After a tourn in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, communications officer Sara Fajardo is traveling in Guyana, reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us.

I left the Dominican Republic with a heavy heart. Watched the beaches whip by me as the sun rose over the island. A 15-hour trip awaited me. There are no direct flights from the D.R. to Guyana, I’d have to fly to Miami and make my way south again.
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Communications Officer Sara Fajardo is traveling in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us.

When labor lawyer Michel Valdemar arrives to a Batey on the outskirts of San Pedro Marcorís in the Dominican Republic, it is not a visit, it’s an event.
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Communications Officer Sara Fajardo is traveling in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us.

One of the children of Batey II in Mao, Dominican Republic. The shantytown recently launched a campaign to help resolve conflicts. Photo by Sara A. Fajardo

Batey II is a shantytown right outside of the city of Mao in the Dominican Republic. Around a 1,000 people live in the one-room shacks made of scrap tin and plywood. It’s comparable in size to three U.S. city blocks. Moonlight is the only light shed here at night. Water comes from holes dug deep into the ground, protected by no more than a rubber tire at the mouth.

Rosalba and I arrive at the Batey’s CRS sponsored conflict resolution center located along the community’s only strip of road and greet the Batey’s leaders. Maria is sweeping a weekend’s worth of dust from the concrete floor, Daniel is outside shooting the breeze with a handful of locals.
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Communications Officer Sara Fajardo is in the Dominican Republic reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us. This is her report from Saturday, Feb. 21, delayed because she couldn’t get an Internet connection.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, while the D.R. has one of the highest GDPs in Latin America. CRS partner Solidaridad Fronteriza (Border Solidarity) works to build legal venues for commerce and immigration between the two countries. Photo by Sara A. Fajardo

It cost me $25 to leave the Dominican Republic and $1 to enter Haiti.
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Communications Officer Sara Fajardo is in the Dominican Republic reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us. This is her report from Friday, Feb. 20, delayed because she couldn’t get an Internet connection.

At 6 a.m., an hour before the first stirrings of twilight, my traveling companion, Rosalba and I stood by the banks of the Massacre River looking across to Haiti. It’s market day and on such days the Dominican government allows Haitians to enter freely into Dajabón to sell and purchase wares.
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Communications Officer Sara Fajardo is in the Dominican Republic reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us.

A six-hour ride through cities, rice fields, and shantytowns on a bright blue and yellow Caribe Tours bus and my traveling companion Rosalba Gómez and I find ourselves in Dajabon. We are picked up by our partners from Solidaridad Fronteriza (Border Solidarity) on the standard mode of transportation in this town, motorcycles.
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Communications Officer Sara Fajardo is in the Dominican Republic reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us.

A patch of turbulent skies, a “the engine-needs-a-part-change” delay, and seven hours later I find myself touching down in Santo Domingo. Applause erupts as the airplane lands on a strip of asphalt surrounded by verdant tropical plants and gray-blue ocean waters.
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As part of my job as a communications officer for Latin America and the Caribbean I routinely travel to the field. This time around I’ll be visiting CRS programming in the Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Haiti.

In the next 17 days I’ll meet street children, visit schools, talk with Haitian refugees, spend a few days at hospices and clinics that treat people who have been diagnosed with HIV. I’ll go to the market with local growers, and travel to the Guyanese jungle where Amerindian children are being given access to the internet. I’ll travel along dirt roads and urban freeways. But like all journeys with CRS, the trip begins with a visit to the Johns Hopkins Travel Clinic.
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