Day 6 – CAP Execution – Day 2

Hola family and friends, thank you so much for checking in on us. This is Olivia, Jocelyn, and Mickale. This morning’s wakeup call was at 6:30am, earlier than we expected to wake up during break. We were all excited for breakfast this morning because it was pancakes, sausage, and jugo de fresa, aka strawberry juice! At 8:30am we made our way to our CAP site which is a playground in Parita. Even though it’s winter here, the sun was still out to get us today. Despite this our delegation powered through and made great progress. Along with our delegation, the community showed up bright and early to show their support and love. We started with an energizer named Wua, a samurai game. Without needing an energizer, Don Jaime, our extra paint support, was already on the job working hard. We saw our friends from the day before: Andrea, Ian, Kenay, Angel, and many others. Our delegation split into our three groups and started getting to work.

The bench group finished our first coat of paint on all the benches and stared with our second one. Alistair, Christa, Benjamin, Eamon, Jacklin, Chloe, Liam, and I (Mickale), made enough progress to get at least half of the benches, which there are 30, completely done. We are doing absolutely amazing with time despite the blazing sun and I’m so proud of our group’s progress and work ethic. Don Jaime helped the bench group greatly. It was very motivating to see him already painting benches before we even arrived at the park! He also has one of the most contagious laughs of all time. Unfortunately, I have little to no Spanish skills, but I don’t even have to fully understand him for us to bond with a bit of laughter. Don Jaime is truly a goat.

The gazebo group (Sara, Addi, Jennifer, Kimberly, Marielys and I) was locked in, yesterday we sanded and got everything prepped. Today we finished the first coat of the railing and the columns. We had the help of Gloria and Kenay and some others as well. Working with the kids was the most enjoyable part because they are so welcoming and charismatic. I (Olivia) broke off from my gazebo group and went to do another project with the kids. It felt like a summer camp, but the kids were not evil. Today I spoke so much Spanish, I love this community. I wish I could take them home with me, talking about it even make me shed a tear (or 2). Me and Don Jaime are best friends, and I even met his family which were impressed with me. Tomorrow, my group will start a beautiful flower design on the columns, and I am excited to show you all!

The football field group (Taylor, Kayla, Maria, Valeria, Daisy, Aliyah, and I ) started to paint the first coat of white paint after finishing sanding the walls the day prior. While it might have been just painting, the blazing sun made this task made feel like frying eggs! Fortunately for us, some kids came out to helped us stay alive and worked alongside us. After lunch, Megan, a Peace Corp volunteer brought us ceil blue paint! Which the kids were thrilled to have. During this part of the day, majority of the kids were helping us paint the outside wall of the football field and were able to finish it. Tomorrow, we will paint the inside and start with a hopscotch project! Can’t wait to see it finished and play a game against the kids.

Our day was filled with community and productivity! We can’t wait to see how our project comes together after our hard work and dedication.

This is Mickale, Olivia and Jocelyn signing off, BIG LOVE!!

P.S – Starting to think in Spanish – Olivia