(Day 8) CAP 2: Electric boogaloo

CAP DAY 2!! The new emperors of the GG kingdom have arrived: Aron who likes airplanes, Nadia who likes Nothing Bundt Cakes, and Valeria who likes Vespas. After receiving the torch from the previous LDDs after our amazing, inspirational, wonderful, extraordinary, majestic, and enthusiastic performance, we paved the way for the paving of the second home, and proudly watched and helped where we could (although our amazing team hardly needed any) as the rest of the group quickly and efficiently got everything done.

This morning, we (everyone but us, since we woke up bright and early at 6:00 to wake everyone up) arose at 7:00 and got an early start to the day at 8:45, after a heavy but delicious breakfast of eggs, sausage, cheese, mashed potatoes, and mashed plantains, with watermelon and juice to follow. After unwillingly eating with the students, we all groggily boarded the charter bus and made our way to the work site. Half-asleep, we got to work on the same initial process as day 1, mixing cement powder & sand with water using pickaxes and shovels to make cement for the floor of the second home. Everyone did a great job setting up what we called the ‘assembly line’, our process of filling up and handing off buckets of cement to each other down the line until it reaches a final person: me, His Royal Highness Aron Szabo, who will proceed to dump the cement on the ground for our amazing construction workers, José, David, and Olmedo, who kindly volunteered to help us with our work.

Lunch was amazing, being a chicken & pork stew with potatoes and rice, again with watermelon and juice to follow. We had about an hour of free time to freshen up before heading right back to work. Many of us were falling asleep en route to the site, since lunch was pretty filling, but Daniel was doing a great job keeping us awake, playing music at max volume and screaming at us (not yelling, but literally just shrieking to startle us awake). The second part of the work day was more comfortable than the first, since it was more cloudy and there were some nice, soothing winds. Abuelita Dulce invited some students into her home, talking about her family and life while she made coffee for everyone working, and my personal testament is that that coffee got us through the workday. Unfortunately, I had to tap out when, ironically enough, while I was walking out of the worksite to grab more coffee for myself, I managed to scrape my arm. Luckily, demonstrating her LDD role, Valeria, with the help of Addelyn, helped clean and bandage it up (which was later followed by a more professional job by our PC, Emmie, using our med kit). So, I ended up watching from the sidelines as our wonderful subjects finished their work and called it a day.

As we arrived back at the villa for free time, we made some phone calls home and made the executive decision to be carried in a palanquin to get ice cream. All of us were modestly impressed by everyone’s willingness to share and buy things for one another, with Ari paying for my drink and ice cream, and Her Royal Highness Nadia buying ice cream for not only another subject of the kingdom, Marfil, but also fellow Emperor Her Royal Highness Valeria. Ice cream was great, and it was a good social medium that lifted everyone’s moods and raised energy after the tough workday. Following was dinner, which was fried chicken, tostones, and mixed veggies… once again, with watermelon and juice to match. To end off our glorious reign over the GG kingdom, we passed the torch to our next leaders of the day for tomorrow, Arianna, Carrie, and Sora. This was an amazing experience, and we all wish the best to the next LDDs, who will undoubtedly lead the kingdom just as well as we did.

Author: Aron Szabo

Creative Director: Aron Szabo

Photographer(s): Aron Szabo, Valeria, Emmie

Note from staff (June 12): We were asked to make some edits on this blog by the student author.