Close to the end of my LiA journey, this is already the fifth week I have been in Mexico. On day 1, we finally finished our 10Rs magazine and stencil design. We showed it to Pierro and received some feedback about the stencil design, but our 10Rs magazine have been approved. Therefore, we are moving on to printing tomorrow. We also practiced our pitching and received some feedback from Keni and Nuria. We learned that it is better to have more quantitative data in our presentation, also to make more explicit explanation about the problem section. We will try to improve on that and make a better pitch next time.
On day 2, we started printing our magazines and have a meeting with the HRV team to discuss an event on 7 August. I missed my teammate’s message about the sample of the magazine, and when I saw the sample, I was rather disappointed by the quality. We discuss about this at the end of the day, and we think we could have fixed this by using a pdf file for printing. But I think this is a chance to learn not to dwell on mistakes. We have learned how to fix it, and I should not stay upset about it, as it will not help anything.
On day 3, after a visit to HRV, I went with Keni to make an order to print our stencil. However, when we arrived, the staff told us they do not offer this kind of service. It was disheartening, but obstacles are to be expected in a project. We will need to look for other places that offers the service we need. However, there is one good news: the magazines’ quality is better than I expected. Yesterday I only saw the sample’s picture, but when I get the physical copy on hand, I realized the paper quality is quite good. I learned that sometimes you wouldn’t know the outcome of a project until it is fully completed, so we need to trust the process, and learn not to be disheartened prematurely.
On day 4, we helped carry out a children’s event in HRV. Due to the language barrier, we mostly helped prepare materials and carry things for the event. We cut out cloth patches to teach children the value of repairing broken items and gave out the 10Rs booklets we made to them after the event. It was great seeing the activities and materials we envisioned come to fruition, and the children’s response was very positive. It reminds me how fulfilling it is to complete a meaningful project!