Wednesday

We’ve finally started our new lives in El Peñón!

After a long drive through the countryside and fields of banana trees we arrived at El Peñón to a very warm welcome from the community. We started by meeting our local contacts, cooks, guides, etc., who have made all this possible for us. After setting up our living areas and enjoying a traditional meal of pollo con abichuelas, we began to meet the community at large. From there the warm welcome soon became a lively party! With music playing, the community’s children quickly clambered to play with our students, teaching a few brave students (and leaders!) how to dance the bachata. As the evening tapered out we said goodbye to our new friends and got ready to start our first day of community service bright and early!

Thursday 

The sun rises early here in El Peñón and so did we! Eager to learn what the day’s projects had in store for us, we met for a 7 AM breakfast of fruit and arroz con leche. At 8 we met our maestros de obras, who showed us how to mix concrete and scrape walls in preparation for reinforcing and painting two classrooms that needed some TLC. A group of our students also traveled to the nearby city of Barahona to do some grocery shopping, a big change of pace from our sleepy little village. When they returned we were all treated to some fresh sugar cane, a first for many! We also took a short walk through our village, which started with just us and our guide and ended with a parade of children excited to spend these next weeks with us. Finally that night us leaders proposed a tech fast, which the group agreed on, so we might be a bit quieter on our phones for a few days but we’ll keep you posted here on the blog.

Signing off!

Lucas y Jimena