Today, August 1st, was the first initiative of our CAP project. We started the day with an early wake-up call. The Glimpsers woke up with an energetic spirit to start off their first day in the Community Action Project. Next, we were met with a surprise of Ecuadorian pancakes, an interesting twist on an American classic.

When we got to Amula Casaloma, we were aware of their needs as we planned the day before. Thus, we got straight to work. We were divided into three teams which included the shelf building team, the welcome sign team, and the mural team. It started out a bit roughly because for many of us, it was our first time constructing things and doing manual labor. The shelf team did a tremendous job sanding the wood and varnishing it. Ms. Taal, our Global Glimpse Leader, was teaching us how to do the work as we were all very excited, but inexperienced. The wood, fortunately, came out fine and is ready for tomorrow’s construction. As for the sign team, they also had to sand the wood and prime it. The painting team began painting the large wall. Ms. Taal had to sit high up on a scaffold to prime the wall for the mural, while the Glimpsers were priming the bottom half.

The day was filled with hard work, but we also didn’t miss the chance to enjoy ourselves. We were playing music and dancing with each other and it was a great opportunity for the Glimpsers to get even more close with one another. It was very surprising, but heartwarming to see how shocked and grateful the community members were to see us offering them food at lunchtime. The Glimpsers and the locals ate lunch together as a community and it was nice to see the interaction between the two groups.

After the 1st day at work of the cap project was over, we went back to the hotel to go the English tutoring. We were all very exhausted from working the morning, but we all managed to pull through and teach the kids some English. During English tutoring, we mixed education with fun activities. We also mixed in American culture by playing basketball.

After two hours of teaching English, the Glimpsers headed back for dinner at Nativa. We ate sopa de avena for appetizer and for our entrée, we had chicken with platano maduro. Then, for dessert, we had a homemade Ecuadorian chocolate-covered donut. As always, we ended the day with a nightly meeting reflecting on the lessons, challenges, and themes of the day.

The Glimpsers learned internal patience today, especially during construction. We learned the complexities of development projects which included the conflicting values of what the givers are giving and what the receivers are receiving. For example, the Glimpsers which are the givers, have different standards and values than that of the Cacha people. These differences taught us that all helping projects must be carefully planned and implemented with humility.