Hey guys! This is Clement (people call me Cley) and I was the first student leader of the day! Everybody cooperated and got along just fine on this Aid & Development Day.

We woke at 7:45 and had a healthy breakfast of pancakes and banana. Then, there was an academic seminar on aid & development. We learned about how aid can impact a developing country positively and negatively. Moreover, Nicaury, our program coordinator, taught us some very insightful strategies on giving aid. After that, we were split into two debate teams: aid vs. anti-aid. The funny thing is that since we all became so connected with each other over the past few days that it wasn’t really a debate but a consensus on the topic.

After the “debate”, we had a speaker named Bruno Estrada from Peace Corps talk even more about aid & development. Following the presentation, we had “bandera”: beans, rice, eggplant, salad, and beef patties. Many were dying to eat lunch with Bruno, since he was such a cool dude. At the hotel, we had another seminar on our CAP-project. (Community action Project) We took the bus to Maguana Al Medio to interact with the locals and to understand what they needed. Best of all, the students, as well as a GG leader, played basketball and volleyball with the community there! Shout out to Nomar: he hit the volleyball so hard that it went into the basketball hoop across the court. BUCKETS! We went back to Sheila’s and had mac & cheese with bread.

Back at the hostel, we held the nightly meeting and I received so much positivity as well as feedback from the group! By the way, shout out to the parents! Your kids are so amazing and they helped me grow as a leader. Then, I passed the torch (hand sanitizer) to Marina and Carolyn, who will be the student leaders of the day tomorrow. During free time, we made a plan for the guys to do the girls’ makeup and vice versa. The guys are planning to start their own makeup channel on YouTube. (jk)

Thanks for reading!