Zack’s blog
Student Trip Blog
Hey there! Our names are Gerardo and Shaunak, and we were the leaders of the day for CAP (Community Action Project) Day 1. Our CAP involves replacing dirt floors with cement floors for several houses in a community near Constanza. This will improve hygiene and health for those living there. Earlier on our trip, Dr. Kerole told us about how cement floors are easier to clean and, therefore, more hygienic for the residents. Today, we were tasked with installing a cement floor in one of the houses. This involved a lot of teamwork, including designating concrete shovelers/mixers and using “human conveyor belts” to pass up buckets of concrete up to the house. Our village is situated on a hill, which makes this process more challenging, but we rose to the challenge!
Thankfully, we accomplished our goal for the day ahead of schedule, almost completing the floor of the house in just about 3 hours! After we came back from lunch, we finished up our work and spent some time with the children! It was so amazing to see the excitement on their faces! We’re proud that we are able to help such an awesome community!
Ice cream !!!
Since we finished early we had some time for a special and went to Helados Bon – a popular ice cream and popsicle shop in the DR.
Nightly Meeting
In our nightly meeting, we discussed how to improve our work days to be more efficient. We are learning a lot about how to be a cohesive team. We reflected on some of the communication hiccups we faced during the day. We were able to brainstorm several solutions to improve tomorrow!
In closing
Even despite the hiccups we faced throughout the day, our work ethic was superb. We achieved our goal with time to spare! Today was a great exercise of working as a team. Based on today’s work, we were reminded of a quote: “It is achieved by doing, so it must be done.” Yesterday, we decided a goal: make new concrete floors for a family. Today was a day of doing, and we were able to accomplish that today!
– Your LDDs: Shaunak and Gerardo
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Comments (4)
Mary Jane
You all are incredible. You’re changing peoples lives for the better and doing it on your summer vacation.
Maya, we are so proud of you. Be safe. We miss and love you. Rylee is bored without you.
💜Mom, Dad, & RyRy
Larah
Meeting your goal and with time to spare! Congrats on a successful Day 1 of your CAP! Teamwork makes the dream work. Hope your new ideas help the team gain efficiencies and yield better results on Day 2.
Misha Andaya
Looks like you’re not missing a workout there Noah! Thanks for the souvenirs. Love seeing you on the blog. Take care and be safe kiddo.
Love,
Tita Michelle
Kae Jenkins-AKA Ms Jenkins kr Ms Jae
I cannot tell you all how proud I am to see the pictures of how you all worked together and enjoyed your day and when you put in hard work you get to play hard and I know you guys enjoyed the ice cream and popsicles. Haven’t had the pleasure and joy of meeting and getting to know you all I know that this Topps one of the most rewarding days you’ve had as a team and as agents of change. Please know that I was there with you in spirit and cheering you all on as you worked hard together to accomplish the task in front of you. I hope the quote that you reflected on food as a testament to how things actually get done and that you carry that with you in your lives moving forward. Nothing is achieved without putting in the work to achieve it you prove that today and I have no doubt you will continue to manifest that and to share that with others in your life to help them become better citizens of their local communities and their communities at large. This is how change happens. One step at a time. One individual at a time. And then collectively we work together to build something greater than what we had. I have tried to instill this into my kids: ‘don’t leave things out you found them, make them better.” You all were a testament to that today in such a magnificent way. I cannot wait to see how things go today. Looking forward to the blog and how today’s ldds will take what you learned on your first CAP day and make this day better.