Hi GG Family! I’m Dámarit Pérez, one of the Program Coordinator here in San Juan de la Maguana and I was the Leader of the Day today.

We started our day with the Culture and Safety Orientation Seminar to give to the glimpsers some tips about the Dominican culture in order to have a successful and safe trip!

After our lunch we started the City Tour so the glimpsers had the opportunity to know our amazing city of San Juan and learn about the history of the Taínos, the indigenous population of the DR, and also about all the cultural backgrounds and different political regimes that have influenced in the history of Dominican Republic and San Juan. We had the chance to see all the diversity that Dominican population has and the amazing monuments that are symbols of the city. We started the city tour with sun and warm but in the middle of it the rain surprised us so we had to finish it a little bit earlier but was fun to see how the storms here can start unexpectedly! Also they met our local youth ambassadors, they matched very well since the beginning. Also the Ambassador gave to them a welcome gift, a bracelet! I’m sure they are going to learn a lot from each others and discover all the things they have in common.

After the city tour we went back to the accommodation where we had an amazing ice cream and we had the English Tutoring Seminar because tomorrow the glimpsers are going to start teaching English! they are very excited about that and they are going to have the Ambassadors’ help in that so it will be a good experience for them.

After our dinner we had our first self reflection about their first impressions of the experience and the country and they loved to share their thoughts with the rest of the group. We finished the day with the Lider del Día Seminar to prepare them to be amazing leaders during their time being Líder del Día so we are sure they are going to delevelop their leadership skills and get out of their comfort zones.

Also during our Nightly Meeting we had an interesting discussion about how Dominican and American people feel about their history.

Tomorrow we have an amazing Culture and Fun Day so stay tuned for our news.

Good night from San Juan!

Dámarit