This Summer, 14 students and three faculty members are traveling to the Dominican Republic to build a house for a family with the organization Cambiando Vidas. Please enjoy the blog posts below from Arabella ’27 and Hutson ’27 where the group spent their second workday in the Dominican Republic building community bonds and strengthening teamwork on the job site, connecting with local children at a nearby school, and reflecting on environmental justice and the deeper impact of their efforts.
In the morning, after arriving at the worksite, workers were working on carpentry. We did not have much to do at first, which was a nice slow start to the day, so we admired the hard, meticulous work of those crafting the house. As soon as work opened, the whole group immersed themselves in a chain of block passing. I did not realize until that moment how heavy cement blocks could be, even though you only hold them for seconds. We worked as a team for about twenty minutes, which differed from our previous tasks because each group is usually occupied with different jobs. After working for a little, I went inside to play with the cutest, most calm, two-month-old. I have never experienced a baby so relaxed while noise consumes the background. Sounds of machines, yelling, and various animals linger around, while the baby sits there quietly. It made me think about how she is used to having a whole community take care of her, whereas in the states, babies will cry if anyone but their parents hold them. After lunch, we visited the school. All the children were smiling ear to ear, giving us a very inviting welcome. The school took me back to one I visited in Africa, where the kids are just happy to be there. We went back to the worksite after to finish up some things and paint part of the roof. Painting was a calming way to end the workday as everyone pitched in. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to look at the glorious monuments dispersed around the city. Each rich with history, we learned valuable information about the DR. At the end of the day, I realized how fast time passed. Though this day was not as laborious or physically taxing as the first, I was exhausted from the heat. I loved seeing how our hard work from the first day properly prepared us for today, pushing us forward towards our goal. – Arabella ’27
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To start off the day my roommate Billy and I woke up, with a bit more confidence than yesterday, with information of the day ahead, and information that the work would be more leisurely than the day before. For breakfast we sat around the table and enjoyed cheese quesadillas, hard boiled eggs, bacon and toast. We hopped in the Tengurengue (our bus) for the ride over to the job site with less anticipation but also less nerves in the bus than the previous workday. As we arrived on site, the abuelas were already preparing that day’s lunch of you guessed it: Rice, chicken and beans along with the best avocados you have ever had in your life. With the promise of a great lunch ahead of us, we worked: passing and filling buckets of concrete, sifting dirt and collecting rocks for making mescla a precise mixture of cement powder, water, dirt and rocks. We used this mescla to fill the holes between the cinder blocks we had collected the previous day. The sun was not as strong in the morning, but little did we know it would be saving its energy for later in the afternoon. After Cole, Jack and I figured out the perfect ratio of making the mescla (to the workers surprise) we could not be stopped. We worked like a well-oiled machine (although I am sure it looked much worse than I am imagining it) it felt like we were the backbone of the whole site. No mescla, you can’t build. After our antics creating the mixture we ate our lunch, which was amazing, and headed off to the local school who contains kids from grade 1 to 9. Although they poked fun at us for our poor Spanish, we were still able to communicate with the kids, especially Jarron, who somehow communicated with 6-year-olds through doing the tango. It was an extremely fulfilling experience to see these kids and witness the community we are supporting by building this house. One of the fourth graders I had talked to at the school, rode on the back of his friends moped, alongside the Tenguerngue and was on the build site for a little bit. After seeing the weird American again, he ran towards me and hugged my leg and proceeded to show me his countless drawings of race cars he wants to see in the future. I couldn’t help but smile. After talking to my little buddy Manuel, I went to talk to my friend Donny, a local Dominican who is 19 years old and works on many sites like this. He told me he is going to visit the states in the next ten years, and I told him I would have a place for him. He agreed with the biggest smile you have ever seen. We then poked fun at each through his nonexistent English, and my broken Spanish about each other’s lack of senoritas. Donny may be one of the most genuine people I have ever met, and I can tell if he went to Deerfield, I would spend a lot of time with him. After returning to the hotel, we had another amazing meal prepared by the same restaurant down the street we ate at last night. After dinner, the head of Cambiano Vidas, Jose, brought one of his friends who is very knowledgeable about the scandal of gold mining in the Dominican Republic, which was sad to hear. These large corporations change their name when transferring to different Latin and southern American countries, and strip countries of their natural resources, leaving destruction in their wake. This company in particular, the pro of it is that they would provide jobs for the people of the DR, but if they damaged the mountain which contains the resources they desire, 95% of the Dominican republic’s water would go bad causing catastrophe. That’s all for tonight, Hutson ’27
