Day 8: Wrapping up

Today was our final day of work, and it was a good one. One group continued work on the latrine in Punta Fuera. By the time they left, the roof was up, and three of the four exterior walls were plastered. All that remains is the plastering of the final wall and a coat or two of paint, and then Emilio Luis and Orlando will have access to their own latrine.

The second group finished laying the cement floor in Yesimena's house in Monte Coca. She lives in the two-room home with her husband and four children. The space is cramped but will be much improved with the new floor. Her youngest child is only 5 months old, and we can only imagine that a smooth new cement floor will be a better place for a baby to learn to crawl than the previous dirt floor.

After a late lunch, we traveled about thirty minutes to a nearby national park, the Cueva Maravilla. We toured the underground cave system, which was used over a thousand years ago by the indigenous Taino people for religious ceremonies. The environment in the caves, cool and wet, has preserved cave paintings of symbols associated with the elaborate funerals performed underground. The ride to and from the caves took us along the coast, where we saw resort complexes on one side of the highway, while cane fields lined the other side. Knowing now what those cane fields mean, the juxtaposition of those two worlds was striking.

We ended the night with a wrap-up discussion of what we'd like to do with the funds that we raised before coming and how we'd like to carry this experience into the future. The kids are all inspired to make some changes in their own lives, both personally and to benefit others. We are excited to see what the future holds for this group.

Tomorrow we'll spend the morning at the beach and the afternoon touring Santo Domingo, some well deserved down time. And then Thursday we head back to the States. Time flies!