Day 11-Community Action Project 3

Dear family and friends,

We came here today, June 15 to tell you guys about us being LDDs for the final CAP day of the trip. Coming here today is Elysia and Alex. For our final CAP 3 day we woke everyone up at 7:00 am and had a lovely pancake breakfast at 8:00. Then we gathered everyone and had a 5-minute walk to the school and we did some group stretches to get everyone’s mood up. We separated into groups to filter sand, mix cement, smooth the cement, clean the floors, and get rid of old cracks in the gym. Then we had a break around 10:15 and went back to work until we had to leave the school for lunch back at the house. For lunch, we had white rice with pork and salad. After we had some downtime before going back to the school for work at 1:00 pm. When we started working again we only had three groups. One for mixing the cement, another for smoothing it out, and finally one for cleaning the gym from all the dust and rocks from breaking the cracks. We all finished early so we went back to the house but before we came back. we went to the store and got some snacks (especially ice cream). Once we reached the house everyone started jumping into the pool with their clothes on and had a good time swimming. We had free time until Dinner at 6:00. For dinner. we had white rice with a bean and chicken soup and salad. Then. we had a quick debrief about our Community Action Project and our nightly meeting.

Today, my peers and I learned the importance of working as a team. As LDDs, we learned to communicate with each other and stick to a schedule. We realized today the importance of starting something for the greater good which will always be a part of someone else’s future. Today we were surprised by the amount of work we did as a group when we worked together effectively. We have seen that motivated workers will get a job done faster than those who have no passion or vision for something. 

We are all proud of ourselves and our peers, to have helped in a way that will last a long time and have a huge impact on others day to day life. We are also proud of everyone for getting out of their comfort zone and doing labor that they aren’t used to doing to contribute to a greater purpose than themselves. 

We are inspired by the foreman Don Antonio for working hard and being determined to help out the children. He showed us the ropes for each job so we could do it in an effective way by ourselves. 

Being an LDD came with big responsibilities and challenges, especially on the last CAP day. We had to manage a big group of students to get a certain job done by the end of the day. We had to keep everyone on time and focused the entire day. We also had to make sure everyone was ready and engaged in all the activities. Especially since everyone was sore and exhausted from the previous CAP days. As a group, we made sure to give it our all and push through to make it a meaningful and productive ending day for the Community Action Project. We learned we had leadership skills that we didn’t know were inside of us because we were never in a position of such authority to lead others, especially in labor. Now we are proud to announce that we will be passing the LDD torch to Enrique and Jennifer for the AID and Development Day tomorrow. We wish them luck on their journey of having the huge responsibilities of being the LDD for the day. 

From Alex (the rock) and Elysia 

More photos from today here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/3cp3y2t4rvFpdR6C6