Day 4 (sustainable development)

Dear friends and families,

We are beyond grateful and excited to share our journeys with you all! Today was the start of our CAP journey as we started to plan our project and assign our groups. We started our day by waking up at 6:30am and having breakfast at 7:30am. For breakfast we had sausages with a Panamanian style of fried bread with mango juice. After our breakfast we prepared for our day and took a bus at approximately 8am to Playa Veano. The bus ride was very long and many fell asleep on the bus, but as we got closer to the beach we came across many views and the bus driver gave us the privilege to stop at the top of a mountain.

Once arriving at the beach, we were greeted by Alexandra and Becky (turtle conversationalists) and their adorable dogs. While it was hot we moved over into a part of the beach with some shade as the children played around and rode a horse. Then they gave us a backstory on the organization and their motivations for why they help rescue turtles. They then gave us a small tour and demonstrated how to approach a turtle on the beach, as they are laying eggs. As we were wrapping it up we had a small amount of extra time and students went to either play volleyball or explore the rest of the beach!

We then headed back to the hotel and arrived at 1pm, to eat our lunch and head to our daily seminar. For lunch we had chicken, rice, beans and coleslaw with fruit punch. After that we had a small icebreaker, in which the leaders had us do speed friendship and get to know each other. This encouraged us to start small conversations and it went well! We got to learn more about each other and found things in common. After that we began to plan our turtle project and create a small poster to present on our first day. At the end of the meeting, students decided to take a walk to the city and get ice cream along with Panamanian snacks for VERY cheap. When they came back, we had dinner and passed the torch. We ate rice, chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw and beans with passion fruit lemonade juice. We then had ANOTHER meeting where we passed to leadership role to Jendel and Porter. Today was successful in creating new bonds and learning more about the land! Now, we are still having some bonding time but will end our night at 10:30pm after some games and swimming time!

Best,

Mia and Caprina