Student Trip Blog Instructions
Student Trip Blog
• went to visit ASCALA, an international organization that helps migrants survive
• Our speaker was Adias, a Hatian that has been living in the DR for 16 years now, and spoke to us about the persistent discrimination towards Hatians in the Dominican Republic
• He described to us about how the migrant police would deport people based if they were dark skinnned or not. If they were dark, regardless of being a Hatian citizen or not, they would be deported to Haiti. The police/government would deport both documrnted and undocumented Hatians
• He also spoke about the time his Canadian sister came to the DR to visit him and when she went to the immigration office her Canadian passport they told her that she was too dark to be Canadian
• theres a pool at the accomodation
• our talents
• everyone was hot and drowsy because of the heat and early morning
• buses were air conditioned thankfully
• on the bus to our temporary accomodation, we listened to music we asked our Program Coordinator to play on the car’s speakers
SUGAR CANE
• Domingo demonstrated us his cutting skills with a machete from working on a sugar cane farm for about X years
• We almost stepped on poop hidden in the beds of grass
• He explained to us that they get paid by the ton they harvest when it’s in season (230 pesos / 1 ton). The ones weighing the canes always did it out of the worker’s sight
• During the off season (5 months out of the year) the workers get paid significantly more
• he showed us that when they are planting the canes, they bury the canes themselves.
• The leaves are actually pretty sharp so the danger of harvesting these canes is getting cut by it
• He skinned and cut up sugar canes for us to chew, suck, and spit out. We would have probably swallowed it if nobody told us to spit it out after
• Courtney was the first one to try the delicious treat
• Keziah was feining for more
• Masha wasn’t too big of a fan
• We got to try two different variants, one harder but a bit sweeter, the other softer in both texture and taste
