One of the most emotionals days I have been through in a while. I gave a lot of importance to this Thursday because it made me reflect the situation of El 20 from another perspective, and in order to get the whole project going, it was an important step understanding the negatives points and the challenges we were facing.
It was just the second morning we woke up here and things are starting to feel more comfortable, the more you get along with a group, the more happy you feel around them. Also, I feel so in peace with myself since I have not connected my phone to the internet and would like to stay like these until we return.
After having breakfast we went to La Casita, it was becoming kind of a costume to do so. I had the opportunity to spend most of my day doing interviews around El 20, first by myself, and then, with Caro. For some reason, interviews were friendlier and had a more positive reaction in the morning than in the afternoon. In the morning, I entered to some of the local shops and interviewed some of the people that were passing by, the sun was extremely harsh so I couldn’t run into a lot, but I managed to get a good number. The interesting thing was that, I felt very good listening to everyone and very enthusiastic to help them.
We had lunch and the chatting between everybody is becoming funnier, and then the hardest part of the day arrived. Caro and I went to interview people in the road across the river, we had to approach people to their homes and for the first time we found some trouble in doing this. Some people were reluctant to the idea of the fund, especially in how it was going to be administered and how we were going to ensure them that everybody would pay the fee. Not only they were reluctant to this, but they were not making easy the explanation, so I realized that patience will be a key to make this work. All I kept thinking that day and during every interview was that I wanted to improve this people’s lives so much.
We did interviews until the sun faded, and I returned tired and confused, because the fact that some people didn’t trust us demotivated me in the moment. Lucky me, Rogelio and me went to play soccer with the kids and it was such a distressful activity, I had so much fun, I love the energy of the kids around here.
Lastly, I had so much fun with the girls at dinner. We played this game in which we had to say what kind of color and animal we thought someone was related. We laugh a lot and in a way, it helped to start knowing each other and the perception around. I never thought the group would have so much conexion, soccer and this really cheered me up, I think I closed the day the best way I could. I feel really happy and comfortable with all the people around me.
In El 20 most people are really nice, and I love to treat them as well. The best part of what I did today was trying to stay positive although some interviews did not have the enthusiasm I was giving and expecting back, because I think this means I am doing it for the correct reasons. However, I feel there is a lot of work left to do, and I am really looking forward to doing it.
by Adrian
Action Lab Mexico 