“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has” -Margaret Mead

Can one person make a difference? That is still a question we cannot fully answer. Being in a developing country, we see many communities like the one we worked in today. With the people of Las Cabirmas, we realized being a part of a group can allow each one of us to make a greater impact.

Today, we laid the foundation to the next two days of work for our community action project. Though the original tasks we set for the group such as building walls, transporting materials, and making cement essentially fell apart, we found jobs that displayed our strengths. Not a single person was working alone. Though the community members who knew construction like the back of their hands refused to let the majority of us work as hard as we wanted to, we continued to search for more tasks to do and eventually learned how to complete tasks like build a wall of cinder blocks the right way.

Walking away, we didn’t feel accomplished. Many glimpsers continued to ask the GGLs if we could stay longer and finish some of the walls we had started. However, planning to build a community center is a task that you cannot just finish in one day. The blocks we stacked and the cement we mixed today were great steps towards making our vision a reality.

After a long day of shoveling, hammering, and breaking, we came home to our accommodation and put on a cleaner look to head back out to the city. Some groups stayed back to rest and freshen up, while others explored the streets. Those of us who use explore time to go out as frequently as we have waste no time in going straight to where we plan to go. These spots include the smoothie shop, the supermarket, and the jewelry store. It isn’t rare to find some of us low on money with backpacks filled with snacks. In fact, on the way to the supermarket, Suhail, Bisma, and the two of us encountered another Global Glimpse delegation at the smoothie shop. It was crazy to think that they were on their fourth day while we only had four days left.

This thought resonated with us as we spent our hours before bed writing appreciation letters for the people of Global Glimpse. With these final days, we are getting to understand what this trip means to us and how it has affected our lives for the better. After today, we only have two more days of CAP, and we are certain that our whole group will continue to work hard and make the most of these last few days.

Mixing Concrete

Building Walls

CAP Day 1

Working with the Locals

Building the Community Center