Hello everyone! Today we finished our final day of community service at the Aquiares School, with all the Glimpsers working as hard as they could.

This morning, we painfully woke up at 6:30 again and had breakfast at 7:00 which was french toast, scrambled eggs, sausage, and yogurt. We kicked off our day with our Mental Warmup, in which the Glimpsers discussed our quote and question of the day, which is a daily activity that relates to our activities for the day. The quote of the day was “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi. Our question of the day was: What have you learned since the last free day? We discussed the importance of the quote and answered the question as a whole group. We would love to hear your thoughts on these phrases in the comments!

From 8 am-12 pm, our group worked on several projects, including finishing the new compost pit, repainting multiple trash cans, and continuing to cement the base of the cafeteria. Ryan and I tried our best to give reminders to the group for water and sunscreen breaks, however, we got very tied up in the concrete.

For lunch, we had refried beans, rice with tuna, and salad. During our lunch break, we interacted with the students at the school and had fun playing volleyball and soccer with them. We also took pictures together and got to learn more about each other. After lunch, we got back to work, mixing more concrete and repainting the gate, and continuing with the trash cans.

At 4:30 our work was done, and our group went home to shower. When home, we had a couple of hours of downtime before dinner, which was at 6:30 where we had burgers and mixed chips. After dinner, we led the nightly meeting where we went back over the question and quote of the day, as well as a few new questions related to the conclusion of our last CAP day. Then, we went as a group to the local supermarket where we stocked up on snacks for our hike to the waterfall tomorrow, and Ryan had a great conversation with the shop owners. We then went back to the house, where we wrapped up our day and headed to bed.

Today, Ryan and I are most proud of the hard work our Glimpsers did over the past three days of CAP, as well as the connection that many of us made with the school community. Our most inspiring individual of the day was Chino, who was the head of operation for the cafeteria’s construction. He worked extremely hard and very efficiently, effortlessly switching between multiple tasks, all with a smile on his face.

Being the Leaders of the Day was both fun and stressful. Heath and I led many activities including the warm-up activity and nightly meeting. Leading the group and offering breaks to the Glimpsers reflected our leadership skills! However, it was difficult to balance the leadership aspect of our role and also work on our project at once. I am proud of my peers today including Heath and Mario for working collaboratively on mixing cement and leveling the surface of the foundation of the cafeteria. Even though we shoveled for a total of 7 hours today, we supported each other throughout the whole time and had a lot of fun!

• Ryan and Heath

PS: Here’s the public google photos folder so you can see all of the pictures we’ve taken so far!