Day 9: Cap Day 3

Buenos Dias! This is Penny, Yuritza, and Ruby—your Leaders of the Day!

Today was our last day working on our CAP project. As we got to the project site, we learned that we had an extra step to complete before laying the concrete: finish painting the house. So we split into our groups where some people worked inside the house painting it white, and others on the outside painting white on the boarders and electric green everywhere else. We made sure that all the walls were carefully painted and put a lot of thought into it.

After we finished painting we had to start working on the floors, which included mixing and setting the concrete. This allowed for the house to come together and be ready for Doña Maria. We split into our three groups and rotated between our different stations: mixing the concrete, passing it in a line into the house, and resting. Transporting the concrete in an assembly line ensured that everyone was working together. People mixed the concrete and then shoveled it into buckets. These concrete filled buckets were then passed down the assembly line to get to one of the community volunteers hands so he could place the concrete properly on the floor. Mixing the concrete was a task that not everyone in our group had done before including one of Lider del Dia’s! So this task was a learning process for many of us.

When we began doing this task, it was hard for a lot of us to stay focused on our goal. But, after some revaluation we were able to get back on track to finalize the house before it was time for lunch. We made sure everyone was with their groups and had a task to be working on, this made the process go by a lot faster. During this time, it allowed for groups to focus on the task but also connect and share about themseleves to other Glimpsers.

Finally, we made sure everything was finished and gave the house to Doña Maria. As a group we presented the house to her, and took our final photo with Doña Maria, and then she gave personal goodbyes to everyone. After lunch, we went to a store and found some souvenirs. This store was really big and chaotic, but it allowed for everyone to shop around and find something to buy, if they wanted.

Through our experiences being leaders, we learned that being in charge does have some challenges. But, when we came together as a team, we thrived and our voices were stronger. We learned that it can be difficult to communicate to a large group when there is a lot of activity, but as a team we encouraged each other and made sure we stayed on track to keep our group organized and together.

Tonight is our last night in Constanza and after our Final Reflection activity tomorrow, we leave for Santiago!

Signing off,

Penny, Yuritza, and Ruby