Why I LOVE my job…

Everyone says to me, “you have the best job ever!” and I can honestly agree with them. I find our trips to be two fold: one, getting to give something to a community in need who may not other wise get it for themselves and two, seeing students lives transformed and eyes opened to what is going on in about two thirds of our world. I get to work with some pretty amazing students whose lives and commitment to seeing change in their own lives and the world around them inspire me everyday.I have volunteered with LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute)’s Hero Holiday program for 3 years now and have been on staff since December 2007. I have traveled to all three of our Hero Holiday destinations and have found that each location is special and different in their own way.I find Dominican Republic to be our largest trip in many ways… amount of students and scale of our projects. I have been honoured to watch the beginning of Arroyo Seco, a school Hero Holiday started building in 2006, be completed this summer after many hours of hard work over the past 3 years from our Hero Holiday participants. It will be sad to leave the site this week because so many relationships have been developed there with all the children, Pastor Garcia, “Muto”, and so many more. We are leaving that community with a place of hope to which parents can send their children so they can be educated, which in return, I believe is a major key in ending the cycle of poverty.Mexico is a smaller but much more intimate experience. We work right along side the family who we are building a house for. This past Christmas while we were building, I noticed the father show up around 1pm everyday after working at a local ranch since 3am. Just the pride in his eyes and determination of his work made me work double time! I loved getting to know the family and have them tease me about being so tall. (I am 5’9″ and the Oaxacan people of the area average about 5’2″) Good times! The best part of the trip is at the end, during the house dedication when you give the family the keys to their new home.Thailand is a trip that is very dear to me. I love the culture and the children so much. We work with some children who have come out of situations that could break your heart. Each year I go, I am surprised at how resilient they are even though their past is so dark. I would not miss this trip for the world!The thing that gets me every time I come home after a Hero Holiday is that I think I have given so much of myself but I have actually learned so much more in return. The people of Dominican Republic, Mexico or Thailand teach me about the importance of community as well as how there can still be so much happiness in simplicity…and our students remind me to be passionate about what I do. That together, we can make a difference!

UPDATED: Travel Update for DR Trip

UPDATE: All our Ontario Arrivals have made it back to Ontario.Our Western Departure group is staying another night in New York City.  We hope these students will not be too upset about their now extended trip that includes a boat tour of Statin Island, the Statue of Liberty, and Ground Zero.  They will be in Toronto by noon on Weds July 30, and will fly to Vancouver or Edmonton from there.

There were mass flight cancellations due to bad weather at JFK airport in New York City last night, where we make our connecting flights (to Seattle and Buffalo).  Jet Blue canceled about 60 out of 80 flights!  Both the Seattle and Buffalo flights were canceled.  Here is the update on how this affects our travel:Ontario Arrival: We managed to charter a bus last minute from JFK, so ETA for Travelodge in Toronto is 10:30am July 28.Western Arrival:  Delayed overnight in New York city due to bad weather.  ETA is unknown (waiting from Jet Blue for reschedule).More details will be posted at 12pm today July 28.

My Friend, Shagi

It is coming up to 21 days that i have been in the Dominican Republic this summer and not a day has gone by where this trip has not impacted my life in some way, shape or form. For all who are reading this note, i will take this time to encourage you all to take a Hero Holiday trip (there is some cheap advertising eh?) Today was a day unto itself. Garbage dump days are always a “choose your own adventure” type of day as Christal would say. Arriving at the gates of the dump, we were joined by our good friend who mans the gates everyday. He rode with us in our truck until about half way there when he told us to stop and explained that we could not go any further. Hero Holiday has been bringing groups each day to the garbage dump to work alongside the workers there and help them collect recyclable bottles. Since our time at the garbage dump has been a recurring and constant event, the town has noticed what we are doing and have decided we are not allowed to enter the site because we are helping the Haitians. I don’t think I can explain the hatred and racism that exists here towards the Haitians. It is something we cannot comprehend.While Christal, Gate-man and translators tried compromising and explaining what we were doing in the dump, my good friend Shagi came walking over the hill to meet us. Shagi is 17 yrs old and he works at the dump a few days a week. Working in the dump is a place that is spat upon. The people that work there are mostly Haitian. All of them have no papers to speak of. They are stateless, and do not exist to the world. Shagi, my friend Shagi, does not exist to the world.While we were chatting with him, he was telling us what he does at the dump (I was curious because I have yet to see him “work” at the dump lol). He told us he does not pick through the garbage but instead sorts through the bottles and puts them into piles of glass and plastic. This is considered a high-end job. Shagi does not have another job and has to support his grandparents as well as pay for his own food and living. Out of curiosity, we asked him how much money he makes at this job he is so proud of occupying. His answer, is the reason I cannot sleep right now.My friend, Shagi, makes 3 dollars every 2 weeks.The price of living is not that different from how much things cost back home. This is to say, my friend has to somehow survive off of and look after his two grandparents on $1.50 a week. That is my daily coffee, stretched out into a whole week of food, rent, medicine, water, transportation, etc. This is his life. As I sit awake in my room tonight, I will think of how quickly I spend $1.50. I challenge you to do the same. I challenge you to see how long it takes for $1.50 to slip past your hands. I will not spend a day without thinking about this story. I will do this for Shagi; the guy who makes me laugh, who gives me hugs, and teaches me Spanish. I will do this for all of the stateless people in the world. I will do this because I have a friend, a good friend, who lives off of less than a quarter a day.Caity- Student Leader

Just Hanging Around.

Today was my day off, so I got to sleep in this morning (MUCH needed!) but a few of us wanted to go to Arroyo in the afternoon to play with the kids and just hang out. It was nice to just be able to play and relax and not have to worry about leading our teams and working. We brought frisbees and bubbles and the kids had a blast playing with them, and asked me to bring more when I come tomorrow. We started the morning with a walk around the village to the house of Henardo, Kristen’s little amigo. We met his grandparents and we sat in the house for awhile and chatted and played with the kids. I love getting to look at the Dominican’s houses; they are so different from what I am used to at home, but at the same time they are so welcoming. We went back to the school, had some Skim Ice, played frisbee and played with the bubbles, and then went down to Fran’s house for a visit. We sat with her mom, Daniela, and chatted while the kids played with my camera. She told us it was Danny’s (Fran’s brother) 5th birthday today! Then we started a conversation about birthdays. Frangelis’ is on January 27th. Many of the kids only knew what month their birthday was in, but didn’t know the exact day. We ended up staying for quite awhile and someone had to come get us to let us know that it was time to pack up and leave! I kissed Daniela goodbye and the kids followed us to the truck. It was many of the participants’ last day at Arroyo so they were hugging all the kids goodbye, and Frangelis kept jumping all over me and smiling and shouting to everyone that I was coming back tomorrow! She kissed me and told me she loves me and blew me kisses as we pulled away; she is such a sweetheart!I love how every day here brings something new. Some days I am fighting back tears as I witness the poverty and racism in this country, and others I can’t stop smiling because I see the joy of the people.

Dump Today.

Today I went to the dump. It was amazing. We put on our leather gloves and rubber boots and dove in. Our job was to collect plastic recycibles like bottles and put them in plastic bags. Haitans do this for a living and we were each paired up with a local Haitan. It was such a hard thing to do, seeing these people collect garbage for a living. Each bag is only worth 10 pesos, which is a few Canadian cents. These people work day and night collecting bottles so that they can feed their families, and they have no other choice.When I arrived, the smell and the smoke was almost to much. But I held everything back. It was so important to me to prove to these people that I care. To prove to them that I feel they and I are equals.I was able to help two people today, I filled two bags of bottles. The second person was a young girl who looked about 13. She was running through the dump in flipflops and wasn’t wearing gloves. It broke my heart when she asked if she could have my leather gloves. But I couldn’t give them to her. But every part of me wanted to give her my rubber boots, hat, and my gloves in all. Pretty much anything she needed I would’ve given her if I could.Today was life chaning, I’m not gonna lie. I loved being there. It’s so hard to explain why I enjoyed digging through garbage. It was for the people, to prove to them that I care.Student- Karina

House Visit!

I had so much fun today! I LOVE going to Arroyo Seco and the other leaders and I often comment how it is the happiest place in the world. Just driving up to it you can feel the warmth when the kids run to greet you and the adults wave from their houses. We have been working at this school for 3 years and have come to really love this community; for me, more so than any other in the DR. I love jumping out of the truck and being able to greet all the kids by name and have then know who I am in return. I love knowing that before Hero Holiday came, this school was only a ditch and a community’s big dream.Around 1:00 Frangelis, Danny, and their cousin Elise grabbed my hand and took me to Fran’s house. Her sister Ariela was there, who is 18 and now in University studying to be a teacher, and their mother, Daniela, who is such a sweetheart and is always so welcoming when I come to visit. I thought I would just be visiting with the family and spending time in their home, but Daniela had made lunch for the family and had prepared a plate for me. We had bacon, chicken, fried plantains, and lemonaid- it was very good! But even better was getting to sit in on a meal with their family, as they are so close to my heart and I love every moment I get to spend with them. After we were finished eating I kissed Daniela and thanked her for the meal, and told her I was going to get the translator so we could communicate better. I ran and got Sheree at the school and we all sat down beside their house for about a half hour. Frangelis’ many cousins and family members were runnng around and the roosters kept running in and out of the house. Daniela told Sheree to tell me that the dress I had brought Frangelis fit perfectly and then she brought Frangelis in the house to try it on to show me- she looked adorable! She said their church was having a party soon and she would be wearing that. I explained to them that I was only coming to their community one more time until I was coming back to Canada, and that I was very sad to be leaving again. But we were able to exchange addresses so hopefully we are able to communicate through that!I think overall today exemplifies what I love most about the DR; the people are SO incredibly loving and welcoming and make me feel as if I am family. They are so full of laughter and love and happiness, despite everything they don’t have. They realize something that a lot of Canadians and Americans don’t; that material things don’t equal to happiness, but rather, it is your relationships with family and friends that will bring you true joy.

Sweet Ruth.

Today our team was at the school site Dominican Advance for the day. Whenever we take breaks there, the girls will sit us down and start playing with our hair. Usually they are younger and just do little braids or ponytails, but I had a little girl who was about 9 doing mine, and she did these two cornrow braids on the side of my head- she did a really good job! There wasn’t as much work as usual to get done, so we spent a lot of time in the Haitian village down the road, playing with the kids. I have written about baby Ruth before, and I spent a lot of time with her today. She is 8 months old, and has three brothers aged 2, 3, and 4. They live with their mother, who doesn’t work, and doesn’t have enough money to feed them. They often go days without eating, and because Ruth and the youngest boy are not the children of her current husband, she is more likely to feed the older two, and Ruth and Willy are often hungry. I brought a group of the students down to the village and immediately took them to Ruth’s house. There is a basketball court right beside it so they could have fun playing with the kids, and I wanted to check on Ruth. When I came to the house, her mother was around the corner and the four children were all sitting on the floor of the tiny shack, naked and crying. Ruth was up to her arms in diarrhea. When the mother saw us approaching, she came over and wiped Ruth off with an old cloth and then handed her to me, and let the boys out to play. The youngest was really unresponsive, but the older two were a bit better and we were able to get some laughs out of them. We came back after lunch and it was obvious that the kids had little energy. The mother was yet again down the road and the kids were sitting outside, and Ruth was crying softly. Willy fell asleep in Alex’s arms after only a few minutes, and Ruth fell asleep quickly as well. Today they each had a bit of soup (including Ruth, who is 8 months old), and yesterday they had nothing. Ruth’s mother pulled the translator over and had him tell me that the formula the missionaries here, Donna and Phil, have been giving her to feed Ruth are making her sick and she has been throwing up. She said she has no money and no formula left, and wanted me to tell Donna to come back soon with more formula. As I held her and tried unsuccessfully to get her to smile, I kept being reminded that every 30 seconds, a child under the age of 5 dies of preventable causes. It is very possible that I was holding another one of those statistics in my arms.Nicole C- Student Leader

Orphanage visit!!

Today we headed out in the bus to go to the Conani Orphanage in Santiago. It is always interesting to see how people will react when they first visit the orphanage. A lot of people are really uncomfortable with it and are scared of picking up the children or playing with them, as they are often very tiny and look fragile. I was really impressed with my team today and they did an awesome job loving on the kids. I went to check on Josecito when I got there, the teenager who was crying last time I visited, and was glad to see him hanging upside down in his crib with a huge smile on his face.As always, little miss Hakova was a huge hit. She is the 1-year old with Downs Syndrome and is the first child in the orphanage that will be sent to school and educated, which is very exciting. She is a little girl with a HUGE personality and definitely keeps us entertained! Feeding them lunch was a challenge, as it often is. Most of the kids have a plateful of chicken, rice, beans, and sometimes some pasta. Those who are younger or those who are sick have some kind of mushed up more liquid type of food. Many of the kids have very few muscles in their necks and can’t hold themselves up, so it takes the perfect balancing position and a lot of luck to get them to finish their plate. Alex was feeding little Ricardo, whose legs are smaller than my wrists. He was sad all morning and we kept wondering what was wrong, but he brightened up right after Alex fed him, so I guess he was just hungry. I had a little boy who was able to walk and talk and move himself around (which many of them can’t), but he was one stubborn little thing and didn’t like the lunch, so refused to open his mouth! The nurse came over and showed me how I had to hold his head still with one hand and shove a ginormous spoonful in with the other to make him eat. I don’t know how they do it!We just got back an hour ago (3:30) and my roommates and I are hosting a grilled cheese party in our room for dinner as we are all more than a little hungry from our day! Then we will go to debriefing; last night’s debriefing was pretty exciting with the sightings of a crab and a ginormous (and scary) rat. Last night was the pool party (our team didn’t win- boo) and tonight is the Latin Dance party where the translators and hotel workers teach us some dance moves! Tomorrow we are heading to Arroyo Seco- I can’t wait to see Fran- my little girl there again :)Nikki- Student Leader

What a great day in the Dominican.

Today we jumped right into our workday rotation schedule. Some were off to the Cangrejo school project, some to Dominican Advance, some to Arroyo and other to Bernard’s house project. All reports back in the office today were that it was extremely productive work day and everyone had a great time getting to know their new team members. Right before dinner it started to rain, so our activity tonight was changed from the scheduled pool party to a dance party instead. It turned out to be a really fun spur of the moment night. Please check out the pictures and don’t forget to send lots of messages for these participants to read!

My first day on the job.

So far, the first day on this trip has exceeded our expectations. Today we went to Bernard’s house, where we filled the foundation of his new house with sand. We got so much more done than we thought we would, thanks to the great weather and extreme teamwork. Before lunch at the work site, we met some local kids that ran around us as we worked. The kids just enjoyed our company, they liked to know our names and ran around screaming them, they were so sweet. We realized that the kids love to talk to you even if you can’t understand them, they also love to play fight. This was a great first! We came only knowing each other but have already made so many new friends, we are excited for the rest of the trip and the adventures to come.Anna & Chloe- Students