La Comunidad es familia

😁-Paige 😴-Isaac (me lol)

Hello Families (Of Glimpsers)!

We are your LLD’s (Lideres del dia), Paige and Isaac. Our morning started at 6:30, doing wake-up calls and having to energize people for the day. For breakfast we had sandwiches (with lettuce, tomato, meat, and cheese), fruit (melons), and juice (consisting of passion fruit and pineapple). During our breakfast we conversed about our GGL Emmy saying we missed her while she dealt with a personal matter. After breakfast we had our mental warm-up and headed for Sonido del Yaque to meet with a community located by a river. The community consisted of both homes where they live and rentals for travelers. The families took us up with open arms, breaking us into groups with different families showing our groups how they raise animals and grow their crops like cocoa beans, coffee beans, chili, passion fruit, bananas, and squash; getting to try their home-ground coffee was notably fresh and delicious. Along with a variety of animals like chickens roaming in the field with roosters talking more than we were at some points, ducks in the river, a pond of fish, rabbits hopping around, and dogs. Notably, the cicadas were playing a charming song for us, with the river flowing to the beat.

After showing our groups around they had us working on chores that they do normally, like sweeping the ground and making us apart of their family with the children screaming 6/7 as loud as we would. We got to play with the kids in a hot-potato style game where if we got the hot-potato you had to a dare, funnily enough, only 4 of us got the hot potato, including your LDD-Isaac. There was a delicious lunch where they served us corn with rice, chicken, and salad, along with sodas like Sprite, Coca-cola, and Fanta. After lunch we were able to shop in a small hut, where they sold bracelets, necklaces, coffee, ice-cream, purses/bags. Parents, be ready for souvenirs and coffee. There was also an isolated incident where a child from the community got hurt and hit his head while swinging, but like leaders do, the family/community in the area all dropped what they were doing and helped tend to him. We were updated later saying he was recovering and will be bed-bound to get better with rest.

After we left early and boarded an open-bus where we were able to enjoy the breeze and sing songs while waving to passing trucks that were more than happy to wave back and mimic us, we arrived at our destination to meet our project partners from the CAP (Community Action Project), a group named “Plan de Yaque” where they discussed what they do for the community, like helping preventing negative side-affects of industrialization and urbanization, specializing in preserving rivers like the “Yaque river” which supplies 20% of all water in the Dominican Republic. After meeting our welcoming partners we left to a school Hato Viejo- where we were shown where past global glimpsers helped make new gardens and murals for decoration, meeting another lovely partner from “Plan de Yaque”. We were shown where we would be working and what to envision for the upcoming days. Leaving from the school we enjoyed the breeze once again while trying to see the ever-so endless sights of the mountain ranges.

Arriving back to our Villa, we reflected on the community, noting how sweet it was that they cherished their community like family, connecting it back to our quote and question of the day, being mainly oriented around how important it is for others to prioritize one another while being observant of where to help. During our free time before dinner, some glimpsers, including Paige decided to get ice cream at a local market, discovering a place where they used liquid nitrogen to freeze a liquid into the ice cream, being able to relax there for most of the time and enjoying a show of them making the ice cream with the magic of the liquid nitrogen. While a group of us stayed with me (Isaac) and got to share personal stories and bond over our school and personal life, eating snacks and being equally tired of the heat, sharing how grateful we were for our GGL’s,

With the ice cream platoon arriving back to the villa for dinner, Paige and I got to share our delicious dinner options comprised of pork-chop, tostones, salad, fruit, and juice filling our stomachs with joy, and free-time after dinner being spent socializing or playing card games. Finishing up dinner, up we headed towards our nightly meeting where Paige and Isaac reviewed the day and got to pass the torch to our new LDD’s (Esdras and Devin) to take-over the lights out and our following day, we finished the night sharing pluses and wishes amongst each other, highlighting the work of our interpreters and the bravery it comes for that work, and heading into watching a documentary on the mirrored situation of the Dominican Republic’s immigration policy and process. Our glimpsers are in bed hopefully snug and asleep, listening to the soothing sound of the crickets, ready for tomorrow. We hope you all have a nice night and be ready for a call from your Glimpsers on June 27. Paige and I will be heading to bed now; we appreciate the comments and we hope to read from all of you, while missing our families ever-more. Goodnight! and Buenas Noches! 💖 💙

Note from GGLs:

Hey Families! Here is the link to the Google Drive where we will continue to update with pictures of the trip. Check it out to see you glimpsers!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/187HFurJtGJ_zn1FQHVWuN7D6FdvJKCrj