DR Community Trabajo y Juego

It seems like the From the Ground Up Winterim group has been working all day long, but they still have time to balance their work (trabajo) and play (juego).

Ms. Schneider and Mr. Moore have been sending daily updates to the parents of the students in the From the Ground Up Winterim. Here are all the updates so far:


March 4th:

Hello parents!

Well this has been quite the morning to start our Dominican adventure! Luckily, everything has worked out, and we will still be arriving in the DR today -- just a little later than possible, as I'm sure many of you have already heard from your students. Below are our new flight times. We have already been in contact with Lawrence Academy and the organization we are staying with in the DR, so everyone is aware of the new situation, and everyone has adapted their plans to accommodate the new flights.

Best,

Kacey and Rob

March 5th:

Hello again everyone!

Well, we finally made it! We are here, safe and sound, in the DR! Woohoo! Rob and I have all of the students passports and cell phones. We are staying in Santiago for the night since we arrived so late, and they put us up in quite a nice hotel, which is great. We will leave tomorrow morning for El Centro Fusimana, where we will be staying for the remainder of our trip. We will be sure to email again when we arrive there.

Once we arrive at Fusimana, we will have a better sense of our WiFi capabilities. However, we are hoping to send in blog posts and updates on a daily basis. We will be sure to let you know about that tomorrow as well!

Have a good night! Adios!

Kacey and Rob

March 6th:

Hola everyone!

Our trip continues to be a success! The students had their first full day of service work today, and it went great (but they are certainly tired!) For the morning, half of the students worked with students in a local school, and half of the students worked on building a community center. We joined together for lunch, and then we switched groups. The students loved working at the school and have discovered a newfound respect for manual labor by working on the community center! Overall, it was a productive and enjoyable day.

Tomorrow will be similar, and we will also be playing volleyball with locals. Wish us luck! Unfortunately, we will not be able to send the full updates we were hoping to each day because of the fact that there is no WiFi here. However, we will be sending short updates each day via an iPhone. If you need to be in contact with us, you can still email us (we will be briefly checking each day), or you can call.

Continuing to send sunshine and warmth your way!

Rob and Kacey

March 7th:

Buenas noches,

We had another great day in the DR. The group continues to impress us, spirits are good, and everyone is learning a lot and doing their best. Today we worked in a new school, continued our job at the community center, then topped off the day with basketball and volleyball with local kids, followed by another excellent dinner and a very thoughtful and deep reflection time. We look forward continuing our work through the weekend and will send another update mañana.

Everyone is healthy, the food is great, and we're on our way to accomplishing our goals.

Saludos,
Kacey & Rob

March 8th:

Hola,

The group had another productive day.  We got up early and went to the construction site, and we worked hard until around 1. During the morning work session we took a break to walk down the road with some neighborhood kids to buy some refreshments and also took a break to enjoy some sugarcane that our local host farmer cut for us. That was a first for most. After our productive morning, we got back to our lodging at Centro Fusimaña for a late lunch. After lunch was free time and 7 of the students went to a Peace Corp workshop on health and gender roles that was very interesting. Around 5 we took on a Dominican team in basketball and not even the heroics of Emily Pratt could get us the victory, but we had fun and made more friends. Tomorrow we head to the city of Santiago to visit a famous museum, and we will also visit a monument for the Mirabal sisters here in the mountains (not far from our lodging). The group continues to enjoy each other's company and learn a lot. Our evening reflection times have been powerful. It has been around 85 and sunny each day.

All the best,

Kacey & Rob



March 9th:

Greetings,  Today we took the bus to Santiago and had a super visit at the museum. On the way back we visited Trujillo's summer home and the memorial for the Mirabal Sisters. What a different kind of day it was from service learning!  Tourism is not as much fun, so it's back to work tomorrow at the school and construction site in El Mango. Spirits are great, and the group is still enjoying each other and staying positive. Tonight after dinner, our guide Luis taught us how to dance Salsa, Bachata, and Merengue. Very cool. We all loved it.

All the best,
Kacey & Rob