This post features student writing.

Today marks our first full day in the community.  After a delicious breakfast of eggs, cereal, yogurt, and local fruits we set out to a community member’s house who is serving as a point person for our service.  After a tour of her house, she showed us her prized palm tree in her back yard. There is a man in the community who has the job  of climbing palm trees to knock down the coconuts.  The group got to witness this amazing feat as this man scaled the 60 foot palm tree with ease! Everyone was very impressed!

Afterwards, we walked around the community and met some of the other locals: the community butcher, the famous baseball field (“el play”), and finally the part of the neighborhood where we would be doing our service – “el Q”.  This part of the neighborhood was much more impoverished than the rest and was called “el Q” because Q was at the end of the alphabet just like this neighborhood was at the edge of the village geographically.

Before we could start our service, we had to wait for some materials to be delivered.  Luckily, there was a local restaurant playing Bachata and Merengue and Jason made quick friends with the people in the restaurant and started dancing with the locals.  Pretty soon, the entire neighborhood was dancing with the students in a huge dance party!

The next day we began fixing some of the houses in el Q.  Students pulled nails, sawed wood and interacted with the community.  Once the houses were done we asked the owners of the houses what colors they wanted their houses to be.  With the help of a community member, we set out to buy paint and brushes and began painting houses blue and pink.  Over the next two days, the students painted three houses with the help of the community. 

After service and working alongside the community in solidarity, many friendships have developed.  The students try to take advantage of the interactions every chance they get.