Hola and Hello! Today’s theme was Aid & Development and we were asked to think about how a local community can create a sustainable development project to help provide support where needed.
First, we visited The Cigar Family School. We met Yovanni, who is a graduate from the school. The Cigar Family School was built to help provide a better option for education for children in the local areas. Many people have donated to help make this dream a success; which includes beautiful facilities, free health care, many resources and free transportation. They even have their own pond and they catch and cook the fish that swim in there! They are very sustainable!
After that, we visited the community of Los Arroyos. This community is going to be very important to us because this is where we will be doing our CAP (Community Action Project). We went to the school in Los Arroyos to interview community members about their needs and wishes for how to benefit the people that live there. The first thing we noticed was that the school was very different from The Cigar Family School. It was one small building with only two classrooms that were meant to teach grades 1-8 in. There was no playground either. We got a lot of information from our interviews about what the needs are for this community and are all anticipating the start of planning our CAP.
Tomorrow we pass the Leader of the Day Role to our first student LDD: Evelyn who impressed us all tonight with her dancing talent!
FAST FACTS:
Weather: Today was another hot and humid day!
Best Moment: Meeting the local community members of Los Arroyos
Best Meal: Pizza and Chicken Empanadas for dinner!
Biggest Takeaway: There is a great difference between the privately funded school and the public school. Seeing this difference made us think about how the educational opportunities we have in the US are not available to all children.
Hola! It sounds as though you are off to a great start truly being immersed in the culture of La Republica Dominicana! I can’t wait to read about what you will be specifically focusing on for your CAP! Xo Vic
Super interesting to learn about the schools there and how different they are from the schools in NY. It amazed me to hear that one small building with two class rooms are used to teach 1-8th ? And no playground ? WOW. I am so looking forward to finding out what you guys will be focusing on when planning your CAP ?. Have a good night guys and enjoy the adventures of tomorrow.
PS love you son (Irvin)
Wow, what an amazing day! I can’t wait to hear about what your project is going to be. All of you are inspiring.
Love Aliya’s mom
I am glad to hear about the educational experiences you all are having. I am equally glad that students are getting to see how privileged they are to be taught in our school settings, although it may not the best, it is better than others.
The dinner sounds amazing! Joseph must have been in heaven. Please tell him sorry about the sock and I love him dearly.
Such a meaningful day! I’m excited to hear what the students and the community decide to work on for the final CAP project! Also, I love your fast facts. Pizza & Empanadas-
isn’t that what we had at your parent pre-trip session, Jill? You knew! Thanks for sharing!