YouVolunteer enjoyed a successful week and a half with Carpe Diem Education who worked with us in various schools on our Amazon Community Development project. We worked in three schools including Esfuerzo, Km 22 and Km 35 and worked on a range of projects including agricultural, painting and construction. Since Carpe Diem was the first large group we’ve attempted to accommodate in the volunteer house it served as a great learning experience for us and there couldn’t have been a better, more positive group, to serve as our pilot project.

After a forty-five minute walk from Via Arajuno into the depths of the Amazon the Amazon Communiy Development team finally arrived at Esfurezo tools in hand and ready to work! The school’s director, Holger, was excited to have us clear and till a 200 square meter strip of land in preparation for the school’s agricultural program with which the children will be highly involved in. The community development team got hard to work, cleared most of the required area and called it a day when the rain decided it’d like to keep on all day.

The following week the team went back to Esfuerzo to finish the job it started. At the end it was a beautiful and satisfying site to behold. The land was clear, top soil turned and looking healthy and ready for the next step of the agricultural process. Holger and the Esfurezo staff were very grateful for the work and expressed their appreciation by cooking lunch for the community development team both days. Holger expressed his gratitude when he sincerely exclaimed that, “the work we’re doing is very helpful’. Without the people power we provided who knows when the agriculture project would have been ready to progress into its next stage.

At Km 40 the community development team the their hands full, clothes stained and bodies covered with blue and yellow paint. The exterior of Km 40 was run down, covered with unnecessary additions and in need of a couple fresh coats. The team got to scrubbing the walls in preparation then began painting away. After two coats were finished on the front and sides of the school two teachers, Patti and Umberto, and the children took us on a forty five minute hike to a magnificent water fall and swimming hole. The laughs were plenty and the scenery incredible! After hiking out in the rain of Amazon’s depth the team finished a few final touches and agreed to return the following week to complete the mural. Check out the pictures to see a thing of beauty!

The team had its hands full at Km 22 as it worked with some members from the local community in a “Minga,” a gathering of local community to assist in a needed project. Enrique, the director of Km 22, always has projects on hand and is about as enthusiastic as it gets when there’s a hand willing to help. The local community along with the Amazon Community Development team constructed a much needed compost shed, cleaned the flower beds and planted various seeds, prepped the yucca garden that was recently destroyed and cleaned and fixed other odds and ends on the property. As custom at Mingas lunch was provided and, after, play time with the children exhausting!

The work at Km 35 was a little more strenuous than the rest. It involved carrying boulders one-hundred feet up a hill and filling in patches around the school to be cemented, helping to fix the plumbing system in the bathroom and painting the markers on the soccer court in preparation for this Friday’s big game! A cementing project was long needed and serves to keep the classrooms clean and flooding at a minimum. The Amazon Community Development team left Km 35 with raised spirit, but beaten down muscles.

It was a great experience for all and that will only improve as the Amazon Community Development Project strengthens and progresses along the learning curve, the week and a half was a great success. We, along with the community and local schools, are extremely appreciative of the time and effort Carpe Diem Education has given and the work they’ve done that will continue to leave a mark in the future. It’s our hope to work with groups in the future to continue making substantial impacts within the community. Thank you Carpe Diem and all those who strive to give back!

By Jeremy Capdevielle