Day 9: CAP Day 2

Hey guys! It’s today’s LDDs: Elise, Oscar, and Belen.

Waking up in the morning to travel to the Santa Rosa school and continue to work on the CAP projects was very tiring but rewarding, and we all felt happy with our work at the end of the day.

We started off with our wake up call at 6:30 and had a delicious breakfast at 7:30 that consisted of tostadas a la frances with huevos, fruta, cereal, yogur y granola, acompañado con frescos de piña y maracuya. Everyone enjoyed their food made by Diego and Emilia, our wonderful chefs, and got ready for our walk to the school. We arrived at 9:00 am and split into groups and started our second CAP day of the week. My (Elise) group was assigned to the big classroom that was left unfinished yesterday. We finished painting the walls and spent a fair amount of time cleaning the windows and the floors. We were all very proud of ourselves at the end of the day and enjoyed seeing our progress after all the work we had done.

We (Oscar and Belen) were assigned to an unfinished mural. To start the redecorating process, we started to prepare the wall by using a primer in order to make the paint stick well. To pull this off, we used a variety of brushes and ladders to make sure we did it well.

Before lunch, we had an opportunity to play volleyball with the kids from the Santa Rosa school, and we were all very happy to be able to talk to and spend time with them while we painted. For lunch, provided by the school, we had rice, beans, salad, and meat patties in the cafeteria, and enjoyed an hour break before getting back to work.

There were a few more classrooms that needed painting so some of us moved over to help. At the end of the day, we had finished a couple of rooms and wrapped up priming the wall for the day. We learned a lot about the community of Turrialba and the importance of making lasting impacts with small groups.

We walked back to home base, with some of us stopping at the local convenience store to pick up snacks for their families and for the rest of the trip. It started to rain, but we persevered and made it back. For downtime, some of us decided to shower or play games like pool, and even though it was raining, hop in the pool for a few minutes.

At 6:00 pm we headed down for dinner, with the meal consisting of cheeseburgers with lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers, we also had a side of chips and juices that consisted of pineapple, maracuya, and sour guava. Our second downtime had people playing a game of mafia before our nightly meeting at 7:30. We recapped the day and discussed our quote and question from the morning. We elaborated on the idea of collaboration and the factors that go into making it work.

Finally, we shared our appreciation for the people involved in the project and passed the torch on to our new leaders, Jasmine and Anne. Shout out to Oscar from Elise and Belen for going above and beyond to support the group throughout the day.

Hi mami, papi, and julie! Los extraño mucho y pronto los veo!! -Belen <3

Hi mom, dad, and Claire, it’s been such a fun trip so far but I miss you and am excited to see you! Love you -Elise