Today was Working Like a Local Day! It was a day full of community, hard work, and a sense of inclusion. We started our day bright and early (6:30 a.m!) knocking on every door to make sure we would all the Glimpsers headed to breakfast on time. At Criss (where we have breakfast and dinner), we had amazing Ecuadorian Tamale (Humitas) that gave us the energy to begin our day of working like a local.

We arrived at Llacan and were introduced to Eduardo, Fabian, Manuel, and Ruben, members of Fundación Betesda. A foundation committed to providing counseling and rehabilitation support to people in Ecuador. A lot of the members were motivated to serve the non-profit organization without pay because they were helped in the past with their own addiction and mental health struggles.

After meeting them we got to work! We each split up doing different tasks (ex: shoveling, wheelbarrowing, cutting wires, stacking bricks.) We worked together like in a true community, Minga, with the members of Fundación Betesda. Working on the project really helped us understand the reality of the workers as well as their mission to create a home where people with needs are welcomed and given the support they need. Cheers to working hard!

When we returned to the hotel, we interviewed pairs of Fundación Betesda members. We found out more about their personal stories and reasons for helping make Betesda’s dream come true.

We truly understood what living purely out of happiness meant. After saying our goodbyes for the day, we came back together as a group and we were able to discuss the second part of our Community Action Project (CAP). After many ideas, we agreed to continue to work on the foundation of the house that Fundación Betesda is currently building. We also decided on what our roles on the project would be (ex: organization committee, shoveling, Spanish translation, etc).

After going to have dinner, we came back to the hotel for a reflection session with our groups about what we had learned during the day. We discussed and delved into the inspirations that we had acquired due to the work we did and the heartwarming stories we had heard.

Then we had our usual nightly meeting, where the Lideres Del Dia(LLD) presented the first part of the meeting. We got feedback on our leadership skills from the group and the GGL’s. Then we discussed the Question of the Day- What are some aspects of your life that you take for granted? We were able to bring it home with a discussion on our own communities and togetherness. It was an inspirational day!

We wrapped up our meeting with our fellow Glimpsers and tomorrow’s LDD’s demonstrating their talent. We saw talents from Jordan, Sarah G., and Lizzie. They were amazing and we agreed they were worthy of the red ponchos and marked them as Lideres Del Dia. You’ll be hearing more from them tomorrow!