Today was Aid and Development day. We started the day a little later, waking up at 7:30. Our breakfast was delicious as usual with french toast, eggs, and fresh fruit. Our first activity was a discussion led by Sonia and Memo where they introduced us to the topic of international aid. We expanded our knowledge on the different forms of aid, sustainability, common problems with aid, and the white savior complex. We were divided into two groups to further the discussion with our peers. It was useful to share our ideas openly and hear everyone’s point of view. Thoughtful points came up around the credibility of aid organizations and how we will apply this lesson to our community action project. At one point we had low energy from sitting for the discussion/lecture for a while. Wade taught us the rules to the bizarre games of Bippity Bob and Zap, Zip, Zop. We finished Sonia and Memo’s lecture and headed to lunch. The cooks provided another nutritious and delicious meal of Casado (rice and beans), chicken, macaroni salad, and salad. After lunch, we had an hour of downtime where Liam taught us card games, one group played hide and seek, and Sawi made the whole group bracelets. Soon after our guest speaker Yanory arrived to give us a talk about her experience as an indigenous woman from Boruca territory. She split us into three groups where we brainstormed our own civilizations. The groups later had to negotiate with each other based on migration resulting from climate change and war. The moral of the activity was to show how every group has different necessities and that community is important for development. Later she gave us a brief history of indigenous people in Costa Rica and their conditions today. She also gave us proposals on what we can do as travelers to support the Indigenous communities- ask the locals what support they need, work with organizations that have context about the culture, assess the risk of using indigenous territory, take into account the opinions of the youth, remove any savior sentiments, and take into account the opinions of the women. One big takeaway from the presentation was that indigenous Costa Ricans possess intelligence and capabilities but lack the opportunity to develop economically. Our speaker showed us a documentary about her life that highlighted the importance of appreciating indigenous roots and history. The talk definitely gave us another lens into the concept of aid and development. After Yanory finished her presentation we gave her a huge thank you for giving us insight into the Indigenous people of Costa Rica. We had a little more downtime and then headed to dinner. The cooks made delicious cheeseburgers that reminded us of home. We (Zach and Xitlalic) continued the tradition of thanking the cooks after every meal. We started our nightly meeting in which we debriefed our day, discussed what we learned, and expressed our appreciation for everyone through the Big Love. We ended off our meeting with our unity clap focusing on the word Perspective. Today we will be returning promptly to our rooms at 10 because we got in trouble last night for being out later than 10:30.