Today was our first reality challenge of the three week trip
here in the Dominican Republic. We
started off the day by taking a bucket shower and heading off to breakfast
which was only two pieces of bread and a scoop of eggs with water. We then packed the guagua and made our way to
a rural community called, “Cerro Mollogón” where we were going to spend the
day. It was a 20 minute bus ride to get
there and once we disembarked we were greeted by a group of community members who
welcomed us and gave us a history of the community. Then we split into four groups led by one of
the community members and we went and walked through the community. My group was led by Don Chucho and consisted
of Esmeralda Cortez, Maily, Justin and Fernando. We were led to the pasture where we watched
cows for about 30 minutes, after that we went to where they were “beat” the
rice and had the experience for 30 minutes to help the locals collect and clean
the rice out in the hot sun. After our
hardwork, we then walked to the river—it actually was a pretty long walk but
well worth it at the end. While we sat
in the shade to admire the scenery we saw a young boy try to herd the cows
using a whip…we were all a bit taken aback when the boy also threw a rock and
hit a cow right between the horns because it was still drinking water. We stayed there for a quite some time
skipping rocks and just enjoying nature while we caught our breath after an
intense workout. We then walked back to
the community where we got the opportunity to eat lunch with the family that was
escorting us around the community.
My group was assigned with Don Chucho again, and we got our
bowl of rice and beans and head to his humble abode where we spoke with him
about the community and how his house was built. We while we were there we met his sister in
law and two ladies from the community who came with their kids. We had a special guest while we ate lunch and
that was a little girl name “Lucy” who followed us while we walked through out
the community. After lunch we walked
back to board the guagua and make our way back to the hotel. We were ahead of schedule and got back before
2 PM…which was nice since we had until 5 PM for free time. Although many of the students wanted to leave
the hotel, many of us…myself included were tired and took a power nap in the
afternoon and took another bucket shower.
It was during this free time that we got to witness a huge tropical rainstorm with lightning and thunder which woke many of the students up. By the time that it was time to prep for the English class, it had already cleared but it was indeed a bit muggy. We prepped for an hour and then we
walked to the local school and taught for 2 hours. We then head to the restaurant and had our
dinner and was surprised that we had ice cream for dessert, since it was our
reality challenge.
Once we arrived back to the hotel we had our nightly meeting
which ran pretty smooth. Again, I’m the
last one to head to bed since the student leader of the day took a bit longer
than usual to write the blog for Global Glimpse…nevertheless it definitely was
worthwhile experience for the students and myself. Truly a memorable learning experience for the
students remember and cherish.
Still tired from the day...but we luckily get to sleep in tomorrow is our first free day we get to sleep in until 8...yahoo!
GOOD NIGHT
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