word of the day: sweat

Quote of the day: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others” – Martin Luther King

When the clock hit seven o clock, we were all up and ready for breakfast. We had a wide variety of Panamanien food options to choose from, ranging from hojaldre to chorizos. After we finished eating, we formed groups to get supplies for our CAP project. One group went out to get a cooler for ice. Another group went out to buy paintbrushes and cement which we would utilize to create our project. After that, we went on our favorite white bus to get to Santa Maria School, our CAP site location. On the way there, we listened to music on the overhead speakers. We sang so much that the bus ride seemed to finish in mere minutes.

When we arrived to the capsite we all reapplied sunscreen and bug spray and started moving the materials out of the bus. Everyone was essential in this working process. Group 1 started with the main section, leveling out the land that we would be building the nursery in. We got dirt from another area of the school, dumped it into the empty space, and diffused it across the ground using a rake. Group Two focused on debarking the tree logs to be used as pillars for the nursery. Next, we painted the wood with oil to make it immune to water, preventing it from decomposing when it gets in contact with rain. After that we mixed the cement with the rocks, sand, and water to create the concrete which helped to keep the logs in place.

Group 3 were in charge of bringing the dirt into the wheelbarrows to carry it to where the nursery was. Everyone was very sweaty, very hot, and very tired. But we as leaders, gave them words of encouragement which made everyone instanty happy and rejuvenated enough to continue working. Following that, we got snack time and had some juice and nuts on the side. Rilee and Jorja helped Mauricio by offering their water to him because he forgot his water bottle at the hotel. They constantly kept checking up on him to make sure he was doing well and was hydrated

With that, lunch arrived. For lunch we had pink potatoes mixed with beets, rice, chicken, and slices of plaintains. During lunch, Mateo and Mauricio brought to our attention that we finished more work than we expected to so we could leave early. We cleaned up the materials and headed back to our hotel in our shiny white bus.

We had two hours of freetime after we arrived. A lot of us went to stores near our hotels and refilled on snacks, drinks, and boba. During our break Landon created a dance competition to dance like him and whoever won recieved five dollars. Jorja won.

Following our break, we had dinner. For dinner we had vegetable rice, chicken, and passionfruit juice. After that we played charades. It was a fun bonding activity and we felt like we were little kids again.

We had our nightly meeting soon after. For Juana’s and Michael’s “talent” they performed an elaborate handshake that left everyone puzzled. We ended the meeting with a lot of big loves for all our Glimpsers. Even though today was physically strenous, we felt proud of ourselves for what we accomplished.

We ended the day reflecting on the good memories we made.