Quote: “Working hard and working smart sometimes can be two different things” – Byron Dorgan

Question: What are some ways you can organize yourselves to work best together as a group for the CAP days?

Hello everyone, it’s Maria, Maianh, and Mai-Khanh! Today was the first day of our Community Action Project. We started the day off a bit earlier at 7 am, and then headed off to Criss for breakfast. After munching on some tigrillo and eggs for breakfast, Andrea drove us up to Fundacion Betesda where we arrived at 9:30. We split off into three groups: Team Dirt, who helped shovel and dig holes for the columns; Team Cement, who mixed cement to pour into the foundation of the columns; and Team Wire, who tied the alambre (wire) to the varilla (re-bar) for the skeleton of the column. We managed to get a lot done in the two and a half hours filled with hard work. Working alongside the members of Fundacion Betesda felt rewarding knowing that it was going to a good cause. We worked together in this minga, and although they didn’t speak much English, there was still a lot of good communication going on. Even though the work was sometimes difficult, the fact that we were all together as a community and doing this for a good cause made it totally worth it. After all the hard work, some of the members from Fundacion Betesda and some Glimpsers enjoyed themselves to a soccer game -Team Gelatina (gelatin/jell-o) vs. Team Cemento (cement). Although it was a close match, Team Cemento came out as victors in the last five minutes (4-2). Once the game was done, Fabian and Eduardo, members from the Fundacion, kindly drove us all the way back to the bus. The bus ride was filled with excitement and laughter, as we had a dance party/battle on the way back to lunch at Feroz. At Feroz, we ate a savory oatmeal and potato soup, and chicken served with rice and salad. We had a lot of free time afterwards, where most of us showered and took a nice, long nap. At 6, we walked to Criss for dinner, where we had fried fish with rice, sweet plantains and salad. We then came back to the hotel where we had our nightly meeting and passed the torch onto Catherine, Vivian, and Danielle.

P.S.

Hey Steph’s mom! We know you’re reading this right now and we hope you have a good day! <3

Hey Gina! We hope you’re having a lovely day, Camilo’s doing a good job in taking care of us and making us laugh.

Hola a todos! Me estoy divirtiendo muchisimo y comiendo muy bien. Espero que ustedes tambien lo esten pasando bien. Los extrano a ustedes y el clima de alla mucho <3 – Malu

Hi Ngoai, and the rest of the Nguyen-Huu family! Mai-Khanh and Maianh say hi to Ong Ngoai. We miss everybody very much and are excited to see you guy soon.-Mai-Khanh and Maianh <3