Jan 2nd, 2017

The first day working was focused on cleaning up the park. We gathered all the garbage, weeds, and newspapers around the park using brooms and rakes. It took us the entire morning to clear the majority of the trash into big garbage bags. On the sides and cracks of the side walk there was a lot of extra dirt which we broke apart using shovels and a pickaxe. The community came out to help us and also offer us drinks and snack! We showed our blueprint of the park to Raphael Ruiz, the leader of the community, which he really liked and agreed with. While we were there, two TV stations came to interview Carol Pobanz and Mario Salinas the leaders of this project. We will start tomorrows work by putting mosaic designs on the benches and painting the side walk.

The rest of the afternoon we spent swimming, building sand casatles, and playing soccer on the beach. Excitment was filled in the air as we laughed and enjoyed each others company. In the evening we spent time creating designs for the mosaic benches around the park. There will be around 15 cement benches around the perimeter of the park. Overall it was a great way to start our project working at the park with the local community.