June 23, 2014- Theresa- City Beautiful
We woke today with the excitement of knowing we were going to begin the metal foundation construction of the wall we were helping to build. All of our hours of digging a 130cm deep and 100meters long trench in preparation to build was in sight! After a morning devotional with the team and a hearty breakfast graciously made by our Dominican family, we set off for Cuestra Arena!
The moment our bus parked we were to work with the neighborhood – bending metal pipes, working side by side and sometimes comically English/Spanish communicating with new people (with our heavy American accents) and swiftly creating 100 meters of foundation. It was incredible!
Six of us ladies found such joy in leveling the trench by 3 additional centimeters (the entire way down) and digging it out alongside our neighbors – under the keen eye of our 15 year old Dominican boss, Fransisco, who is stronger and faster than all of us combined. After about an hour of work one of the men reveled that American girl are such strong, hard workers. He said that Dominican women prefer to care for the children and do not like to do the manual labor but us American women cannot be stopped!
Every moment here in the DR is a joy and my love for the people of this country grows every single day.
Love from the DR!