Hello guys!

This is Karsyn and Thomas! Today was Deconstructing Poverty day. We were supposed to have a tour of the dump in Buena Vista today to get a better understanding of how people in the area live and the different struggles they deal with. We were unfortunately not able to learn about the dump too in depth because the people that were supposed to give us a “tour” never showed up, but it was still a very emotional and humbling experience being there and seeing the different entire families that live within the dump.

After that, we went home for a little bit then headed back out to Plan Yaque. There, we listened to a presentation about pollution in the Yaque Del Norte River. After the presentation, we walked through the forest to the site of our project. We then learned about the water filtration system that we will be assisting in making for the community. We then went back home and had two hours of free time. We talked with the executives, had dinner, and then proceeded to our nightly meeting.

There, we shed many tears and engaged in an extremely emotional conversation (as you see below in the picture of Thomas and Kendall hugging #besties #bros4life). Kendall made me cry after saying some very touching things which then resulted in a chain reaction of everyone crying and Karsyn running away. Today was a wild, but educational day and a lot of closer bonds were made.

Karsyn and TJ