Today was Working Like A Local Day. We woke up earlier than the birds, which we were all so obviously ecstatic about (just kidding it was 6am). Then we had the delicious breakfast Licalot made; pancakes, eggs and watermelon. It was the first traditionally American food we had in a while, a taste of home.
We then took a bus to Bejuco Aplastado where we planted 90 cacao trees with some of the local’s Agapito Marte, Berto, Rosairis, Junior, and Marcelo. The journey to the forest was a very long hike. There were very steep hills we had to climb up and down. It was very tiring however, fun. There was even a river included in which we had to cross (some of us jumped). Then we had to walk back up and down the hills in which we gave big love to the community. We gave big love and mentioned how we appreciated their work and admire that they climb the hills everyday and do it with a lot of love no matter how dangerous it might be.
After the experience we had planting, we enjoyed some down time at the hostel, ate lunch, prepared for our tutoring lessons and then enjoyed rice con leche for dinner.
FAST FACTS:
Weather: VERY RAINY!!! For the first time on the trip we saw a lot of rain!
Best Meal: Locrio de salchicha for lunch, which was delicious rice and sausage with vegetables on the side
Best Moment: Planting the cacao trees and seeing how willing everyone was to help one another through the hills.
Biggest Takeaway: The fact that the locals do this every day and it’s one of, if not the only, major source of money.
Note from your GGL: Sorry for the delay on this posting! It rained a lot last night and we lost electricity for a bit so we were not able to post. We have learned this is common in the DR. Luckily we are up and running again this morning!
I was a bit worried lol and this happens in Puerto Rico also where I grew up the electricity and water shuts down from time to time. Glad to see the pictures and hear about your experiences. Love you Irvin ?
Aliya, cool pic of you planting a tree. Looks like you guys are all having a great time and learning a ton.
Love you Chach!
Aliya’s Dad
Great blog Jennifer and Pauline! It sounds quite impactful getting to experience a little bit of what it’s like to work there, even for half a day. When you climb the 5 flights of stairs at school, you can think of the people you met here and their daily trip up and down these hills to work. Thanks for including pictures … I’m happy to see your smiling faces 🙂
Sounds like fun hiking and planting cacao plants and working with the Locals . I miss you a lot so does Michael.
Love Dad
Lookin good Joe! Very proud of you!