Day 5: Community Day (No. 2)

Hey fam! It’s your LDDs of day 5 here in the DR!

Today was an early day, waking up at 6 am with our first check-ins at 6:30 and 6:45. Today’s breakfast was a simple cereal with a variety of milk choices along with some ginger tea and sugar. (PS: Thanks dad for introducing me to this tea – Jen).

Then, after our morning meeting, we had the opportunity to travel to a local community called Sonido de Yaque while still quite sleepy making our way up the mountain. We got off the bus, and took pictures of the beautiful scenery and mountain range prior to making the LOOOOOONG walk down more than 200 steps, while almost slipping a few times. (I definitely did at some point – Jen).

When we arrived to the community we got to meet the lovely residents and their extremely welcoming Esperanza (the leader/president of this thriving community). We eventually divided up into groups to help out local residents with household chores such as sweeping, trash collecting, washing dishes, and witnessing the gory process of making a chicken lunch (It was delicious – Jerry). The lively neighborhood made the work go by extremely fast while being entertained by the neighborhood children, dogs, cats, goats, donkeys, and horses.

After we finished work, they offered us a large variety of delicious Dominican dishes and some coffee. They showed us their large garden, which thrived with fresh produce (coconuts, limes, chilies, etc). They also produced their own gas via human, animal, and organic waste in an underground system that turned the waste into gas. They also introduced us to their very own hydroelectricity generator that powers the entire community with the river’s current. We were impacted by their sustainability methods.

After the tour, we got to visit the river nearby that powered the community. After the trek down the hill and our lovely tour, we enjoyed ourselves by skipping stones, collecting cool rocks, and playing in the water (and catching tadpoles -Jerry). Once we finished our time in the river, we hiked up the steep 250+ stairs back to our bus, where we barely escaped the rain. Most students fell asleep on the way back (see the picture attached.) (I promise I was just resting my eyes – Jen)

Once we arrived back, we did our brief reflection on our day, which consisted of various open questions about how we’ve been impacted by the trip to the community today. Then we began our CAP (Community Action Project), discussing our strengths and skills needed for the project in order to be efficiently grouped. Then JC showed us an overview of the project plan Our current assignment is discussing the logistics and planning of grouping our teams for the creation of the aqueduct. (Thankfully everyone stayed awake for that – Jerry).

Our impactful day was wrapped up with a delicious dinner from our cooks including mashed potatoes, Dominican fried cheese, and salami, washed down by pineapple juice and iced tea. After seeing the families today, we can truly be grateful for the lives we were given in the United States. We are super excited about tomorrow’s free day.

Shoutout to Valeria and Enrique for the BIG help that they provided for me today. To my cat, Skylee, I miss you so much. PS. You too, Mom (-Jen)

Hey y’all! Chonchi would love the trucks here. Miss you all, can’t wait to tell you about everything when I return. (- Jerry)