Cindy – September 12, 2020 Journal Entry #33

Youth Taking Action and the cultural exchange to Mexico are projects that I still consider feasible because we have been working on them. Firstly, YTA relates to animal wellbeing, social activities and the environment so due to the areas in which we can develop our project it is easy to complete and organize even during this pandemic. Last week my group and I reunited through a WhatsApp video call to exchange ideas on how to maintain a stable rhythm and to organize and plan our last projects of the year. Those projects include a donation to Barbara’s Rescue Center and 1 day volunteering at her place, a hiking evening at Catalinas and an account on Instagram to post stories of victims of discrimination in Costa Rica. As seen before, with these last activities we are embracing the whole 3 areas of YTA which would be a successful ending year if all of them are achieved. In the case of the cultural exchange to Mexico, Amanda and I have been working really hard to make it possible by being flexible with dates, changing the place and doing something totally new to fundraise for the project which can be evidenced with the churros we made and sold 3 weeks ago from Potrero to Villarreal. Amanda and I are planning on doing 3 more sales in order to get enough money for the trip, we already found a friend in Mexico who will give us the opportunity to stay with her and even combine our project with one she has in her University, therefore we already have support there to continue with our cultural exchange. Some obstacles for both projects was the pandemic because it made us stop organizing events such as beach clean ups and environmental talks and it also stopped us from getting donations. Yet, our abilities of open-minded, inquirers and balanced helped us get through it and find new solutions. We will keep meeting weekly for at least 30 mins and we plan on starting our events of YTA with no more than 5 people including ourselves at the beginning of October as well as the sales that Amanda and I are planning for the cultural exchange.