Hello everyone!  My name is Katie C and I was one of the Lider del Dia’s today.  I am part of the roof construction group.  Today we had two professionals come in to help us with the roof.  They decided to use the beams from the old classroom to fix the base structure.  The roof crew dismantled the panels and reinforcements that we put up yesterday.  Then we help transport the large metal beams to the classroom.  After that it was not safe to put up the beams so we found another activity.  We gathered the materials from the old room, and especially the roof tiles so that the next delegation can use them to finish a different construction project on the farm. Despite being tired from the direct sun and disappointed that we couldn’t finish the roof, we were committed to helping in any and every way we could.  Carlos Garbay school was very accommodating and thankful despite all the unexpected events.

     

Once Diego came back with more paint brushes we began to help the painting group, who were very grateful for our help.

Its Andy here and I was LDD on July 5th.  Today the art team was very productive, even though we didn´t finish.  The more artistically talented worked on sketching and painting the more important side of the wall. The others painted on the walls that were sketched yesterday.  The important side of the wall has four panels each showing the four different regions of Ecuador and the unique plants and animals.  Amazon, Galapagos Islands, Sierra, Coast.

Although my peers may have already learned this, what I learned today is: It doesn´t matter if your work is considered important or not.  It doesn´´t matter if your work is not as good as others.  What really matters is that you try hard and that you are passionate towards the work that you do. If you do this, you will be proud and others will too.

The most inspiring people were the students at the school.  Even though they have special needs, they still work hard to over come them.  They do this every single day, and it was fun to witness all of their hard work especially their dancing.

Katie: lunch, the students performed a traditional Ecuadorian dance for us.  And at the end they invited us to join them.  It was really fun to experience celebrating with the students.  They have been practicing for weeks, and we felt honored.

       

Katie: Lunch was the pambamesa traditional meal.  It is when the community brings food to share.   Its similar to a potluck except that everyone eats with their hands.  After another hour of hard work we headed back to the hostel to rest before our last tutoring session.  Everyone had a blast at our last class and all the kids received gifts or treats.  They were all very appreciative. My class got a little crazy at one point, but Liza stepped in and helped calm them down. It was hard to say goodbye, since we had watched them grow.

Overall today was a rollercoaster of emotions.  Both teams were disappointed that they were unable to finish their project.  But we voted to continue working tomorrow during our free day so that we could get closer to being done.  We have a lot of work ahead of us, but everyone is excited.

Thank you to everyone who follows our blog, we love hearing your comments nightly in our meetings.  And can´t wait to share our adventures when we come back soon.

Andy: From being LDD I have learned that I am a very shy person who does not like to tell people what to do. And, because of this I find it hard to encourage a large crowd.  I am more comfortable encouraging a few people at a time.