Day 11: CAP DAY 3

WHAT’S UP PARTY PEOPLEEE !!

Today was a loooong day. First, we woke everyone up at 7:00 AM to get our day started. Next, we got ready to head to breakfast. For breakfast, we had mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, salami, fried cheese, watermelon, and pineapple. For our beverages, we had passion fruit and oats, and pineapple juice. Next, we got on the bus for our final day of CAP. The energy was a little low because we were all tired from the two previous days of work. We got to the CAP site and immediately got to work. We spread into two groups. One group went to finish working on the hill and the other finished up on the road. Both sides got a lot of work done. The group on the steep hill was able to cover all of the pipes in under an hour and a half. The group on the road was able to finish digging and gluing the pipes together. After we were both finished, both groups came together in order to cover the pipes with dirt. Everyone contributed by digging, covering, or stomping. Around 12 we finally finished! Once we finished we turned on the water and we were able to see the fruits of our labor. The water shot out and everyone cheered, cried, and hugged. The locals were extremely grateful and expressed their feelings to us before leaving. Everyone got emotional and we all took turns taking pictures with the locals as well as shaking their hands. Once we got on the truck, our driver took us back to where we started in order to show us all that we had accomplished. We completed 2,296 ft and 700 meters in the span of three days. Our Global Glimpse leader, Aileen took a 7-minute video of the start to the finish on the truck.

The drive back to our accommodation was around thirty minutes. As soon as we got back, we washed our hands to get ready for our delicious lunch. Our lunch consisted of fried chicken, rice with corn, salad, watermelon, and fried plantains. After lunch, we had an hour to rest before heading to our surprise location for finishing our CAP project early. Our reward was yummy ice cream from Helados Ivon. We had a variety of flavors which included passion fruit, sweet potato with coconut, fruit punch, and tamarind. (Valeria def recommends the sweet potato with coconut). We ate our ice cream on the bumpy road ahead of our next surprise location. We arrived at the beautiful waterfall in Jarabacoa (Bayguate). We took a long walk with a lot of stairs down to the waterfall. But it was worth it because the waterfall was absolutely gorgeous. We settled down and immediately got in. Some chilled in the shallow water and others were right under the waterfall enjoying getting soaked. We were there for a little over an hour. We took group pictures and enjoyed the view. After we were done swimming, we devoured the wafers that Super J.C. (GG Program Coordinator) brought us. The flavors were lime, vanilla, and strawberry.

After the waterfall, we headed back to our accommodation to shower and rest again after a long day. We then gathered in the gazebo to go over our self-reflection questions about the CAP project. The seminar went great, although it got a little emotional. Everyone felt so connected in this moment. We expressed our feelings of gratitude for the community allowing us to help them throughout this process. We also reflected on how we felt from Day 1 of Cap to now.  After one hour in the seminar room, dinner was ready. We had pumpkin with red onion, chicken with carrots (everyone rushed up for it again the second they finished), watermelon, and strawberry juice. We then went to our nightly meeting in the gazebo. We went over the question of the day, pluses and wishes, and the passing of the torch. Marina and JC are the new leaders of the day for our final day tomorrow before coming back home. They showcased their talents which were spelling and song guessing. We also went over the new schedule for tomorrow and were interrupted to find the millionth cockroach in our room. After that, some went to the pool, others played board games, and the rest went to get a good night’s rest.

Note to my mommy and daddy: I know you guys miss me. I love you and will be home soon! – Valerie

Note to Valeria’s family: Hiii guys it’s Valeria!! I miss you guys SO much and can’t wait to see everyone (especially rio..hehe). I’ve had a lot of fun on this trip..even though the whole chicken situation was a bit much. This trip has gone by so fast for me and I can’t believe I’m seeing you guys in less than two days but I am superrr excited to come back home to my bed, shower, and you guyss. P.S. People drive literal can-am trucks, dirt bikes, and quads on the roads here so i know for a fact that Kenny and my dad would love it here (we should come back together soon). I love you guys and will see you in a few dayss tell Rio I love himm!!!!!)