day 4: IMMIGRATION
Student Trip Blog
Buenos Dias everybody! It’s your new Leaders of the Day, Eden, Piper, and Julian, and we are so excited to tell you about our day! As LDDs, we woke up early to knock on everyone’s doors (maybe too loudly) at 6:30 am. We headed straight to breakfast where we were served cheese and ham sandwiches with pineapple juice and prepared for another hard day of work. And…We finally got to do the laundry!!! So look forward to NOT smelling us fresh off the plane.
Time was ticking so Larry herded us to the bus to get to la escuela de Santa Ana on time. Julia and Jose greeted us at Santa Ana and we got right to work on sanding curbs and painting flower boxes. We worked long and hard in the sun and heat but were able to finish early in the end, giving us time for a snack break and to hang out with the kids. After our snack, we divided in two groups. Half of us got started on the concrete and the other half began potting Mangrove trees with the kids and a biologist!!
The kids had a ton of fun painting the sign that will label their new Mangrove Nursery.
Intermission: Camellia’s Chicken Adventure AKA The Chicken Bag Story AKA Chicken Tales! Last night, after a dinner of suspicious chicken, Camellia gathered the extra chicken pieces in a leaking plastic bag and let them sit in a cabinet in her hotel room overnight (Condolences to her roommate, Jeeya). Luckily, this all paid off when the dogs, Mirabel, Pedro, and more, enjoyed our leftovers to their hearts content. We were happy to provide for all our furry friends.
As the mangrove trees were being planted, a small group finished painting the entire curb (in the direct sunlight, backs hunched over, fingers cramping over the paintbrushes) as we trabajar-ed. see figure 1:
Fortunately, we came up with an idea to beat the heat. Two people were awarded the position of umbrella holder, which provided our painters and concrete workers with wonderful, joyous, refreshing shade.
Meanwhile…our concrete mixers were working as hard as ever to handmix and handpour the cement. (Javier, the mason, said that if we could buy a mixer, it would take about a half hour… but that was out of our budget. Shoutout to our sponsors for doing as much as they could). In addition to mixing and pouring, Eden set up the wire foundation and assisted Manuel in smoothing the concrete.
During lunch, the boys and Jose played futbol with the schoolkids (and the kids were lowkey better than the boys). It was a great bonding experience. In fact, a kid from the school recognized Julian out in public as we were shopping later that day. Julian was introduced to his parents and they all got a photo (on a personal camera, so it will be available later).
After we finished eating lunch — and feeding our leftovers to the dogs — we finished up the concrete… or so we thought. Turns out, we needed one last batch to finish, making a total of at least 5 batches of concrete. At the end, we were all sweaty and dirty and looked a mess, which of course means it’s time for an after photo:
At the end of our work day, we had finished all the tasks we had set out to do so we all were satisfied. Some were cleaning up and others were picking mangoes. Larry took pity on us and took us to Gelarti for ice cream.
We had some free-time for shopping and came back to do some self reflections. As the leaders of the day, we learned that leadership is not just gathering people, but we also learned how to keep people motivated when they are exhausted and to check in constantly to keep people healthy with water and breaks. We are glad we had the opportunity to be leaders and are excited for tomorrow’s new leaders: Jasmyn, Kaitlyn, and Myles. We had some chicken nuggets for dinner, and we can’t wait to call you all at around 11:00 am PST tomorrow (7/17/26). Talk to you then.
We are all so tired but so happy that we were able to make an impact. We miss you all and can’t wait to be back…but we also don’t want this trip to end. xoxo ❤️ ❤️
p.s. This is Julian. I just wanted to say hi to my family and Roco. I miss you guys a lot and miss talking to you guys everyday and having family walks everyday.
p.p.s: hi this is camellia. first off just wanted to tell the fam hey yall miss u guysssss a lot but im having a lot of fun as well. also jaymie and esme if ur reading this can u guys plz comment i miss talking to yall. kiana text jaymie and esme idk if they’re reading this. also the kids loved everything soo much its so cute i have pucs. ok bye love yall, expecting essays in the comments…….
p.p.p.s. Jeeya here, hi mama, dada, and LULU! Happy to hear your comments. We are planning on calling around 1pm panama time but I may or may not get to it so it also might be later around 6pm here. Also, you can share this blog with anyone we know so they can see bc I don’t feel like explaining everything over and over again. Love ya!
p.p.p.p.s. this is isyss! just wanted to say, mom you better be feeding princess well and dad you better have whatsapp by the time we get to call home so i can tell you everything! i miss you all so much and cant wait to tell you guys everything!
p.p.p.p.p.s: Safat here! hi family, i miss you all so much!! Christian, thank you for helping with tomorrow’s presentation. Yency & Jamal, thank you for supporting tomorrow as well… sending everyone love
p.p.p.p.p.p.s. This is Eden and Piper, thank you to anyone who made it down this far. Eden first — Hi Mom and Dad! It is a lot of fun here and I have talked to a ton of the locals in kindergarten-level Spanish. I miss both of you (and Joy) and I miss having an airpod in all the time. Hi Aunt Mariel, thank you so much for writing on the blog! I hope you and Hunter and all of your furry friends are doing well. I miss you and we will definitely talk on June 20th to share Latin American stories. Hi Meghan! OH MY GOSH I’M SO SORRY I DIDN’T COMMENT ON YOUR BLOG! It’s literally the besssstttt part of my day and I am making you posts right now to read out when I get back. Love all of you. Mwah. PIPER here next, I love you guys all so much, Mom and Dad thank you for the comments and everyone else reading and posting on the blog, I appreciate everyones messages so much they are reallly helping me get through the trip as I miss you all sooooooo much. All the Hugs and All the kisses, I love everyone and I can’t wait to see you guys very soon.