Good afternoon parents, friends, and other viewers. My name is Joseph Narcisse, and I am the Leader of the Day for June 18th, 2014.

If you have not already heard, our delegation has been formulating our Community Action Plans (or CAP projects) over the past few days. Yesterday, we visited the prepossessing community of Sabaneta. We broke up into groups and spoke with multiple citizens of the community. We asked them what characteristics they would change about the community, what they loved about it, and other questions of similarity. After speaking with them, we brainstormed what we believed would best benefit Sabaneta’s abandoned Ludoteca (see yesterday’s post). After hours of formulation, we decided on 4 Ludoteca committees: an Education Committee that will construct desks and bookshelves to hold books in the Ludoteca, a Design Team that will paint vibrant sceneries inside and outside of the Ludoteca, a Maintenance and Organization team that will teach sanitation and maintain the hygiene in the facility, and a Park and Recreation committee that will clean and flatten the communities park while also providing an area of shade from the hot Dominican sun.

Education committee presenting to Wilma Duval, Executive Director of FUNDASEP

Today, we began putting these potential projects into action. It was an emotionally intriguing and inspiring day. We began by waking up to a long-yearned for classic American breakfast: pancakes. After breakfast, we headed over to the Fundasep headquarters. Fundasep, a 21 year-old institution, is a non-profit organization that has backed Global Glimpse’s previous delegation’s CAP projects in the Dominican Republic since it’s emergence last year. At the headquarters, we spoke to the Executive Director of the Fundasep organization, Mrs. Wilma. Mrs. Wilma, a diligent and conscientious woman, provided us with information about the organization. Founded in 1993, Fundasep has helped improve education, sanitation, water filtration, natural-disaster relief, and a plethora of other sustainable-projects throughout the Dominican Republic. After her presentation, we asked her questions pertaining to how we could make our CAP project as viable and sustainable as Fundasep’s projects. Then, we presented our potential project to Mrs. Wilma and the other multi-lingual and diverse members of the organization. Mrs. Wilma and her colleagues provided us with feedback on our project and approved all four components.

Parks and Recreation Committee presenting their proposal to the Sabaneta community

Design Committee presenting in the Sabaneta Ludoteca

After this event, we headed over to Sabaneta for the second time this week. Here, we presented our potential projects to the community. The Ludoteca overflowed with people of all ages! The citizens of Sabaneta were ecstatic over our ideas, and approved all of our pitches with enthusiasm and questions. Their feedback helped us narrow down the specifics of our projects to be more similar to what the community truly wanted rather than what we believed they wanted, which is a necessary step of a sustainable project. It was a moving experience for all of us students, because it was a time when our projects were beginning to become a reality. We had come to the realization that the ideas that we had been writing on our posters and papers would truly have an impact on an entire communities quality and outlook on life.

Thank you cards from a grateful student! “Thank you for your patience…”

We headed back to San Juan to have our final English class. However, class was much more of a party than an educational seminar. Our English students brought sodas, chips, and home-made snacks to share. We put on music, had a talent show, played games, and socialized for 2 hours until we had to say our final goodbyes, exchanging Facebook’s and other social networks with each other. After our English class, we headed over to Onaney’s for dinner. Perhaps the most exciting portion of the day happened after we ate our meals. Performers danced their way into the dining area, music was blasted from the kitchen, and we danced until it was time to go. All in all, today was a exciting, heartfelt, memorable day.