Today’s theme was aid and development for us, and many of us were interested to see what was in store in our field trips today. Starting off with the day we had breakfast and then we had a seminar on how the United States gives foreign aid to other countries. This personally opened my eyes, because the questions that our GG leaders asked us ended up making me ask even more questions about the aid and development of the world. It also made me think about today’s question of the day; which was “Who is responsible to ‘develop’ whom?”

After our seminar we went headed towards FUMDEC which is a non-government organization that helps women by giving them microcredits (loans) to help them start their own business, improve their economic situation, and help with with gaining political postions as well. Another thing about FUMDEC is that they also have workshops for the women that helps them learn how to use the money that’s given to them. It was amazing to go to their office and receive a speech from their manger and hear about how they’ve help so many women in so many ways. It’s amazing how they have an organization dedicated to helping women to improve their lives.

Afterwards we headed towards Matasano, which is a comedor that was started by a young woman named Arceli. When we got there we got a speech from Arceli and it was inspiring to hear her share her story about how she started her business and how FUMDEC helped her. Personally, it made me realize that in order to get to where we want or what we want we need to take risks, and that’s what Arceli did. Arceli took a risk of taking out the loans to start her business of making homemade cheese, and taking out another loan to start her comedor. In the end, because she took this risk she was able to become a successful young entrepreneur. After hearing her story we were able to see her cows, and had a wonderful lunch that was made there. Everyone LOVED the lunch that some had to get seconds. When we finished lunch were got a chance to tour the community for a little bit and we saw how beautiful the scenery was.

Afterwards we went back to our hostel and rested then we had a seminar on our CAP project and this related to our theme of the day also, because we were coming up with ideas to help the school that we’re going to make a vegetable garden for. Then we had dinner, which was hot dogs and many of us loved it because it’s been a long time since we’ve had hot dogs. Then it was english classes. Overall this day was amazing and I feel that this day really opened our eyes about aid and development. At the end of the day, to answer out question of the day; we are personally responsible to develop ourselves. The people around us are just here to help us, but we are the ones that are responsible to develop ourselves.