Our theme was Immigration, we woke up at 6 am and we ate “mangu“, fried egg, and eggs with sausage. Then we got ready and embarked on our 4-hour bus ride across the cities of the Dominican Republic and we landed in Juan Dolio. We stopped halfway in a type of motel/hotel and they served some delicious sandwiches. When we finally got to Juan Dolio we got our room assigned. While some people were getting their bed ready some of the people got into the pool because it was quite hot.

For lunch, we had “locrio” with salami, white rice with eggplant, fruit, salad, and passion fruit juice. After we ate, we quickly got into the bus and left to go to ASCALA. ASCALA is an organization that helps Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic. There, we talked to a Haitian immigrant personally, and learned about the struggles and discrimination they face when arriving in the DR. Haitians are unable to receive Dominican citizenship for themselves or their children born in the DR. They are discriminated against because of the color of their skin and live under fear of being deported. I think we were all impacted by that discussion.

After the discussion we had in Ascala, we got into the busses again and then went to the sugar cane plantations where many of the Haitians that immigrated to the DR work. We learned that the sugar plantations were the only source of actual work the Haitians had because of the discrimination they faced. We saw the never-ending acres of land of sugar cane plantations, and we learned how the people there do their work. They typically work in groups of 3-5 and take up to 2 days to cut and burn a certain part of the plantations. This labor is physically demanding therefore they have to be good on their feet in order to get things done. And the sad part about all of this is that the pay isn’t at all good. I believe that they are not making money out of the plantations. But they still decided to give us a tour of the plantations and they let us take some and try it. All in all the sugar cane plantation was a great experience and I am glad I got to know more about it.

Back at the house, those with more energy worked on making tacos while everyone else rested. After dinner, we had our nightly meeting and then took a dip in the pool.