Hi, we’re Baylee and Camille, and we were the leaders of today. We were the first students to be Lider Del Dia, and we both did an amazing job. The biggest part of our day was traveling to the Federation of Farmers Camp (Federacion de Campesinos Hacia el Progreso) and meeting one of the founders named Esteban Polanco. Esteban spoke about the history of the Dominican Republic and why he and a few others founded the Federation camp. Many of us were very inspired and motivated by his speech and the things he plans on doing in the future for his country. His speech is why all of us want to have more conversations about the relationships between the citizens and their governments and continue to change the world.

Afterwards, we came back to our home and taught locals varying in age and with varying levels of English knowledge. These people have been attending the English classes since the first delegation that happened in June. Despite the tremendous amount of rain, a majority of our students still arrived to class with smiling faces and open minds. Because of them, we are even more excited to teach them three more classes before they graduate. Our twenty-four-year-old student Raiver expressed that with the English that he learned from our class and his other English class, he would like to become a pilot and one day travel to India to learn about the culture and its people.

This day will remain in our hearts forever. The passion and dedication that Esteban Polanco showed as he spoke about how he and the organization have and will better Dominican Republic and students like Raiver showed as he spoke about his dreams inspire us to do our best so that we can be the best we can be.  The following twelve days will only add on to the amazing experience we have had so far, and we cannot wait for the other Leaders of the Day to update you all!

Experiencing coffee in the rain

Delicious lunch at the federation

Kids English class

showing us the art of Bambu at the federation

Adult ET students