Good  evening family and close friends, today  we had an amazing day filled with multiple eye opening experiences. Our day started with everyone waking up at 6:35am. We then ate breakfast at 7:20am, which consisted of pancakes, eggs, and fruit juice. We then came together to do an activity called the privilege walk where we found out where we stand within our group in terms of privilege, but kept it confidential  by everyone doing it with their eyes closed. This experience showed us that we are all similar. After this, we boarded the bus to visit La Vega, which is a city where the dump is located. We met a group of people called Buzos (Scavengers) and we got the opportunity to learn more about their lives.  Each of their stories was different, but they all focused on the goal of supporting their family.

From the dump, we stopped at a restaurant and ate lunch which consisted of rice and beans, salad, plantains, and chicken. Shortly after, we went to a community center called La Fundacion Alba y Ocaso. There we met the founder who spoke to us about what they were doing for their community. The community center helps kids and teens with education, nutrition, and health. We used recycled toilet paper rolls to make pencil holders for the children in the community. Once we arrived back to the accommodations, we got dressed and prepped for our English tutoring classes. Today our students prepped for their graduation on Friday. After that we ate dinner, which consisted of sweet potatoes, ham, and watermelon. We concluded our day with a self-reflection and nightly meeting. Although our trip is coming to an end, there are still a lot of learning opportunities in our future.

Thanks for reading!

Tahye P. Anthony M.