Today, we started the morning at last night’s hotel, Hodelpa Centro Plaza in Santiago. After a nice buffet breakfast, we all met our tour leader, Brayan, in the hotel conference room for a quick Spanish lesson. We learned a few words to assist us in our work at el Instituto Ambiental, including árbol (tree), hierba (grass), and repelente (bug spray).
With our new vocabulary learned, we set off on a bus ride to the institute to begin our service. At the Instituto Ambiental, we took a tour and learned about the environmental efforts and education at the school. Specifically, we got to see agroforestry, a farming method where plants are implemented into forests to reduce deforestation. The institute has many different sustainability projects that focus on agriculture and repurposing materials that aren’t sustainable. Our service for the day was re-fertilization of different fruit trees throughout the forest. Our planting was interrupted by a storm, which gave us an opportunity to take shelter and play dominoes with some students at the institute.
After we finished our time at the environmental institute, we checked in at our second hotel and then got back on the bus for dinner. After dinner, we came back to the hotel to hang out and go to bed. We spent a couple hours in the pool playing various games, and now we’re getting ready for bed and another fun day of service tomorrow.
Adios,
Sophia y Maya
