This would turn out to be the last day we would all gather in the hotel lobby at 8am. Thanks to the dedicated, hard working volunteers, we were going to finish the last two playgrounds today. The Finishing Crew returned to Santa Amalia and completed that construction, in even muddier conditions than the day before. The rest of the volunteers went to Guanabacoa. That afternoon we had planned to have the Inauguration Ceremony for all 4 parks at the first site we constructed, in Cotorro. We really had to hustle if we wanted to get finished in time.

The morning went fast and the volunteers, as always, worked extremely hard and fast to assemble the equipment. We were visited throughout the day by the local school children, who were all very excited to watch the construction. At this particular site, there wasn't any playground equipment before we arrived and it was just a vacant lot with a few benches. By mid afternoon, the empty lot had been transformed into a multi-colored wonderland.

Lunch at Guanabacoa was once again provided by the neighborhood. We were served rice and beans, delicious omelets and hamburgers. After lunch, the concrete was mixed and some of the holes were filled. Since the inauguration ceremony was scheduled to be held at 5pm that afternoon, the majority of the volunteers returned to the hotel so they could shower and change. A small group of volunteers remained behind and by the time we left to meet the other volunteers at the ceremony, the park was finished.

At 5:30pm, the volunteers all met at the Mayors office in Cotorro for the ceremony. In the meeting hall, 2 large flags stood proudly by the stage; one a Cuban flag, the other was Old Glory. The meeting hall was packed with the local people, the city officials, the volunteers and schoolchildren. The ceremony began with the Cuban National Anthem, which the Cubans sang loud and proud. Then, to our surprise, the American National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, followed. Stunned and overwhelmed, we rose to our feet and sung along.

After a speech by the Mayor and by Bill Hauf (the founder of the Project), schoolchildren paraded down the aisle to the stage and sang for us. Afterwards, they presented the U.S. volunteers with roses and colorful pictures of the new playground site they had drawn.

Excited by the prospect of opening the park, we all walked a block to the new playground site. The volunteers had been joined by hundreds of neighborhood locals as well as families and workers from the other playground sites we had constructed this week. Bill Hauf cut the white ribbon that had been tied across the park entrance and within minutes, the park was flooded with people. The volunteers were finally able to see the outcome of all their hard work and the reason our projects are so important to us. The laughter echoing around the park and the smiles on the children's faces said it all.