July 31st, 2017.

Today we began the day at Dudu Lagoon. Some brave students chose to zip line across the clear, chilly water of the lagoon while others watched in suspense from the sidelines. As our morning at Dudu continued, students found other spots to swim and jump that were all equally mesmerizing. With the aqua water, towering cliffs and swarms of colourful fish beneath us, it was hard to leave.

After Dudu Lagoon, we took a ride to Playa Preciosa where the students couldn’t get enough of the crystal clear, foamy ocean and soft sand as they began snapping pictures and jumping waves. A few local vendors set up shop on the beach and the students were offered the chance to buy items ranging from wooden frogs to handmade jewellery to delicious chocolate bark to (virgin) Pina Coladas. We never wanted to leave this paradise but eventually we had to head back to the home base where we relaxed and ate a fantastic dinner. On a spontaneous adventure, a few students walked down to a family farm right down the road to see adorable piglets among other animals. During our lecture, we were learning about the long historical conflict between Haitians and Dominicans but suddenly experienced a sudden power outage. Unfortunately (and fortunately), due to the lack of electricity our lecture was cancelled and we walked to the beach to watch the sunset over the ocean. Overall, it was a pretty breathtaking day that we will never forget.

Rachael, Claire, Hailey

Day 2

From waking up at 6:45, and eating a breakfast shortly after. We then took a shuttle to Brison, where we hiked 4 miles, mainly uphill, with high humidity and lots of sun. Luckily when we reached the family on the top of the mountain, we were then fed a delicious lunch of rice and beans. After being exhausted, we put in perspective that the native people do this everyday, whether getting water or food.

Laura Sitterly

Tyler Youk

Alexandra Harkness

July 16th, 2017

Day 3

Today, we experienced a whole new culture. We helped work on a house for a family of six, which involved mixing cement, posting chicken wire, separating bottles for insulation and finishing walls. We were able to interact with the family that we were building a house for, and other community members that were able to join and help. Being able to participate in this service learning experience was eye opening. After a long day of work we walked down to the beach, swam, had a photo shoot, and went back to the lodge for a delicious diner! Then, we spent time talking about all of our identities during our workshop. We ended the day by sitting by the pool, stargazing.

-Lucie, Mariah, and Lizzie <3

July 17th, 2017

Today we continued work at Caño Dulce. We persisted although the weather was incredibly hot. We made a lot of progress with the help of the masons and did great work on the house. We had a fun time with the kids and bonded as a team. Upon our return to the lodge we sat by the pool and bonded even more. Altogether today was a very productive day and we are really looking forward to snorkeling tomorrow.

July 18th, 2017

Tuesday

Today, we were fortunate enough to travel to Sosua and snorkel with the fish by the coral reefs. Along with that, we spent time interacting with the locals, perusing their stores, and purchasing Dominican goods to bring home and share with our loved ones. On our way home, the air conditioner unexpectedly gave out and we ended up opening up the windows and letting the wind blow through our hair!

Lucie, Lissa, and Cami <3

July 19, 2017

Day 6

Today we went to the Haitian community of Severe to restore a school. When we arrived, one half of the group took a tour of the community and the other half started work on mixing cement and painting the walls. We learned a lot about how the Haitians living there do not have accessibility to many resources because of lack of documentation. We were surprised to find out that volunteer work can create a negative effect on the community. We hope to bring back this knowledge to our lives when we return from our trip. On the way back to home base, we stopped for ice cream and it was delicious. We learned more about charity having negative impacts during our lecture and it was a great way to end the long and educational day.

-Emma S. and Julia

Day 1

All 26 students have arrived safe and sound to this beautiful island of the Dominican Republic. Today has been all about settling into the lodge, meeting new people, making new friends and the beginning of creating wonderful memories for this life changing experience.

The DR leadership team

July 3, 2017

Dominican travel is very different than what most of us are accustomed to. For example, the bus we took today to Brison was jam packed with 30 excited and energetic passengers, along with blazing heat that made the bus feel, quite literally, like a sauna. The drive itself was hectic. Drivers were honking excessively, and were not afraid to take risks on the road, to say the least. Views along the way were spectacular, and it only got better once we arrived at the mountain.

The gradient of the hike was extreme, with the majority of the trek being an uphill battle. This fact was not complemented by the extreme heat and sun that everyone was walking in. The road we hiked on led to the house of Dona Maxima, where we were graciously served delicious local foods (we recommend the chicken). There was also an opportunity to buy some homemade bracelets and rugs, as well as delicious ice cream and popsicles from a local vendor. Unfortunately, the ice cream and popsicles had to be enjoyed hastily, because the heat of the day got to them quite quickly. The way down was much more enjoyable; in fact, in some areas, it was possible to run/slide/skip down the path, leading to a much quicker return to the bus. The ride back was exactly the same as the ride there, except this time, it was even hotter, making everyone somewhat impatient, and eager to get home.

Overall, the trip provided interesting insight into the lives of the people living on the mountain. We were shown around 2 different local houses, both of which gave examples of how the people’s lives are different from those in the United States (an example would be the kitchens, which did not have an adequate chimney.) The experience was a great way to kick off the trip, and we are all looking forward to more experiences like this one.

Written by Nick, Eva, and Allie

July 4, 2017

Today we went to the community Cano Dulce, where we helped build a home for Williams Family. William has four children who we spent a lot of time with whilst working on the project. Everyone was really motivated and we managed to make a lot of progress in such a short amount of time. We allocated different groups to certain tasks, such as: Mixing Cement, Applying Cement, Lining the walls with bottles (used for sustainable insulation), and finally lining the bottled walls with wire and hammering them in. All the bottles used to create this house were recycled in order to make an increasingly positive impact on the environment. When we weren’t busy cementing the walls we thoroughly enjoyed meeting and spending time with the children of the community. Everyone was so welcoming and on the whole it was an incredible experience. We are looking forward to going back tomorrow!

 Written by Alexia, Yas and Sasha

 

Day 4

The site was very different when we arrived this morning due to the rain despite the tasks being the same the tasks seemed to be more challenging. The cement was harder to mix as there was more water weight and the house was more crowded as a result of the very heavy rain. Putting on cement on the outside of the house was much more challenging due to the slipperiness of ground outside. However no ones motivation levels faltered and everyone worked extremely well together and intuitively. The family members of the house that we were building and some other locals put in very hard work everyone interacted brilliantly. The tasks appeared easier once the rain had let up after lunch and one half of the group went for a community tour and to see the bee hives, being shown how the honey was made and tasting the delicious honey. Overall it was a wonderful experience being able to revisit and  help the community today, especially seeing the immense progress that had been made compared to yesterday morning.

Written by JJ, Charlotte, Lilly

Day 5

Today we were woken up by the smell of pancakes and eggs, as we got ready to work on reforestation in a local nature preserve, Las Cuevas. We arrived and loaded plants into a boat, then separated into groups of plant-planters and hole diggers. We planted 150 trees along a river while fending off fire ants! We then ventured into the forest and saw the deforestation we were working to restore before cooling off in subterranean aqua holders (caves.) We then left the nature preserve and picked up pizza before heading to Playa Alicia. At Playa Alicia we refreshed ourselves with virgin cocktails and spotty wifi. Later we headed onto the beach for tanning and lounging as well as swimming in the clear Caribbean water. After catching some waves we headed back to the lodge where a group of us engaged in a pick up game of baseball with some locals. We headed back to the lodge to grab dinner and watched a inspirational and educational environmental documentary, “Before the Flood”, starring the esteemed Leonardo DiCaprio, John Kerry, and Elon Musk. Then we headed off to write this blog and enjoy our one hour of freedom!

Written by Kate F., Hope Y., & Tobias B.

Day 6

Today we woke up to a ten minute rain storm. Fortunately, the day took a turn for the better and the sun was shining for another service day. The group traveled to a community called Severe which houses both people of Haitian and Dominican descent. Once we got there, half of the group began mixing cement immediately to begin repairs on a local school while the other half went on a tour of the village led by two mentors. On the tour we learned about their surroundings such as how close the nearest clinical was, their agriculture which is based off of cattle, chickens and pigs and their education system. Upon returning the group continued to work in the scorching sun. Despite the heat, the group accomplished a great deal of progress. During the breaks, we enjoyed playing with a group of kids who gathered at the site.

After a long day we enjoyed some free time either lounging by the pool listening to music or enjoying the ocean.

Written by Stephanie, Kate, Alex

Day 7

While a few of us woke up early to frolic in the morning sunshine, most of us got to sleep in and rest up for our exhilarating day at Dudu Lagoon. We relaxed and swam in the beautiful blue waters, and some of us even dropped from the 30 foot zip line. Later, we explored a dark, ominous cueva and practiced using eco location. We utilized the volleyball court and soccer field, too. After our adventure, we trekked to Playa Preciosa and enjoyed the incredible scenery. We took lots of photos and supported the local vendors by buying handmade jewelry and delicious pina coladas.

We went full send today and really bonded with each other. After several days of working as a team in our local communities, it was nice to take a step back and just enjoy each others’ company. These are the events through which we filled the majority of our day.

With reserved love,
Your dependents
PS Sophie, Tucker, and Anna crafted this message

Day 8

Today was the final day of service at Cano Dulce, we were sad to leave the community and the bonds we made with the people, but we all worked hard in the heat to complete as much work on the house as we could. We continued to work on the bottle house and began cementing the walls. We also started a side project of repainting the front of the school, which was a map of the world. It was great for us to see how much progress we made on the bottle house and it taught most of us that if you work hard, and work together you can get a lot done.

During the past 5 service days we have experienced in the Dominican, many new and meaningful relationships were made with community members, and we were exposed to lots of new environments. (one more sentence please ☺)

-Courtney

DAY 3

We woke up to the sound of cows, chickens, and girls swimming in the pool downstairs. Funky bacon for breakfast and mashed potatoes. A little taste of our Home land on the bus ride up to the working site with Miley Cyrus 2009 top song of the year “Born in the USA”. We settled quickly into a work routine of cutting chicken wire, nailing them to each of the wooden frame work and finally inserting recycled plastic bottles into the hollow walls. The plastic bottles were gathered by locals from the shore La Boca, a place where the river meets the ocean. Throughout the day, friendly interactions between students and locals were recurrent. Neighborhood youth danced to American rap songs that were playing through the speaker that we brought, a basketball scrimmage started after lunch and the local adolescents dominated the game. After a day of hard work and cultural exchange, we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the sun and surf in the Caribbean Ocean.

Hello families!

Today was another eventful, wonderful day in the DR. It started with a crazy morning at Dudu Lagoon where we zip lined into the beautiful clear water. We stayed here for our delicious lunch played volleyball, soccer and Frisbee while others tanned. After, we boarded the bus and headed off to La Playa Preciosa where we once again swam, tanned and drank Piña Coladas (virgin). We came home to our lovely meal of fish, rice and avocado and watched a movie about climate change. What a day! Cannot wait for tomorrow.

By: Hannah Dudiak, Bridget Duncan, Amelia Heckman, Anna Ogan, Jenna Conrades

June 26, 2017

We had pancakes this morning! The cooks read our minds and we miss food from home, but the fruit is really good. Then we left for our last workday at the bottle house and got a lot of work done however we weren’t able to finish. We were able to finish most of the bottling and get some cement on the walls. Halfway through, it began pouring and we all worked in the rain. For lunch we had chicken, rice, and beans. Towards the end we played with the little kids. They loved pretending we were horses and getting piggy back rides. It was really fulfilling to be able to create a house for a less fortunate community family. We have so much privilege and it’s great to know that we have an opportunity to help out. They helped out on the site.

Later that day we spent time in the pool, beach, and had dinner. We finished up the documentary, “Before the flood” and we learned about CLIMATE CHANGE. It was interesting to learn how much we impact the environment and what we could do to make it better at home. Also we were too rowdy last night so we have to go to bed 15 minutes earlier. It sucks. And we might’ve learned our lesson. Also there are a lot of bugs here and it really sucks. Really bad. its so bad. You have no idea.
Day 6 done.
From the best leaders of the day to ever exist at a GLA program,

Claire, Ashley, Kate, Abrielle, and Robyn

Day 7

The group woke up to booming thunder and rain. Although the rain was strong, the group persisted. After a hardy breakfast, the Beach Side Service Adventure departed to Severe. The bus ride was long and bumpy, but the work that was done made it worth it. The Severe School was in need of much work. The walls were dirty, the windows and doors were rocky and falling apart, and the ground was uneven and filthy. The fact that kids have to sit in the grotesque environment while trying to learn is heartbreaking. The group set to work, sanding the walls, painting, and mixing concrete with the help of workers and the local kids. The group went on a tour to learn about the local customs. After a lot of hard work, the group left for a local market. The market changed the lives of many people. The kids aggressively begged for money, and the venders viciously tried to sell their products. The environment was  terrifying and everyone was put into an awkward position.
Once we returned to the lodge, we had a delicious dinner and the group had an active discussion about charity and its pros and cons.  We are very excited for the activities coming up in these last few days!

-Hunter, Brynn, Sophie, Dylan, Kelly

DAY 9!!!

Day 1

Bienvenidos a Costa Rica! All 24 of our students are here and ready for an awesome Costa Rican adventure! After all of our students arrived today, we had a barbeque dinner catered by our local director’s cousin–he once won an award for having the best barbeque in all of Costa Rica! Yum! We did a short orientation, get to know you game, and also had our first mentor group meeting. Tomorrow we will drive to our Home Base in Gandoca, with a stop along the way for zip lining and lunch at a local restaurant.

Pura Vida! We are having an absolute blast here in Costa Rica.  Yesterday was our main travel day, as we went from our hotel in San Jose to our “home base” which is in Gandoca.  We are extremely close to the Panama border.  In the morning, we woke up in the hotel around 7 am.  After meandering downstairs to the outside porch, we were served a delicious, fresh breakfast full of variety.  There was hot coffee, milk, rice and beans (of course!), scrambled eggs, and fresh bread with different jellies and marmalades. The bags were packed onto our bus, and we started our journey to the organic farm that we’d be staying in for the next week.

After traveling for about an hour or two, we stopped for zip lining in the rainforest.  It was 11 lines long, each longer and faster than the last.  It was full of interesting wildlife, such as the bullet ant, tiger ant, toucans, and sometimes sloths.  The people that worked there encouraged us to try our Spanish on them.  The last line, nicknamed the “Adrena-line”, was a half mile long and had the most incredible view.  We collectively bought the pictures of us on a flash drive, which will be shared later.  Next, we stopped for lunch at this giant buffet area that had every chicken, rice, and fruit dish you could ever imagine, along with flavorful juice.  Everyone left with full stomachs and big smiles.

On the bus, we went another few hours, then stopped at a crowded grocery store for a quick bathroom break and food stop.  The bus ride consisted of counting dogs, goats, chickens, ticos y ticas (the name for Costa Ricans), and horses, as well as games, singing, and a little bit of sleeping.  The sun sets earlier in the Caribbean, so when we arrived at 7pm, it was already nightfall.  The family that lives here was very inviting and kind, even though we all screamed after encountering some huntsman spiders.  Everyone showered in the cold but refreshing water, we played cards for a little, and then we were all off to bed for another exciting day.

We have all become such great friends already!

-Kyleigh Marshall

July 16th, 2017

Abby and Gabi comin’ at you from Gandoca, Costa Rica. Today, July 16, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast of an egg, meat, and vegetable scramble, rice and beans, and of course a hot cup of Costa Rican coffee. The locals served us a special treat of arepas, similar to biscuits, with jam. After breakfast we had free time that was spent throwing Frisbee, spotting monkeys, and challenging our neighbors across the pond to a game of “football”. We’re proud to announce that the Americans defeated the British yet again in our “friendly” games of ultimate Frisbee and soccer. In the early afternoon we split into groups of twelve and set off on a tour of the organic farm we’re staying on. Both groups’ guides picked us fruits from the trees as they informed us about their various harmful or helpful characteristics of their many unique fruits. As well as learn about all their fruits, we got to enjoy many delicious organic fruits straight off of the tree. This would be an appropriate time to inform our dear readers that Vincent Brady’s favorite fruit was the uncooked cacao fruit. On the tour we spotted wildlife such as toucans and, Vincent’s favorite, really, really scary, big, venomous, metallic spiders. When at home base we found two bowls, one containing roasted cacao and one that would soon contain the shelled cacao beans. We crushed the shelled beans and fed them into a rustic looking hand crank that surprisingly produced bitter tasting cacao paste. However, when this paste is mixed with milk and a little bit of sugar it turns into the most delicious hot chocolate after a few hours of stewing. While we waited for this to become hot chocolate, we started up a volleyball tournament against the British school group of kids. We were on a losing streak of 4 losses until the underdog team of us (Gabi and Abby), Colin, Vince, Adam, Kyleigh, Meredith, and Arielle pulled out our first and only win of the night. To quickly remedy our loss we enjoyed a hot, organic cup of hot chocolate before setting out on our first night walk on the beach. We dressed up in full bank robbing attire and headlights, and set out to the beach in suffocating darkness with a galaxy above our heads. After splitting up into two groups we set out on our walk in opposite directions. One group saw nothing, but the other saw the menacing red eyes of a crocodile! Upon returning to home base, we quickly settled into a well deserved slumber.

From: Gabriella Gyurkovics and Abigail Boutrous.

Day 4

Today we spent our morning in the kitchen chopping, seasoning, and boiling up ingredients to make picadillo with plantains. For the plantains we got a bunch and cut the ends off and peeled them, after we got a tool that looks like a waffle wand thing but instead we took the cut up plantains and squished them and fried them in oil. It was a really fun activity to prepare and have hands on with the food you’re going to consume later on. I’m really thankful to have had the privileged to enter into our host’s home and be allowed and invited into the kitchen to prepare a traditional delicious dish.

In the afternoon we got a Costa Rica talk which I found really informational since JP went deep on the historical and geographical places in Costa Rica. After lunch we went on a mangrove boat tour where we were excited to see sloths! It took all of us a really long time to actually spot it out, but once we did we looked at it for about 10 minutes. Apart from spotting the sloths we saw 4 spider monkeys one of which had a baby monkey on her back, it was wild to see them jumping across the air and falling on the trees from the other side. Later that hour we continued our boat tour and we were taken to the beach where we all rushed into the ocean and swam in the delicious warm salty water.

-Tania Estrada

Students enjoy playing group games after dinner

Day 6

*Wave Sound* As another day comes to a close on the driftwood covered shores of Gandoca, Costa Rica, we can look back on another day full of experiences and fun. Today, day 6 on our magical mystery tour, we woke up to heavy rain, as can be expected during the RAINY season. For breakfast, we shared eggs, rice and beans (quite a surprise here in Costa Rica), and coffee and hot chocolate. After our breakfast and waking up through the wonder of caffeine, we moved to our first activity of the day, sign making. Sign making is a crucial part of our primary directive of protecting turtles. Gandoca is unique in that it has promoted turtle conservation for almost 30 years, since our guide Ariel was a kid. Many communities are still working towards protecting the sea creatures as gathering and eating the eggs has been a practice for many years. These signs will be placed around the beach to help promote turtle conservation and increase the conservation effort on the Caribbean Coast. The group was able to let their creative ideas fly as we worked with different paints and worked to find the best way to write letters. As we worked on our sign we quickly realized that our letters were never going to fit and decided to cover smear the letters creating a lime green background that ended up working out better than anything we had planned previously. Honestly, it was a miracle our sign was ever finished. After several hours of sign painting and A LOT of person painting, personally I received many smears of paint, dots up my arm, and a flower. Essentially, my arm resembled something of a modern art piece. However artistic our arms and signs looked, nothing can match the true art of Gladis’s cooking. Something of a hidden gem in Costa Rica, the reigning matriarch of the house continues to impress. Combined with another homemade fruit juice, we were served tuna pasta salad, fried potatoes, and rice and beans (I am beginning to think it may be somewhat of a staple here). Lunch then quickly transformed itself into a game of mafia. In the first game, the mafia were quickly eliminated. However in the second game, Ariel, a crafty mafia in our small Costa Rican village, took down 22 out of 24 of us before being eliminated. Due to the rain, some of our local game time was cut short. However, we then moved on to a game on the beach where each one of us had a different trait as we tried to build an SOS sign out of driftwood. Four leaders were chosen to lead the group, myself being one. Needless to say, we never made an SOS. The activity was meant to show how international groups face obstacles in the workplace. A short walk back to the soccer field to play some field games. Several games of soccer and volleyball broke out featuring a wild Kibou (the young cat on the farm) running around the field. Soon however, it got dark, and after another wonderful dinner, we dressed back in black for our turtle walk. This turtle walk however, would be much different than the last. Seemingly normal, although slightly more cloudy than before leading to a lack of stars, the turtle walk would be nowhere near a regular walk. After we started, we soon realized that the waves were coming up high on the beach. Personally, I noticed when a wave came up to my shoulders although I was 30 feet back. As I continued, we soon hit a layer of mud. As we struggled through the mud, we had several lost shoes and a lot of near miss falls. We then reached a river where I was told, “there might be caimens or sharks coming back and forth”. Disreagarding that we crossed anyways and continued through into the dark. Once reaching the end of our path, we rested some and then started back. I was also able to scare the entire second group on our way back. I was quite proud. After a long walk back through the river and mud, we finally made it back to home base around 11:30. All of us exhausted, we ended our day there falling quickly asleep after showers. Overall, day 6 was another in a great series of adventure.

– Colin Kelly

Leadership and cross-cultural game on Gandoca Beach

Day 7

The day started off fairly early with an amazingly good breakfast at 7:30. After we ate we departed for a trip to the local elementary (Central Educativo Gandoca). We learned that the schools run from February to November, leaving them to have December and January off which is the dry season so it’s similar to summer. Their schools hours are from 7-11am and only 23 students in the school. The school consisted of 4 rooms; principal’s office, 2 classroom and a cafeteria along with a play area and field. We went into the first room which had students from grades 1-5 and afterwards we went into the kindergartener’s room. The children all told us their names and we told them ours. Afterwards we went into the field to play “pato pato ganzo” aka duck duck goose. Once we finished we cleaned up and we ate snacks with the kids. Then we grabbed a rope and played games like “jump the snake” where we wiggled the rope and had to jump over it. Along with it we played jump rope. The kids were very sweet and super excited to show us their performances which consisted of them singing and dancing.

After we got back to home base we all relaxed for a bit as we were tired from the night patrol the previous night. At 2:30we had an amazing dance class where we learned the salsa and other local dances. It was tiring but at the same time exciting and energetic. Then we played volleyball with Pablo and Ariel, some of our hosts. The whole group got together and we played a huge game of capture the flag with our mentors and hosts. At 7:30 we started getting ready for our final night patrol. When we were out we saw sea turtle tracks and a nest with hatched turtle eggs. Unfortunately we didn’t see any sea turtles but we still had an amazing time and we are beyond thankful for these experiences.

Polina Chowdhury and Noelle Nicolls