Community Action Project (CAP) – Day 1

Good evening friends and families.

Today we all took a trip to the community in which we’d perform our CAP (community action project), where we will deliver 3 cement floors to 3 incredible people. We first woke up at 7am and had breakfast before heading to the community for the first half of our work day. We worked for around 3 hours in groups we planned prior to the project: mixing cement, the assembly line, and leveling the cement. Even though the project didn’t start according to plan (the sand being in the wrong spot), the entire group persisted and adapted to ensure that we could deliver cement floors to Marisol today.

We then took our lunch break and headed back to our hotel for food: steak, rice, and beans, and prepared to head back to the community to continue our work. We were originally going to work for another 2-3 hours but the construction experts said that we wouldn’t finish in time and that they would finish for us. The group did not agree with this and so we stayed another hour and a half to make sure that we could see and be a part of the finished product for Marisol, a genuine, kind, and beautiful woman who took us all in like her own and cared for each one of us.

Today, we all learned how to make cement, use tools such as shovels and wheelbarrows, communicate during construction, and all of the mental fortitude that goes into projects such as these. Each group demonstrated qualities that surprised everyone. The group gathering materials and mixing cement demonstrated extreme resilience and mental strength in addition to the physical strength that the task required. The assembly line demonstrated chemistry and teamwork the entire day, keeping spirits high, dancing, communicating efficiently, and getting the work done while also showing that work can be fun.

The group kept high spirits all day and persisted in getting the work done. Two Glimpsers, Gabriel and Sean, demonstrated these qualities the most, working hard all day and refusing to take breaks because they wanted to help in every way that they could. These two set the bar for the expectations of CAP, bringing your best self to the project and working hard to get the work done. Another individual who inspired everyone today was Marisol, the incredible lady that we had the pleasure of working with. Marisol, despite being unable to be in her home due to us working on her floors, made everyone coffee to drink and constantly checked up on everyone. All of their spirits are what pushed us all to perform our best.

Leader of the Day was a rewarding experience. We were able to properly lead the group by setting an example for others to follow, demonstrating resiliency and communication. We were also able to interact with kids in the community, which led to them even joining in and chanting some English words such as “Empty” or “Full”. We learned that we were capable of guiding the entire group in the right direction of how to work efficiently.

Spirits remained high until lights were out, everyone having a sing-along at dinner to nostalgic music and appreciating the experience together during nightly meetings.

With all that being said, everyone is ready to get back to work tomorrow for CAP day 2 when we’ll be delivering another cement floor to an extremely kind person. We hope that this blog post conveys all the strong emotions we felt during the day, joy, fatigue, and everything in between while we kicked off our community action project. Goodnight families! Don’t forget to leave comments!

• Jayden (I love you Mami!) and Jade (miss you guys)