The hardworking garden crew making beautiful things happen!

Hola mis amigos,

It’s your current liders del día, Haley and Josie. Today was a very hectic day, being the last execution day for our CAP project. Wake up call was at 6:30 in the morning, but luckily we woke up to the smell of pancakes cooking for breakfast.  After the chow down, we headed on over to ADIC to finish our CAP project. We had a lot to do with our remaining 6 hours of work time: the murals needed to be finished, the pathways cleaned, the cabinets painted and the tools washed. However, the gardening crew ran into some roadblocks. The rain had washed away the paint from the tiles and left them brown and muddy. The group tried scraping off the mud with shovels, toothbrushes and even used poster paper, but nothing was working. Eventually the group came to a decision after scrambling to find a solution. Using spray paint, the pathway was repainted and finished (finally). After a couple hours of hard work, we headed back to the hostel for lunch. Our amazing cooks prepared yet another delicious meal of chicken with a mushroom and cheese sauce. Once lunch was finished, most of the glimpsers KO’d and took their daily allotted nap. Then, the clock struck 1:45 PM and it was time for all the Sleeping Beauties to awaken and get back to the work grind at ADIC (because the grind only stops for 1 and a half hours).

Fast forward 15 minutes and the 22 dwarves are back at ADIC to work. Due to our advanced Hi-Ho skills we finished 95% of our project and all that was left to do after lunch was the cleanup. Coming together as one whole group, we were able to clean up the area fairly quickly. Our CAP project was completely finished after 3 days of blood, sweat and tears. After what was probably a solid 30 minutes of paparazzi (aka Herhusky, Marisa and Cynthia T) taking pictures of us, we went inside for a special treat from the ADIC staff. Silda and the other workers provided us with pizza and orange juice and a little Spanish music to celebrate the occasion. Then we walked back to the hostel to scarf down our dinner, despite having just eaten pizza. Nothing will stop us growing kids from eating more food!!

The whole GG group posing in front of the finished outdoor mural with Silda & some of the other women who work for ADIC in Matagalpa. ❤️

Our next destination for the day was to San Luis Private School for our final English tutoring class. In the classes, we all had talent shows and some groups even had a potluck (with the help of our awesome program coordinator Julianna). Students from the tutoring classes caused some teary eyed glimpsers with their emotional goodbyes and sentimental gifts. Many of our glimpsers received keychains, letters, bracelets and more from their students. Overall, t’was an emotional night.

Saying difficult goodbyes to the awesome students at San Luis who we’ve tutored & gotten to know over the last 2 weeks. Many GGers formed friendships with the students and were sad to leave, so lots of us are planning to meet up with some of the kids this weekend during our free time!

Speaking on behalf of all our glimpsers, the CAP is something that we can take back home with us. It will remind us the importance of giving back to the community, along with so many other key life lessons. Today was definitely one of the crazier ones, but tonight the glimpsers can sleep a little better knowing there’s a fun filled free day coming their way.

PS: Happy early Father’s day, Arnie.

PS: You too, Duc.