Today we started our Community Action Project (CAP) with high energy and enough momentum to keep us going through the next few days. We started with an early wakeup at 7:30 AM and had a filling breakfast of oatmeal and fruits, courtesy of Dilenia’s. Soon after that we got ready with a chant to hype ourselves up for the long day ahead and headed out to Colonia Kennedy. We all split into groups to tackle the various tasks at hand with a bulk of people going to help move the cinder blocks to a more accessible location in the park. We started an assembly line that passed the cinder blocks from the warehouse across the street to the park. After that we had teams go and work on cleaning up the gardens, mixing cement, and assembling the gazebo. We started off strong, and while it was hard to maintain high energy throughout the day, we pulled through and delivered, as we should.

We had Dilenia’s scrumptious home cooking brought over to us at Colonia Kennedy where we feasted in the Communal Building. Everyone was feeling quite tired after the meal, so us Líderes del Día (LDD) made sure to boost everyone’s energy with a quick game of BANG! and another hype up session before we launched into the second half of the day, ready to keep delivering. After we arrived to the park, a lot of heavy lifting was done with everyone participating. Construction of the gazebo had finished in the first half of the day but we had to fill the empty spaces of the gazebo with dirt and mixed cement. Everyone carried dirt over from the backyard of a local’s house to the park. Jon Jon was abundantly helpful in this task with him constantly delegating orders to us. Brian, Jose, Shane, Jessica, Yadhira, Kimberly, Nina, and Gabe really shined throughout the day with them constantly helping with tasks and never becoming complacent, always searching for things to do. The LDDs also shined throughout the day with us constantly checking in with everyone to make sure everyone was feeling okay and was hydrated and ready to work.

After a long day, we finished by dancing some bachata with the locals and among ourselves and started to head back home at 4:30. We got back and settled into accommodations by 5:00 where we had free time until dinner, at around 7:30. We showered, getting rid of all the grime from work, napped, to rest up after a day of heavy physical exertion, and bonded in how to improve our energy for tomorrow.