The main thing I took away from Asha, Marcus, and David’s presentation about camote (sweet potatoes) is that there are things we can do and projects we can undertake that have a quantifiable impact on the lives of the people we are trying to help. My project was more of a theoretical/modelling one that is mainly intended to spark conversation and give people ideas, but not to create some deliverable product or suggest some singular action that a community can take to improve their lives. I was inspired by the simplicity of planting camote and how the group actually went out and applied for funding to acquire slips for planting camote in Tadasna when we visit. I often struggle to decide upon a single action to take to improve the lives of others since the world is such a complex and unknown place, but I think this projects shows that there always something we can do to make life better.

The main thing I took away from Leah, Valentina, and Kate’s presentation on prenatal care and Casas Maternas was the deep and mutualistic benefits that can be had from drawing connections between ourselves and people who appear to lead entirely different lives. Even though life and prenatal care are very different in the Upper Valley and rural Nicaragua, their combination of research and interactions with future mothers really reminded me how much we all have in common. I’m sure that every mother has largely the same concerns and dreams for her child, no matter where in the world there are, and I think their photo collage product will be a great and constant reminder of what we share. I think it is easy to place people of other cultures in a box and to focus on the differences between us, which is why its refreshing to focus on what is the same. It is a good reminder for myself to strive to find commonalities as well as differences between myself and other people, not only when traveling but all the time.