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As our time here in Bonao comes to an end, many of us are feeling homesick and tired, but we all knew that our number one priority here was to complete the CAP project. With the help from the kids of the
Federación, they gave us the idea of building a playground for the youth of the community. We knew this idea would be challenging due to time, lack of resources and the amount of work, but we were motivated due to the fact that these kids were playing in the streets, which was unsafe.

As you all may know, our second mother, Licelot, prepared a delicious breakfast, ham and cheese sandwiches with a side of watermelon and papaya juice. Right after breakfast, Esteban, who is the leader of the Federación, and four other Glimpsers went out to buy the necessary materials for our playground. Meanwhile, the rest of the group, delightedly went to the Federación, with the purpose of cleaning and starting the components for our playground (seesaw, swing set, benches, park sign, and the borders).

When we got there, many of us were surprised because of the space given to us and didn’t expect the amount of work that had to be done given the excess of weeds and garbage. We originally had four people in the cleaning committee but we soon realized we would need the help of everyone present. This required four hours of hard labor. People pulled out weeds, dug out trenches to make room for the playground border, which was composed of tires, shoveled dirt and rocks. Despite being exhausted and sweaty, we continued to stay engaged and take advantage of our limited time. To keep us energized, we played games and interacted with the community, who took the time out of their day to make this project possible. By the time lunch arrived, we had most of the cleaning finished. The Federación provided us with an amazing meal, which was white rice, beans, steamed vegetables and chicken. By the way, big love to the ice cream man who came through with the paletas.

After lunch, we worked once again, finishing the cleaning and securing the border. Initially, we wanted to stay until 5:00 P.M, but our time was cut short, due to a power outage, which did not allowed us to start building on the actual components of the playground. Overall, it was a great day of work and we got a lot done with the expectation of finishing the following day.

We got back to the hostel with two hours of free time. Groups went out to the supermarket, corner store while others stayed back and slept from exhaustion. We had dinner at 7 P.M, consisting of potatoes, chicken, and pineapple juice.
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Today was a awesome start to our CAP project. We personally feel very proud of what we accomplished and what is yet to come. We miss you all and see you in couple days!!
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