July 23 to July 29
During the third week of the Mexico City experience, we began to work on our projects. My team first met with our organization, Inspira Cambio, virtually on Monday. On Tuesday, we visited the Inspira Cambio office, where we got to share with them what we believed we could contribute to their organization. In this meeting, Inspira told us that they wanted us to plan a "Noche de Deteccion", or a Detection Night, where people could come to the offices and receive free testing for HIV and other STDs. Additionally, we wanted to create a video for the event, to create a platform for Inspira and the people who receive their services. Through this video, we hope that we can share the story of this organization, and how it benefits the LGBTQ+ community of Mexico City. Our Inspira contacts were hoping for this Noche de Deteccion to be a celebration of their 10 year anniversary, so we are in the process of planning fun activities and fundraisers for this incredible event.
One learning curve this week was developing the ability to effectively work alongside my team members. We all get along very well, and have been enjoying working together, but at the beginning of this week, we were all still new to the project. We had to learn to compromise and integrate everyone's ideas so that we all felt included and seen. Ultimately, I feel like we were able to learn to work together very quickly and easily. Everything has gone smoothly, and I am excited to continue to work with them on this project. I think we all have great ideas and skills that we can bring when planning our event.
At the end of this week, we visited the Museo del Chocolate in Mexico City. We were split up into groups, and we first had a tour of the museum. It was really interesting to see how chocolate evolved in Mexico. My favourite part was the room of scents that paired well with chocolate. The other half of the trip involved making our own chocolate. We were given cacao nibs and sugar, and hand-ground it into chocolate on a stone slab. This was exhausting, but definitely a rewarding experience as we got to take home pieces of chocolate. The photo attached above is my group making our chocolate.
Overall, this week went really well! I enjoyed getting to know my team members and experience their working styles. I'm looking forward to the weeks to come as we get to keep planning and then execute our Noche de Deteccion.