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From where I’m standing, I realize... it was never about my view, but rather it was my viewpoint. I thought, I wasn’t any good... therefore I wasn’t. But I’ve come to realize in the last 2 days, that I am meant to write. I truly appreciate every one of you that reads what I always thought was bad. You have pushed me to want to write more, and I thank you all. My scenery may change in the future, but I’ll always remember that this was where I was when I realized my potential. ❤️
GP Youth Ambassadors at the U.S Department of State in Washington D.C #ihavepotential #exchangeourworld #Washington #statedepartment #youth #makeachange @exchangeourworld (at Washington, District of Columbia)
Adelis helping and working with Vision Mutual (giving classes to the children) #ihavepotential #DR #youth #Batey8
#Open-Space dynamics in our Youth-Led #Conference in El Hatillo #Nicaragua #jlcglobal #elhatillo #discussions #bestever @jumpfoundation #ihavepotential (at Nicaragua)
Global Potential Jeopardy
In our workshop last Friday, we split up into two teams and played Jeopardy Global Potential style. The categories were things like Music and Dance, Language, and Geography. I’m a very competitive person, so when I saw that we were playing Jeopardy I was super excited. We split up into two large sized teams and played against each other. It was so fun to work with my team and hear their ideas on what they thought the answers were. I definitely learned some things from my team members, as well did they. Even though my team won, we all felt like winners because we all learned something new that day.
The teams worked together to come together with an answer, and when one person didn’t know there was sure to be another who did know the answer. It was to our benefit that we had people from different countries, and backgrounds in our teams because we had different perspectives and experiences to be able to come up with our answers and win. I loved this game, and it was such a fun, and learning experience.
Adelis Santos
Social Media Intern
Gentrification in Our Lives
In our last workshop, we split up into four different groups to travel around Chinatown and see how it is gentrifying right before our eyes. What I saw stirred a series of different emotions for me but it was an eye opening experience.
My group and I walked no more than down the block and we ran into a “pharmacy”. Now this wasn’t your ordinary pharmacy at all. The difference with this store is that they made different concoctions of vitamins and herbs in shot glasses to heal certain things. We were lucky enough to, not only talk to an employee from there, but to have a conversation with a frequent costumer. She said that she lived right upstairs and goes there at least everyday. She was there that day because she had a headache and a sore throat, and had two shot glasses of two different, questionable colors. One of my GP Fellows and friend, Jenet Dolley, had asked her how much she spends on these mini potions and the lady couldn’t even tell us. She shrugged it off and said, “I don’t know”. Standoffish or not, I was still able to see how much these potions were through a chart they had against the wall. Depending on what you wanted, prices ranged from $7-$14. There was definitely a different presence in the pharmacy, and even though placed right in Chinatown, there weren’t any people there who weren’t White.
We left this place, and walked a bit further up and came across an agency who helped people with low income housing. I went in, brave and determined to know the work that was being done. The man who I spoke with was very kind and open to giving us information about the work he does in his community and out of it. While having this conversation with the man, he explained that rich people come and take over building and stores making the price value of the block higher and too expensive for the people who lived there before the renovations. He spoke about the unfairness about doing this because it made living in the area too expensive and it kicked people out of their homes. I related a lot with what this man was doing for his community because in the community where I go to school in, there is a lot of this going on.
Places like Hunts Point, Harlem, and the South Bronx generally, are going through gentrification like the pharmacy that we went into in Chinatown. People like the man we spoke to for the low income housing are greatly appreciated because they keep in mind the people who struggle enough as it is and gentrification does not help. There should be more advocating for low income housing in communities that feel like they are being pushed out of their homes. There’s no better voice than a community voice, and coming together to stand up for our rights.
Adelis Santos,
Social Media Intern
Conflict Resolution & Communication
On our workshop last Friday we spoke about conflict resolution and communication, and one of the activities we did stood out to me the most. The leaders of the activity asked for two volunteers, and I was ready to participate desperate to take a break from my long week of exams and studying. It was me and another GP Fellow who volunteered to be blind folded for the activity. These were basically the rules: there were two blind folded people, and one person who was the speaker who couldn’t look back at who were blind folded, and the rest of the GP fellows were giving signs to the speaker to tell the blinded people where to go to pick up objects and put them in a box.
It sounds a bit complicated, and it definitely was at some points. First, it was difficult for me to know where I was going since I was blindfolded, then it was hard for the other Fellows to give directions to the speaker with out actually speaking or making noises. But mostly, it was difficult for the speaker to follow the directions the other Fellows were trying to give her and there were times where she would say left and quickly say, “Wait, no, no right”. It was definitely confusing. We figured out at the end of the activity that the deeper meaning of it was that when the Fellows would make a signal to the speaker but she wouldn’t quite understand it illustrated how sometimes the signs that we think we’re giving out to people might not be the same signs that they’re interpreting.
This stood out to me a lot because I’ve been in many situations, with my family or friends, where I meant to say one thing or come off one way but they might have understood it in a completely differently. A situation like this can happen to anyone, and it does happen a lot often now especially through social media. Since being on social media, there aren’t any real interactions, so things can easily be misunderstood. Because of this, clear communication can be hard sometimes so it’s always important to be specific with exactly what we’re trying to say and clarify the signs we’re trying to give out.
Adelis Santos
Social Media Intern
Being healthy: more than just staying in shape.
On Friday, GP had a workshop about Health. Now I know, immediately you may think of eating right, working out-- oh no. But this workshop wasn’t about any of that. This workshop was about healthy relationships-- oooh... wait what? What is a healthy relationship anyways, and how can we even identify if we’re in one or not?
One particular activity we did caught my interest. We got into groups and the GP leaders stuck a paper with tape onto our backs, and the paper described an unhealthy relationship. We had no idea what we had on our backs, but we knew what the other members of the group had. The activity was almost like charades, everyone got to see what the person had on their backs and we had to act it out until the person guessed what it is. For example, someone could’ve had “Controlling Best friend” on their backs and two members in the group would act out one friend yelling at the other for not hanging out with her.
The activity was fun and easy, but there was a deeper meaning behind it. What I got out of the activity was that I may be in an unhealthy relationship but I would have no idea; and that’s how most unhealthy relationships work. The people that are in them barely know that they are until something seriously bad happens.
But what can we do if we see someone close to us in an unhealthy relationship? Well, just kind of how we did in our activity we can show the person that the relationship they’re in is unhealthy, and try to get them out of it. Another thing is identifying the signs. The only way the person in the activity guessed what he/she had on their backs was by identifying key things their group members acted out: anger, being possessive, abuse, etc. Unhealthy relationships aren’t safe or cool, if there’s someone you know who is in one or if you think you may be in one, identify key things that are wrong and talk to someone who can do something about it.
Adelis Santos,
Social Media Intern
