Day 8: Reality Challenge...living on a $1 a day

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

Day 7: Fun Day #1 in the Dominican Republic

We were FINALLY able to sleep in for 30 minutes…YAHOO!!!!   With a wake up time of 7AM and a breakfast time of 8 AM we were on time getting ready for the students surprise…the BEACH!  We boarded the guagua at roughly 8:35 and were ready to take our trip to a beach in the city of Barahona.  It was such a pleasant drive admiring the topography and the amazing blue skies.  Of  course with any bus ride I fell asleep for quite some time but as we approached the city of Barahona, I could totally see the clear water.  We continued through the city until we came to a fork in the road and proceeded to travel down the gravel path and throughout the clearing one could see the beach…it was just a breath taking experience.  To see the palm tree, the clear water, the blue skies and the tiny pebbles and rocks.  As we unpacked everything from the guagua we set up our picnic area for the day.  

Once we got situated, the life guard, James and myself had to set up the boundaries for the swimming area—determining how far into the ocean they could go and set a perimeter for the students.  Since the water was calm, all the students were able to get into the ocean at one time with the four adults getting into the water as well and having some fun in the sun.  

The water was so refreshing, just as salty and clear as when I was snorkeling in Grand Turk.  We all literally could have stayed in the water all day, but realized that it was getting late so we had our picnic with the food provided from our restaurant and had a nice time of rest and relaxation.  We then had time to go back into the ocean for about 20 minutes before we had to head back to the hotel in San Juan.

The bus ride back to the city was a long one for sure, but we were all dead tired from being in the water for so long.  Once we got to the hotel, we changed our schedule a bit and gave the students some free time, while the GG Leaders had the leadership meeting with the next student leader of the day.  Once we finished with that the students had their one hour English prep time and that’s when I was finally able to get some caffeine in me and take a nice shower. 

Once their prep time was done, we made our way to the local school to teach our English classes…of course we were running late…a trend that I unfortunately have seen with this delegation.  Even though some of the kids were worried, once we got there we realized that there was barely anyone there.  Luckily after about 15 minutes the students finally started to show up.  It yet again was a great day to be teaching English…these Glimpsers are a dedicated group for sure.

We went to the restaurant for our dinner and unfortunately many of our students did not eat…and I’ll be honest wasn’t one of the best dinners, but since I was hungry I ate it.  At dinner tonight, we had our program seminar on the reality challenge…living on a $ 1 a day.   After dinner we headed to the hotel for our nightly meeting and prepare ourselves for our reality challenge of the day.

We are tired, sunburned and a bit anxious to see what tomorrow will offer.  Wishing all my family and friends a safe 4^th of July…from the DR of course! ;)

Day 6: Poverty Day!

Today was a very long emotional day for many of us since it was poverty day.  We began the morning bright and early with breakfast and directly went into our seminar on poverty where I lead the group in brainstorming activity where they were given specific pictures of Bateyes and they had to answer three specific questions: What did they see? How do you think the people in the pictures feel? How would you feel if you were in that situation?  As each group had 5 minutes to write and talk about the prompt, my co-teacher and myself made our rounds monitoring their progress.  After the three rotations we did a modified gallery walk and had the three groups get the opportunity to see what the other groups wrote about the pictures and closed the activity.

We boarded the guagua on our way to the bateyes near Barahona.  A bateye is a community in the sugar plantations of people of Haitian descent who mostly work as sugarcane cutters.  We were able to visit 3 different bateyes and had some worthwhile experiences.  At the first Bateye, “Bateye 6” we had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Salvador who runs an NGO here.  One aspect that must be addressed is that unfortunately there is discrimination among Dominican’s here—particularly those Dominican’s of Haitian descent, one can say they are treated as second class citizens.  The government has imposed so many obstacles for them to get their proper documentation to become a citizen.  There are many people who unfortunately have basically had their life suspended by not being able to enroll past 8^th grade, get a passport, enroll in their solidarity program as well as receive their pension if they retire.  The students appeared to intrigued with Don Salvador that we totally went over our time limit with him but he did not mind.  He thanked us for asking inquisitive questions and being interested in the topic at hand.  During that same guest speaker time slot we met Stephanie and her emotional story of trying to obtain her proper documentation to continue her education and make her voice heard, so that she can help other people in a similar situation.

The second bateye that we visited was “Bateye 7” where our students were able to interact with the children of their community.  We had three rotations so that the kids could be entertained: face painting, arts and crafts and basketball.  Monitoring and watching the faces of the community children was just touching…grinning from ear to ear and filled with joy as they kept calling us, “norteamericano/a.”   James, Gloria, and myself though got a personalized tour of Bateye 7 while Lucy stayed back with the students.  We began our tour with our tour guides who are brothers and have lived their entire life in the Bateye.  They showed us where the local church, as well as supermarket was.  We continued to walk in the Bateye and one could see the dilapidated living conditions that these people live it truly broke my heart see some children playing in the streets with mud and making “mudpies” while some other kids just sat there looking at the ground.  As we continued to walk through the Bateye we saw where the animals were stored, and their source of water—the aqueduct where community members bathe in.  We also saw part of the sugar plantation where some of the community members work in, as we made our way back across the aqueduct we had a group of kids come to us and hold our hands as we continued to walk back to the school.  One little boy came and grabbed my right hand with his left as he was eating a guava, and kept talking to me.  It was just a touching and indescribable moment because literally as the three of us walked, our crowd of kids just became larger and larger.

As we continued to make our way back to the school, there was an incident that completely caught us off guard.  As we approached the school one of the kids was walking towards us and totally hit a girl that’s when a  boy no more than 5 years old took out a knife from his pocket and went to go lunge at the kid that punched the girl…but luckily James saw what was happening and literally grabbed his arm and said, no.  But what did the boy do, just take his knife and shove it in his pocket again, so it wasn’t visible to the naked eye.  We made it safely back to the school only to find out that the students were wrapping up and we were getting ready to take a group photo and get back on the guagua to our last Bateye.

At Bateye 9, we met and had a nice conversation with Pastor Williams—where he spoke to us as to how he and his community have been working together to make their Bateye, one of the most modernized ones of the community.

After the last Bateye we took our 1.5 hour guagua ride back to San Juan de la Maguana.  When we arrived back from the field trip we had some downtime and then went into our English prep work for an hour before we headed to the local school to continue our English classes.  Again, while I was supervising the English classes, Elvis showed up and him, James and myself talked about random stuff.  Although, a bit odd, Elvis’ presence definitely made the time fly by.   

After English class we then went to the restaurant to have dinner, which was on the lighter side…two scoops of mash potatoes, a thin fillet of chicken and ice cream!  After dinner we went back to the hotel and had our nightly meeting, which by far one of the better ones we have had, since of the experience the students had.  We wrapped up the night with a self reflection before we went to bed and lights out.

Can’t wait for tomorrow agenda…it’s our first FUN DAY!

Day 5: Global Business

So today was an EARLY wake up day since we were about to embark on an eventful and long day since it was Global Business day and we were heading to Barahona to go visit the sugar mill/plantation.  We woke up early and found out that the breakfast was running a bit behind and therefore weren’t able to conduct our academic seminar but as a team decided that we would conduct it tomorrow on poverty day.  

After our breakfast we had to load the bus to Barahona where we went to the sugar mill/plantation.  Once we arrived at the sugar cane mill we were all escorted to the meeting room where we had introductions by Carlos an engineer that worked in the mill.  It was very informative but at the same time for me it also meant that I had to work…since I was the one translating everything that Carlos said to the group and vice versa…yeah I did get to practice my Spanish speaking as well as translating skills…totally brought back memories of me working at SCU’s law center again.

After the introductions were over we all got into the guagua and head to the living quarters were the sugar can cutter live during the time that they are working in the fields (November to May).  While at the living quarters we learned about the tool that they use…the Australian Machete and that each room can hold up to 10 Haitian sugar cane cutters.  We were also told that the sugar cane cutters were paid but what they produced and were paid every two weeks.  After the tour of the living quarters we boarded the guagua again and head to the sugar mill machine where we learned of the process the sugar cane goes through after it has been cut.

After the sugar cane mill plantation we head over to a project that is part of the Barahona Community Outreach Center.  There we learned as to how that community raises goats and sells goat milk, cheese, and yogurt!  And yes, if you are guessing we were allowed to taste their products and I can attest first hand that goat yogurt is not that bad!  Once we were done trying their products and petting the goats we were on our way to board the bus, until one of students got stuck in the out house…he couldn’t open the door…yeah it was funny, but we eventually got him out with the spare key that the owner had!

We then headed out to lunch at the Community Outreach Center and were able to finally use our Republican money to purchase soda…yahoo! J We ate a great lunch and I got a chance to talk to some of the students that I had not had the privilege of speaking too earlier.  After lunch we boarded the guagua and headed our way back home to San Juan.  The trip back home was interesting as most of us were tired—myself included and I fell asleep.  Yeah, I fell asleep for how long, I don’t know…but what woke me up was the thunder!  As I woke up I looked out the window and couldn’t believe how dark and windy it was outside and how hard it was raining along with the lightning.  It was raining so hard that our bus driver slowed down quite a bit even having the wipers going full blast which meant that it was going to take us way more than the 1 to 1.5 hour bus ride.  It took us more like 2.5 hours to get back.  

Once we got back to the hostel we had a bit of down time before the students got into the teaching groups and prepped for their English classes.  Day two of teaching was just as great as the first day with the students making connections with their pupils.  During that time I was able to converse with one of the students about many topics and found out that he was working as a translator and was studying languages at the local university…I totally commended him for all his hard work and accomplishments.  Just talking to him I found out so much as to how the university and higher education works here in the Dominican Republic…he had to leave and I totally had to make the reference too him, “Elvis has left the building.”

We went to dinner and then came back to the hostel for the nightly meeting which indeed was a treat within itself! During the Roses and thorn part it was brought up that that there were photos of us Global Glimpse leaders sleeping…which apparently for the students have seen like a form of blackmail! Yeah, real nice kids, real nice!

They have also donned upon us nick names like grandma, cousin, mama and sister bear…it’s an inside joke but we’re like really?!?!

Well time for bed got to get some R & R if I have to be up by 6:30 yet again!

Buenas noches!

Day 4: Education Day

Today was the beginning of our Education day here in the DR! After breakfast which was by far one of the heartier meals we have had—eggs, pineapple and bread we had a very good academic seminar on education where we discussed, “What is the value of an education?  What are aspects of a high quality education?”  It was such a dynamic debrief about what the students thought was the value and aspects that it was a great transition to the next activity; where the students had to categorize educational stats for both countries—Dominican Republic and USA.   

We wrapped up the seminar with analyzing a quote which was empowering and produced many students to think outside the box and formulate questions for the guest speaker Angela Zabala an educator that has worked in the educational system here in the Dominican for 15 years and is the owner of the Hotel D’Angel where we will be staying for two weeks!

After the education seminar we had the opportunity to have a guest speaker who just amazed me.  She was so knowledgeable about the educational system that the information that she gave us made me critically think about their educational system.  I was just dumbfounded that practically anyone can become a teacher…what?!?! I even asked if there was a difference in pay and of course if you teach at a private school you get paid more, but if you teach in the public sector it is much less.  To relate it to the US, a teacher here in the DR makes anywhere between $450-600 dollars a month…YIKES!

Also another interesting fact that I found out the DR by law is required to allow 4% of their GDP towards education and in reality they are only spending 2%.  Another aspect that completely was a shock to me was the way that Haitian are treated in the DR…is as if they are second class citizens.  Haitians are allowed an education until 8^th grade, but if they want to continue they must provide proper paperwork (birth certificate, citizenship) to continue to receive an education.

After our seminar and guest speaker, we went to lunch and again tried traditional Dominican food and couldn’t complain with the proportions and the variety that we had.  We came back to the hostel and had a bit of free time which our students used that time to work on their survey and their first English class which was enjoyable to see the students in “teacher shoes” and interacting with the students.  After the two hour English class we had an AMAZING dinner at our traditional restaurant with our traditional coffee.

We zipped through the nightly meeting and had an intense self-reflection discussion about education.  But after the lights went out that is when the hard work lesson planning for the next day’s academic seminar began…and believe it or not it was the earliest that I was able to go to bed even though it was midnight.