Bronson ’25 and Aiden ’25, reflect on the impact of their hard work.
Today by far had to be our hardest and most arduous, yet the most rewarding. As we finish up construction on the house, we had one of our biggest tasks yet; to pour out the floor of the house, a task that required much preparation, starting with leveling the floor and pouring numerous buckets of concrete onto the floor, and smoothing out the concrete in order to create a level floor. While it certainly wasn’t the most fun task, the hard work definitely has strengthened the bond between us and the workers. On top of that we finished with the septic system, a task that required picking up rocks and wheelbarrowing, and spending hours dumping them into a huge hole, all in order to create an effective water filtration system for the house. As we picked up rocks, we got a lot of help from the local children who took a great interest in the wheelbarrowing aspect of the job.
Aside from working, I also had the special honor of visiting the headquarters of Cambiando Vidas. On my ride there, Ms. Koyama showed us all the different houses that Cambiando Vidas has constructed for people throughout the province of San Juan. We also visited a family whose house had been built by Cambiando Vidas and they seemed very content with the house and very grateful. Being able to see the impact that this organization has brought to the locals gave me a much greater sense of the importance of the work that we are doing and how heavily it impacts the lives of those who did not have a home prior. While the work today was extremely difficult it is going to be all the more rewarding when we finish up the house tomorrow.
-Bronson ’25
Waking up with half of my personal belongings beside me on my bed has made me painfully aware of what finite resources I have. While I don’t have a drawer to put my things in, I instead have to contemplate what things I should and shouldn’t take out of my suitcase. On top of the fact that I must be acutely aware of what water should and shouldn’t drink, I can say with ease that this trip has challenged my perception of how I go about living my life from a materialistic stand point. This same theme of me balancing my resources highlights a lot of similar resource management at our work site. So far, I’ve only seen dirt be swept aside with no sense of value. Other than that, from the nails that we pull out of the wood planks to reuse again, to manipulating the rebar in several different ways, several different times, one thing that I can say about this experience is everything has some sort of value. On the first day on the work site I ended up getting a ton of concrete all over my white Nike shirt which right after the day was over, I thought for sure that I would discard the shirt as it was ruined forever. But after watching the Dominican children get the same concrete on their shirts and not even bat an eye at it, I’ve realized that a shirt can still have a lot of value even if it isn’t in the perfect condition that it once was. So, now that you know some of the hardships you might face along the way, without any hesitation I highly recommend this experience to anyone and everyone at Deerfield as I feel that how I’ll go about living day to day has changed a lot. On top of that I recommend this trip to every day student as this is truly an experience to feel what it’s like to be a border and get close to some of your peers.
-Aiden ’25
