Day 3: Community Day (No. 3)

¡Hola a todos! (especially from Amelia) We, Ashley and Olivia, are your first Student Leaders of the Day here in Jarabacoa, DR! 

Today was Community Day. We had an early wake-up today (6:00 am) to have a delicious breakfast of cereal, papaya/pineapple, toast, and more! After that, we headed on the safari bus to go to Sonida del Yaque. This beautiful community of families is a self-sufficient ecotourism complex.

Here, students were split up into five groups, tasked with helping the local families with any chores. These chores included weeding, washing dishes, sweeping the outside, mopping the floors, and more. This took about three hours and during that time, many of the Glimpsers made strong connections with the families. For example, Olivia and I (Ashley), met these three girls who although mostly spoke Spanish, were still to converse through games of hide and seek and through handshakes.

Around noon, the families brought us down to the center of the village to eat lunch with them. We were served sancocho, rice, plantains, and more! Some of the kids sat down with us to eat and had a fun time.

After lunch, we walked around the community. While on this tour, we learned about how the community sustained itself. For example, the people there used the river water to produce electricity! In addition to this, we were shown the first hydroelectric plant built in their community. The next stop was a man-made pond full of fish that used to be sold to people outside the community and shared with those in their community.

Following the tour, we had the option to stay in the gazebo or to walk down to the river underneath us called the Yaque River. Those who stayed up top enjoyed various games like rock-paper-scissor with the local kids. The remaining students went down to take a dip in the river, which was refreshing and breathtaking. We were also joined by some kids who immediately jumped into the water, and just by looking at them, you could see that they felt at home there!

Shortly after, we hiked up a long, rocky, very steep path to get back to the safari bus. It took about thirty minutes to get back to the accommodation. Once there, we had some free time, followed by a self-reflection meeting and CAP seminar. During this time, we were able to foster new friends by talking to people who hadn’t talked to yet by asking them about themselves.

At 7:00, we had dinner, which everyone was excited for! Tonight we had lettuce, rice, potatoes, salami, plantains, and cheese. 

Once again, Olivia and I started the nightly meeting where we gave a debrief about the day, asked people their opinions about the day, and asked for feedback from both us and the group. Everyone had kind feedback and were understanding of us being the first student Leaders of the Day.

We enjoyed our time as leaders but we are excited to pass it on to the next leaders!  ¡Muchas gracias a todos por esta oportunidad!

-Olivia & Ashley

We will be making phone calls home tomorrow! If you see a strange number, it’s probably us so pick up please! We’ll have 15 minutes of phone time!

**I want to say a quick shout-out to my family and some of my friends, Ellie, Aubrey, Mere, and Taylor!! -Olivia