Lunes (Monday) : First day of work!

Today was our first day at the worksite and I didn’t know what to expect.  I had never built a house before and the language barrier surely wouldn’t make it easier.  Despite my excitement and anticipation I was slow to descend from my top bunk this morning, and as my fellow group members quickly discovered, this would be the norm for me.  Eventually, with a bit of effort and some delicate maneuvering of my mosquito net, I jumped down and joined everyone for breakfast.  After eating, dressing, filling 11 water bottles with our Poland Spring jug, and applying ample amounts of sunscreen to each other, we were almost ready to go.  But just as we were preparing to walk down the street, Annalisa, a community leader, came over and told us that the mason was running late.  We didn’t know it at the time but we would soon learn that the happy-go-lucky mason was well-respected in the village and workers did nothing until directions were given by him.  So we relaxed on our porch, talked with Annalisa, relived particularly funny moments from yesterday’s hike, silently wondered what was in store for us today, and continued to take in the new sights and sounds of Los Palmaritos.  Eventually the mason passed our house on his motorcycle and we followed him down to the worksite, which was conveniently just 3 houses away from our own.

The plot of land we’d be working on had been flattened before our arrival, but we were literally starting from scratch on day one.  From the moment we began working I carried with me a hope that we’d see the finished product in 4 days, but I tried to balance this hope with a realistic understanding of how much work there was to do.  The first step was to dig the foundation where the first layer of bricks would lie.  With 3 picks, 4 shovels, and about 25 people eager to help, it quickly became apparent that there weren’t enough tools to go around.  In addition to us, there were many men from the community lending a hand because ADESJO, the organization with whom we partnered, asks all beneficiaries of their projects to give back in some way.  This is a truly remarkable system and it has allowed ADESJO to impact many people in 90 different communities within the province of Ocoa.  It also gives groups like our own the opportunity to serve alongside the people of the Dominican Republic and experience reciprocity in a very real way.  The structure of the organization enriched our cultural experience, but on day one it also created an obstacle.  After a short time standing around and feeling unsure about our usefulness, we began stepping in and asking for a chance with the tools.  The ground was extremely hard to dig up and the men were certainly much stronger than me, but we wanted them to recognize that we were willing to do the same work as them.

After a few hours of digging, chatting, and attempting to understand directions in Spanish, we all left for our lunch break.  Lunch is the biggest meal of the day in the DR and it typically lasts for 2 hours.  We were once again blown away by Louisa’s delicious cooking and truly amazed by the amount of food she prepared for us.  Meal times had quickly become a special part of the day for me, not simply because I’m perpetually hungry, but because it was a time for our group to reconvene and discuss whatever was on our minds, ranging from serious topics to absolutely ludicrous ones.  As our lunch break was winding down, Freddy arrived at our house.  Freddy works for ADESJO and immediately worked his way into all of our hearts.  Throughout the week, as we spent more time with him, he became an inspiration to us all and his presence was a constant comfort.  His gentle manner, his eagerness to take care of us as if we were his own children, his appreciation for every individual he interacts with, coupled with his obvious passion and dedication to his life’s work is absolutely awesome, in the truest sense of the word.  The purpose of Freddy’s lunchtime visit today, however, was simply to take Erin, Allison, and Lino back to San Jose de Ocoa.  There they would present ADESJO with the check from our group and visit with the staff that hadn’t seen us over the weekend.

As Freddy drove off with Erin, Allison, and Lino (his soon-to-be best friend), the 8 of us headed back to the worksite.  Still lacking tools and the strength to work for extended periods of time, we established a new routine of digging until we were tired, then tapping a fellow group member in to take your shovel.  Just a few shifts of shoveling later the skies opened up and rain came pouring down.  We weren’t sure what protocol was when the weather changed, but quickly got our answer when everyone else ran for cover.  Back at our house it was impossible to do anything outside without becoming a muddy mess, so the 8 of us climbed into the 3 bunk beds in the biggest bedroom and took a lengthy nap.  After waking up an undetermined amount of hours later, we all stayed in bed listening to the rain fall heavy on the roof and hoping that “mom, dad, and mom” would make it back home to us despite the wet dangers of the winding mountain road.  A short while later we were thrilled to hear familiar voices speaking English outside our window and, after celebratory chants and singing, we were filled in on their visit to Ocoa.

Not long after our dinner was served and, once again, the meal was delicious.  The rain had turned the ground into a mudpit, but Moira was kind enough to clean our entire porch so we’d be less likely to traipse mud into the house.  Moira is a woman in the community who was helping Louisa cook for us and, upon its completion, she would be moving into the house we were building.  Her husband was killed 5 years ago in a car accident while he was drunkenly driving to another village to visit his other family, and now she is left with 3 children to support.  She’s been doing odd jobs whenever the opportunity arises to make some extra cash, but hopefully this new house will lift some of the burden from her shoulders.  So with our clean porch and full bellies, we spent the evening chatting with neighbors and playing with children.  Our porch had become the gathering place for Dominicans of all ages and we enjoyed the company.

When it finally became dark and people started to head home, we gathered inside for our nightly reflection.  Despite it only being our first full day in the village we had many interesting and challenging topics to grapple with.  Are the men in this machismo society intimidated by the 10 American women that wanted to do manual labor?  Is there a way to use everyone’s skills effectively at the worksite?  What are the children expecting of us this week?  How can those of us that don’t speak Spanish relate to the community meaningfully?  How can we set boundaries with the young men but still assure them that we want to build friendships?  What is the purpose of our service work and collaborations in the Dominican Republic, and specifically in Los Palmaritos?  Our reflection was long, thoughtful, and ultimately led to more questions than answers.  With a bit of uncertainty about what was to come and an abundance of happiness about the journey we had embarked on together, we ended our reflection with a group hug. 

I’ve spent a great deal of time processing our reflections from the week, and that one on Monday night was really incredible.  It not only challenged me to think more deeply about what I was doing in the DR, but it opened my eyes even wider to the beautiful people that surrounded me.  I had 10 extraordinary people, some were old friends and others new, that I felt unbelievably comfortable around.  Each one of them had strengths that I admired and weaknesses they weren’t afraid to voice.  We had come together for 7 months of preparation and 8 days in the DR, but the experience meant something different for each of us.  For many of us that have just graduated this trip seemed like a culmination, a final stamp on our time at St. Mike’s.  For others it felt like a beginning, a spark of inspiration for things to come.  For all of us, it came at a time of transition.  Through our reflections, beginning with this special one on Monday night, we were able to understand what the experience meant to each other and what it will come to mean to us going forward.  For this reason, and many, many more, I’ll always feel blessed when I think of the 10 people with whom I was lucky enough to share this experience.

love, Sarah