We're Here

Hello to our (concerned) friends and family! We're safe, if a little bit muddy and very tired. It's raining here in the DR, which is common for this time of year. We finally figured out Internet access at the hotel, and we've all had a chance to sit down and write about our experience so far. It was our first day doing our public health project using photovoice today, and we've all got a lot to say. Here are some initial reactions from group members. We'll be adding more later too, so stay tuned.

• This was my second year returning to Pancho Mateo. A lot changed over the past 12 months, but a lot stayed the same. A new housing complex replaced a field that bordered the community, but whether or not Pancho Mateo-ans will inhabit them remains a mystery. Additionally, youth have banded together to strategize how to improve water access. Despite these changes, much of community life appears the same. The community is still pulsing with chatter, music, and shouts from children, but residents still face challenges. The streets are muddy, the highway is rocky, children are without opportunities for education, and residents are anxious for change. Starting off this week so am I.

• Puerto Plata has been quite the trip thus far. Yesterday was an emotional roller coaster ride at points – going into the communities we’re working with for the first time and extreme sleep deprivation were probably the catalysts behind that – but today was a bit calmer on the feelings front and much more focused on getting down to business. Participants in Pancho Mateo and Severet were jazzed to take part in our project, and it seems like we’ve all found their excitement to be contagious. Language barriers aside (unfortunately they still exist even with the presence of Afsheen, one of our own who speaks anywhere from five to fifty languages) we seem to connect in both our goals and expectations for the week, and I’m stoked to see what comes from it.
  
• Afsheen -- There are revolutionary ideas afoot in Pancho Mateo. The youth gather around us as we enter the colorful patchwork of steel and wood shacks that compose this mixed Dominican-Haitian village tucked away in the mountainous hinterland of northern DR. The bright-eyed little ones grab for our hands, eager to share with us our contagious excitement with the whole affair, while the young adults address us in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole in their most presentable attire. The youth of Pancho Mateo have not only become intimately involved with the work done by HHI in their bateye, but have taken a proactive role in drafting demands and social works projects to be implemented in the foreseeable future. George, a 29-year old Haitian, discusses the adverse consequences of the high birth rate and lack of resources that plague the sustainability of the new generation as we walk by the soccer field by the river. He is troubled by the images of naked children and muddy roads and free-roaming livestock that define the livelihood of the town today. Despite the fact that he is an illegal inhabitant on land owned by the bank in a country that actively discriminates against his kind, he is determined to participate in the newfound zeitgeist of his fellow young pioneers in Pancho Mateo. I believe this energy will be auspicious and instrumental for the follow-up of our project and in ultimately reaping the benefits of basic human services in their host country.