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As tires rolled down the stairs, people scrambled into action as our CAP project (Community Action Project) got underway. Today was one of the most exciting and intense days yet, full of suspense and surprises.

Our day began at 6:25, but the early wake up call was softened as we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at our home away from home, La Estancia. We want to give a special shoutout to Ana at La Estancia for being such a wonderful hostess during our trip! After breakfast, we began an hour long bus ride to Escuela FAE, our location for our CAP project. We were greeted by warm smiles from the energetic students at FAE, and with that we began our CAP project execution. Our project is focused on improving the learning and playing environment of Escuela FAE, as we will be creating a play area and soccer field for the children, using resources that we already have as as well as what we purchased with our donations. When we began working today, the Glimpsers were organized into four main groups: tire cleaners, tire painters, playground planning and construction, and soccer field designers. The tire painters used spray paint and regular paint to make the tires fun and colorful to be used for playground construction. There were also people who painted tires in the designs of animals. The playground group focused on adapting the plan for and beginning construction for the playground, which includes see-saw, slide, swing set, animal tires, and tire mountain. The soccer field designers’ job was to begin planning the layout of the field as well as constructing movable goals. Our CAP Day #1 was challenging yet productive and we continue to be inspired by the students and staff at FAE. We are all very excited to be continuing this project tomorrow!

After our time at FAE, we came back to the hotel and after a short rest period began preparing for our third English tutoring session at Verbo Divino. The students continue to progress with each class and are becoming more and more eager to learn new material. After our classes we had an impromptu Physical Education class where we had an exciting game of volleyball and a small game of basketball which we played with students from the school. We then went straight to dinner at La Estancia, and afterwords headed to the hotel for our nightly meeting in which we reviewed our CAP execution day and our English Tutoring.

During our time being leaders of the day, we were faced with some challenges and time constraints with our schedule, but we were able to navigate our way through the day successfully through use of team work and communication with the group. Our group learned how to work as a team to accomplish our ambitious project at FAE. We as leaders of the day were able to understand the balance between making too many accommodations and being too strict in a leadership role. Continuing with our CAP project, our group wants to strengthen our communication even more, make the groups more defined, and yet keep an “all hands on deck” mentality. We as a group strive to include everyone and make everyone feel a part of our CAP project.

As our trip comes to an end, we wish to leave a positive impact on the community of FAE in return for the invaluable experiences this trip has given us. Thank you for tuning in to today’s blog, and we hope it gave you a better sense of the CAP project and our goals for the rest of the trip.

Big love to all,

Luna Daury
Westfield High School

Isabelle Hettlinger
Northampton High School

P.S. Big love to Mommy and Daddy, all of my relatives and family members, all of my close friends and friends from Westfield High School. Thank you all so so much you are the best!!!!! Love Luna 🙂