I wish we had one of those big cement trucks that do the mixing and pouring for you, but there’s something enjoyable about getting your hands dirty when working on a project. As this experience is coming to a close, I’m realizing how passionate the people are about their community here and I hope to share that with my family and friends back home.

Love and missing all of you, -Lauren