Waking up on a very hot morning knowing that we were heading to Bejuco Aplastado to work seemed like a daunting task. This was our second time at Bejuco, actually. The first day we helped a couple of community families with some house work that they do everyday and today we helped some workers from the community do their everyday life work. This was only for about 3 hours but they workers work for hours and walk long distance just to get to work to provide for their families. Everybody was sweating bullets in the heat in the fields centered in the sun. Because I was leader of the day I noticed that at first some of my Glimpsers did not like the fact that we were going to work in the harsh weather conditions but at the end we learned so much. Peoples’ lives are not easy here; this is what we noticed. Our lives verses theirs are so different, and me personally; I really wanted to experience this because it made me so grateful for what I have. It was not easy clearing a area full of weeds with a small shovel and sweat on my forehead but at the end of the three hours with the Bejuco community workers we had fun and were extremely grateful.
From Bejuco my group headed to Federación de Campesinos (Blanco). This is a community that fought so hard for their community not to be destroyed by mining projects and more. My wonderful Glimpsers donated money to the Federación de Campesinos totaling of $RD25,000 ($550 USD). This money will go towards buying the materials to our CAP (Community Action Project) project. The community sat with us Glimpsers to discuss what they needed the most. We as a group decided that we will give all our hard work to build a community park for the children. Why? Well, while driving to the Federación de Campesinos, Nikiya noticed that children were playing in the streets that are not safe. The community is up in the mountains and the streets are curvy. The bus did not stop giving turns left or right and people here do not drive the safest (except Juan Pablo our bus driver). We discussed with the community our plan of the park and exchanged ideas so that everything can go as smoothly as possible. We both agreed in our decision and now the next step is to get the materials and build them a park with the help of the community. I am so excited because I have never built a park or even planned on how a park is going to be built.
After about two hours we headed back to the Fundación aka Home and had some free time. Thanks to my friends Giselle, Jamilet, Dawn, and Abby I had fun hanging out during our free time even if we did not get to talk to our families. The internet cafe near us had no electricity running. Electricity and water shutting down is very common here in Bonao. So we headed back again to the Fundación and thanks to Miguel Angel who brought the volleyball, my group and I had a good game of volleyball.
I am so happy that I did this Global Glimpse program and that I was sent here to Bonao with a wonderful group of people that I can call family because we are all happy here. Yes we do miss our families back home, but we are all safe and having fun here. We can not wait to go back and tell you about our wonderful experiences that I know have impacted out lives for ever.
Great post Clarissa! So glad to see how guys are committed to the process and all that is involved in this experience. So proud of how you all are committed as a group and learning to work with one another to produce results. I hope you each take these new tools back to your community of peers once you return home. So proud of each one of you, I am inspired! Thanks Corey and Katie for being such great GG leaders for this group.
Tell Taylor I love her and MISS her! (Please put her in some pictures so that I can at least see her face, I need to make sure she is okay…lol)
Also, please tell Taylor to at least email her family on her next free day, it really would be nice to hear from you and let us all know how you are doing.
Ariela there things you guys are learning that you have not realized yet,but you will,proud of you & your group
Que hermoso gesto,el de la donacion chicos,se q muchos de ustedes quisieran poder ayudarlos mas,pero la experiencia de la dificil vida que ellos tiene comparado con la vida q ustedes tienen en USA,no se les olvidara nunca.
Hay mil cosas q se pidran hacer para ayudar no solo a DR ,hay muchos paises en la misma situacion,espero q en un futuro cuando ya esten graduados y tengan sus trabajos importantes no se olviden de esa gente q conocieron.
Saludos a todos,besos para ti Ale.