Cap day: Teamwork

At 8:10, the sound of our alarm and the knocking on doors began our morning as we prepared to go to Los Cerritos to begin Day 1 of our CAP project. Rather than starting our day eating breakfast in the dining room, we began with a health check, grabbing breakfast to go on the bus so that we made it to Los Cerritos in time to begin. On the bus ride there, the air was filled with the smell of fries and egg sandwiches as we listened to the sweet tunes of Shawn Mendes.

After 40 minutes, we arrived and began preparing our tools and paints to start working on the ecobenches and the mural. We split into our respective groups of mural painters, ecobench primers, and ecobrick assemblers.

Our mural group began working along the wall, sketching a design from the sides to the middle to fully capture the essence of Panamanian culture and its impact. They began on the right by sketching out the church of Los Cerritos, a major monument of the community, as many of the individuals living within the community are Catholic, their Patron Saint being Saint Bartolome. On the left, they began sketching out a mango tree, a staple of Panamanian culture, while adding hills to the background to represent Los Cerritos’ hilly region. Topping it off, centering, a river to include the kids’ favorite location to go and have fun.

In the meantime, our ecobrick team began their work on stuffing plastic bottles with trash from the school and surrounding areas. This process took a lot of team effort involving Global Glimpse leaders, group members, and surprisingly, Los Cerritos students. The students peeked at our work from afar, sensing their curiosity, we invited them to help, leading to a more collaborative, enjoyable, and inclusive environment.

Lastly, our ecobench primers began work by cleaning and priming over the previously established ecobenches. They painted it over with a white coat before getting into the designs. After much deliberation and communication amongst the group, they eventually landed on the design being the World Cup trophy to represent Panama’s inclusion in this year’s World Cup. Despite the rough weather conditions, from the excessive humidity to the later rain, the group still managed to pull through with a very nice base and AWESOME SAUCE design (Let’s go Panama World Cup Champions 2026).

After a few hours of work, we had lunch together in Los Cerritos’ lunchroom where we ate chow mein, fried chicken, and plantain. It was really delicious, and it was a much-needed break after working hard on the ecobenches, ecobricks, and mural.

To CAP off the day, we headed back to the hotel where we did some fun activities. We first headed to the nearby grocery store to buy some snacks for the group, some new, unfamiliar snacks, while also getting some familiar favorites.

After our quick shopping trip, we headed back to the hotel where we had our first-ever dance class. We learned how to dance salsa and rock our bodies!!! It was a fun and engaging experience, dancing to a style many of us had never danced before, while some of the veterans helped guide us to offset some of the inexperience.

All of our efforts as a team eventually led to a beautiful composition of the mural and to us bonding during the dinner and one of our breaks at Los Cerritos over our combined love for soccer and the World Cup. We played soccer together in the school field and later bonded over dinner watching the Panama vs. Ghana World Cup match. It was a very fulfilling day, and we can’t wait to see what the next day has in store for us.

Much Love: Enzo, Jaden, and Lucian