Today we took another step towards completing the CAP project by finalizing the design of what we plan to do in Cristo Rey. We started the day by waking up at 7 am and having an hour to get ourselves ready before heading to Onaneys for a delicious breakfast of cornflakes, papaya, and banana.

Once we finished up at Onaneys we headed back to the hotel for a very serious seminar led by the amazing Urbe where she got us talking about the CAP project. We begun by figuring out our assets, then getting more specific in ideas of what we can do for Cristo Rey, until finally we got much more specific and narrowed down exactly what we’re planning to do.

When Urbe finished talking to us we had around two hours to plan exactly what we wanted to do and what we needed to do it so we could be ready to present to the community itself. In the beginning of planning things got a little chaotic and people butted heads, but it was just due to the fact of everyone on this trip being so passionate and all of us wanting to create the most sustainable CAP project for Cristo Rey. Once we finally came to an agreement we broke into three groups: playground crew, basketball court crew, and painting crew. The main point of us each being in a group was to make sure we’re able to focus on what we feel strongly about, but we still plan to work together and support each other throughout the entire project with help from the community.

At 1 pm we went to lunch at Onaneys and had pork, white rice, red beans, and a mashed corn dish that is unique to San Juan. As usual it was amazing, and after an hour we headed back to the hotel. Everyone was super tired so they got a few minutes to get their energy back up before it was time to present to the representatives of Cristo Rey and Club Activo 20-30. The second the presentation started the room just filled with passion from us, the glimpsers, but also the community. All three groups did their own presentation where they discussed their plans, the materials that are necessary, and what they hope the community will help with when the CAP execution takes place. It was amazing to hear how happy the community was with our ideas and how enthusiastic they are to help. When discussing what the park would be named it was decided it would be as simple as Cristo Rey, but the representatives decided they wanted a piece of the glimpsers with that park as well. The presentation ran into the half an hour of free time, but no one really complained because it was about something we truly care about.

With the 45 minutes everyone planned their lessons for the English classes. It’s amazing to see that even when there’s difficulty and disagreements while planning, everyone pulls it together for the actual classes because each and everyone of us cares so much about our students; we’re so sad we only have one more class. Even the students are so extremely committed; today being the day of San Juan and yet we all had a good turn out that exceeded our expectations.

Finally at 7 pm we finished up teaching and headed to Onaneys to have delicious dinner of pasta and garlic bread. As always we had good conversation and tons of laughs around the dinner table before finishing up and heading back to the hotel for our nightly meeting to wrap up the day. Even though today was mostly a laid back day as we were in our hotel for majority of it, it was a day that needed to be taken seriously and each and every glimpser did exactly that. Even though we all like to have fun, we know when to be serious and when to simply listen and our CAP presentation showed exactly that and exactly why we’re here in San Juan today: we all are passionate leaders.