Day 7: Community Day! (No. 2)

Hello friends and family!

We had the earliest wake-up call today and were out of bed by 6 am. Breakfast was slightly delayed, so we ate around 7:45. We had our standard fruit and eggs with tomato, fried dough, cinnamon porridge, and some delicious hot chocolate! It was a very sweet breakfast, which was a much-welcome change, especially considering that dessert isn’t too common here.

We also had a slight delay with the bus, which meant that our mental warmup happened en route to Batey Monte Coco. We learned that most people in the world do not have access to clean water or electricity, and most definitely do not have the same accommodations that we do. This means they have to do more daily work around the house to keep everything orderly. This is a massive shift from the average American who typically uses about 150 gallons of water each day. 

Once we got there, we were split into host families with one Spanish speaker per group. Families were asked to leave a few chores for us, so many people did things such as sweeping, doing dishes, laundry, mopping, and bedding. There were a few of us who didn’t have to do any work at all, as our families wanted to get to know us and have conversations instead. Regardless, everyone learned a lot about the average life in a town like this.

Our host families led us back to Servicio Social De Iglesias where we participated in fun activities with the kids from the community, including face painting, games, and fun conversations. We were so excited to teach them about games from our own childhood, like rock paper scissors, arm wrestling, and thumb wars! The kids picked up on them quickly and asked everyone to play after. They also became expert tattoo artists, as they painted everyone’s arms and faces with intricate drawings and even helped us clean off afterward!

We then sat down to eat as a community. We ate some delicious chicken, rice, potatoes and veggies. Afterward, we made sure to clean up after ourselves, sanitized the tables, and said see you later to our host families. We are very excited to see them again during the first day of our CAP project! After getting on the bus, a majority of us fell asleep instantly! It was definitely a long and HOT day! Others of us sang along to the radio or did crosswords during our journey.

Once we got back to the Rancho, we were luckily granted an hour and a half of unexpected free time to cool off after the hot day, and many of us took a SECOND nap in the air conditioning. Following nap time, we got into the same reflection groups as usual and reflected on our experiences in the community. It was nice to connect, as we all had different experiences with our host families and learned a lot about how they live their lives. 

We spoke about how the community was so close to one another and said hi to people as they passed in the streets. It seemed like everyone knew everyone and trusted each other with their lives. Everyone had their doors open constantly and respected each other’s space. There were many people also just sitting on their lawns watching the day go by. There was an abundance of horses around the town, and we learned that the horses are actually communal! Everyone takes care of them, and everyone is permitted to use them whenever they need. 

We had a dinner of pork chops, salami, salad, rice, fruit, and plantains as our last meal of the day. This was our first time having bananas in our typical fruit bowl, which was a much-welcome change! We then convened for our nightly meeting to recap the day as a whole. We went over our quote and question of the day and made sure to share our highlights as well! Lastly, we passed the torch to our new LDDs, Zariya and Giselle. We are very excited for Giselle to have another chance at the role!

Tomorrow is Immigration Day, something we are all incredibly excited about. We are hearing that we will get to go out into the sugar fields, learn how to cut and shuck cane, and even have a chance to taste the delicious and fresh sugar straight from the fields! 

Holli read through the blog comments for us today and we absolutely loved hearing from you all! We love and miss you and can’t wait to hear your comments from today!

(Extremely) warm (and hot) wishes,

AJ and Sabrina