As you can read from the title, today was Politics Day! It was a day full of joy, laughter, and also challenges for me as The Leader of the Day. I have always had a passive personality (sometimes excessively passive), that is why being in charge of everyone, of every activity, and having the responsibility of being constantly on task was far from what I’m used to.

I started off the day waking everyone up by singing “Baby” by Justin Bieber at the top of my lungs. It was quite pleasant, but only for me. After having breakfast, we had a meeting to mentally prepare for the day. We asked ourselves why it is important to, as citizens, be involved in politics.  We also learned about Ecuadorian politics, Rafael Correa’s performance as president, and how our expectations about the government and Ecuadorians’ expectations differ from one another.

Following our mental warm-up we had an amazing guest speaker, Aquiles, from a political youth organization called Contracorriente.  This organization focuses on fomenting youth participation in politics.  We learned that the youth are the future and it is our duty to voice ourselves as active members of democracy. Aquiles also inspired us with his thoughtful analogies, his solid ingenuity, and his contagious lucidity. One of the best things the group and I got for him is the idea of how one should never look for someone/ something to blame in tough situations, but try to change one’s responsibility in for the common good instead.

Finally, all the Glimpsers and leaders had Ecuadorian Folklore dance classes! It was very interesting learning about this culture that’s so new and different to us and it was so much fun seeing how everybody was participating.

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Everyday I have spent here so far has shaped my reasoning, softened my heart, and has made me more human. And since I was the leader, these changes in me increased in value.  It was a great day and I’ll be forever grateful toward my GG leaders and life for giving me this opportunity. Feel free to leave comments below!