Hey family and friends,

It’s Lucas and Synthea here tonight writing your daily blog. Today we were the leaders of the day for the Community Action Project (CAP), and let’s just say: it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. Our duties began with putting everyone to bed last night to ensure they were fully rested and ready to tackle the big day ahead. We woke up earlier than everyone else this morning and began by sitting on the steps together to going over the itenerary for the CAP Day. Our deligation embarked onto Canada de las Palmas at 9 am. The group worked hard replacing the old wooden planks of a ramshackled community center and painting them (icy white interior and smooth grey exterior). Eventually, everybody was drained of energy and had to stop to eat lunch because we all became sort of hangry (You’re so hungry you get mad or angry). After lunch, the work started right back up and everyone continued CAP’n it up which mostly consisted of painting. Unfortunately, with about an hour left of work it began to viciously rain which flooded our work site but estuve bien (it was fine). After the rain calmed, we packed up our things to go home to dinner; BUT FIRST, our GuaGua’s (transportation bus) engine would not start up and we were forced to; yet again, use team work to push the bus out of the mud and down the hill for the clutch to jump and engine to start up. We got home about 15 minutes after our departure time and had almost two hours of free time. The Glimpsers spent our time playing cards, showering, and taking power naps. After our two hours we had dinner and it consisted of lasagna and bread. It was schmackin!!! Also today, the country director, Carina, and her family payed a splendid visit and slid through to our hostel to check in and see what’s up with everyone; we finished the night with our nightly meeting and passing the leadership torch to Luis.

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The challenges today were that we lacked the resources for everyone to have a hands on experience simultaneously, which led to many people not knowing what to do. Despite this challenge, we still managed to get a majority of the job finished. Keeping your ducks in a row is complicated; you have to repeat instructions to each group, make sure everyone is healthy and hydrated, always have an answer or find an answer, run around to complete errands, and keep ourselves on track. One thing we can both take away from this experience as being leaders of the day is to take initiative because you are the one(s) everyone is relying on. It was an enpowering day full of ever-lasting memories.

Buenas noches from cool Constanza

Your bloggers/leaders,

Lucas and Synthea