Hello everyone,

This morning our wake up call was at 6:40, a little earlier than usual, as we wanted to work as long as we could on the final part of our Community Action Project. For breakfast, we had scrambled eggs, toast, a bowl of fruit (consisting of apples, grapes, bananas, and kiwi), as well as an option of pineapple juice, hot chocolate, or tea. After breakfast, we quickly got on the bus and arrived at Carlos Garbay around 8:30. Since we had finished the majority of construction on the cubbies yesterday, most of the Glimpsers worked on painting today. Several people painted lines on the basketball court, while the rest applied coats of blue paint to the cubbies and worked on sensory board materials for the students. We took a break around noon to watch a performance performed by the students. We, in turn, presented them with our cultural present, all of us singing “Riptide” by Vance Joy. Although we had only about 10 minutes to prepare in the morning, we definitely nailed it. The students from Carlos Garbay also made all of us a card, thanking us for “nuestra ayuda”. After that, we had burritos with potato salad and finished up all our projects.

Once we came back to the hotel and had time to relax, it was time to head to our last tutoring class. It took longer than usual for classes to end today because everyone was saying their goodbyes. We exchanged contact information and took many pictures with our students. It was a bittersweet ending, and multiple Glimpsers shed some tears. Back at the hotel, the girls on the third floor were greeted by an extremely pleasant surprise, warm water”!!! Almost everyone spent a significant amount of time scrubbing the blue paint off of their bodies as we realized too late that the blue paint had seeped through our clothes.

For dinner we had sautéed beef and vegetables with a fluffy caramel mousse for dessert. Overall, we really felt like we made an impact on Riobamba’s community through our CAP and English Tutoring and we’ll never forget this emotional experience. Until tomorrow.

Your Líderes del Día

Olivia, Maya, and Jishen