Today, we started something we’ve all been looking forward to for weeks: the CAP (Community Action Project). Everyone pitched in to aid the Unidad Educativa Especial Carlos Garbay school, which teaches children with mental and physical disabilities. With high energy and enthusiasm, some made brick walls a pristine white in preparation for beautiful, intricate murals; some shoveled dirt to place indigenous plants; others cleared out a stretch of land and prepared a structure to house the school-farm’s guinea pigs. Regardless of the task, everyone put in their 100% to make the area wonderful for its students. Courtesy of the Liders del Dia, everyone played a fun energizer: Soulmate. In it, someone volunteers to be Soulmate 1. The second one is is found through as series of either/or questions. Due to time constraints, not everyone found their soulmate. Despite this, everyone had fun following several hard, meaningful hours of work.

Afterward, it was another day to prepare our English lesson plans for the people of Riobamba. Through discipline, devotion, and teamwork, everyone had a successful tutoring session and contributed to helping those less fortunate. Everyone had fun and learned how to work together. Following another successful evening with the community, we had another one of our rowdy bus rides, blasting music and singing along to both local music and American songs such as Rihanna’s Love on the Brain, toward our cozy hotel.

Today once more, we had delicious meals courtesy of Cesar: buttery scrambled eggs and seasonal fruit salad for breakfast; sandwiches and Ecuadorian-style panfried potatoes for lunch; and a chicken-beef stew with rice and a traditional Ecuadorian rice pudding.

In the few days we have left, we’ll continue to savor the delicious foods and experiences and friendships we have cultivated in Global Glimpse. We’ll wrap up our CAP projects and tutoring sessions. Though these next few days may be short, their impact will follow us through our lives and into the homes we will soon return to.