On Tuesday, we went for a community activity in which we helped the local community in cleaning Xochimilco channels. It was a really inspiring and fruitful experience as all of the scholars and the volunteers worked as a team and put in all their efforts to pick up the garbage or waste left in the river and channels of Xochimilco. Despite being challenging, as we have to kayak while cleaning the channels, everyone worked super hard together and put in every effort which we finally gathered 15 big bags of garbage! This touches and encourages me as it seems to be a great start for the projects as it reminds me as long as we work as a team together, things can be possible even it seems hard at first.
We then had a leadership camp in the amazing campsite located in Las Estacas, where we connected with nature outside the city and reinforce the connection with other scholars and strengthened our leadership skills. During the 2-days camp, we were separated into 4 teams and had different team-building activities. The one that strikes me the most was building a river raft and having a river rally afterward. The process was really challenging and exhausting as not only do we have to build a secure river raft with some sticks and swim rings on our own, but we also had to compete in a river rally along the 1km river with different secret tasks to be done. Despite being extremely tiring physically, we all had a really good time working as a team as everyone was super supportive and encouraging and gave in their hugest effort in accomplishing the tasks. I am just truly proud of how all of us jumped out of our own comfort zones during the tasks. This camp also provided me with an invaluable opportunity to understand deeper about other amazing scholars. I’m sure all of us have had a closer bonding with one another and we definitely have a great time in the camp!
Finally, to end the amazing week, we had a community activity in Michoacán where the Mazahua community lives. It was truly a heartwarming day. By the time we arrived, the Mazahua community greeted us enthusiastically with a warm cup of homemade chocolate and bread. Afterward, we had some ice-breaking activities and time to share our stories regarding our communities and the reason we wanted to come to Mexico. Although we didn’t really have a common language to communicate together, everyone gave in so much effort in exchanging thoughts using google translate, body gestures and drawings. It really touched me when the host family from Mazahua shared their struggles in preserving their own cultures as they often face criticism and discrimination from city people. Therefore, it really meant a lot to them for us as foreigners to pay visit to their community, learn about their culture and share it with the outside world. Despite the challenges they faced, they were still very optimistic and put in their greatest effort in preserving and striving for their community. Their spirit reminded and encouraged me to further raise awareness about the indigenous community towards the outside community and how we can support them with just some small acts such as buying their homemade products.
Throughout this fulfilling week, I think my biggest takeaway is being open-minded in order to become a better community leader. As we will often face unexpected challenges that we have never encountered being a leader, having an open-mindedness and willingness to step out of our comfort zone is important to improving ourselves and hence helping the community.
Besides, we have also learned about “define” in design thinking which I would like to further work on. In terms of organization, after we know more about their aims, we can further understand and define the main challenges they are facing and how they would like us to address them. While in terms of the community, we could ask about how they think about the challenges they are facing and what they are currently doing to tackle with it so that we could further understand how we can assist them.