After a night of manicures and pedicures (even for some of the boys) everyone jumped out of bed at 6:45 in order to prepare for breakfast at 7:15. As we were officially beginning our CAP project at Los Pipitos we started our adventure by walking to the paint store in order to refurbish the walls at the school. After stopping back “home” to drop off the recently bought merchandise we headed off once again to a different hardware store for the purchase of nails and screws.

On our way back we took a “short cut” to Matagalpa Tourist (to shop of course) while other members of our team stopped at what some call “the Staples of Matagalpa” in order to pick up more supplies. Delicious lunch was in order after all the walking and before we bused off to Los Pipitos to begin our next three days. We hopped on to a private bus (our first day with AC in thirteen days) to begin our trip. Although combining our ideas together presented a challenge, our wonderful General Project Managers stepped in to help reach a compromise. The two groups then continued to paint the base layers of both the rocky outside wall and the bland psychology room. While thoroughly into the work, no one realized how paint was spreading quickly among our hair and skin (especially the girls). With our hands covered in paint and no paint thinner to be found, we all struggled to remove the paint while the sink slowly overflowed (the oil paint was the most difficult to get off).

We then were able to enjoy one more ride in the air conditioning before preparing for “testing day” at English tutoring. As we conferred, the aroma of our dinner (homemade tacos with salad) got stronger and stronger with our mouths watering till we could no longer concentrate and had no choice but to head downstairs. We quickly filled our stomachs and went on our way to San Luis to begin our second to last session in order to determine who would be receiving a certificate on the last day of class. With many students having reached success within such a short period of time, our pride grew for both our students and ourselves. Everyone then scrambled to get back to the hostel for the nightly meeting knowing the faster we finished the faster Oreos and beauty supplies would be broken out.