Hey y’all, welcome back to our blog channel! lol Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there!

Today was not the easiest of days, as we had both under and overestimated how day one of the CAP project would go. It was hard to envision ahead of time just what we would need to do to start the project, When we arrived at the site of the project – which is to create a drainage system and walkway in a section of the barrio – we realized just how thick the cement was that we had to bust through in order to start the project. At first, this meant that the members of the community working with us had to take on more of the work, and we felt like we weren’t doing enough. However, once we got going we started to really see the impact we are having on this community. Not only were we able to start working really hard on some manual labor, but a few locals saw what we were doing and joined in to help!

After a few hours of working, we headed back to Dilenia’s for a lunch break of arroz con gondules and pollo. After rice and beans and chicken, we headed back to the work site and really got going on moving rocks, digging the drainage pathway, and beginning to lay down cement, After three hours of working we had a popsicle break. Delicioso!! Well, unless you got the sweet potato ice cream… A few of us passed out candy to the local kids who had gathered to watch us work, chat with us, and challenge us to dance contests. If we had one wish for today it would be that we could have stayed at the work site longer to play basketball with the locals.

We came back and some of us had book club, some of us ordered food from Dilenia’s – chicken tenders and fries for a taste of home – and some of us went to the supermarket to buy SO MUCH COFFEE! Get ready to try the most delicious coffee ever when we get home! We also bought the last bag of cinnamon cookies on the shelf– we hope they restock before Thursday! After snacks we wrote the first drafts of our thank you letters to the supporters of Global Glimpse. After putting our thoughts to paper, some of us burned off our excess energy by running around the courtyard of the hotel. Which reminds us, we need to take some pictures of this place, since it was such a huge part of our trip.

Speaking of a taste of home, dinner tonight was actually hot dogs and more fries! More comfort food! As always, we appreciate the food and the staff here. Then we had our nightly meeting where we did a recap of our day, reflected on our roses and thorns of the day, and passed the torch to Katia who wowed us with the sound of water drops, Joan with her amazing Thai boxing, and Hazel with a card trick that had John Carlos amazed. As we sit here writing this blog, we realize that our time here is almost over, and the excitement of coming home is mixed with the sadness of saying goodbye – temporarily, we hope – to so many new friends. We are about to rest up for tomorrow and day 2 of our Community Action Project, maybe play a few card games, and continue some great conversations. Tomorrow is also Juneteenth, and we are looking forward to celebrating that and honoring Black people and their accomplishments however we can.

That’s all for now. Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe!

With love from Andres, Sophia, and Alyssa