Our DR Trip: Volunteering

Going into it, I was most excited about the volunteer aspect of our trip. This would give us a chance to see what life is really like for people in the DR and to get our hands dirty actually working on projects that would help them. Kyle was less excited about it going in but his attitude totally changed after Day 1.

It turns out that instead of starting at 7:30 a.m. our volunteer days actually started with a hearty breakfast at 8 a.m., which wasn't bad at all. Kyle and I were actually up every morning waiting on our alarm to sound. We never quite adjusted to the unpredictable noises around us at night. The ocean was a wonderful constant but every now and then you'd hear bugs, bats, hogs, motorcycles form the road, voices, and, our favorite, the rooster that started crowing around 4:30 a.m. Combine that with the fact that it took us only 5 minutes to dress for the day, and that meant we were early to breakfast each day. After eating, we usually had just enough time to go back to our huts and pack our backpacks before heading out for the day.

There were several components to our volunteer projects, but we were essentially doing the same thing in each community. Our task was to help build community centers, which could be used for medical brigades, continuing education and other purposes. 7 Elements focuses on sustainability, so the buildings are constructed with a wood or metal frame using plastic bottles and chicken wire for the walls and then covering that with several layers of cement. This is not only more economical but it helps to cut down on the amount of plastic littering the beaches and going into landfills.

Caraballo 
The community we visited first and spent most of our time in was Caraballo. It's called a batey because it's in the middle of what was once a sugar cane field. Back when the sugar cane market was thriving the DR brought in migrant workers from Haiti to harvest the fields because Dominicans wouldn't do that type of work. It was a good opportunity for them at the time but when the U.S. switched to corn syrup as our staple sweetener, the demand for sugar cane dropped.

With production stalled, there was no work for them anymore. There are limited opportunities in Haiti, which is already overcrowded so these people (many of whom where born in the DR) are essentially stuck in these bateys. They may find work outside of the community but they are looked down upon and those who were born in the DR aren't considered citizens of the DR or Haiti. This means they can't attend school past the 8th grade because you need a social security number to pass nationwide testing. So the deck is really stacked against them.

Traveling there is almost eerie. You pass miles of old sugar cane fields with charred remnants of what used to be a profitable crop. We also passed a run-down, deteriorating factory where they used to manufacture the sugar. I think Dave said it's been this way for more than 10 years, but I can't remember exactly what the time frame was. According to Dave, an American has purchased a lot of land there to harvest sugar cane to be used in ethanol, so maybe that will have a positive impact on the area.

On our first day, we spent a few hours walking around while Dave told us some of the challenges the people face while showing us where they live. (He discouraged pictures during this time, so you'll just have to imagine it.) Their homes are right beside each other, kind of like apartments. Except in this case each one is essentially a 13x13 room, which is shared by an entire family. Dave said it's not uncommon to see a family of nine in one space, which I had trouble even imagining. There were only one or two people in the homes when we visited because everyone spends their time outside in the DR. There were lots of kids running around and adults hanging out in different parts of town since it was a Sunday.

We saw some marginally nicer housing in one part of the village. This was done by a nonprofit and they gave the houses to the poorest families, which seemed like a good idea to me. However, Dave said this caused divisions in the community because in this area you don't necessarily know or trust your neighbor, where as in the other part of the village people are more dependent on each other.

Toward the end of our tour, we got to sample a roll of bread. It was delicious but kind of heavy. Kyle and I weren't very hungry so we opted to share a roll. When we were walking back to the work site, several young boys came up to us, calling me amiga and grabbing my hand. I was a little shocked by how friendly they were, but we just went with it. They were probably about Asher's age or a little older, but they didn't speak English. One of them said he was hungry, so I gave him our bread. Then the next wanted my sun glasses, but I couldn't quite part with those. Dave discouraged us from giving hand-outs. I guess they've had some trouble in the past with fights breaking out. They also want to partner with the people to better themselves rather than just giving things to them.

Our assignment for day one was to help put bottles between chicken wire and, for Kyle and I, to move the large pile of dirt inside to even out the floor. They couldn't drop the pile closer to the building because of the mud. In fact, the truck that brought that load ended up getting stuck and for about an hour and half there were probably 10 guys working to get it unstuck. 

We didn't have many helpers at first, but as soon as people returned from Mass, we has several little kids wanting to help ranging from age 4 to 13. Some spoke English but most did not. They all understood Spanish and most knew creole (the French-based official Haitian language). But regardless of the language barrier, the kids had no problem talking to us. I could make out some of their names including Michele, Lisa, Bella and Sebastian.

They had so much fun with Kyle and he had fun with them. The two of us had shovels but he taught them to help by throwing rocks into the wheelbarrow. During lunch they got brave and played with my pony tail. They also "pet" Kyle's head, which they thought felt funny. He would let them touch it for a second and then pretend to bit their hand. They laughed and laughed. After lunch a few of them got rides back to the dirt mound in the wheelbarrow, but this proved a little too much for Kyle's back, so we had to quit that.

 

I was shocked because none of them had proper shoes. They were all wearing sandals of flip flops or had bare feet. There were nails and broken glass and who knows what else on the ground all over the place. I remember thinking that if we were in America there would be hoovering parents reminding them to step carefully and not go here or there. But we were in the DR and most of the parents were nowhere to be found. Those that were there just watched the kids as they enjoyed themselves, yelling at them only when they thought they were bothering us.

  We shared our left overs each day with any of the locals helping out. They lined the kids up smallest to largest before passing out the food. 

Many of the kids had runny noses and chapped upper lips. Dave said this is a result of the parasitic water they drink. There is also a lot of diabetes among adults because of all the rice they eat, as well as sugary drinks like juice and soda. (That's the case throughout the DR.) Most people on the island use a bucket for their toilet, emptying it in a nearby field. I had to use the bathroom while we were there and I wasn't sure what to expect. They took us to a business in town, which had what was like a wooden, handmade Porta Potty with two seats inside. They kept it locked up but opened it for us. According to Meggi this was a very nice bathroom for a developing country. I had nothing to compare it to, but there was clean toilet paper, so I was happy.

The second day we returned to this community but it was Monday, so the kids were in school and Scott had hired some of the Haitian men to help with the more technical skills like getting the chicken wire up and putting on the 2nd and 3rd layer of cement. No one over the age of 13 helped us out on Day 1. There were some older people around, but they were either just watching or trying to show us things they'd made with the hopes of selling them.Scott said this batey is different from the rest. It's located close to a tourist town, so lots of foreigners come there to help. They often can't do all of the project during the time they're there so they will hire locals to help with or finish the job. So in this community the men don't help out with projects unless they are being paid typically. In other bateys he said they get lots of free help from the community members because they are invested in the project and want to get it finished. 

 I got the impression that maybe the men were lazy since they didn't work the first day, but I was wrong. They hired a few of them to finished hauling the dirt, and those guys put Kyle and I to shame! 

When we finished our work the floor was FAR from leveled out. In half a day's time, they did double the work and got it looking pretty good. 

The job for day two was smearing the first layer of cement over the walls with our HANDS. Yes, we had gloves, but most of our gloves wore out by the end of the day. I had several cement burns on my hand before we were finished but nothing too horrible. This was probably the hardest day. It wasn't a physically taxing job, it was just frustrating because we didn't have tools, the cement kept dripping out of the chicken wire and it looked really bad when we were done. Scott assured us we did a fine job and the 2nd and 3rd coats of cement would make all the difference.

 

Somehow the wall behind us will eventually look a little something like this: 

They already had one side of the building (3 of the 6 rooms) completed and have started using it. 

Once we were done, we loaded the van and waited for Scott. This gave us some time to watch the kids go in-and-out of school and observe what a typical weekday is like. The atmosphere felt a lot different. The day before there were lots of noises from town including merengue music and the occasional popping of what sounded like fireworks. We later found out it was more like potato bombs that the kids set off for entertainment. It sounded really dangerous to me, but I guess it's pretty common there. Another form of entertainment on Sundays is cock fighting. Animals pretty much just roam in the DR - chickens, cattle, dogs, etc. Scott says everyone knows whose is whose but they don't have collars or brands or anything. The only animals we saw caged in the batey were the roosters they use for fighting.

 I was surprised that the kids had uniforms, but Dad said it was that way in India, too.

That is one loaded down moto!

 This was the entrance to school. Kyle witnessed a fight between two boys before school started, but I didn't see it myself. I mainly saw kids playing a marble game with each other where they would throw their marble so that it would hit the other persons marble, which was on the ground. They were pretty good at it. 

Just for Josh, I kept an eye out for barber shops.

Las Canas 
Our last long day of volunteering was in a different community. This one was very near the lodge, which was a nice change. Instead of about an hour drive to get there, it was only 15 minutes away. I liked working here because we got to see a building that was nearly complete. Fortunately it was almost unrecognizable. That gave me faith that our miserable looking walls in Caraballo will one day look good.

To get there, we drove down this narrow road, with branches scrapping on either side of the bus. 

We didn't interact with a large group of people at this site. Instead, there was one mason there that they had hired and we were his helpers. His name was Louis and he was very nice. He didn't speak English so I could only understand a few words (Mrs. Fulkerson would be so disappointed), but he was patient with us. He showed us how to mix cement, sifting the dirt/sand with chicken wire, adding the cement and water, and then stirring it up with shovels until it was the right consistency. Then Kyle and I helped him construct a bathroom in the back of the building while the others evened out the wall.

 Louis, Terri and Willie sifting the dirt/sand. 

 Bill and Kyle leveling out the floor in the bathrooms. 

 Louis thought it was funny to call Kyle the teacher. 

 Bill, Meggi, Scott and Terri mixing cement for the back wall. 

 We were proud of our progress... 

Or should I say Louis's progress.

There were three kids on site with us. They were his grandchildren. From what I could make out, he had five kids of his own but they are grown now. I think one lives in New York, which is pretty common there. Lots of people had family in the states that send money back to the DR. In fact, that is the island's second highest source of income behind tourism according to Amelia, the medical expert on the 7 Elements team.

 The girls had a great time burying their dog in sand. They actually had three dogs who all came to visit us while we were there. 

 We heard a humming noise, looked up and saw this! Scott said he's never seen one before. There's a person riding in it. The kids got a kick out of this. 

Lunch that day was one of my favorite meals. An avocado BLT.  The avocados were huge! Our lunches were usually pretty light - sandwiches or pasta salad with fruit. Which was fine by us. We were really hot this day because the sun finally came out and we were working directly under it. The high was in the upper 80s, which felt hotter because of the humidity. We lucked out on our trip and most of our work days were overcast with highs in the low 80s or high 70s.

 

Buena vista! If you have to be drenched in sweat and dodging spiders all day, as least you are doing it in a place that looks like this! 

After lunch Dave took us to another neighboring community, which was actually where they built their first community building. It was a really nice school where they teach students how to cook and sell food in a restaurant. It was closed, so we peaked in the windows and talked a little bit about the technology they are trying to bring to farmers before moving on.

 

 

 This was the local church.

Our next stop was Johnny's house. He's a bee keeper only his bees are African bees. We had to walk over a very thin wire bridge to get to the bee hives. Kyle and Bill crossed over and then hung back so they wouldn't get stung. The rest of us got to taste fresh honey when Johnny reached in (with his BARE hands - no bee suit or anything) to get part of the comb and bring it to us. He was using smoke to calm them, but still! I can't imagine how many times he's been stung.

 On the way we searched for cacao trees but nothing was ripe enough to try. 

 African bees build their hives in logs instead of boxes. Johnny has a lot not being used because he's lost half of his bee population. They it's from pesticides. 

Meggi had lots of questions for Johnny and the bugs were thick back in the trees so the rest of us walked to the road to wait on her. I noticed men talking around with slips of paper. Dave thought they were selling lottery tickets, which is very popular in DR, but it turns out they were electric bills. I could tell this community was more advanced than the others we'd seen. The houses were nicer and several people had cars/vans instead of just motorcycles. There was a large supply of bottled water, which is what the people drink, and they even had a recycling system. Dave said this was a project for one of his returning students one summer.

 On the way back over the bridge we ran into some kids who showed off for us. They were way more comfortable with it than we were.

 These are all baby cacao trees being grown to sell. 

 They had animals caged up for cock fighting here, too. 

While there were dogs pretty much everywhere you look, it was rare to see a cat.

That pretty much sums up our volunteering. There was also an educational aspect to this trip. Every evening after dinner someone on Dave's team would talk to us about a different issue facing the DR. Everything from medical issues to the education system, environmental threats and population growth. It was interesting, but I left most nights feeling a little defeated. Dave and his team are doing a great job, but there is just so much to be done to raise standards there and to provide for the overwhelming needs. When I think about what a large percentage of the world lives this way, I feel really guilty that I haven't paid much attention to the needs of those outside of America. We have so much and they have so little.

As a positive person, I try not to focus on things that are sad or disheartening to me, especially if I feel like there is nothing I can do to change it. I think God used this trip to give me more of a heart for others and the struggles they face. Instead of pretending like they don't exist, I can, at the very least, pray that people feel God's love and presence regardless of their current circumstances or location on the map. Not everyone needs or wants to live like Americans do and that's perfectly fine. In fact, I think we have much to learn from Dominicans. But we all share this earth together, and it would be so much more pleasant if we cared enough to show love, appreciation and respect for one another. Particularly to those who seem foreign to us.