Community Day

Hola everyone, my name is Ayden Donnell Hunter (the greatest basketball player of all time) and today me and Julian (the best leaders on earth) were the Leaders for Community Day. On Community Day, we went to visit Sonido del Yaque and met the families of the community. The community was located quite far down a steep mountain so we had to be very careful. After we completed the hike, we were split up into small groups and helped clean the community with our assigned family members. Some Glimpsers got to cook food and play games with families once they finished working. This experience showed how sustainable communities were only successful if every member played their part efficiently. After successfully completing all our tasks, we were served lunch by one of the families which consisted of rice, beans, chicken, and vegetables. When we finished our lunch we had to hike back to our bus. This journey turned out to be much harder than the hike down, as we were all tired from working in Sonido del Yaque. 

However, once we got back to our bus, we had more activities planned ahead. After everyone was accounted for and checked in with, we began to head to our CAP (Community Action Project) location. We hiked down a river and learned that our path was cut short due to a steep incline. After heading back to the villas, we hosted a community discussion on how to fix this issue. After much deliberation, we learned that we will be helping the community by building a sustainable staircase by which locals can access a clean water stream. We then of course headed to dinner where we served mashed potatoes, beef, fried cheese, vegetables, and fruits for dessert. 

Overall, being a leader was fun although it came with struggles, I still enjoyed it a lot.

-Ayden 

Hola personas, my name is Julian Wanderer, today we visited Sonido del Yaque. I thought that this community was exceptional, it has roughly 20 families and is self-sustaining. It is located in a valley next to a river and they produce their own energy, grow and harvest their own food. Many areas of the DR rely almost entirely on tourism for income so I found it very impressive that they are self-sustaining. Many people cleaned dishes, cooked food and overall it was really cool to experience life in a community as unique as this one. 

Being leader of the day was cool, it was fun waking people up. It was a good balance of responsibility and not being totally overwhelmed. 

-Julian