“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

–Maimonides

A big hello from today’s leaders: Emily and Winston! We were the Lideres Del Dia (LLDD) for a day chock full of activities relating to Aid and Development.

 

To start off today’s Aid and Development Day we engaged in an academic seminar, led by the infamous Ms. Franks. During this seminar we discussed the positive and negative effects of aid and development for undeveloped countries. Our activity for this seminar was a skit where we broke the group up in half and made a skit to portray the positive versus the negative effects of aid. One half of the group cited a letter written by Bill and Melinda Gates about the positive effects while the other half of the group created a skit about incorrect supply for a demand, revealing a negative aspect of aid.

Shortly after, we visited the Federacion De Campesinos, a farmers’ organization. We were greeted by the head of the organization who gave us an insight into the organization’s history and mission. On a tour around the Federacion facility, we watched as members used bamboo to create furniture, as opposed to wood, and made their own (delicious) coffee. We also toured an eco-tourist house for visitors and took a glimpse into their rabbit community. Following the tour we split up into four groups and were visited by locals with a vision for a specific Community Action Project. These locals joined one group and shared their idea with that group, which we Glimpsers later pitched to the entire group. The groups pitched ideas about growing a garden with the community, creating a souvenir shop to make jobs for women available, using rabbits in the community to create food and revenue to fund other projects, and creating horse stalls to provide a home for the wandering horses and develop another tourist attraction and form of transportation.

We then headed back to the fundacion where we participated in an immigration seminar in preparation for tomorrow’s Immigration Day, which will be led by Nia. During this Immigration Seminar we got a sense of the Haiti and DR conflict through an Immigration Celebrity game, in which we all took up the role of a particular figure and tried to guess the identities of the other “celebrities”. If you would like to know more about immigration conflicts in the DR, come back tomorrow for more information from Nia!

Reflecting back on today, we learned a great deal about the Community Action Projects, which will be taking place next week. The pitches we made helped to challenge our minds into determining the sustainability of certain projects, tying into the quote at the top; that sustainability is a requirement for lifelong success. More importantly, we were inspired by the Federacion to stand up for our beliefs no matter the circumstances. The Federacion sat in the middle of the street for seventeen days while the head of the Federacion (Esteban) was almost assassinated on several accounts and severely burned by a bomb. Why? To fight for a better lifestyle for farming communities and to restore and reserve river basins.

Despite any injustice we may face we know to always stay true to our mission and push through any obstacles.

We hope you are all doing well back home!

Buenas Noches!

Love,

Emily and Winston

 

P.S. Hello family & friends, apologies for the lack of pictures! Uploading has not been working for us but I will keep trying and upload a few from the last couple of days! Again, my apologies but I promise your babies are safe and sound! -Ms. Franks