CAP DAY #1

Hola Todos! The leaders of the day today are Brandon and Charlie.

Today’s topic will be about starting our Community Action Project, To get the morning started we had breakfast at 7:30 AM which was banana, chorizo, ojaldas, and a type of Panamanian tortilla. After breakfast we had Cassidy, Eze, Gin, and Lina go along with Mateo to go shop for our materials for the CAP project so we could start our work. This process took about an hour and 30 minutes to do the supplies run and get back to the hotel. After they had gotten back the whole group can out at 9:55 to start boarding the bus and helping pack the bus to head to Borrola.

Once we had arrived we helped unload the bus which contained the materials to start every groups’ work. When the materials were off-loaded we began to split into out groups of 5. Each group was tasked with completing something different; one group was creating a mural to beautify the town’s bus stop, one group began painting 2 new trash barrels to help keep the town clean, another group helped start making benches and planting trees around town, and the last group started painting the community meeting center. The work began at 11:00 AM, we all seperated to our work areas and began the day, helped along by members of the local community.

The mural group spent a good amount of time planning out their painting and starting to execute it. The planning part and sketching would take an hour an a half to draw out. Which after lunch they had begun to start painting. The trash barrel group also sketched out their design and started painting before lunch. After lunch they had finished the background for one of the barrels and had begun painting the outline. The bench group had started their morning with Colin helping pack plastic into bottles to privide supports for the new benches and finish getting the materials ready to start mixing the concrete tommorow. Once they had finished they made their way over to help sift some rocks that will be used to create the concrete mix. Lastly they were tasked by planting 5 tress around the community. And the last group, they were tasked by getting the community center ready to be painted. They began by painting the walls and pillars with primer paint to prep the house for the more colorful final coat tommorow. Once they had finished they helped out other groups with finish up with their own tasks for the day.

The groups were all finished with their day at 4:00 PM, afterward the group had the option to buy ceviche from a local restaurant if they wanted. There were 4 options for the ceviche; shrimp, fish, octupus, and mixed (all). It was a delicious final treat after a long day of hard work! Finally, we started to make our way back to the hotel. The bus ride was full of laughter and jokes. Mauricio and Mateo were dancing along with the music and launched an impromptu drum circle to some Brazilian music Mateo introduced us all to. When we got back to the hotel we had free time until dinner at 6:00 PM. The dinner consisted of Fish, fried plantain, rice, and mashed potatos. After dinner we had our nightly meeting where the leaders of the day Brandon and Charlie passed the torch to the next leaders (Gin, Javi, and Diggy, who brought the house down with a choreographed J-Pop dance recital!).

Overall, CAP day #1 was a sucessful day which consisted of hard work, unity, and most importantly; teamwork. Each group had made more progress than they were all expecting. The first group had already made progress on the mural, the second group finished painting the background on the first trash barrel and painting the outline on the second barrel. The third group finished packing bottles, sucessfully sifted rocks, and planted 5 trees for the community. And the last group painted the community house, and helped other groups with their work. Our personal takeaway would be that we felt good about our selves by doing this project and seeing it start to form. I love the feeling when I was able to plant a tree and know the impact it will be bringing to the community in the years to come. The day was sucessfull and we hope to accomplish more tommorow.

We hope everyone enjoyed reading our blog, have a great rest of your day!

Link to the Photos Blog with pictures from the days: https://photos.app.goo.gl/7gVcTFJD32xvygtG7