Hello friends, family, and Gary! So today was the last and final day of our Community Action Project (CAP), leaving us all with a bittersweet feeling.

We began the day with breakfast at our usual spot, La Estancia. Their bread, egg omelettes and yogurt with granola is honestly to die for… if only we could get it through customs. Then we started our adventure traveling to San Juan de Llullundongo to complete our CAP project. As Liders Del Dia, we made sure everyone stayed hydrated and coated in sunscreen. We also made sure everyone had breaks when they needed it and brought yummy snacks to eat during our break at 11 am.

By the time we had our break, we were completely finished painting the buildings and constructing the benches. Being able to look at our finished work left all of us with this complicated feeling. The entire group was both proud of our work but sad to be left with the knowledge that this was the last time we’d be here. Today’s work marked the culmination of everything this trip led up to.

Before we left, we made sure to take plenty of pictures with the end result and Angel (pronounced ahn-hel), the local community leader. Finally, we said our goodbyes and began heading to the hostel for our final CAP reflection.

Honestly, you could read the past couple of blogs and get an idea of how our day went. The schedule has remained mostly the same. However, the difference lies in the aura in the air. Everyone could feel the significance of every moment, every event today.

After our final lunch at La Estancia, we made our way to English Tutoring. We got to say hi to our favorite canine friends during the walk there, and say our farewells to the students we’ve gotten to know over the past couple of weeks. Everyone gave a one word check-up afterwards. Many fellow Glimpsers mentioned feeling a mixture of emotions, both proud and sad.

We went to final dinner at La Estancia after saying our goodbyes to our students and having a little party with them. At dinner we got to choose our favorite meal and they all chose the lasagna and a side of GUINEA PIG! The vegetarians were moderately disappointed and had vegetarian lasagna. But at the end we all had a mini dance party in the restaurant and took many pictures with the La Estancia staff. A huge group hug with Ana, the owner of the restaurant, marked the ending of our evening.

It was quiet during the nightly meeting. Everyone seemed hesitant to share, despite knowing that this was our last chance together in this setting. With a bit of help from David, everyone opened up. We got the end the evening with lots and lots and LOTS of big love!! One group hug wasn’t enough for our crew tonight; we ended our meeting with the biggest hug we’d all had.

Today marked many lasts and many endings. But as Kimberly said during our last nightly meeting, every ending is a new beginning. Soon we will be back home, back to the comfort of our daily lives, yet we will carry everything from this journey back with us (along with our Salinas chocolates and adorable keychains).

P.S. We could not get the photos to work so we made it into a google album 🙂

This is what you click to view photos 🙂