Today was a very humbling and eye opening day being that it was Immigration Day. This was especially impactful, because some of us are immigrants or children of immigrants ourselves and the themes and topics of today hit close to home. Our mission was to understand the relationship between the citizens of the Dominican Republic and immigrants from Haiti and Venezuela. We started our day off bright and early at 7 AM and enjoyed a hearty breakfast of cinnamon oatmeal and fresh fruit at 8 AM, made especially for us by our wonderful host, Dilenia. After that, we had a Community Innovation Project (CAP) seminar to design our projects for the beautiful community we visited yesterday. Driven by the stories and lives of the community members we spoke to and interviewed yesterday, we were able to quickly brainstorm ways we could best help their community. During our interviews, some of the community members shared with us their biggest needs and after considering aspects such as project feasibility, our passion, and community engagement we decided on five: building latrines (holes in the ground used as communal bathrooms), building safe basketball courts for the kids, providing water filtration workshops, renovating the community center’s floor, and restoring chairs for the community center. We were most inspired to work on these projects because in La Cañada de las Palmas, some of the biggest challenges they faced were having safe places for kids to play in instead of on the roads where motorcyclists ride at high speeds, having a bathroom for the community center for the weekly neighborhood meetings, or even having enough seats or a floor without holes for the large community gatherings.

After splitting into project communities, we were supposed to meet with a Venezuelan family (who gave us great pineapple juice yesterday!) but they unfortunately couldn’t make it. However, our Global Glimpse leaders gave us insight on their situation of living in the Dominican Republic. We learned about the conflict in Venezuela and how their current government has driven their citizens to flee the country into Latin American countries such as the Dominican Republic and even as far as the United States. We learned of the struggles they faced and their reasoning behind their migration. Dominicans view Venezuelans as the ones that take over the high level jobs and as a result, treat them with hostility.

After learning about the current situation in Venezuela, we had another delicious meal of beans, rice, pork chops, salad, and plantains. After lunch, we gained further insight on how immigrants are treated in the Dominican Republic, specifically those of Haitian decent by watching a video about an immigrant from Haiti. It highlighted the lack of access to healthcare and opportunities, so it causes Haitians to move to the Dominican Republic for work. In order to truly understand the lives of Haitian immigrants, we traveled to Colonia Kennedy where there is a large concentration of Haitian immigrants. Here, we were met with bright colors and used our Spanish (and some French!) to connect with the immigrants there. It was an emotional experience for all of us as it hit hard on their unfair living situation. The conversations we had and the connections we made opened our eyes to how privileged we are to live in America, and though there are still many issues with discrimination and poverty, it was nothing compared to the situation Haitian immigrants are put in here in the DR. We learned about how intense the discrimination was, how hard the immigrants worked, and how unfairly they were treated. Even in their own homes, they couldn’t call it a community because of the shanty houses that the Dominican landowners let them rent or the hostility they receive from their Dominican neighbors. We talked, we played, and we danced. Junior Celi, an immigrant there, graciously answered all of our questions and we played with the laughing children.

Alas, we had to leave and sang along to Spanish jams back to Dilenia’s. Once we got back, we enjoyed some free time and then split into our self-reflection groups, reflecting on the amazing people we just met and the tear-jerking stories that we heard. Then, we enjoyed hot dogs and corn for dinner before convening for our daily nightly meetings. Stay tuned for more!