Lean On Me

**ATTENTION: the video for this has now been uploaded on the Absolute Facebook page, or click on the link at the bottom of my blog page :) **

"Lean on me, when you're not strong

I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on

For it won't be long till I'm gonna need, somebody to lean on"

We drove up to Agua Negra today carrying lots of donations and food for our family. As we arrived at our house, we noticed something different. It turns out the locals worked until 9 o'clock last night to finish smoothing out the walls and then woke up early this morning to pain the entire house & floor. We thought we were working hard- they just never stop!! It was a great surprise to start off the day!!!

As we arrived at the house we set up the donations and a giant cake on the table inside the new house. My friend Georgia and I met up with our new best friend, Carolina, outside her new house for a few minutes before the dedication. She looks at us with her beautiful big brown eyes and then hands us each a letter. The translator explained what the letter said and never in my life have I felt such joy, I literally gained a best friend- a new sister. In the letter, Carolina said that she is so thankful for us and thanks us for building her mother a beautiful house. She hopes that we keep in touch throughout the years (and yes, she has Facebook)!!! When I was listening to everything that she wrote to me, I couldn't help but to break down in tears. She also gave us a photo of her to bring home with us. I have known this girl for 5 days and it feels like we have been friends forever. She took care of us and we took care of her, she will always hold a special place in my heart. Regardless of the language barrier, we always laughed and talked about family and life. She is so beautiful and reminds me of why I keep coming back on these trips. We changed her entire family's life.

The house dedication was something so memorable I don't even know if I can describe it. We stood around the family in their new home and started off by singing to them. Together as a team we sang "Lean On Me" and told them that their new house as well as our new friendships are something they will always have to lean on. We will forever be in their hearts and they will always be in ours. After we sang our song the mother of the new house, Angela, spoke. What she said was very difficult for me to grasp. The one thing that really stuck with me was when she told us that she had been praying for somebody to help her family. Never in my life did I think that I would be somebody's answered prayers. Me. Somebody prayed for a new house and a better life, and I was able to be their solution. How can I wrap my head around that? I am an answered prayer for this family. Our team together changed the lives of 7 people forever. As we handed over the keys to the house and the tears went down my face, I was trying to catch my breath. We did it. We made an entire family's dream come true in just one week. Nothing will ever be comparable to today. The feelings inside, the emotions running crazy, the friendships we created, nothing can be replaced. We built a house for this family, but we also built hope. Hope is not an easy thing to find, especially when you're living in unsanitary, knee-deep water. But this family now has hope. Hope for the future, hope for others, hope for each other. I now have hope. I have hope for the future of others and hope that I can make a difference in many people's lives. The only way to describe this day is magical. It was literally a dream come true and I am so honoured to be a part of it. As much as we changed their lives, they changed ours.

Saying good-bye is always hard, but after working alongside this family for four days, it was even harder than usual. I didn't want to let any of the children go as I hugged them good-bye. I cannot wait to come back in the future and see the familiar faces all over again. I will never ever forget this day, it is the day that has forever changed my life. To know that today, July 10, we changed a family's life. We provided them with a sanitary home, a bathroom of their own, a stove to cook on, and most importantly, a front door to lock. They now have the security that every family deserves, they have privacy, they have everything that they deserve. I could not be happier to be a part of this family and have learnt so much from them. I hold this day close to my heart and will always remember the feelings running through my body and mind that day.

This will be my last post of the Dominican Republic 2011 :) Thank you so much for reading my blog and commenting :) I love you all so much!!!

Love you lots!!!

Bianca :) xo

I will leave you with a quote that I was told today by the co-founder of Absolute, it states how we are who we want to be and have the ability to create our own history..

"History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it" - Winston Churchill

Fun in the... Rain!

Alright! So today was our very last work day so of course we made the most of it! We went to Agua Negra ready to finish the house for our family- and that's just what we did! Today we put the floor in our house. Which sounds easy right? Not in the DR! We made the concrete outside the house and then filled up the buckets and passed them along the human chain. The contractor inside would level out the concrete and make it smooth. After lunch, we worked in... well the pouring rain. It was the most fun I had all day! We splashed around, sang songs, and danced with one another! The best part about this... was that the house was staying completely dry. The family will no longer have to empty out their house with buckets of water or worry about rats running through their house. They will always remain dry when it rains and most importantly- their health will improve!! Seeing the smiles on the kids faces while building the home and playing in the rain was heartwarming. Knowing that we are putting a roof over somebody's head is honestly an indescribable feeling. It just brings such joy and happiness to everybody around you... I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it!

Tomorrow is our house dedication where we literally give the house to the family :) They will sign the papers and receive donations!! Cannot wait!!!!!

Love you all lots :)

Bianca xxoo

Happiness

Hola! The internet connection went down so I have lots to tell you over the past few days!!

Yesterday we went to the dump. The Garbage Dump is one of the most emotionally draining days throughout the entire trip. You work alongside a local, usually of Haitian background. What is really difficult to wrap your mind around is the fact that the person you are standing next to is stateless.

Imagine cutting your foot and needing stitches- but you can't get them. Imagine wanting to go to school and become a doctor- but you can't get an education. Imagine wanting to leave your country to travel or get a better life- but you can't. Why? Because you have no documentation that proves that you exist. Many of us don't even think twice about how much a birth certificate means. Several people in the garbage dump remain stateless- someone with no registered citizenship or nationality. They don't belong anywhere or to anyone and to many, they don't exist. Imagine not existing?? It just doesn't seem possible.

With that being said, statelessness plays a huge role in poverty. Many individuals cannot get ahead, even if they wanted to. The children cannot enrol in school because they have no record of even being bored. Statelessness limits many opportunities for the people out here.

The garbage dump was extremely difficult to get through. We picked through garbage to find plastic bottles that could be recycled. The individuals make approximately 40 cents a bag, resulting in about 1-2 dollars every day. Imagine living off $1 a day? It doesn't even seem possible. The garbage dump day was a lot to wrap your head around. It's very difficult to put yourself in their shoes, to really understand what they go through each and every day of their lives.

I worked alongside a girl who was only 15 years old. She would constantly pick up clothing she would find and keep it for herself to wear later. At one point, she found a bag of uneaten crackers and took one and ate it. I couldn't help but to just stare, who was I to tell her what she can and cannot eat? She turned over to me and offered me a cracker. Here I am thinking about my life. If I were to even drop a piece of cracker on the ground, I would throw it out... and here she is eating crackers she found in a pile of garbage?! Something is seriously wrong with this picture and something needs to be done. We ended up filling about two-three bags together before I had to leave. Overall, the dump experience is one that is impossible to forget. The things you see, the people you meet, and most significantly- the smell of poverty will always be remembered.

While I was there, working alongside the 15 year old girl, I couldn't help but to imagine my life at 15. I was in school and playing sports.. a place where children belong. She should be in school and she should be outside playing sports or drawing or learning an instrument- not going through garbage to try and make it through each day. Sometimes things just seem so unjust and its difficult to fake a smile for the day... but the people here make the most of every moment and possess something we should all have- true happiness. You can see it in their eyes, feel it in their hugs, and hear it in their voices- they know what true happiness is.

The garbage dump has taught me so much about what to value, and how easy it is to forget what our real needs are. We overlook everything that's important or meaningful to us and pay attention to the little things that we don't necessarily need. We need to focus on what makes us happy, and that starts with the people in your lives.

This one goes out to my family, I love my family and could not be more appreciative. We have the most giving and most loving family in the entire world. There are not many families that hang out every summer weekend or go on trips with extended family. There are not many families like ours and I love every one of you guys! Thanks for the support throughout this and I cannot wait to come home to all of you!!! :)

Love You

Bianca :)

Our Project!

Alright, so this blog is just going to be a short introduction to the project that we're working on!

We started our project today in Agua Negra. Agua Negra is a small, very poor, community in the Dominican Republic. Its name translates to "Black Water" because the community is actually built on an old garbage dump and so the water is very dirty and contaminated. The people in Agua Negra are the happiest and most appreciative people I have ever met while being the D.R. So we started our build today and literally just created a human chain and passed buckets of sand and dirt. See the "streets" of Agua Negra are very small so you can't fit trucks or cars- just people. So we were what you would call the "dump truck" :) By doing this we helped to build a base for the floor and helped to create some cement to start laying blocks. It was a tiring but rewarding day!

I met the family that we are building for and they are the sweetest family ever! One of the daughters, Carolina, is about my age and worked alongside of us. There was even one moment that she took my friend and I inside her house because she had a glass of cream soda waiting for us. She was giving us drinks?? How did that make any sense. They have so little and yet all they do is give give give! It's absolutely incredible. She is the funniest and happiest girl in the world. If we don't understand something, she'll do gestures and act it out for us, we sing and laugh together all day long! I cannot wait to spend the rest of the week with her :)

I took pictures as we started and will take one at the end so you can see the finished product :) It is going to be amazing!! To build a family a home, to keep them dry at night- it's an incredible feeling that can never be replaced!

More to come :)

Love always,

Bianca

Needs & Wants

Hola!

This may or may not be a repeat from my blog last year on wants & needs but here we go...

Think about your greatest needs. Okay, now think about how much time you put into getting those needs. Not a lot right? As a team, we decided that our greatest needs are love (emotional support & relationships), food, water, & shelter, and of course health and education. Think about how long it takes for you to just drive down the road and pick up some groceries, or how difficult it is to receive "free" health care- it's really not that difficult. Our basic needs take up very little time, in fact it takes up so little time that we barely even notice them anymore. When was the last time you actually recognized that you were eating a meal... or that you were going "home". All of our needs are so easily provided for us that they go unnoticed. We do not appreciate our needs as much as we should. Our wants, however take up all of our time. We want new clothes and want to try new foods constantly. We focus so much of our time on competing and trying to meet expectations, and why? Simply to please others. We focus so much of our time trying to compete with others and trying to make others happy that it leaves us being unhappy with ourselves. We need to focus and acknowledge our needs more often and focus a lot less on our "wants."

The people here only know one thing: their needs. They know what their needs are and they strive each and every day to get their basics. I heard a quote today from my leader that he actually heard from a local in Haiti: "Poverty takes up a lot of time." And its so true, they spend their days walking to get water or trying to find food, building a home or fixing their roof. They don't have enough hours in a day to fulfill their basic needs. They focus on what they need to make it through the next day and that's all. They value things like their family and their relationships that they have, they value the food and water that they get every now and then, and most certainly- they value education. The children here want to go to school, they love going to Sunday school and absolutely love to learn- they appreciate everything that education offers them. They value each and every single day and consider their needs to be blessings.

Reflection:

Think strongly about what your needs and wants are. Do you really need all of those clothes, or all of those electronic gadgets? What are you striving for in life? Is it totally based on money and power? Cause if so, change it. Life is too short to focus on the things that don't matter. Find what you love to do and go after it, if you're unhappy then change it. Be who you want to be and make every one of your dreams come true. Live life to the fullest and look back on no regrets.

Love You All,

Bianca :)

Hugs

Who doesn't love to hug? Like come on, that warm fuzzy feeling that you get when somebody wraps their arms around you, that painful but familiar feeling when somebody hugs you just a bit too tight.... we all love hugs.

Before, a hug was something that always felt warm. But now, a hug is something of great power. A hug has the power to change somebody's life. Who would have thought right? I mean, it's just a hug. We give hugs in times of need to comfort one another or to say hello/good-bye to close friends. Here, we give hugs to show that somebody's life is of value. I hugged a little girl today and I thought I was just doing it to greet her and say hello- but it turned into so much more than that. A hug meant that I noticed her, I realized her existence, and that we were connected. I saw the value in her life and she felt that. She received contact from another human being- a complete stranger- and felt love. Felt wanted and felt worthy. All because of one thing that we take for granted: a hug.

I am a big hugger, I love hugs! But now there is greater meaning to a hug. A hug can change an individual's thoughts, feelings, and outlook on life. That little girl today knew that I was there and knew that somebody out there wanted her- and for those few minutes, that somebody was me. Some people feel frightened to go out and make a difference in the world, it can be overwhelming and scary and sometimes just frustrating, but it doesn't have to be complicated. How hard is it to give a hug? Next time you see somebody you love, a family member, a co-worker, a friend... give them a hug. It doesn't matter if they need one or not, a hug can go a long way. You never know what personal issues they are having or what kind of day they are having, so give them a hug. You would be surprised with how powerful one hug can be.

Lots of HUGS & Kisses :)

Bianca

Relationships

Hey! Sorry about the lateness, we actually arrived at 230am and then had a busy day today! We went on our awareness tour and saw the projects that we will be working on throughout the next week! My team will be building a home for a big family in Agua Negra (Black Water). This year each team will build one home for a family so we will create close relationships! And that is exactly what this blog will be about: relationships.

As we walked around the different villages today, we were welcomed with "Hola's", lots of smiles, and many hugs! Culture here and culture in Canada are to completely different realities. Imagine going outside of your house and being greeted as you walk by a total stranger. Imagine somebody totally random asking how your family is doing- just to show that they care. That is the reality here. The people here care, they care about who you are and always show genuine interest in your life. They value the relationships they have with one another and are always open to new ones. That is how they live life. They live life through one another and appreciate the ability to create long-lasting relationships. Friends are family and family are friends. We don't welcome our tourists that way, if somebody said "Hello" to us out of the blue, we would think they were crazy! But here, the people surrounding you are all you have. They don't only look for acquaintances, but just new friends. They don't only look for friends, but people to call their family. They meet new people and give them everything they got. Their graciousness, their hope, their kindness; nothing can beat the love they instantly give to you.

Reflection:

Think about the relationships you have with your loved ones. Some are obviously stronger than others, but when was the last time you inquired about your cousin's new job, your brother-in law's family, or your best friend's sister? Don't wait to show people you care- Life's too short!

Next time you meet somebody knew, inquire about their life. Learn a little something about them, put in that extra effort to show that you care. You never know whose day you'll brighten, whose heart you will touch, or whose life you will change. It never hurts to try!

Also, I will be adding a link at the bottom of the blog page that has a video about one of our project so check it out!! :)

Love you all,

Bianca :) xxoo

Welcome Back!

Hey :)

Hope everybody is doing well! As you may or may not know, I'm baaaaccckkkkkk :) I am going back to the Dominican Republic once again this year and cannot wait! Just when you thought you got rid of me... here I am blogging away again! I will try to blog as much as possible to keep in touch with my loved ones (yep, that's all of you!!!). I am so excited for this trip- especially since Mama is joining me! So feel free to read my blogs, tear up a bit, laugh a lot, and send lots of love :)

Thank you all so much for the support you have given me over the years! Some have helped me fundraise, others have allowed me to share my experiences, and all of you have helped me grow as a person! I couldn't have done any of this without all of you :) So thanks a ton!!!!

A few things have changed...

1. I rearranged my page so its all pretty colours and what not... hurraayyyy!!

2. There is a "Fun Links" section located at the bottom so play around with those- hopefully I'll be able to update it throughout the trip

3. I've allowed it so you can comment with or without an account- so don't feel obligated to make an account but I love your feedback & comments :)

4. You can always re-read blogs from last year if you just go to the write under 2010, so go wild!

Quick Reminders:

1. Check the absolute facebook page for updates (link is below)

2. If you don't feel comfortable commenting I always check my e-mails and facebook inbox

3. I LOVE YOU ALL

Can't wait to write to all of you :) Love you all so much!!!

Bianca, xxoo