Today, the group woke up bright and early at 6:00 in the morning. We started our day with a breakfast of bread, fruit and hard boiled eggs at La Primavera. After breakfast was finished we gathered our things, hopped in our bus, and headed over to the local school to begin English tutoring. It was our final day of tutoring and the kids were full of energy and excitement, so after around 45 minutes of teaching we went and played games with them outside. I have a feeling we’ll miss them all. We said our goodbye’s and drove back to La Primavera, where we got ready to head to the farm for the third day of our Community Action Project.

When we arrived at the Carlos Garbay Institute, we gathered all the supplies needed to begin. Then, we split into four groups and began working. We were either painting the white entrance, the lunchroom, the mural, or new signs. As we were painting, we were listening to music and having a good time with one another. We were all sharing supplies and giving help to the groups that needed it. At around 12:30, we stopped to take a break and eat lunch, which was a cold wrap with vegetables and a single sausage, plus juice and crackers. After lunch, we went back to work to finish what we had to do. Although we didn’t finish all of our projects, it felt good to work as a team and share our ideas so that we can make the institute look more beautiful than it was before. We returned to La Primavera shortly after, where we had some free time to freshen up and go shopping for more painting supplies.

Fortunately for the girls, their showers were hot, while the guys had to endure water similar to snowmelt. After showering, some went out to buy more paint supplies while other stayed back and relaxed. Around 4:30 we headed to the meeting room to write the second drafts of our thank you letters to supporters who donated money. This took a while for people who had to make their handwriting legible. People trickled out one by one into their freetime, and did what they pleased until dinner at 6:00. Dinner consisted of rice, fish, vegetables and plantains (most of which went to Jonathan). When dinner was done we had freetime until the nightly meeting at 7:00 where our LDD (Leader of the Day) duties were finally completed.

Our most memorable moment from today would be everyone dancing and singing to the music Jonathan played for us while we painted. It didn’t matter to anyone if they were being watched or judged by anyone, everyone was comfortable and being themselves, which is something we’re glad to have witnessed and been part of. For us the best part of the day was probably playing soccer with the little kids at the school, because after seeing them in a classroom all week, it was great to spend time with them outside. In the final four days we look forward to first finishing our CAP project, and going to see the waterfall on our fun day. Tomorrow we look forward to seeing the final products of our CAP project. We want to see how they fit into the farm and how happy we make Mauricio, the director of the farm.