A Full Day, by Bowen James and Preston Keith

Today we arrived at the school on a bright beautiful day, greeted by the enthusiastic children’s faces ready for a day full of piggyback rides and soccer. When we arrived at the school and immediately set to work making concrete and bringing bricks to prepare for the final steps of completing the eco-stoves. It was satisfying work to mix the concrete and finding the right amounts of dirt, water, and concrete mixture to create it. after the mixing and delivering of the concrete. I (Preston) took 16 minutes, 38 seconds and 5 milliseconds (quoted by Mr. Van Citters) to smooth out the concrete, only to find out that there was no use in smoothing it because we had to add another layer of concrete, making me (Preston) cry inside. After that traumatic incident, we had to put on some big bricks to create a base for the eco-stove and we had a incident when one of the people from our group broke one of the bricks. We all freaked out because we thought that we had no more bricks to create the base but that problem was solved with the bringing of more bricks. After doing all of that, I (Preston) decided to take a break and play with the kids, but instead of having a break I had to carry many kids on my back while being chased by others, but overall I still had a really good time playing soccer with the kids and I will never regret going on this trip.

For lunch we ate hamburgers made by the staff. We also were provided soda, which contained many chemicals and sugar. After lunch, all the kids were gone, and we had to keep ourselves occupied, whether by working on the eco-stoves or playing soccer with classmates. We played wall ball and a game called tips. Two kids from the school had stayed after school and bought us water and bought Mr. Van Citters a Seven-Up. We made more concrete and built the eco-stoves more. We had started laying down the bricks on top of the concrete. Jude tried to lay down a brick and broke it. We went home while singing many pop songs. We ate dinner and went to bed.

I (Bowen) noticed many differences between Guatemala and America. The people are more friendly and welcoming to new people coming to their country. We were offered food from many of the kids. Music was also on in the back and many kids were dancing. Many dogs were roaming around the school going into many of the classrooms. The dogs didn’t have names until we, as an undivided group, decided to name them. We named them Pablo, Pabloette, and Unc. In conclusion, this day was exhilarating and had many ups. We noticed many differences between Guatemala and America. The differences were very obvious because of the clear contrasts of cultural standards. Thanks.