And the gardening continues!

By: Amber Brookmire

Amber is a graduating senior at the City College of New York, majoring in Anthropology and Jewish Studies. She is participating in the 2012 CCNY-InteRDom Service Learning Program, and will serve as the InteRDom Correspondent in the CUNY system. To read more about Amber and her participation in the Correspondent program, see her profile here.


We have continued our gardening project this week in Bayona, an urban community neighboring Cielo. Most families do not have a space with soil to begin a garden, so we have shifted our approach to accommodate their situation. Rather than planting directly into the ground as we did in Cielo, we have created raised boxes within which a vegetable garden can successfully grow. Upon completion of our first box, one of the beneficiaries was so thrilled that she wrote her name on the side to claim it as her own!

Although we are no longer digging in the ground, we must use our strength to carry the heavy boxes and 150 lb. bags of soil to rooftops and back patios. So far, we have completed 9 gardens in Bayona. Only 16 left until we reach our expected goal!

Aside from the gardening project, I have been enjoying the beauty of island as much as possible. On our first InteRDom excursion we headed north to Santiago, the second largest city. We had an excellent tour of Central Leon, a cultural center in Santiago where we learned all about the country from its beginnings through present day. We then headed to visit Reyna’s (the InteRDom Internship Coordinator’s) parents’ home. Her father showed us how to chop down a plantain tree and uproot cassava – two main staples in Dominican cuisine.
Our second InteRDom excursion was to La Cueva de Maravillas. As we ventured deep into the cave I could feel the temperature drop in the darkness that surrounded me. Motion-sensor lights lit the way as walked through to see the naturally formed stalagmites. I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was hard to imagine how something so beautiful was naturally formed below the earth’s surface. The tour guide pointed out the various cave paintings created by the Tainos, wonderfully preserved in this cave of wonders!

My personal exploration finally came to a full circle when CV (a CCNY intern) and I decided it was time to test out the chaotic public transportation! We headed toward the busy street of Máximo Gomez with no prior knowledge on how to get around. Within minutes we were squeezing into the back seat of a carro publico with two other passengers, on our way to La Zona Colonial! Despite the discomfort with no air conditioning and little space, it was exciting to finally understand how everyone moves about this city without emptying their pockets (only RD $25 for a ride!).
The carro público left us at el Conde - a pedestrian street lined with vendors, shops and restaurants. I soon realized this would be the place to buy souvenirs (and practice my bargaining skills!). Once we worked up an appetite, we hopped in a guagua and headed toward Barra Payan – a 24-hour spot famous for their sandwiches and fresh juices. I ordered one of the combo meals, complete with a sandwich, fresh juice and to my surprise, a KitKat bar!
As I enter my last week in this exciting country, I look forward to reaching our gardening goals and making more memories with my wonderful new group of friends. The adventure doesn’t end here…

Who would have thought gardening is quite an adventure!

By: Amber Brookmire

Amber is a graduating senior at the City College of New York, majoring in Anthropology and Jewish Studies. She is participating in the 2012 CCNY-InteRDom Service Learning Program, and will serve as the InteRDom Correspondent in the CUNY system. To read more about Amber and her participation in the Correspondent program, see her profile here.





After spending two weeks working alongside the families of Cielo, we have successfully reached our gardening goals! Each day, we divided ourselves into two groups and headed into the depths of the village to meet a new family and to discover new plot of land. It was quite an adventure to reach some of these gardens. This week alone, I traveled through plantain forests, balanced on logs to cross streams and trudged through a large river with my backpack over my head!

Using a pick, shovel, gardening hoe and rake, we must first till the soil to prepare the canteros and camellones (soil beds). This has been the most challenging aspect of the project because it requires strength and stamina. Thankfully we have a very motivated group of volunteers, so the hard part goes by quickly with lots of laughter! The next step is to plan out our grid for planting. I have learned which vegetables can grow next to one another and how much space is needed between them. We then fill the soil beds with spinach, lettuce, eggplant, cucumber, cilantro, peppers and tomato. I have been encouraging the families to help us with this process so that they can learn to do it themselves. Everyone, from elders to children, is excited to help transform their land into beautiful vegetable gardens!

In addition to gardening, my CCNY peers and I have been conducting interviews to find out more about some of the families we are assisting. I could see the excitement in their eyes and hear the appreciation in their voices as they described their reasons for participating in the project. Many families have some gardening experience from attending to their corn and plantain fields, but this project brings a positive new element to their life. The creation of these gardens gives them access to organic vegetables at no cost and improves their nutrition by filling their plates with color!

It has been a wonderful and challenging experience to create the gardens in Cielo. After all of our success these past two weeks, I look forward to meeting and working with the families of Bayona next week!

One Week, Many Good Experiences!

By: Amber Brookmire
Amber is a graduating senior at the City College of New York, majoring in Anthropology and Jewish Studies. She is participating in the 2012 CCNY-InteRDom Service Learning Program, and will serve as the InteRDom Correspondent in the CUNY system.

It is amazing how much I have seen and learned after spending only one week, in Santo Domingo. During the first few days we met our team of volunteers, learned to make “huertos” (small gardens) at the National Botanical Gardens and helped create organic compost at a university in Bonao. With my notebook and camera in hand, we boarded the big, white bus and headed for Cielo, the first community in which we will be working.

Upon our arrival, one woman invited us to eat freshly picked mangoes from her backyard. It was incredible to sink my teeth into the ripe fruit as I looked up into the trees from which it grew. We then headed to the families’ homes to dig our hands into the dirt and transform bare plots of land into beautiful vegetable gardens. Although gardening may not seem to be physically challenging, it takes a lot of strength to use those heavy gardening tools! I can already feel the burn – now all I need is some spinach and I’ll have biceps like Popeye!

Aside from the gardening project, I have been soaking up the culture as much as possible. I wake up each morning to the fruit vendor yelling “AGUACATE” outside my window. It is so cool to buy fresh fruit for morning smoothies by simply walking to meet him downstairs.

I have yet to delve into the public transportation here. From what I have seen, road rules mean nothing! Between the guaguas and carros públicos, chaos fills the streets – but it is very exciting. I will soon pay the very inexpensive fare (about 50 cents) to take an adventure in one of the two.

As for the beaches – let’s just say words wouldn’t do them justice. My fellow CCNY interns and I took a trip to La Romana (a province about 1 hour from Santo Domingo) to spend a day beneath the palm trees on one of the many public beaches. The water was crystal clear and the sand was like white flour beneath your feet. We played water ball with some local kids to work up an appetite and then enjoyed fried fish and fresh shrimp in our beach chairs.

To say the least, this week has been very fulfilling. I am so excited to be working with such unique and wonderful people to make a positive impact within the local communities. The kindness of those that surround me warms my heart and reminds me to seek joy through the simple things in life.

The Punta Cana Community

By: Anna Groesser
Graduate and Gap Year 32-week Program, 2012
You can read about Anna's internship with Grupo PUNTACANA on the InteRDom website here.

I’m now at the halfway point of my eight-month internship here in Punta Cana and there’s so much to talk about! For starters, I’d like to remark on the friendliness of most every employee I come in contact with on the hotel property. When I leave my casita in the morning and walk to the employee cafeteria, I probably pass on average about ten different employees, and it is extremely odd if even one does not look me in the eye and say hello or good morning. I am wearing my employee badge, so they know I am not a guest, and there is no need to try and impress me, yet they still give a hearty greeting. I am struck by this, even after living here for four months.



Right now, there’s a tranquil, humid rain coming down outside and as I listen to the sound, it reminds me of the current changing seasons. When I arrived, I felt it was quite warm and humid, but it has actually gotten more humid as the months have moved past the winter season. Being from Northern Michigan, I am dreading the hottest months of the year- July and August- but luckily I have AC in my casita as well as the office, so I know it could definitely be worse!



I was thinking I’d mention some things I do for fun, since I haven’t really talked about that. I’ve been here for a few months already and have made a small group of friends who are scattered throughout the Punta Cana region. I have a Dominican friend who works the reservation phone for Tortuga Bay (the luxury boutique hotel here) who I met on the bus going to Santo Domingo one weekend. I also am friends with the two local Peace Corps members who live right in the heart of the nearby Verón community. I’ve got random friends I see at the office during the day, and ones I eat lunch with Monday through Friday, plus the front desk hotel staff who I talk to quite often (as I spend a lot of free time in the lobby, using the wireless Internet). Anyway, for fun, I find myself visiting a nearby theater to catch a recent flick, or spending a weekend afternoon on the beach with a Peace Corps member or two, or organizing a group dinner at a friend’s casita or simply spending time alone, studying Spanish and watching movies on my computer. Sometimes I visit one of the jungle lagoons here for a quick swim, or I meet up with one of the Peace Corps volunteers in Verón (and I can really see how good I have it living at the hotel, since Peace Corps members live at the same income and lifestyle quality level as the locals!) There are a variety of hobbies I can take up here too- I can learn to dive at the dive shop and help them hunt the invasive species Lionfish in the coastal area, I can help at the PUNTACANA Ecology in one of their sustainable resources projects or I can spend a day volunteering at a local orphanage.

As for my work activities, these are just as varied as my free time activities. Specifically, one recent activity was extremely fulfilling- I spent a week with a large group of doctors and medical students and we set up makeshift clinics in the local community, and simply treated people as they came. I did a lot of patient flow management because we had to keep the huge crowd (plus the numerous kids underfoot) from milling about too much, wandering into different sectioned-off areas to curiously watching the examinations! I’ve also been working on the creation of a few different webpages for the PUNTACANA Foundation, and I am learning the public relations-related steps we need to take before these websites can be made official, since it represents the hotel corporation’s image. And just recently, I co-managed a group of VIP tourists from the U.S. for a couple hours. They were interested in seeing the free local clinic and one of the local schools that the PUNTACANA Group created. This was a lot of fun, since it involved my direct supervisor Margarita and I acting as a close-working team during the tour, and we both received a hearty applause at the end as the group thanked us for our leadership that day!

Service Learning in Batey Libertad

By: Cynthia So

Executive Director, Yspaniola

Batey Libertad has seen its share of visitors. Youth from the batey are adept at using Facebook and have accumulated friends from across the world. Students are motivated to learn English, knowing they can practice their skills each time a group comes to visit. More importantly, over the years Batey Libertad has benefitted from community development projects that have provided colorful cement homes, latrines, better roads, community centers, potable water, and scholarships for education. Service-learning programs have provided mutual benefit for both groups visiting the batey, as well as for the community.

Batey Libertad is unique in many ways, making it an ideal destination for travelers who wish to experience a different side of the Dominican Republic. The community has been overwhelmingly receptive to visitors. Families welcome visitors into homes, share meals and stories, and build friendships across cultural lines. Over the years, leaders have developed within the community, helping to facilitate the logistics of trips and homestays, and working to maintain a safe and welcoming environment within the batey.

Yspaniola is a non-profit that seeks to provide enriching service-learning experiences for individuals who wish to visit the bateys. Yspaniola initially developed from a service-learning trip led by undergraduate students from Yale to Batey Libertad in 2005. The students were inspired by their experiences in the batey and wanted to continue a productive partnership with the community. By collaborating directly with community leaders and residents, we ensure that projects are valued and needed within the batey, and that they can be sustained after groups leave the community.