Hello everyone reading from back home this is Abdul Choudhry and Anthony Ngo! Today was working like a local day here in the Dominican Republic, and we have a lot to share with you guys. We were both leaders of the day for today, so we were both responsible for waking everyone up at 6 am and keeping the entire group on track. Today we went to a coffee plantation and learned about the process of making pure coffee in the DR, thanks to an organization named FECADESJ. Getting off the bus while still dazed from the lack of sleep, we saw ourselves surrounded by mountains and lots of greenery. Since we all had to be exposed to the process of creating coffee, we were split up into 4 groups and had four different jobs simultaneously. The process starts with putting dirt into small black bags that has been mixed with cultivated soil. For the next step, the bags were lined up to make seeding more efficient. Afterwards, the black, dirt-filled bags were inserted with the seedlings and allowed to grow in the greenhouse. The entire planting process takes around 45 days with another year to be able to harvest and one tree produces around 2-3 pounds of per harvest.

After leaving the plantation, we came home to a rushed lunch followed by group presentations about the Community Action Project (CAP) delivery that every delegation has to do. For our CAP we all agreed on fixing up a local park by cleaning up the entire area, surrounding the park with painted tires, replacing the light bulbs with usable ones, planting trees, adding gravel, and finally making a tire swing set and see saw for the children to play on. After the presentations, the panel we presented to were very impressed with our projected plan and how we tried to incorporate their needs into our project.

As usual, we went to the local high school to teach the Dominican students how to read, write, and speak English. The students were very engaged with our lessons and started getting to know us further on a personal level. After finishing up with our English tutoring lessons, the group walked back to Hotel Onaney and had a nice dinner, which included rice and beans.

Having been here for almost a week now in the Dominican Republic we learned a lot about the history, culture, and locals. Everyone here is so appreciative of everything they have whereas people in the US always want more. Without this trip, none of us would have probably appreciated the fact that turning a lever allows freshwater to pour out, or how much work locals put into making simple products that are bought in the supermarket.
We thank Global Glimpse for this incredible opportunity to experience life here in the DR. This allowed us to learn and experience life in a developing country and compare it to our lives at home.

Thanks for reading,
Anthony Ngo and Abdul Choudhry

P.S. Anthony here, I love you mom!! I know you won’t read this because I forgot to give you a link, but it’s the thought that counts. I hope Timothy passed his license test, but I guess I’ll find out later. I’m having a great time here with a lot of new friends. David is annoyed that our blog is the longest and the P.S. is supposed to be a line or too, but we appreciate him, sometimes. Also I’m about to buy 3 pounds of coffee, sorry 🙁

P.S This is Abdul! I love you Mom, Naksh, Dad, Arsh Appi, Hassan, Hina, and Haala appi! I miss you guys so much and cant wait to tell you guys all about my trip when I get back! I am hoping to buy all of you guys a lot of gifts and souvenirs tomorrow and cant wait to share this amazing experience. Naksh, I hope you are feeling better since the last time we spoke. Miss you big sister 🙁 LOVE YOU MOM!!