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.