Hi family and friends!

This is Ananya and Sergio, the “Lider Del Dias” of today! Today, we got to experience the very edge of Dominican society. We traveled an hour today to Elias Piña, a town where we experienced the integration of Haitian and Dominican culture. While we did not have the opportunity to travel to the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, we still got to experience the town and learned a lot about the culture and history of the border. We also wrapped up our English tutoring with our last classes in the evening. Overall, we had a very tiring, yet educational day!

Sergio and I started off the day bright and early at 7 AM and had wake up calls until 7:30. At 7:45, we taught the group our chant for the day, where we say “Work it!” and they reply “Ayyy!”. Then, we made our way over to Rosaura’s for a breakfast of ham and cheese sandwiches and a delicious chilled mango drink made with milk. After that, we headed to the bus for our 1 hour drive to Elias Piña, the town where we experienced the culture of Haitians and Dominicans. Upon arrival, we went to the El Museo de Fronteraz, a museum that had information on the history of the Santeria religion as well as how people in the Dominican Republic used to live in the 40s and 50s. We also went through the market place and got to experience what a real street market was. After that, we had lunch with the Chicago delegation, which was enjoyable since we made new friends with them and got to interact with them for the first time. Finally, we left for our trip back to San Juan.

Upon coming back to the accommodations, we got ready to go to English tutoring. We had a great experience with our classes for the last time, and we personally played a lot of games and clarified confusion they had on anything relating to past lessons. We are excited for their graduation which is happening on Monday. A lot of students showed us kind gestures by bringing us food and throwing us parties. It was really rewarding to see our students be able to graduate after learning English with Global Glimpse.

By the time we got to Rosaura’s for a dinner of plantains, chicken, and French fries, we were ready to wrap up the long day. We ended our day with the nightly meeting where my fellow Glimpsers provided a lot of meaningful insight on what it is like being an immigrant in a new country and how America deals with immigrants.

Overall, today was very rewarding and educational. A lot of us agreed that one of the best experiences of today was getting to interact with the Chicago delegation, as we haven’t had the chance to really talk to them previously. We are also thankful to experience a new area of the Dominican Republic that we haven’t experienced before. The racism and discrimination that certain groups of people face here are injustices that we became more aware of today, and we are grateful that we had the opportunity to learn about them.

Thanks everyone, and hope everyone is having a good time at home! 🙂

— Ananya and Sergio