Landed!

We're back! Taxiing now, then on to Baggage Claim.

Welcome to Miami

We have arrived in Miami. We cleared Customs smoothly, grabbed some dinner, and have settled into our gate. We are scheduled to make an on-time departure at 7:50, to land in Cleveland at 10:40. See you then!

Santo Domingo

Our last day in the Dominican Republic was a busy one.  We loaded the gua-gua (bus) at Rancho Baiguate and made the 2+ hour drive back to Santo Domingo.  We had lunch in the Zona Colonial area of Santo Domingo, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its history as one of the oldest European settlements in the Americas.  Harry led a walking tour around the city, providing us with some bits of historical background and trivia.  We then made our way to a large souvenir market, where we had the opportunity to demonstrate our haggling skills -- some of us were better than others, to be sure -- as we stocked up on locally produced items.  The gua-gua picked us up at the market and took us to El Conuco, a Dominican restaurant, where we were treated to a traditional Dominican dinner and a spectacular (and interactive!) dance show.  At the end of a very long day, we returned to our hotel.  While we are sorry to say goodbye to this place and its people, it has been a long, hard week, and the students (and chaperones) are looking forward to the comforts of home, and some time to process what we've seen and done here.  To those of you who have followed our trip here, we can't wait to tell you all about it in person.

Hasta pronto.

Adios, La Jagua

Today was our last day at the work site in La Jagua, and our last day at Rancho Baiguate and in Jarabacoa.  We started this day a bit differently, pausing at the school where we typically pick up the construction supplies.  There, we spoke a bit with Miguel, the community member who has been with us all week, about his life.  He then took us on a short walking tour of La Jagua, during which he introduced us to a young woman, Natalie.  Natalie is twenty-one and lives in a three-room house with her husband, whom she married at seventeen.  They have a young son and otro en camino (another one on the way).  Despite the modest accommodations, she welcomed us into her home, where she answered our questions and tolerated our photographs with remarkable cheer and hospitality.  As we walked back to the truck, we asked Miguel about the access to healthcare for members of the community.  He said that there is a clinic nearby, but the doctor is often not there.  For other medical needs, La Jaguans can catch a ride to the hospital in Jarabacoa, where Natalie is likely to deliver her baby.  Miguel said that not so long ago, women did not have access to medical care during or after their pregnancies, and as a result, the infant mortality rate in the area was about 50%.  He noted that many babies developed Polio, an interesting connection to last week's commencement speech from the CEO of Rotary International.

After the tour we returned to the aqueduct, where we installed, tested, and covered another 15 pipes.  Mrs. Freeman and I hiked up to the naciente, where water springs from the mountain, as if from nowhere.  A cement block structure causes the water to pool, and the pipeline begins in that pool.  Miguel told us that this water will be much better for the families in La Jagua than the water from the river, which has at times been contaminated with Hepatitis and has resulted in illness in the area.

We returned from our final day of work, having said goodbye to La Jagua, Miguel, and his faithful canine companion Bobby.  We spent the afternoon decompressing and the evening reflecting on our week here.  Many of the students have referred to their time here as eye-opening, and for many of us, the conversations in the future will be about where to go from here.  Our resident alumnus, Mark, '12 shares his thoughts about the week, as it comes to an end:

Let me first start by saying that this trip, above anything else, was an extended Reserve career for me, and this group has been so warm and fun to be around with.  This trip has taught all of us a lot of things.  For me the most enlightening part was seeing that even though the locals live such a poor life, they could still lock that smile on their faces, make an honest life, and have an open heart to visitors like us.  Back at Reserve a lot of people would get up in the morning wondering how the salad bar is going to be, how many quizzes they’ll have to deal with, or if it’s about time to buy a new tie to wear around, whereas people here have so many basic needs yet to be satisfied, but they always treated us with kindness and sincerity, from which I see great resilience and appreciation of life.

I assume that a good night’s sleep and a thorough shower at home, sweet home would be in the top three on THE list for a lot of us, and for me it’s definitely going to be followed by some family time and a mountain of ice cream. When I shake off the exhaustion, this experience is likely to serve as a constant reminder that as an individual, I had a chance to sacrifice and serve others and I took it proudly.  I set foot in another country and I saw and learned a different attitude for life. There’s only so much we can do; we are not guilty for living a better life -- no one is, it’s not a crime -- but when we can fix something with our own time and energy, when we can afford to fly five hours to somewhere and sweat and work for a week, we should.

Tomorrow morning we drive back to Santo Domingo, where we'll tour the city and learn about its colonial roots.  We'll round out the week with a souvenir shopping trip and a Dominican dinner, before heading home on Wednesday afternoon. 

Hasta luego.

Bachata and Bananagrams

Here's what we've been listening to during our marathon Bananagrams games.  Everywhere we turn, even when we leave Rancho Baiguate, this is playing, and we're loving it:

No Ditches!

Today was our beach day.  I'll let Maddy, '13 take it from here:

The view at the beach definitely made up for the three-hour bus ride.  The beach town of Sosua was crowded with buses full of people ready to enjoy the high 80-degree weather along with us. Upon arriving, we all took our first steps onto the hot, white sand and settled into our spot, directly under the sun. We quickly unpacked our towels and smothered our bodies in sunscreen. The sand grew hotter as the temperature did, forcing us to sprint into the water to cool ourselves off. The water might’ve been the clearest body of water I’ve seen in a while, allowing me to collect different colors of beach glass and shells easily. Since the current was very calm and the waves were non-existent, a couple other friends and I remained afloat for the remainder of the trip after lunch. The amount of people grew as time went on, filling the water with families, but there was somehow still so much space left for all of us to fit comfortably. I originally planned on tanning for the whole day, but the heat suggested otherwise. Swimming and treading water with people was definitely a better decision than just lying in the sun or shade for me because the experience was simply breathtaking.

Tomorrow we are back to the aqueduct for our last day on the job.
Hasta luego.

(Still) Digging Ditches: Day 4

As has become routine now, we loaded up the truck with our supplies and returned to our work site.  There is something strange about beginning to feel comfortable, to fall into a familiar routine, in a place so foreign.  We take the same route to work each morning, look forward to seeing our friends from the community day after day, and know every inch of the trench by now.  The work hasn't become monotonous, largely because each day we complete a new phase of the project.  Today we installed about two dozen pipes, each about 20 feet in length.  The highlight of the day came after the glue had dried and we had the opportunity to test the line.  There was a collective cheer as water gushed out of the end of the pipeline, driving home just how productive our presence here has been.  After we verified that the joints between each pair of pipes were sealed, we began to fill in the trenches.  By the time we left in the afternoon, that stretch of the aqueduct was complete.  We won't return to the site again until Monday, when we'll continue working our way across the next field.

After the work day was over, we ventured out from the Rancho again, this time on horseback.  The trek took us to the Salto de Baiguate, one of Jarabacoa's many waterfalls.  Virginia, '13 shares her perspective about the excursion:

After a long day of putting in pipes and covering them back up, we all enjoyed horseback riding from the Ranch to Salto Baiguate (the Baiguate Waterfall) and back. For those of us who were first-time riders or needed a little extra help, some local boys who grew up with the horses enjoyed the ride with us, getting behind us on the horse and helping guide them and occasionally whip them when they were slowing down. The horses, especially mine, had a mind of their own, sometimes blazing their own paths instead of following along behind the others. Treading through Río Baiguate and down dirt roads, our trek ended at a gorgeous waterfall. The horses sadly did not come to the waterfall with us, but instead we took a five-minute journey through the woods. After spending fifteen minutes walking around in the water and taking pictures, we walked back to the horses and ultimately rode back to the Ranch. The ride back proved faster than the ride there because the horses took off cantering down the road back to the Ranch. Luckily we did not lose anyone on our faster and more furious journey back. Overall the ride was gorgeous, with the mountains and clear blue, Dominican sky as our backdrop. It was an exciting adventure and a memory I will never forget.

Tomorrow we take a much-needed day off.  We will spend the day recuperating at the beach, resting up for our final day of work before returning to Santo Domingo.

And we would like to send a special birthday message to Mr. Norton from Haley.  Feliz cumpleaños de la República Dominicana!

Hasta luego.

Bonus Entry!

Here are a few photos from our excursion last night to the university:

Digging Ditches: Day 3

Another full day, this one fuller than the rest, actually.  We began our day at an elementary school in La Jagua.  Katie, '14 shares her thoughts about that portion of the day:

Every day of service seems to start out the same, with an open-top truck ride to the village that we are working to bring water to, La Jagua. We all enjoy the smiling children who never fail to wave at us as we pass through the streets. Today was special because for the first time we were able to interact with these children that we all have found adorable. We started our day of at the local school in La Jagua. Using our little knowledge of Spanish we introduced ourselves to the children and gave them the packages of school supplies that we had collected in the dorms prior to our departure. Although very shy and reserved, the children seemed to be excited about their new supplies and the fact that the people they had been watching dig for the past two days were there to play with them. We divided the children into groups and shuffled them about the stations of activities that we had. At the station that I helped to prepare and run, we helped the children to draw and label the body parts in both Spanish and English. The innocent and uninhibited expressions of these children helped me to realize two major ideas that have surrounded our service thus far. The first is that these people are one big family. As we were explaining our activities, the children all helped each other to understand the instructions as if they had a responsibility to look after one another. The second idea that truly came alive for me as we worked with the children was that, despite the fact that these people have far less than any of us, they find happiness in the smallest things and are truly the most joyful people I have ever met.

After the morning at the school, we returned to the aqueduct site.  We learned that the farmer who owns one of the fields through which the aqueduct will pass would like to plant his cabbage crop the day after tomorrow, which gives us very little time to prepare the trench, install and test the pipe, and fill the trench in with dirt.  Despite the time crunch, and some terrain challenges (the pipes bend a bit, but the curvy path and changing elevation of the trench in this particular part of the aqueduct is a bit problematic), we made excellent progress.  We'll certainly be able to get far enough tomorrow to turn the farmer's field back over to him.

Instead of returning to the Rancho for our afternoon siesta, we quickly showered and hopped back into the truck to head to a local university.  There, our students interacted with Dominican students who are taking an intensive English language course that requires them to spend four hours per day, five days a week, studying English.  We helped them practice their conversation skills via a lively speed-dating-style Q&A activity.  It was interesting to begin and end the day seeing the various ends of the education trajectory here.  Piña said that he thought about half of students in this area make it through high school, and many drop out before graduating because the high school is so much farther away from the town than the primary school.  Many students ultimately don't continue their education because to do so would require that they walk about five miles to school, and five miles home.  Of the students who graduate from high school, he estimated that 80-90% go on to college.  But even the college campus this evening seemed totally foreign to those of our travelers who have spent any time on a college tour in the U.S.  Today was as much a learning experience for us as it was for any of the students with whom we interacted today.

Tomorrow morning we'll return to the aqueduct for a slightly shorter work day, and then we'll venture back out on an outing.  Stay tuned to hear about tomorrow's adventure. 

Digging Ditches: Day 2

We were back at the aqueduct site today.  Tatiana, '13 weighs in on the day:

Today was a rather exciting day for everyone. We installed the first of the pipes! We also trekked further up the mountain to continue the digging. Our group split into two to accomplish these feats. My group was the one that trekked up the mountain. This was almost as difficult as the digging itself. The ground was not very stable and gave way easily in some places. It was a lot of fun, to say the least!  I was the first to climb from our group, and I felt like a mountain woman once I had reached the top.  Some of the locals had passed us and walked right up the mountain with ease. Once I gathered myself I finally took in my surroundings. The view was absolutely breathtaking.  I could not have asked for a better work site. All the manual labor was much easier with the scenery, and it seemed to go much faster today than it had yesterday. The pickaxe was my tool of choice today. Every strike of ‘la tierra’ was very satisfying.  Lisie was the master pickaxer today. She started picking away and did not stop. She was determined to finish our section for the day. This kind of determination truly inspired all of us to just keep going.

Again our work day was interrupted by a rain shower.  We loaded up the truck and headed out before the rain hit.  Kirkland and Piña treated us to a surprise stop in Jarabacoa and an ice cream cone.  I'm not sure any of us has ever had a more satisfying ice cream cone.  We returned to the Rancho just as the rain started and had a quick nap before regrouping.  Tomorrow we'll spend the morning at a local elementary school, so we did some lesson planning before dinner.  After our evening meeting the son of the owner of the ranch spoke with us about the many projects here and about his thoughts about the country in general.  A new president was recently elected, so we've learned a lot about the political process here.  The newly elected president hails from the same party as the incumbent, and everyone we've spoken with here is certain that the election was compromised.  The daughter of the ranch's owner, said that there is rumored to have been a great deal of voter fraud, as many citizens sold their cédulas (identification documents) so that votes could be cast in their names.  Omar, the son, stated that there is corruption at every level of the government in the country.  We asked what he thought would make a difference, and he didn't seem hopeful about the near future.  He seemed to think that the older generation is a lost cause, and the best that can be hoped for is that with better education, there is hope for the next generation.

Off to bed to rest up for a varied itinerary tomorrow:  to the elementary school in the morning and back to the aqueduct in the evening.  Hasta luego.

Digging Ditches: Day 1

Today was the first day of our service project: constructing an aqueduct for families in La Jagua.  Harry told us that in 1996, politicians started this project, as a promise to the poor communities that they would be well provided for in exchange for their votes.  The election came and went, and the project dried up.  It sat dormant until yesterday, when community members and another group of volunteers started digging trenches and installing the PVC piping that will take water from the spring at the top of the mountain down to the families below who currently have to get their water from the river.  The pipeline should be complete at the end of the summer, at which point families will be responsible for installing smaller pipes from the main pipeline to their own homes.  Each family will be charged a small monthly fee to access the water, and the fee will be used for maintenance of the pipeline.  I asked Piña (the nickname means pineapple... I haven't mustered the guts to ask about the origin yet), a local guy who works with Rustic Pathways, whether or not there might be families who won't be able to afford the monthly fee.  His response, though polite in tone, indicated that my question was ridiculous.  "Everyone is like family here," he said.

So we spent our day digging trenches, work we weren't sure we'd be able to do well.  We survived and impressed ourselves and even the locals.  At the end of the day, Piña admitted that he'd been skeptical when we first picked up our shovels and pick axes, but that we'd proven him wrong.  High praise, I think.  An afternoon shower cut the work day a bit short, so we headed back to the Rancho for a nap, a rousing game of Bananagrams, another great dinner, and some group bonding time.  We'll return to the same site tomorrow, where we'll keep digging and also have the opportunity to install some of the piping.

Here are a few thoughts from Sara, '13 about her first day of service here.

A common theme among my fellow travelers is the lack of ability to communicate with the locals. Charades has become one of the most commonly played games of the trip, and few things other than a simple hand gesture or the well known “Hola” or “Gracias” have been used amongst the locals. Even though I have taken Spanish for most of my education, I am still finding it hard to communicate my questions. Although they all want to help us help them, they too can’t communicate their advice and praise as we dig along side them. Annie experienced that firsthand as the locals, attempting to help ease her workload, grabbed her shovel to break up massive stones for her. Although there is a bit of a language barrier, these people are overjoyed to have us digging in their fields.  When we drive by on our open bed truck everyone stares and waves at the ‘Gringos’ (Americans) riding by, smiling at us as though they are excited to just have caught a glimpse of us. Everyone seems so happy -- it’s truly phenomenal…  As we dig and dig and dig the trenches it feels as though we are accomplishing something so minute; however when I take a moment to look down the hill and across the field and can actually measure the progress we have made, it’s an amazing feeling.  The work we are doing is so meaningful.

And some Dominican vocab we picked up along the way today, to help bridge the communication gap:

"No rebase":  No passing
"Tato":  Okay
"¿Que lo que?":  What’s up?

Hemos Llegado

We have arrived!  After one of the smoothest days of traveling imaginable, we are finally here.  After a smooth departure from Cleveland, a short but uneventful layover in Miami, and a slow but smooth arrival in Santo Domingo, we boarded a bus headed for the mountains of central DR.   We weren't sure our luggage would fit in the trailer towed behind the bus -- we were able to bring about 10 extra bags stuffed with donations -- but even that worked out perfectly.  The drive took us through Santo Domingo and into the hilly countryside, and the views from the bus gave us a sense of why we are here and who we will be helping. 

We were greeted at Rancho Baiguete, our home for the week, by Kirkland, another Rustic Pathways guy who will join Harry in accompanying us in our work this week.  We got settled in our rooms, which are rustic but plenty comfortable, and took a brief tour of the property.  Rancho Baiguete is patronized throughout the year by individuals, families, and groups who come to enjoy the scenery and various activities, from rafting to horse-back riding, so the diversions on the property abound.  As we speak, several of our group members are enjoying a game of volleyball while we wait for dinner to be served.  We will have some free time this evening to rest and get acclimated, and the service starts tomorrow morning.  After breakfast we will drive about 20 minutes to La Jagua, the community where we will be working on the aqueduct project.  The pipeline will bring water to the community, whose families do not currently have access to running water.  This time tomorrow, I suspect we will have sore muscles and lots of stories.

Hasta luego.

Getting Ready...

As our trip approaches, we've been busy with preparations.  Mrs. Freeman and I (Mrs. Davies) spent much of the last two days organizing an overwhelming number of donated items collected during the clothing and school supplies drive in the dorms.  We've loaded and unloaded, sorted and folded, and started packing items into suitcases.  We hope to be able to take a good portion of the collected items with us by having a number of travelers bring a second suitcase dedicated to donations.  There are lots of things that won't travel with us to the Dominican Republic -- like the mountain of coats and heavy sweaters that are much more appropriate for Cleveland winters than for Caribbean winters -- and those items will make their way to Goodwill when all is said and done.  Thanks to all who contributed to the very successful drive.

Travelers - We hope you are at least thinking about packing, and getting excited to depart in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday.

Other readers - Stay tuned, because the adventure begins soon!

Packing list, etc.

For those of you who weren't able to attend today's lunch meeting, here is the packing list we discussed.  Please look through it and let me know if you have any questions.  We are hoping to take a group trip to Target/Walmart this weekend, in case you're interested in doing some pre-trip shopping together.

Additionally, I spoke with Harry about our fundraising efforts.  He was excited to hear that we are interested in making a monetary donation, and he said he'll think about some projects for which our funds could make a difference.  We can talk with him about the options and decide as a group what we'd like to do. 

Harry also mentioned that the local schools can always use school supplies, and that many people in the community don't have appropriate footwear.  So we are going to whip together a school supply/shoe drive to coincide with boarders' moving out of the dorms.  Sara is going to make an announcement on Friday to tell boarders to look for boxes in each common room, into which they can put any leftover school supplies and out-grown shoes.  We will plan to take the donated items down with us using the extra room in our suitcases.  Please start thinking about whether you have any half-used notebooks or old shoes to contribute, and spread the word to your friends and classmates.

Welcome to the blog!

Hello and welcome to our trip blog!  We will communicate with you about our travels here, starting now!  As you can see, we're still building the blog, so it's not much to look at yet.  We'll be sure to add photos as we go, to illustrate our travel tales.

On Thursday we gathered to hear from Harry, the director of Rustic Pathways' Dominican Republic program.  For those of you unable to attend, here are the meeting notes.  Please let Harry or me know if you have any additional questions.

Stay tuned for more specific packing information after today's student meeting during lunch, on the south side of the dining hall.