Dear Families and Friends,

We can’t believe there’s only two days left of our trip!!

We started the day off bright and early at 7:00 am. Rise and shine! After getting ready for the day, we had a delicious and nutritious breakfast of Ecuadorian bread and an omelette. As a tradition, we thanked the people who served us on “3,2,1, ¡Gracias Carmita, Gracias Inez, Gracias, Luis, Gracias Ivan!” Next, we gathered our supplies, which included enamel paint, paint brushes, dissolvent, metal brushes, towels, and gloves. Opening the water jugs to prepare us to hydrate for the rest of the days proved to be a challenge, but Ivan saved the day and opened the cap with his keychain. At 8:45 am, we headed to the bus, and left for Adolfo Kopling School to work on our Community Action Project.

Today, we completed our Community Action Project, aka CAP, and we were super happy and proud to see the finished product. From 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, we finalized the project, which involved spilling one too many cans of paint. 7 hours of blood, sweat and tears later, you can find hopscotch, or rayuela, four square and adorable drawings of cartoon animals in the elementary campus of Adolfo Kolping, a school and partner organization of Global Glimpse. Oh, and there’s an Ecuadorian flag smack dab in the center of the court. Also, don’t be alarmed by the colorful handprints. Nobody died. I think.The children had too much fun helping us with the project, many adults, who shall not be named, might have yelled a few times for the children to no caminar aqui! 

Imagine our surprise when Daniel, the principal of the school announced that there was a special ceremony for us. Our hearts were touched when the young children at the elementary school gave speeches in both English, Spanish, and the indigenous language of Quechua to thank us for our work. They also made personalized cards for each of us, which really made us recognize that we had a meaningful impact on their school and lives.

Finally, we came back to the hotel for our nightly meeting, where we reflected on the day and the work we did. We shared the quote of the day with everyone, which was Margaret Mead’s quote: “Never doubt that a small group of committed individuals can make a difference. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”. Everyone was still hyped from the day. It took a couple calls of “Global! Glimpse!” to get focused. Giggle. Our group realized that when working on the CAP, we were a small group of people whose actions made a difference.

Tomorrow, we will rise with the sun at 6:00 am! At the break of dawn, around 5:00 am, Nisitha and Lahari will be wide awake tomorrow, making our daily wake up calls. Knock knock. Rise and Shine!

We are all excited to visit the legendary Mount Chimborazo, the closest place on Earth to the Sun!!

Peace out,

Alden and Crystal.