Aid and Development Day! (No. 2)

Hello everyone!! We hope that our friends and families are feeling phenomenal. We touched on multiple different life skills today, and we were briefed on our upcoming Community Action Plan, or CAP for short. To start off, we woke up bright and early with a happy meal, and a quick mental warm-up to get acclimated for the day. Our warm-up focused on the background knowledge of the School of Deaf and Mute. We then headed our way to the bus, through the town all happily and merrily. We were able to meet four of the six children and introduce ourselves to them in sign language. The language barrier seemed intimidating to many of the students at first, but we were able to overcome that obstacle and adapt to new changes. We danced, laughed, played sports, and bonded over our experiences. We walked away with a new sense of accomplishment knowing we gave our 110% effort in a unique experience, and walked away with a strong connection with our group mates.

Next, we headed back to eat lunch and start planning the logistics of our final CAP project. We formed our work groups and brainstormed tomorrow’s activities and what we could do to grow as people. After, we went vroom vroom ️ to the location where tomorrow’s busy day awaits us! The families were grateful to hear our questions and meet our motivated spirits. We could sense the discrepancies about who had access to water, and who didn’t. The main source of water for the community of ‘La Pina’ was nothing more than the remnants of rainwater. All of us could agree that we were moved by the negative conditions the community of over one hundred people had to endure, just to gain access to what was simply a facet of our everyday lives back home.

With our project in mind, we headed back and had dinner. Free time was given, and a lot of the group played volleyball or slept. Some of us were knocked out at the table…but everyone deeply appreciated the food from a long day. Finally, ending the evening with a nightly meeting debrief, and collaboration on overall feedback.

We can say that today was an essential learning day in our overall trip, and a pivotal moment is all of our lives. Zoe and I both feel like today touched the relatability of one another and brought us closer. We’re proud of how well the group adjusted to the preferences of the school, and the effort given. The students taught us their perspectives on changing their lifestyles through communication, and that’s difficult when families can’t interpret their thoughts. Overall this was a very moving experience and we can’t wait for tmrwww!!

Trinity: I miss you Mom and Dad! You all better be taking care of my animals!

Zoë: I miss you Mumziy and Sisssy! Love you T! Love you S! Love you Gma! Love you Gpa! BTTU