On day 3 we drove away from our nice beach side, touristy hotel to a town called Pancho Mateo. When we arrived, we were ushered off the bus and straight into a small, tin house. There was no lighting or A/C, cement floors, worn furniture, a roach infested hallway that led to a tiny bathroom and a stray dog on the floor. We learned this was someone's home. This was the environment that organizations like Heath Horizons International support. Their mission is to improve community health through strengthening the health care system, community leadership and eliminating obstacles to quality medical care for people with limited resources. They assist towns with high rates of hypertension, chronic diseases, obesity, asthma and other health issues. This was the community they wanted us to visit. We were greeted by Mark, who translated for an HHI representative that led a task force to combat diabetes in these struggling areas. Mark then told us about his mission within his hometown; his current project was to build public bathrooms around the neighborhood. About 75% of the homes in the area did not have restrooms, which meant they had to resort to unsanitary buckets. Mark and other forward thinkers in his community had taken on this mission, doing the labor themselves and attempting to better their struggling community.
We also had the opportunity to take a walk into the neighborhood, and everyone agreed that it was life changing. Mark’s brother, Robinson, was our “tour guide”. Like his brother, he believes in bettering his community and has his own projects in the works, but he was more than happy to show us around and answer any questions. We started on the Dominican side of the neighborhood. The streets are uneven, rocky and narrow, lined with tin and crumbling wood houses although painted bright and cheery colors. Chickens and cows wander the streets, looking as weathered as the natives. The sun beats down mercilessly on all the people, who gather in the streets in plastic chairs, talking and eating and acknowledging the large group of visitors exploring the life they live everyday. They all greeted us with smiles and open doors. They take pride in their homes, always keeping them as clean as possible. If anyone had to go to the bathroom, Robinson would escort us into any house we were passing and ask the owner if we could used their toilet. The answer was always yes, as they would run to get buckets to fill the toilet with water (there is only running water every other day in these communities due to a drought) and quickly tidy up for their guest.
We passed to the Haitian side of the community and quickly recognized a change. The housing is made up of long, crumbling, cinder block buildings with families squeezed to a small, dark rooms that are crowded with second hand clothing and single beds. These communities are filled with the Haitian immigrants who come to the Dominican Republic to work and get payed day by day. The sugar cane industry that used to be in the area (the industry for it crashed in that community due to drought and crop rotation issues. The main factory that processed all the sugar cane is now abandoned and all the old fields are used for housing and trash) drew them to this part of the island. The immigrants starting moving in around 1918, creating generations of Haitians in the community, who now live in the poorest part of the neighborhood. I spoke with a man who told me he had immigrated from Haiti eight years ago. He was sitting under the sun outside of his tiny room that was being renovated to include a bathroom (courtesy of Mark’s bathroom project). The struggle these people face is apparent; housing is lacking in sustainability and safety, health issues (especially diabetes) are widespread and a shortage of industry in the area creates many low income families.
Robinson then guided us by the river, his next big project. The river is low due to the drought that has been plaguing this island for a year and was also filled with trash. There is a lack of infrastructure in this country that doesn’t support waste management leaving each community responsible for disposing of their own trash. Larger cities can afford to create their own waste management systems, but towns like Pancho Mateo have to resort to burning their trash, transporting it to landfills themselves or throwing it into the environment. The streets and fields were littered with waste that chickens peck through and people step over. The dried up river bed is embedded with trash while discarded bottles and bags float on top of the river but a few children still splashed and played in the low water as we observed the damage this system was causing to the environment. Robinson explained that due to a lack of education and motivation, this is how his people had learned to get rid of their garbage, he even did it at one point. But seeing NGOs and service groups come into his community and attempt to clean up their mess inspired him to motivate his own community to take action and responsibility. He is starting a group called Green Hope and plans to gather members of his community to clean up the river and inspire residents to keep their area clean and discard of their garbage in a better way.
We did recognize that this was apart of their culture and that it might be seen as disrespectful to judge them for their actions. Robinson said it was sort of a hereditary issue; in 1918 when the Haitian immigrants began coming to this community, they felt disconnected from the land and didn’t want to care for it or better it in any way. So they discarded of their trash and littered the streets because they were not theirs. This train of thought has been passed down and has greatly affected the community today. Either ways, being in their town was one of the most eye opening experiences any of us have ever had. “Walking around made me realize I take a lot for granted” Stella reflected and many agreed with her. We all feel humbled and grateful for the life we live in America. There is not only a language gap, but a difference in lifestyle that most of us recognized as honorable. The people of their town live in a positive and honest way. The few hours we spent in Pancho Mateo were powerful and allowed for deep reflection as a group. We are all thankful for the time we spent in their town.