Today was the last full day in Constanza, which was filled with hard work from everyone’s part. We all finished our CAP that included many buckets of cement, and sand. Shout out to our PC’s and GGL’s for suppoerting us with a whole new remodel of the community walkway to the river. It literally took a whole village in 3 days to finish the project, and had extra time to do a Global Glimpse mural; before it all started raining again! Wake up call was at 6am, and LDD’s 5am. Our breakfast consisted of eggs, pineapple, watermelon, toast with peanut butter and jelly on the side (which got Claire very excited), and lastly a traditional hot chocolate. With a short bus ride to Barrios de las Flores, we were quick to get started with our brigade of buckets of cements. Afterwards, we had a good lunch, thanks to Joan and Franklin. Then we went straight to work for another 2 hours which had to be cut short due to weather. Although everyone tonight said to be more prepared to unpredictable weather changes when it comes to working outside; even in the rain, we all saw joy from everyone. Many of the locals (teenage boys & children) were taking literal showers out in the rain—many of us with paint all over our faces from the mural.

As the middle of the afternoon came, we all dressed and prepared for the best for our last English tutoring classes for our delegation. Personally, my advanced class with our one student Brian, surprised us with his gift of playing the guitar. Athithi taught him a song on Day 1, and for the past week he had been practicing singing and learning the song at home; then surprised us on the last day. He had impressed us all, and definitely inspired most of us with the art of teaching. At the end, we all ended up with new memories, and new places in our hearts.

Afterwards, we all had a good time debating about what we wanted our last dinner to be, and we all concluded it would be fried chicken, mashed potatoes and passion fruit juice to drink— Which by the way was delicious, and was finished off with flan. However, a more sweet surprise were the birthday cakes Francis surprised Kristine and I (Sai) with. Aye Gemini gang! It was a great way for us to spend our 17^th birthday. Lastly, to top it off, we had an amazing bonding nightly meeting, which will always have a place in my heart.

As we say goodbye and leave beautiful Contanza and the Dominican Republic, we not only say goodbye to the people and communities we met here, but to our youth ambassadors, pcs(Francis and Cynthia), and to each other. But I choose not to call this goodbye, more like see you later because when you meet a group of people that are as amazing and close as we are, you will see each other again. I have a motto that I stole from a Disney movie, “Ohana means family and family means no one gets left behind.”