Buenas noches a todos!

Today was a day we were all looking forward to: Immigration Day! To start the day we watched a documentary called “Hasta la Raíz”, filmed in 2013 to share different stories of Dominicans of Haitian descent affected by the 169-14 law. Our guest speaker, Felipe Fortines, helped us understand the Haitian-Dominican relations in the country and that it’s not necessarily an immigration problem, but a nationality problem, which is unique to the DR. In order to create change, he noted that education was the foundation. We had an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the documentary and many of us in the group participated and gained a lot of insight on the current situation in the DR. This discussion encouraged us to reflect on the current immigration situation in the US. We also had an opportunity to hear from an immigration lawyer named Juan Carlos, who shared with us his experience working with Haitian-Dominicans seeking their documents. He also mentioned his work with foreigners from other countries such as the US, helping them attain their residency.

In the afternoon we were able to present our Community Action Project (CAP) to the community of Mata de Cadillos. Three different groups designed a model layout, budget, and legacy logo for the kitchen. We received positive feedback on the design of the project from the community and our model exceeded their expectations. We are super excited to get the ball rolling on Sunday when we start the construction of the kitchen! On Saturday we will be purchasing materials for the construction. The country director of Global Glimpse was super impressed with our group and how many community members came to the presentation. We are hoping that after this presentation, plans are clear moving forward.

We ended the day with some free time and we enjoyed a game of volleyball: girls against boys. We carried the boys until the very end, but they swooped in and won. We definitely need a rematch soon! We were all feeling a little tired today, but we managed to get through with smiles and rehydration salts in our waters.

Love, Yadira & Clara

Here, we have Felipe, the guest speaker.

Free time shenanigans with the glimpsers.

Budget team crew!

Design team, showing a preview of the kitchen.

Mata de Cadillos community ready to hear our ideas.

Crew presenting our logo for the table that will be given as a gift.

Everyone excited after having a perfect preview! We are ready to begin working on our kitchen!

Here, we have some glimpsers having fun playing volleyball.