What’s good. Its ya boy Neeraj and Clara. Today was the second day of our CAP project in which we decided to help out the community of Suarez by building them a community center. Our day was filled with mixed emotions. Starting the day off by walking up to what we had built the day before, most of us were a little let down by the fact that it wasn’t as pretty or cleaned up as we had hoped. But as the day went on and the community center started to come together, the skepticism slowly started to fade away. Not gonna lie, it did look like a house made out of mac and cheese, but seeing how grateful the people of Suarez were to what we had accomplished made all of us realize that as long as the people we were trying to help are happy, it doesn’t really matter what we think because we went there to do one job which was to help the community and if they were more than satisfied with our work, then we can’t complain.

Although the day started off rocky with three of the members feeling sick(Victor, Jazmine and Andrea) it was still an overall great experience that we were able to share with the people who have become our second family, as well as those who so openly welcomed and accepted us into their community. It was an amazing to see the way this small twelve hour project had such a large impact on the lives of so many others, to the point of tears at times.

Most of the day was spent painting, due to the fact that we did all the grunt work yesterday, we started off by splitting off into three groups and switching roles when needed. Going from picking up rocks to enforce the foundation, painting the outside, and cleaning the inside. The alternations came in handy when people were tired, and when others didn’t have much to do. It was incredible to see everyone get their hands dirty. By the end of the project, all you could see were cement covered shoes with splotches of paint all over our cloths, hands, face, and hair and popped blisters, cuts, and bruises.

While difficult, the task was a rewarding one. We made a sustainable area for the community. Something that will always stay with us is the fact the center we made will be used for the next 20 to 50 years. That’s crazy to think about… That a group of teenagers can make this much of an impact over a twelve hour period. All it takes is the passion and drive from a group of people in order to make an everlasting change on someone’s life.