1st Day in Santo Domingo - Project El Piño
Trip Start
Oct 15, 2007
1
4
14
Trip End
Oct 24, 2007
Santo Domingo,
Dominican Republic
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
We have breakfast in the hotel (Mercure Hotel - Santo Domingo) (awesome buffet.. many fresh fruits, toast, bread, cornflakes, meat,...) and then Juan comes and pick us up with the car of the company.
We drive to the project El Piño. It's in the slums of Santo Domingo. First we meet the project manager José and he explaines us (in spanish... but one employee translate it to German and Juan to English) what they're doing in this project. We change the room and there are all employees of this office. 2 kids are there and they sing for us some songs and play guitar. They give us some snacks and cold (!!!) water! (the most important thing...it's soo hot)... So all employees (also we) introduce themselves and say what they're doing.
From the office we start with our trip through the project. All the familys which are a part of the project live distraught. In the slums there are over 80'000 inhabitants... During our drive I see that everything is so dirty, unhygienic and just poorness pure! So at first we visit a school. There are over 300 kids and now they're building new school rooms. We drive on to a course center where they offer different courses. Like construct furniture, cosmetic courses, they learn sewing and other things. Our next stop is a house that they're building. They want to use it as a center for fine motor skills of kids. At lunch we drive to the family center and eat there with the other employees.
cosmetic course
(By the way.. we are the only swiss guys... the people which work there are all locals.) They spoil us with delicious food (rice, fish, chicken, beans, vegetables, potatoes, dessert,...). After lunch comes a little boy and his mother explains us, that he has 2 tumors in his right leg. So they need an other operation. So the local employees will contact the medical center in town to see what are the possibilities for this boy! We change the room and meet a woman which has a sitting with a little boy. The boy has some troubles with his fine motor skills. The next woman that we meet is the responsibility for HIV/Aids. They make campaigns, educations,... for this topic. I was totally fascinated of this woman. She's so powerful and wants to change something in this world!! ... Juan tells us after that she's got HIV.
So we drive back to the office and there are 3 kids with their violin teacher. They play for us some pieces. We drive on to the youth center. It's very important that the youngster have an activity beside school. 'Cause the criminal rate in the Dominican Republic is very high and many teenagers are in street gangs and criminal! So in the youth center are the teenagers their own leaders. They organize, help and create new things. They have a library, a computer room, a weights room (gym),... They help each other with homework from school and they have contact to employees from our company. The teenagers explain us what their job is in this center, what they're doing and how proud they are to be a part of this.
So.. Juan drives us back to our hotel. It's a long and impressive day. I saw sooo many new things... made so many new experiences,..! After a shower we meet us to go out for dinner. We walk throug the streets in the colonial zone and decide to eat in the restaurant "Harry's". It's soo delicious and the atmosphere is amazing. It's a very special feeling for me... on one side I see all the poverty in this country - in the slums of this town.. and on the other we're sitting in this nice restaurant and have a great dinner! I definitely have a bad conscience. It's not easy to arrange this two sides... to know that there are so many familys and kids which don't have enough to eat... and you're eating a big fish with rice, vegetables, clean water,...! Ya... this feeling, thoughts... they will come more and more... and they never let me go... even if I'll be back in Switzerland! You realise how lucky you are! I have a job, a healthy family, a house, friends, a shower, a bed, enough clothes,.... these are all things which are naturally for us... they shouldn't be! And they're not for other people...!! We go back to the hotel... and I drift off with all these cogitations...
