Cement and Paint (CAP)

Hola amigos and family! As you can tell, we are adapting to the language very well.

This is Roman Young from Fremont and Noah Ngyuen from Redwood City as your Liders del Dia for the day!

We were “lucky” enough to be leaders for our delegation’s first work day of our Community Action Project (CAP for short). After our wonderful morning awakening for the group by singing “We Are Young” as an alarm clock, we ate breakfast and departed for the local school of Aquiares. For our CAP, we worked with Chino who led us through the steps of mixing paint, shoveling cement, and aggressive sweating. Though we started off slow due to the rain, the group was excited to get to work. The first plan of action was to paint the gym wall and the kitchen building next door a beautiful teal. Many of us learned, through trial and error, how to use paint rollers without getting it all over our clothes. Others weren’t so lucky. Through teamwork, we finished the first coat by lunch! Lethargically, we walked back down to the school to begin the cementing process. Chino taught all of us the unique mixture of cement for the school’s outdoor seating area. With shovels, hoses, wheelbarrows, and hard work we accomplished a lot for our first day! As a group, the day provided us an avenue to truly become a team beyond just the friendships we have made – we learned how to really work together. What we loved about the experience was the positive attitude everyone embodied despite our slow, gloomy start and the beaming heat that met us in the afternoon. We are so proud of everyone for all of their hard work – so proud, we are going to do it all over again tomorrow!

As Leaders del Dia, we explored leadership through both of our own unique personalities. Trying to make this both a productive and fun experience, we really got into the work that we were doing at the school. Whether it be the wake-up calls, the count-offs, the paint fumes, or the slimy cement, everyone kept on smiling. Needless to say, it was fun-uler.

I think that’s it for your favorite duo del dia. Now, we will pass the torch to our very own Hector and Malia. Lots of love-uler. <3