Saludos a todos! Hello Everyone!

Lydia and Ava here, we were leaders of the day today! We’ll start by giving you guys a summary of our day! We woke up, had breakfast, and took the safari to meet up with plan yaque at the college where we began our CAP project (Community Action Project). Our project focuses on developing a filter out of natural resources that separates and prevents waste and debris from entering the local river; Rio del Yaque. We split up into four separate groups: one working on painting and restoring garbage cans, evening out gravel, filling the lining with earth, and then, evening out said soil. After working for a few hours, we took a break for lunch. After lunch we returned to finish up some work, then headed out to the university’s plant nursery, to preview the plants we’ll be working with tomorrow. From there we were all feeling pretty tired from the 6 hours of manual labor, so we packed back into the safari, where Miquea and Angelica surprised us with a trip to town to get ice cream! After a delicious treat we drove back to La Salle and had some free-time before dinner. After we ate, we had our nightly meeting, led by us!

Lydia: Hey everyone !  I hope you are doing well. I just wanted to talk about my favorite part of the day. I was in the painting group joined by Alisha, Meah, Liv, Mariyah, and Cynthia. Our group was in charge of painting garbage bins that will be spread out in the community  after. I personally love to paint and do it often. But today It was a bit more challenging than usual. We split into two groups but the challenging part was having us agree on one idea. We started by painting and just seeing where it would go. After we were halfway, neither of us liked it. So we started over and painted a river and added a forest. We did so great and I am so proud of our outcome. When I took a step back I was so happy with the progress, have a great night everyone see you soon!

Ava: Hey all!! I hope everyone’s doing amazing. My favorite parts of the day were working in my small group during the CAP project, and driving back to La Salle with our ice cream. My small group worked on grabbing dirt from a separate part of the land. We used a pickaxe to loosen the soil from the wall, then shoveled it into a wheelbarrow and brought it up and down a huge hill to dump and even out. It was very tiring work, especially with how hot it got when the sun came out, but there was something so fulfilling about seeing the project slowly come together. My other favorite part of the day was our safari ride back to La Salle after getting ice cream. I always feel very connected to everyone when we go on safari rides. We’re all in one place, singing, laughing, and just having fun with each other, all while driving through the beautiful city of Jarabacoa. Today, after a day of hard work, being with everyone made the day feel complete.

We miss you, but promise we’re all making the most out of our last few days together! <3

Con amor, Lydia y Ava