Day 6 – Community Day

Hello Family and Friends,

This is Yvette Carrillo and Jesse Ramirez! In the morning, the leaders of the day woke up at 5:30am and woke the rest of our group up at 6:00am. Today was a super long day! After waking up we had a nice breakfast and took our private bus with our private chauffeur to the Sonido del Yaque community. The bus drive there was about 25 minutes and we passed the most beautiful green pastures and mountains.

Once we got there, we got off the bus and were met by luscious green mountains with beautiful green trees and colorful flowers. We all gasped at the views and met along a ledge where we continued to take photos of each other and the views for a very long time in order to show all of you when we got back home. Once everyone was off the bus and had taken the photos they needed to take, we hiked down a steep incline made of rock. Although we were scared of the challenge because the mountain was steep, we knew about this ahead of time so we persisted. We found stairs that made it easier to get down while looking at the homes of the locals that were on the sides of our path. As we passed the locals we practiced our Spanish and said hi to everyone we met and were met with friendly faces and enthusiastic “hellos” and “good days” which not only made us happy but also made the local community members happy.

We got to know more about the community and met a very kind lady named Esperanza (the founder of the community). We then split up in groups of three and went off to the community’s houses. We were all assigned to do certain chores to help out, and we all pushed to find some work to do even when we were told that our work was done.

I, Yvette, went with Esperanza, Jasmine, and Diego. We swept the floor outside to get the leaves out of the way for the people who were making the cement. Then we went back and forth with buckets of cement in them to help them build one of their pathways. Then we did the same thing for two holes that were in the playground. It was definitely fun to know that just a little help can do so much for another person.

I, Jessie, went to help Carmen, a woman who lived ⅓ of the way up the mountain. Her house was pink. Like most of the kids that helped out the community; Maya, John, and I helped Carmen sweep her yard as well as the side hallway and a house they were helping to build. We got rid of dirt, rocks, and leaves. We were sweeping for what felt like 20 minutes but it was actually an hour and a half. We trailed water around her yard and added powdered soap to make sure each yard was squeaky clean.

After working to make a good impression on Carmen and her family, we were treated with great hospitality and invited to have the most delicious coffee and passion fruits (which Carmen gave us sugar to add to, as she said the passion fruit was incredibly sour).

The locals set up a store for us at the gazebo in front of the lunch room. Most students bought souvenirs for you-know-who ‘wink wink’ before we ate lunch. We shared the lunchroom with the members of the community and the food was delicious. We made sure to leave a good impression by cleaning our own plates and cutlery (and cups, if we used those) even though they insisted that we could just leave the dishes in the sink for them to clean themselves.

After lunch, Esperanza invited us on a tour of the big community that I am sure she was proud of founding for so many families. We passed a butterfly garden as well as trees and bushes of various fruits, vegetables, and flowers. The community was entirely self-sufficient, as they had their own water plant and hydro plant for energy as well as they grew their own food. Esperanza first led us to the hydroplant where she explained how the supplies that were in the area were donated and given to them by the United States. After that, we walked some more and were led to big fish tanks that held koi fish. Esperanza explained to us that the fish tanks were built by the first GG group to ever volunteer at the community over 30 years ago. The farm held chickens and pigs from what we were able to see. As we walked back we heard the river that was near and gazed into the mountain range which was as beautiful, if not more beautiful than when we had first gotten there.

Once we got back to the gazebo, it was time to go to the river! However, we split into two groups, for those who wanted to go into/down to the river and for those who didn’t.
I, Yvette, decided to stay at the gazebo and play some Uno with Giancarlo, Arlin, and John. It was just time to chill and hang out for those who were there. Unfortunately, my ankle was hurting so I couldn’t go down (my ankle was already sprained prior to the trip).

I, Jessie, and the others who brought swimsuits or shorts, went down a dirt path covered with all sorts of plants at our feet to the big river that was hiding a few steps away from the community. Once there, we realized how cold the river truly was as well as how fast it went. But, we persevered and figured that we only live once and most likely wouldn’t come back to DR anytime soon. We stepped into the river and realized that once you spent more than 5 seconds in the river, it was comfortable in the humid heat. A lot of us decided that we wanted to dunk our entire body, so we went on our knees as the water went up to our mid-chest. Unfortunately, after only 15 minutes spent at the river, it started to rain hard, and we were forced to run back to the gazebos with the others to dry off and wait for the bus.

When the bus arrived it was still raining, but not that hard anymore. Then, it began to rain hard again, so everyone started to become wet and we were all trying to rush to the bus. It definitely was a challenging hike because it was all uphill and a rough estimate of about 200 steps. Once we got to the bus we were all pretty much soaked, except for those who had a rain jacket/poncho. The ride back was fun because we were all conversing about what we did and more about each other and we were all vibing to music.

Once we arrived back at the hotel we rested up for a bit and got a chance to dry off. We then regrouped and had our self-reflection time with small groups. We regrouped again and had a discussion about the Community Action Project (CAP) in our same small groups. We all presented our ideas for how CAP should be planned.

After dinner, we had our Nightly Meeting where we reflected on the day, each other, and the leaders; as well as introducing the new leaders of the day and reading the comments from the past blog.

We hope to hear more from family and friends!