Day 4- Community Day (No. 4)

Saludos desde Jarabacoa de parte de Melanie y Melissa!

We started the day by waking up at 6:00 am to eat breakfast at 7:00 am. After gathering everyone for breakfast (an amazing breakfast btw) of toasted bread, cheese, ham, AMAZING chocolate, and orange juice. After breakfast, we took some time to lead a mental up. At times we struggled a bit to make everyone listen to us as the first student group leaders, it took some time to get everyone to listen to us and to lead them all. The mental warm-up was for sure a great way to get it down and a great way to start the rest of the day.

At 8:30 am we went out-and-about on a 20-minute BUMPY safari truck ride. Throughout the ride, we all were saying “hola” to anyone and everyone we saw and most of the time everyone waved back with a smile on their faces. We were grateful for the welcoming energy that everyone in the community gave us as we passed by. We went to Sonido del Yaque which is run by a woman named Esperanza which means “hope” in Spanish, this is the PERFECT name because she has brought so much hope to her community. Esperanza runs a sustainable complex that produces their own power, sewage system, gas, and food. While we were there, we had the opportunity to see the hydroelectric plant that produces all of the community’s power.

We had the opportunity to help different families with any chores they needed help with and got to spend some quality time with them. Some examples of chores included sweeping and washing dishes. During this time many of us got attached to our newfound families and were able to learn more about the lives they’ve lived. After some time with the families, we all came together to the community center and the boys from the group were playing “toca” (tag) with the kids in the community. Even though Glimpsers and the kids spoke a different language that didn’t stop them from having fun! Before lunch with the community, we were all playing with the local kids with some of the boys giving some of the kids piggy-back rides while racing. Lunch was DELICIOSO; we had white rice, beans, wood-fired chicken, pasta salad, some missed coke, and a CROWD FAVORITE arepitas.

After finishing lunch, we wrote a letter of appreciation to the complex owner, Esperanza, and we as Lideres del Dia led the group by personally giving our thanks to Esperanza for having us there. Sonido del Yaque is located on the bottom of the valley so we completed the 200 steps of struggle to get down there earlier in the day, but the hike back up was a STRUGGLE and felt like another 400 steps back up the steep mountain. We got back on the safari for another BUMPY FUN ride back to the accommodation.

Upon arrival back to our accommodation, we had a group meeting on the CAP discovery. We ended up leaving the meeting with a quote that stuck with us and perfectly matched what was discussed. “Give a man a fish feed him for a day, teach a man to fish feed him for life” and we want our project to reflect this by creating a sustainable project that will leave an impact long on the small community after we leave Jarabacoa.

As first-day student leaders, it was a good chance to practice how to throw ourselves more out there in life. We learned how to be leaders in our own way. Today was an exciting day overall with a ton of new experiences and connections we made with the local families and kids! We were so excited to hand off the role of Lideres del Dia to Annette and Jayla for tomorrow! We wish them the best of luck!

Much love,

Melissa y Melanie