JANUARY 19

📍 DASEIN ACADEMY

This morning I made our PowerPoint coherent and presentable and made sure everyone added their work.

We then presented our work which was very nervewracking.

It was particularly difficult as the criticism was quite harsh for the first few groups, and ours were last.

I found it interesting that the idea my group came up with last minute, last night, was something that the judges liked - which were the cups to promote Ruffish. Although we knew that it would not completely resolve the issue regarding the river, we believed it would create small steps to a bigger impact, especially as we had limited time and resources.

One criticism we received was that we shouldn’t be producing more waste through stickers and cups, which we agree with. However, we made certain that these products would be made from recycled materials and were biodegradable, which we forgot to mention.

We also were told by Kennedy that having bins would not work and told us a strategy used in Japan, about having no bins can actually prevent littering. I found this very fascinating, and I wish we knew about this before revolving our project around recycling and bins. However, these were educational mistakes, and I’m glad we were told the facts.

After our efforts, we had a farewell party downstairs, where they provided food and drink, and took photos with everyone. The Dasein students gave us Ampao, filled with notes from everyone inside. It was a very sweet gesture. We also got Dasein merch, which I am thrilled about!

All in all, I am proud of my group's effort and it was a pleasure to meet everyone!