Hello Canada,
We made it! After a bit of a delay at the airport in Toronto, we landed in the DR at 2:00 on the 8th.
Day 1 – January 9th:
Today we were up bright and early for breakfast at the Mission Center and then after orientation with Mario, we were off to the worksite. We are working at a school, Espacio de Gracia, in La Pared de Haina, which is about a 15-minute drive every morning. We were greeted by students who sang us a welcome song. We were taken on a tour of the school and then we got to work. Our main focus for the day was getting primer put onto the walls and ceilings of the second floor of the school. Some of the team helped with carrying block as well. We left the school at about 4pm and came back to the Mission Center for a delicious dinner. After dinner we went out to the local superstore, Carrefour, to purchase some snacks, especially ice cream, for the week and finished with some yummy frozen yogurt. We ended our night with our devotion lead by Bill and then we were off to bed before another day of hard work.
Day 2 – January 10th:
This morning we visited Bienvenidos, an elementary school that is about 5 minutes away from Espacio de Gracia. Bill and Jack helped to build the roof on this school in the past. After a brief tour of the school, we were on our way back to Espacio de Gracia to continue our work. Today was another day of priming the walls and ceilings as floors were being poured from room to room. Blocks were taken to the roof via a makeshift pully system, as well as the sand to make the mortar. Our day was put on hold a few times due to inclement weather, but we still managed to complete priming 5 out of the 7 rooms. We left the worksite at around 4:30 and came home to shower and eat dinner. After dinner we decided to go for a nice 10-minute walk around the area we are staying in. Next thing you know, we were lost and it's pouring rain. A friendly police officer allowed us to come take shelter in his little station while we waited it out, and used Google Maps to find our way back to the Mission Center. Finally, after what ended up being a 45-minute walk, we made it back only to find out that we never put the ice cream from last night, into the freezer! Now we have soup! Our night ended with devotions/friendly discussion and then we killed a cockroach with the ice cream scooper (that we never got to use, that is).
-Espacio de Gracia Burlington HANDS Team 2020
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