11
Location: Galapagos
As usual, our day began with the brutally early wake up of 6:00 am. Personally, waking up is always my least favorite part of the day, but it’s okay because I’m a teenager, so I have an everlasting excuse. After eating our regular breakfast of eggs, which I unfortunately hate (shout-out to my girl Jill for the amazing protein bars), we took about a 15-minute walk to a local school called Colegio San Francisco. When we first walked in, we saw a circle of children with what looked like military officers yelling at them in Spanish. I was questioning what kind of school we were at. I remember Tadhg saying Guys look! It’s a military school! I didn’t believe it at first, but when I walked in, I was completely shocked at what I saw. We later learned that it was extracurricular instruction where they learn all sorts of useful skills like first aid. Anyways, the day was filled with labor-intensive service work, including cleaning and painting. First, we cleared out a bunch of old equipment and furniture from the roof, then we painted the walls of the school, and we filled the cracks in the ceiling with asphalt. While we were painting though, some of the boys thought it would be funny to throw paint at everyone, so we all got into a huge paint fight, which was a lot of fun. Overall, the day was a success because we worked hard and left the school better than when we found it.