Meeting amazing people
Today was the second day on the work site. The house is coming up a lot faster than I thought it would be. Everyone always had something to be doing. If it wasn’t sifting sand or mixing cement, then you would be playing games with the kids on the beach.
Everyone in the community was there to help. Even the family the house was for was helping. You can’t really tell how grateful someone is until they receive something that they’ve worked for and deserved their whole lives and they are still there to help build, all day.
Everyone in the community is like a big family, they don’t care who’s blood you have, it’s just if you’re there then you’re loved and cared about the best you can. All these people give up so much of the little they have just to please everyone else. They always think of other people’s needs and wants before their own. It’s like they would rather do things for you than have you do something for them.
I was told about a boy that already lost their father to Diabetes, and who’s Mother and Brother have the same disease. That boy had to watch his mother bring his sister to an orphanage because there wasn’t enough food on the table for the four of them. People that live in such harsh conditions don’t deserve to be burdened with even more struggles. I think that if a few teenagers can build a house for a family to live in for the most part of their lives, then the amount of change that can be made with more and more people everyday is unimaginable.
Ben ~ Hero Holiday Volunteer 2013
Today was our second day on the worksite here in Dominican Republic. Our names are Amy and Danica and this is our second Hero Holiday with LiveDifferent. This year was a little different to last year because we got to participate in ‘A Day in the Life’ experience. This is where we as volunteers travel to a member of the community’s home and experience things about their everyday life. This was an eye opening experience of how we need to recognize the priveleges we have back home.
We had the opportunity to visit a woman named Mila who lives alone. We learned a lot about this woman and her difficulties throughout her life in such a short period of time. Six years ago she lost all of her toes on her right foot and one on her left due to Diabetes. This restricts her ability to walk freely and she also can not work. Mila should be able to depend on her insurance to pay for the expenses of her daily insulin shots, but due to unknown reasons she has to pay the 3 dollars herself which is an extremely difficult task when you are unemployed. She relies on her neighbours and family to help with the medical expenses as well as her daily expenses.
While we were in Mila’s home we helped her cook, clean, and do laundry. It was very interesting to see the differences between how she performs these basic tasks compared to us at home. This was an eye opener of how hard the people in these communities have to work to perform responsibilities that take us less than five minutes to do. We gained a new perspective of how fortunate we are to have the standard of living that we possess here in Canada. We also gained a new level of respect for the people in the community and how hard they work for the lives they have.
We are extremely grateful for receiving this opportunity to connect and experience a day in the life with this courageous woman. It taught us to not take the little things at home for granted and to appreciate everything we have in our lives.
Amy and Danica ~ Hero Holiday Volunteers 2013