Day 11: We don’t say Goodbye, we say Hasta Luego

CAP Day 3… Sort of. 

Today has proven that the best plan is no plan. We (Areli & Adreanna) woke up with the plan for the whole day and everyone was excited to finally finish our projects. Just to find out that our whole day was cancelled. We found out that there were possible protests happening in some cities in Ecuador and that streets would be closed. So, we were unable to travel Colegio 9 de Octubre. We were all bummed out that we couldn’t complete our projects for all the kids. Instead, the director of the school came to La Primavera and we gave him the community the materials as well as the leftover money so that they could finish whatever we weren’t able to complete.

Since we were unable to visit the school to finish our projects, our amazing Program Coordinators (PCs), Paco and Nacho, came up with a fun plan to take us to Parque Ricoamba. There, we spent the afternoon in the fresh air and astounding nature! From the flowing river to the vibrant flowers, it was a much needed break from all the hard work done in the past days at Colegio 9 de Octubre. We had lunch at the park where we saw many cute dogs and many of us sun tanned and read books. It went from a stressful morning with no plan to a fun and relaxing afternoon.

When we came back to La Primavera, we had lots of free time which many of us used to pack our souvenirs as well as took time to rest and take naps. After our long free time, we met in the meeting room to have a reflection about our CAP. We reflected on how well we worked together and what we could’ve done differently.

After our CAP debrief, we got on the bus and Don Fernando took us to a Mexican restaurant called Lina to celebrate our last dinner together as a group. We had a big hurrah celebrating our last full day in Ecuador, as well our PC Paco’s and one of the students, Dalilah’s birthdays. Don Fernando gave us a little speech thanking us for letting him be a part of our trip. He gave us all a llama keychain and made many of us cry tears of joy. It was an evening we will never forget.

After leaving Lina, we came back to La Primavera to have our last nightly meeting. We (Areli & Adreanna) passed the torch to our next Leader of the Day, Allyson! She is very funny and her laugh is infectious! Please look out for her blog post tomorrow evening as we’re in the Quito airport. We had many Big Loves from a lot of people for our last night together. We ended with our last unity clap and used the word “Family”.

We are currently having a dance party outside ?

To Areli’s Mom: I miss you so much and I can’t wait to finally go home. Te quiero mucho <3

To Adreanna’s Family: It has been an eventful two weeks and I have definitely made memories I will never forget. Thank you for helping me get out of my comfort zone and go to Ecuador! I miss everyone and see you soon!!!

Shoutout to Don Fernando for the cute keychains, we will keep them forever and I think I speak for everyone when I say we will never forget him. – Areli

Shoutout to the Director of the school Colegio 9 de Octubre for being understanding when we were unable to finish the CAP project, and instead only provided the materials for it. Thank you for letting us participate in fixing the little parts of the school that will hopefully last a long time.  – Adreanna

Additionally, we would love to shoutout the staff at Restaurante Lina for preparing a special and awesome meal for us tonight – we really enjoyed it!

We will see you all at the airport on Friday morning!

Big Love,

Areli Ortega & Adreanna Dones