Hato Viejo

Hato Viejo. One of the liveliest, most loving, active, and generous communities I have been to or lived in. We were welcomed with cheers and hugs as we stepped off the bus the first day. Children who we did not know jumped into our arms, mothers and people would just come up and hug us, the love and warmth of the community was overwhelming. It was easy to compare this campo experience with our last one, as they both were completely different experiences, communities, people, problems and service projects. However, I am always so amazed at the Dominicans in the country – their generosity, love, and hospitality is just beyond compare.

I did not get one picture of my whole family, but the two pictures above include them all. My dad – Bolivia and Mom – Miguela have lived in Hato Viejo their whole lives. They were both born there and have been married for 35 years. They have two sons – Joan (10) and Josandin (12), they were both very shy with me in the beginning, but by the end, we were family. There were so many children in the community, and they followed us everywhere, it was great. They would often times join us at our work sites, sit with us while we ate, or some would come and sit with my family and me on our front porch.

Every morning my mom would give my brothers and me a piece of bread and a cup of coffee, and every night before going to bed, we would sit down and enjoy a meal together as a family. They always gave me plenty of food such as rice and beans, plátanos, eggs, soup, or even chicken feet. The food always brought us together, and having that set time each day to be with my family over a home prepared meal was a very meaningful experience and reminded me of home. We are taught going into the campo that food is sometimes a gift that the family will give, as their only gift that they can offer us. Especially in Hato Viejo, the were food was scarce and expensive because they cannot easily grow their own food on the land. Still, they gave us all that they had, a pure self-gift, that gave me a clearer perspective of their agapic love and more importantly, God’s love. It was honestly just such a simple but very powerful time each day that I was able to talk and be with my family.

The physical work was a lot more challenging in this campo as I had a shovel in my hand just about every day. It was so amazing just working with the community and being able to provide such simple things in their lives. Our teacher told the men in this campo to let us work, which the men actually followed. Once we got to know everyone a little better, they would boss us around if we weren’t working. Also, the guys we were working with did not allow us to speak in English so when we did we had to explain what we were saying in Spanish. It was pretty fun, and it was great for my Spanish. Ten days later we had built ten latrines, laid eight cement floors, and built one house for the community.

I am so thankful for the time that I have had to spend with my families and the different communities of the Dominican Republic. Especially over Holy Week in being so close to this community, living with them in their daily lives, and understanding their problems and struggles that they encounter daily was truly amazing.

We only have about a little over three more weeks down here. We have one more week of classes, one week of finals, and one week of reorientation. It is so crazy to think about - the time has gone by fast and I am just trying to soak up every little bit, including the sun! This weekend we are going to Jarabacoa to go canyoning. We will be repelling from the side of waterfalls and zip-lining, I’m really looking forward and it should be quite an adventure.

I feel like I leave out so many details out of my posts, but I hope they are somewhat informative about my life down here. Thanks for reading, I miss and love you all and will hopefully be seeing you soon!
Love, Anna