For the second day of the Community Action Project, we woke up at 7:00 AM. We then had breakfast at 8:00 AM and left for Barrio de Las Flores at 8:45 AM. At Barrio de Las Flores, we met up with Amauri and his community and began to dig out the landing of the bridge. We then began to mix the cement and the builders began cementing the bridge. The work was hard but, working together with the community made it much easier to power through.

We had a lunch break at 12:00 PM and got back to work at 1:30 PM mixing and laying down more cement. After getting back to work, we also distributed snacks to the little kids who were hard at work helping us build the bridge. We continued working until 3:00 PM and by then we had finished laying the cement for the bridge and had begun mixing and laying cement for the stairs that will lead to the bridge. After finishing for the day, we felt exhausted yet extremely satisfied with the work we completed knowing that it will hopefully stay and help people for decades.

We then returned to the hotel and had free time until 5:00 PM. From 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM, the people that needed to finish their letters for donors worked on them. We then had dinner at 7:00 PM and our nightly meeting at 8:00 PM where we passed the torch to tomorrow’s leaders of the day (Deni and Griffin).

When working with the locals today, we experienced great generosity and kindness. We also saw how quickly we could create change when working as a whole. Many of us today got out of our comfort zones when it comes to speaking Spanish with the natives. Although conversations may be simple and barebones, it still takes a lot of courage to test your abilities and overcome the challenges that come with the language barrier.