DAY 4: Working Like a Local (No. 4)

HELLO,

We’re Jordan and Miguel and we are your LDD’s (liders del dia) of the day.

Our day started earlier than usual, with an early wake-up at 5:30 am. We took lukewarm showers, got dressed, and headed up to our conference room to finish our daily board. Upon completing our daily agenda and adding visuals, we began waking up our peers with approximately two sets of knocks! We arrived to our conference room and once we got situated, we presented the sample plate. Our plate consisted of a variety of sandwiches, with the option of a turkey and cheese, grilled cheese, or a ham and cheese; with a cup of CARROT-LIME juice. Afterwards, we gathered in a circle and began our mental warmup.

Our topic for the day was “Working Like A Local”. We explained the context for our day and our Global Glimpse partner for the activity. Around 8am, we boarded a bus towards the Greenhouse where our work was set. At the Greenhouse, we contributed our hands to untangling rope and setting them to designated plants. We made sure to take lots of water breaks and even a snack break with Haitian farm workers. We learned about their immigration experiences in DR and how they compare to immigrant experiences in the United States. Our team returned back to the hotel for lunch at 12pm and had roughly 30 minutes of free time before we began to eat.

The Dominican World of Agro-Marketing was our next location. It was a warehouse in Constanza that was responsible for a number of cucumber exports to the US and other locations. We were given a hands-on tour, and were soon delegated roles throughout the factory. We learned about the cleaning process and how each cucumber is is sorted. The United States gives a very strict standard to its producers, being that they prefer their cucumbers to be relatively straight, green, of good size and smooth. Due to this much of the cucumbers that go into inspections are thrown out and put to NO USE, with the exception of a few which are given to charities, families and schools. Towards the end of the tour we were actually allowed to take a box of the “rejected” cucumbers back to the hostel and even ate a couple on the bus ride back; that was really cool!

Then came FREE TIME, we had a long one today. We were given the option of heading to the basketball court to play with the locals or to stay at the hostel and hang. The guys chose the courts while the ladies preferred to enjoy sometime with each other and familiarize themselves with one another. I (Miguel) headed to the basketball court with a team of 6 and played against the locals who were insanely good… They had tricks that advanced players would have and seemed to have a great chemistry with one another. Whereas we on the other hand need some tweaks to our play styles (LOL); We lost 14-21, but we’re looking to head back and get our revenge.

6:00 pm rolled around and we began our self reflection in our groups of four up in the conference room. We reviewed the systemic issues that affects the everyday lives of people in the agricultural field. My group went over the difficulties of the dependencies of developing countries on developed and how it is a difficult cycle to break. We ate dinner afterwards, and devoured delicious spaghetti with a hint of beef sauce, accompanied by potatoes/carrots and watermelons! The room was vibrant with nothing but laughter filling the room; everything is slowly coming together! And after a long dayyyy… we wrapped up with our “Roses and Thorns”, answers to the daily question, and passed the torch to our boys, Isaiah (ZAY) and Jordan F. (Jordy).

And so it goes… *CRUNCH* … man this cucumber is good

– Miguel and Jordan ?‍??