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Life is filled with new experiences and opportunities where you can encounter amazing people with stories that warm your heart. Today we visited a beautiful community called La Aldea where children and teens with difficult backgrounds are motivated and encouraged to continue their relationships with their parents, focus on their education, have a secure home/environment to spend their youth, and be prepared to become successful adults. When we said our goodbyes, there was nothing but smiles and hugs from the wonderful children and teens we have met. After seeing the amazing community that they had, we used our experience and compared it to what action projects or environments that we have for at risk teens and children in our own community and school. A lot of our schools have counselors and fundraisers to help at risk students, but nothing as beautifully constructed as La Aldea. As future leaders and soon college students, we can take from this experience in order to see what we can do in order to help and provide in our own community.

After we came back, we started preparing to present our plan for our community action project. Everyone was put into groups, and they made beautiful posters that represented what they wanted to contribute to the community. Jahima, the head coordinator of Fundacion Cristal; the community we are helping loved our ideas and bright posters. We are so excited and can’t wait to start on our CAP.

Our last activity of the day was our daily english tutoring at a place in the community named Mas Vida, and the excitement really started today as we had many students rather than the one or two from previous days. Everyone really got out of the comfort zone as we had to teach little kids to adults that didn’t know english, while some of us didn’t know spanish. But this experience has really expanded our knowledge on how hard it is to be a teacher, so next time when we’re in class, we will do our best to behave and focus!

Being el lider del dia has been an honor, and the amazing feedback and comments I have received will help me to continue to grow as a person and improve my leadership skills. Thank you to all the parents, friends, relatives, and supporters of our delegation. We miss everyone a lot and we are having an amazing time so don’t worry too much! I want to thank my mom for her continuous support and love. I love you mom and can’t wait to tell you all my adventures when I come back.