Written by: 1/C Seamus Connolly
Happy Wednesday from Antigua! Today as always kicked off at Violetta’s for breakfast at 0700, where the group of hungry cadets demolished cereal with bananas, as well as drank the morning cup of Joe. After everyone was fat and happy, we all said our goodbyes and departed to our respective work sites. Group 1, consisting of myself, Reagan, Pablo, and Vicenzo made our way up to Santa Maria de Jesus for our workday. A quick fun fact about Santa Maria is that it is only 1 of 22 Mayan Communities that remain in Guatemala! After a bus ride with some amazing views we arrived in town, where we then took a short walk up the hill to arrive at the school. We arrived at the school at roughly 0830, where we then began to put down drop cloths and prep the walls for white paint as the base layer before applying yellow tomorrow. The group worked diligently and even got some volunteers who wanted to help!
Best painters in the room, without question!
After a few hours of painting, it was 1000, which is the time we get to have fun with the kids on their break from classes. The preschoolers through fourth graders are the first to go on break. They have a really fun time, their favorite recess activity is to use Mass Maritime Cadets as a human playground.
Then, at roughly 1020, the older students, who are the superstars of the playground, rolled out onto the playground. We have not been successful in our soccer games with them this week as we have been an abysmal 0-2 with two blowout losses. We all had the thought it was going to be another David v. Goliath match-up in which we would likely drop to 0-3 against the fifth to eighth-grade students, but to our surprise, they picked teams as a few students were Barcelona fans, and a few were Real Madrid fans. Vicenzo and I were on team Barcelona. Reagan and Pablo were selected to be on the Real Madrid team. With that being said, Team Barcelona put up a decisive 6-1 victory backboned by a stellar performance in net by the man himself.
Following our huge victory, Vicenzo and I left the playground with a little boost of confidence, and we returned to the classroom to continue painting. We ended up finishing the classroom’s initial coat of white.
The other groups also had a productive time. The group at Jocotenango finished up a large paint job that had been going on over the past three weeks! The group at San Antonio is wrapping up a job finishing a septic system they had started this week. We then left for our second meal of the day at Violetta’s at 12:00! We ate two burger patties with some toppings and some pasta, muy bien! Following lunch, we prepared to get extremely smart at our Spanish lessons from 1330-1630, which we did through a number of activities, including a highly competitive game of Scrabble. Following Spanish, we went on about our regular night routine -gym, food, some cards, and bed.
With this being my last blog, I can say that all the cadets have truly enjoyed this experience and are extremely excited to return home with many stories to tell all of our friends and families. Secondly, I and all the other cadets really appreciate the efforts in which CAPT Lennon, Professor Cadwalader, Mr. Smith, and all other EM and MMA faculty members have put forth to give us this incredible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as it truly was an incredible experience. The last thing I will leave off on is any future cadet that even has a thought of going on this trip, do it! There are educational opportunities and experiences here that are once in a lifetime. Take advantage of it!