Hola!
This afternoon, we took a 45 minute bus trip to Batey Libertad, which is a community in the Cibao valley, of the DR. This was a community home to dominican citizens and migrant workers from Haiti, established in the 1940´s. It was originally established as a state supported agriculture community, and became impoverished with the decline in the Dominican sugar industry. We were visiting the community today in order to become acquainted with ILAC cooperadores Papito and Agustina and spend some time with the children in the community. Papito informed us of the many health challenges in the Batey including parasites secondary to poor water conditions, water supply, malnutrition, and communicable diseases. It was encouraging to see his leadership and the effect it had within such a poor community, as he spoke of the improvements in lodging space, restroom sanitation, and upcoming goals for delivering cleaner water to the community. He also spoke proudly of his own children and their educational accomplishments.
Currently, in the Batey, 102 families reside in small tin sheet homes, with limited capacity. The majority of the people living there are children. Upon our arrival on the bus, the children swarmed around us and began climbing into our arms and onto our backs! All the children had smiles on their faces and were eager for our attention. We spent the afternoon playing different games with the children including red light, green light, Simon dice, and sang different songs in spanish. It was a joy to us, to bring such happiness to all the children simply by being there and playing with them. Our visit to the Batey was unique in the sense that the children did not typically have much contact with people outside of their own community, and so it was a chance for them to connect with the outside world. We are looking forward to returning next week on Tuesday, to spend more time interacting with the community.
Hasta luego,
Hannah, Megan, and John
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