Hi everyone! This is Becky and Olivia blogging about Day 15-CAP Project part 2. After a hard day of work yesterday, everyone, or mostly everyone, had a good night’s rest for the last leg of the race to the finish line. In the morning, we had probably one of the best breakfasts we had here in good ole Nicaragua: rice and beans, eggs, watermelon and bananas, and a nice chilled cup of chia seed juice. YUM! After finishing our food quickly, we ran to catch our bus. Public transportation was crazy, with the wild driving of the driver and the over population of the people in a crowded place. For the short people in our group, holding on to the railing on the top of the bus proved to be a challenge. Many people had fun. Sunny and David danced and to their embarrassment, they were captured on video.

After the horrific and exciting ride on the bus, we headed to the orphanage. We arrived 15 minutes earlier than our starting time, but we charged right into it. Shiloh lead the way of the painting group as they finished removing the last remnants of the peeled old paint. At the playground, David helped us finish our projects.

For the playground group, Olivia and I worked together with the others to finish what we started yesterday.  Sunny and Olivia worked on the swings and used nails to make sure the ropes are tight.  Yen and I worked on the slide, and thanks to Chris’s amazing idea of using a metal plate in place of the hole, we were able to accomplish fixing it.  The hardest and most stressful thing that we worked on was rebuilding the little playhouse.  We were very lucky to have David there to help us cut the wood and he even showed us the importance of using our high school math skills in building the house.  Trying to figure out how to keep the house upright was challenging.  We spent probably a good hour thinking it through until Kerry figured that digging deep into  the earth is our best bet. Nicole, Shivanee, Ashna, Keery, and I worked on that tiring job and they were “dubbed” the Holes Group. The next challenge was the roof of the house. We didn’t know what to do to keep it stable. So again, David stepped in to help us. His plan of attack was to “nail the hell out of it” and it worked. Though the finished results were a little bit lopsided and we didn’t have time to paint it, everyone agreed that we worked very hard on it.

Dante spent the majority of the time helping everyone with a little bit of everything, but he did an especially good job on hammering stuff- like the nails on the seesaw seats.

While the playground group was getting dirty from the dust and dirt, the painting group was getting burned by the sun and was covered in paint. After finishing the chipping of the paint, everyone grabbed the rollers and paintbrushes and started painting the walls blue and white. They covered the walls twice and together they were able to finish on time. Kate was admirable as her height made her the candidate to stand on the table to paint the top of the wall. Sharon covered for Kate as she went on with her dangerous task. Shiloh worked all through lunch time to finish the details and the lines on the wall. Also, special thanks were given to Aasna who ate lunch late to help her. After the paint job was done, many people in the paint group bounded to the playground to help paint. Diana and Jocelyn, with their super neat handwriting, added our Global Glimpse signature into the swing set. Without the teamwork of both group, the playground would not have looked as awesome.

Working all the way to the end, everyone came out dirty and weary, but excited and eager to present  to Madre Maria Crystal and the children.  The kids couldn’t wait to get on the playground and our hard work was reflected with smiles on everyones’ faces.  When good-bye time came, we surprised the kids with our version of ”What Makes You Beautiful” with lyrics by Sunny.  Though the farewell was sad and heartbreaking, everyone was able to take plenty of pictures with the children.

After goodbyes, we headed back to the hostel.  We were given free time until dinner and during this time, everyone was able to relax and shower.

Dinner came and went as everyone chat cheerfully on the success of our CAP project and the excitement of going home in a few days.

English tutoring came right after and as usual, it was a lot of fun.

By the end of the night, everyone was weary but we were still eager to write letters of appreciation to the Global Glimpse donors who made this trip possible.

All in all, CAP Day Part 2 was a very productive day and we are all very glad that it ended well.