“The more you can increase fear of immigrants and aliens, the more you control all of the people.” – Noam Chomsky

Greetings from Constanza. Hey there families! It’s Nicole and Wayne updating the blog! Today’s wake up call was at 7:30, after a day of extreme hard work as a local. We have been informed about the immigration issues here in the Dominican Republic with a mental warm up. After eating cereal at breakfast we learned about how Haitians that live out here in the Dominican Republic are in search for better lives. The crazy part of it all is that visiting these Haitians in these communities only bought life to a different perspective. That is, in terms of the treatment that some Dominicans have towards Haitians. Moving aside from that we also met Michelle who came to the Dominican Republic from Venezuela. She shared her experience and stories about making bracelets and selling them back in her country. She also exemplified how Venezuelans also faced corruption in the government. Before she left, she taught us how to make bracelets ourselves!

This afternoon we got ready to eat lunch! Today for lunch we ate moro which is rice mixed with black beans, stewed chicken, and salad. After lunch we went to visit our Haitian families in the Colonia Kennedy community. While with our families we learned and spoke about the struggles that they face against the government in the Dominican Republic. The majority of Haitians in these communities described how it was like towards leaving there country and there families. Before we left out families in Colonia Kennedy we danced and showed them a lot of love. For Wayne and I, we personally learned a lot about the families and the struggles they face daily. Later on during the day we went back to the accommodations to get ready and set up for our panel members of the Colonia Kennedy community. When they reached the accommodations we presented our idea to renovate their park. After the presentation we ate pasta with ground beef, toasted bread and iced tea for dinner with the Colonia Kennedy panel members. After dinner we had our daily nightly meeting where we spoke about interesting topics such as poverty, immigration, and corruption. We also discussed how the root of poverty is brought by social, economical, and political factors. We also passed the torch to tomorrow’s leaders who are Marylin and Amir. Overall, we give thanks for another day and more opportunities to keep learning and growing as leaders and as people. And we hope for a better tomorrow!!

~ Wayne and Nicole 🙂