Time Capsule Letter – October 2016
Alpha Squad,
Cavo’s house is built, local children are playing on the playground at the school, and the children of Islabon are living healthy lifestyles. These things only happened because of you and the work that you did during your time here in the Dominican Republic.
It’s totally amazing for me to think back to those dreadfully hot days in July and August when we were starting these projects. Not only were you all catalysts for change in the communities, but you also left a lasting impact here. Every time I walk past the blue colmado before the street, the Donya tells me that ‘she has fresh empanadas for the group of students.” The director at the Islabon school, keeps asking me to “bring the students back to build because they were so dedicated, even in the rain.”
I challenge you to take these experiences to heart. Know that you, indeed, made a change in the world and that this can continue. Use what you have learned about responsible, sustainable aid to fuel your passion and fight injustice and lapses in human security. Without a doubt my most entertaining group, use this power of performance to your advantage. Remember, no more bandaids! And, above all continue to be exceptional global citizens. Understand the vitality and ubiquity of health as a global issue and how interconnected the solutions are.
It would be out of character for me not to insert some sort of sappy 90s TV reference, so, in the words of Miss Frizzle from the magic school bus, “Take chances, make mistakes and get messy!”
Wishing you all the best,
The GLA & 7E Team
Summer Blog Posts
July 21, 2016
Greetings curious readers!
Today we got our first impressions of the members of our group and the Dominican Republic. I was lucky enough to meet a large part of group back at the States in the Miami Airport. We formed a large circle at the gate and played a few rounds of the name game and learned some interesting facts about others. After a short flight and a brief journey through customs we were greeted by our extraordinarily enthusiastic director leader, Meg. Meg knows a lot about ants! We were able to gain exposure to the DR on our drive over to the home base; my first thoughts were a lot of people are outside, the fruit in the stands on the side of th road look scrumptious, and there was more English on the buildings that I expected. At the home base we were greeted by other GLA students and the very adorable dogs. We took a short walk to the beach and took in the warm salty water, soft sand, and tall mountains in the background, all the while learning more about each other.
We are currently all moved into our rooms and excited for the comfort of our mosquito nets (which will hopefully also keep out spiders!!!). Tomorrow we will be meeting the locals and practicing our Spanish!
July 22
After a goodnight’s rest under our luxurious mosquito nets, a small group of us rose with the sun for a quick run on the beach. The gorgeous sunrise made the sweat and humidity a little less painful.
After breakfast we talked about the importance of immersing ourselves into the Dominican culture so we can better understand the service we are doing in Las Canas.
Our day outside the home base started with a walk to the community, where we then split off into two groups. One of the groups received a guided tour of Las Canas from the 7E director of health programs, Amelia, as well as our international director, Meg. On the tour we were able to see past projects of GLA and 7e, specifically of the houses being built off of plastic bottle, stucco, and cement. We were able to take a tour of the house that we will be working on tomorrow. While in the house we had the opportunity to meet a very lively and adorable puppy, Tank (don’t worry parents, we did not pet the very cute stray dog ;D).
While one group went on the tour, the second group went to community homes to survey residents about their living conditions within their home and greater community. We learned the majority of families in Las Canas do not have access to plumbing, jobs, and indoor restrooms. We also learned that the quality of the floor affects the health of the families. For example, dirt floors cannot be cleaned and will therefore spread more diseases: whereas cement floors can be cleaned and do not absorb bacteria as easily.
During our free time, everyone swam in the ocean to enjoy the cool, refreshing water after a long morning of walking. After our swim we learned practical Spanish so that we could communicate with the locals we will be working with and the very adorable children we met today.
We ended the day with a lecture that exposed many of us to the large health problems in the Dominican Republic and also the globe.
Tomorrow, we will begin our service building Cavo’s home. We cannot wait to get started and see Tank again J
July 24, 2016
Today, we continued to work on Cavo’s house. We were able to (almost) finish putting up the bottles and chicken wire. Meanwhile, others were mixing cement for the rough coat for the walls. The best real estate for work was the ceiling beams out in the open air out back. Cementing the walls was a long and tedious task, with the often occurrence of having to replace entire spans of wall. I personally could not get the cementing technique down pat (badum tss). After we made some good progress on all of our tasks, it was already time for lunch. The Donya next door treated us to some rice and chicken stew, fruit, and vegetable medley. For a brief time after lunch, we were allowed to have some fun with some local children, and played with the dogs and cat. Soon after we got back to work, we had a “fun” encounter. While Anna was reaching into the bag to grab some more plastic bottles for the wall, she was greeted by a large wolf spider, carrying its eggs on its body. I finally got the chance to climb up on the ladder and take a break on the ceiling beams. 2:30 was slowly encroaching upon us, and in a hurry we mixed up a batch of cement. It turned out way bigger than expected, forcing us to cement yet another wall. Before we knew it, it was time to go. We still had another one of Peter’s cultural surprises. We visited a couple who made coconut cookies from scratch, with the help of their daughter living in Santiago. We were then shown to the house of a woman who was nice enough to let us try Chulos, and arapitas. Once again, we had to start the long walk home, and say goodbye to the community. Once we returned, we went to the beach again, and came back to an amazing taco dinner, which I’m pretty sure I gained some weight from. Later, we watched a movie explaining the historic tensions between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which brought light to an issue we previously hadn’t understood.
July 25, 2016
We got off to an early start this morning and left the home base at 7:30. We were able to see a lot of different places in the Dominican on our drive over to La Grua.
I think I speak for the group when I say that going into La Grua was life changing. La Grua is a Batey, which is a community that is split (literally down the middle) between Dominican’s and Haitian’s. The Haitian’s of the Batey came to the Dominican to find work in the sugar industry, which quickly went into decline after hitting it’s peak. The current Haitian generation was born in the Batey, but are not considered Dominican. They no longer have a home in Haiti and are not welcome in the Dominican.
The division between the Dominicans and Haitians in the Batey can be seen, felt, and heard. The division can be seen by the style of homes between the Dominican side and the Haitian side. The Dominicans have homes made out of concrete, while the Haitians have shacks created out of tin. The division can be felt by the change of energy of the Haitian children emit as they attempted to cross over to the Dominican side with our group. It can be heard by the hesitation that the children have when we ask what language they speak; they are unwilling to admit they speak Creole because it is frowned upon. (Side Note: The children of the Haitian side of the Batey speak French, Spanish, and Creole!)
Seeing the division and living quality of the Haitians in the Batey created a lot of introspective thought amongst our group about our quality of life, how illegal immigrants are treated in the United States, and our ability to advocate for change in the United States.
After we left the Batey, we ventured to 27 waterfalls. While the climb up the waterfalls was not as enjoyable as the ride down, I think we all bonded over encouraging each other to push ourselves out of our comfort zones and get the most out of our experience.
Tomorrow is back to Cavo’s house!
July 26
Today was the last day of working at Cavo’s house, which concluded the wall construction. We bottled all of the walls at the house, and then cemented them, with the ceremonial last bottle being placed by yours truly, me. When we arrived, we got straight to work, but there was a lazy attitude lingering, with everyone feeling tired for the first couple hours of the day. Nonetheless, we were able to efficiently get work done. After the first few hours, the Dona next door treated us to a nice hot meal, which was made even better by the fact that it was raining heavily outside.
Soon after a hearty, meal, we were back inside the house, cementing and bottling away, while the rain pounded away. Sadly, some of us had to mix cement outside, and got soaking wet in the process. After Another few hours of monotonous work, I placed my last bottle and finished off the day.
We then walked across the street for the last of Peter’s cultural surprises. A local Dona gave us all a tamarind popsicle to try. Sadly, electricity is unavailable from 8 am to 5 pm every Tuesday, so we couldn’t see her make the popsicles (due to the fact that a blender was needed). After we waited for the rain to stop, we started back home. We finished off the day as per the norm, ending with me writing this blog. Goodnight.
July 26, 2016
Today was the last day of working at Cavo’s house, which concluded the wall construction. We bottled all of the walls at the house, and then cemented them, with the ceremonial last bottle being placed by yours truly, me. When we arrived, we got straight to work, but there was a lazy attitude lingering, with everyone feeling tired for the first couple hours of the day. Nonetheless, we were able to efficiently get work done. After the first few hours, the Dona next door treated us to a nice hot meal, which was made even better by the fact that it was raining heavily outside.
Soon after a hearty, meal, we were back inside the house, cementing and bottling away, while the rain pounded away. Sadly, some of us had to mix cement outside, and got soaking wet in the process. After Another few hours of monotonous work, I placed my last bottle and finished off the day.
We then walked across the street for the last of Peter’s cultural surprises. A local Dona gave us all a tamarind popsicle to try. Sadly, electricity is unavailable from 8 am to 5 pm every Tuesday, so we couldn’t see her make the popsicles (due to the fact that a blender was needed). After we waited for the rain to stop, we started back home. We finished off the day as per the norm, ending with me writing this blog. Goodnight.
7/27
We hit the road early this morning to drive to one our biggest challenges of the trip: Brison. The hike is 3.1 each way and is divided into two parts by a stop at a Donya’s home who sells food and jewelry. The first part of the hike was mainly flat without any severe inclines and we had the honor of being guided by Dave, the director of 7E. Dave made the hike enjoyable with his witty descriptions of stops and quirks of the local culture.
Halfway up the mountain we met my new role model, Nelki. Nelki is thirteen years old and grow produce for the whole mountain. Aside from her agricultural career she cooks for her family and helps her mother take care of her siblings. In addition to all of this she also makes the trek up the mountain everyday to attend school. Learning about Nelki helped me to refocus the important aspects of my life.
The second half of the hike was a little more grueling. We got through it with team work, perspective, seeing Nelki hike effortlessly up the mountain, and a ton of breaks. The climb was worth the views and the lunch prepared for us by the local Donya. We were also treated to chocolate and cake batter flavored popsicles.
After lunch and a lot of photos we descended Brison and headed back to home base. At home base we began brainstorming for our projects. My mentor group’s project is about mental health and gun control, and sparked a lot of stimulating conversation. I am excited to see where we take this project!
Tomorrow is snorkeling:-)
7/28/2016
Today was a good break from the normal work days we have. After breakfast, we took a bus to Playa Alicia, where we relaxed on the beach until noon. The water was super calm, and so clear that we didn’t even need goggles to see fish in the water. We were treated to pizza at noon, which was very, very good #4slices. We then got back on the bus, and headed to Sosua, where we boarded a large boat.
While on the beach at Sosua, we were able to see a fisherman’s catch: a 4 foot long black marlin. We took the boat to a nearby snorkling spot, where we dropped the anchor for an hour. We jumped off of the boat, swam around it, and snorkeled, which proved to be lots of fun, even with my phobia of deep ocean water. Our one hour passed quickly, and we had to go back to shore.
When we got off the boat, we were able to go shopping. I personally was happy to get my hands on a conch shell (which I bargained down to 5 dollars), as I went stir crazy looking for a conch shell on a recent vacation. We perused the stores, everyone getting something suiting (in their bathing suits) their interests. After half an hour, we mad dashed to the bus, and headed home. The day went out as per norm, with fried rice dinner, ending with me writing this blog post. *drops mic* (Daniel wrote this)
July 29, 2016
This morning we set out on a mission to complete the construction on our playgrounds. Our morning got off to a rocky start after we began work only to find that we did not have all of the materials needed to complete our tasks. We did as the Dominicans do and rolled with the punches. We had to move our construction site to a different location at the preschool, but we were grateful that we still had an area to work with. A few hours after we arrived on the scene, Cam brought more materials for us to work with. We set to work building what we could with the materials we had access to. Stories from our bus driver Freddy, a delicious lunch from a local Dona, and ice cream made our tribulations minuscule.
Building playgrounds in the Dominican Republic relates to global health when looking at the number one cause of death here: deaths related to obesity. Providing a space for kids to get outside and exercise instills healthy habits and activity in children that they can carry into their adult lives.
Today we also worked on our projects with our mentor groups and took part in an activity that helped us understand more about the effects of aid and how the quality of the seven elements effects the quality of life in a country.
Tomorrow it’s back to the playground!
July 30, 2016
Today was very satisfying and productive, as another day at the playground. We had our normal morning routine, then got back on the bus to travel to the preschool we are building a playground at. When we arrived, it was only a matter of taking out all of our supplies, and we got back to work. It wasn’t long that the groups started finishing their playground structures, with the “Dominican Ninja Warrior” group finishing first, the rope wall group next, and my group, a triangle of tires cemented into the earth, last. After a bit, everyone had paint all over their appendages, decorating all of the playground structures. After we were done painting and decorating, we all took a break for lunch. Lunch consisted of a rather appetizin’ spaghetti dish, which we all ate quickly. Then, we all packed our supplies up, and had a little fun on our structures. We soon boarded the bus, and went off to the ice cream store. I had two ice cream cones, and had a little trouble getting my change from the parlor lady. After, we left and laughed at Ana for passing out the entire time at ice cream, we left for home. We had our free time, took our showers, and ate dinner. From there we learned about globalization by breaking out of our comfort zones and acting out the major factors influencing the spread of infectious disease through global travel as a result of globalization. Now I’m writing this blog post. Goodnight.
July 31, 2016
Today was our first day of the Health Fair. One half of our group played with the kids, while the other half ran the stations. The stations took the children’s height and weight, taught them how to brush their teeth, and taught them how to properly wash their hands. We taught the kids the importance of washing their hands. We simplified bacteria to little monsters that would make them sick, so that they would better understand why they need to wash their hands.
The weather today was a little rough, but we did not let it rain on our Health Fair parade.
After service, we returned to the home base and finalized our presentations for our project. We will be presenting tomorrow!
For our evening lecture we took part in an interactive discussion that changed our perspectives on the importance of water to the seven elements of human security.
August 1 , 2016
Today was an interesting day, with its ups and its downs. After an early breakfast, we boarded the bus to go back to the health fair. We energetically set up the stations and tent, and waited. And waited. And waited some more. After only 8 children came during 2 and a half hours, we decided to head to Cavo’s house to check on group B. This was stalled due to the fact that it rained heavily for an hour (due to tropical storm Earl), which the latter half of was spent eating food. Shortly after the rain stopped, we got on the bus to head back to Cavo’s. We had to walk past the flooded swampy dirt (then mud) road to get to the work site. Then, mother nature decided to rain heavily on us again. This further swapified the area, and soaked me, as I left my rain coat at the lodge. After the walk back up the ankle deep mud road, things got a bit better. Cavo thanked GLA by giving us all free coconuts, and we all thanked him back. I then was happy to see Tomo, a maestro who laid the foundations of Cavo’s (and also looks like an unshaven version of my arabic teacher), who offered to buy me soda. We talked for a little bit, and I was happy to hear that he had some English skills. After even more rain, we rode a bus back to the lodge. It poured, as you can guess again. This allowed us to add finishing touches to our Capstone projects, which we presented to the entire GHI program as our evening’s activity. I am writing this blog right now and am very sleepy.
– Daniel (ps. i miss/love u mommy)
