Today was Day Two of our CAP project, which is repairing and adding to a playground in Batey Palave, a community of Haitian immigrants that live about an hour away from our accommodations in Bonao. We started the day off by shaking the delegation awake at 7am, followed by breakfast at 7:45, which consisted of croissants with ham and cheese, cantaloupe and watermelon, and passionfruit juice provided by Licelot.

From there, we departed to the Batey, where we arrived at about 10am, and got to work finishing up our CAP project. The group divided into projects. Some worked on finishing our hopscotch rocket design and tic-tac-toe games, others completed various murals spread throughout the park with motivational messages and the Dominican and Haitian flags, or banderas, and the rest of the group worked on removing rocks from the area that would soon become a basketball shooting area with a new hoop installed on the tree..

At noon, we headed to lunch at Imagine, a short bus ride away from the park, where we thoroughly enjoyed a meal prepared by Bartolina and Joanna of rice and beans, marinated pork, and plantains. Afterwards, we headed back to work, reinvigorated and prepared to finish strong. The locals helped us install solar lights that will make the park safer as well as deter vandalism, and we repaired a bent see-saw. Our CAP project ended with an uplifting sight as we left, with about 50 children enjoying their revamped park.

After another hour bus ride—during which most of us fell asleep— we arrived back at our accommodations in Bonao and took showers. We finished our final drafts of our appreciation letters to give to the generous sponsors of Global Glimpse, and partook in another fabulous meal made by Licelot of spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad.

This CAP project has been a highlight of our 16 day experience, and knowing that we will leave a tangible product, beyond just memories in the minds of the local people we have interacted with, makes all the sweat and paint stains worthwhile.