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 traveling in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us.

Leaving Haiti I handed my passport to the same border guard who had taken down my info when I entered the country. He wrote my name, the date, my nationality, and passport number in an old fashioned ledger and checked the box for departure. Exiting Haiti, unlike every other country I’ve ever been to South of the U.S. was absolutely free.
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Communications Officer Sara Fajardo is traveling in Haiti reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us.

A little girl listens to the all girls choir at the Ascension Catholic Church in Ouianaminthe, Haiti. Photo by Sara A. Fajardo

A brass band dressed in black performed a range of joyful yet melancholy songs as pallbearers marched a gunmetal silver coffin from the Ascension Church on to Ouianaminthe, Haiti’s main street. From our perch on the Juanista Sisters’ second story balcony Rosalba and I watched as the music greeted the departed.

Uniformed school children took their place as the lead marchers in the procession, followed by friends, the elegantly etched coffin, and a family shivering with grief. Everyone was dressed in black and white finery.
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Communications Officer Sara Fajardo is traveling in Haiti reporting on CRS programs and sharing her experiences with us.

Friends play dominoes in Wanamet, Haiti. The person who is losing at the game must wear a beard of clothes pins as a playful punishment. Photo by Sara A. Fajardo

On Saturday evenings, Donad Gabaud, 34, plays dominoes with his friends. Under a corrugated tin awning, beside a dusty Haitian road, the group slaps the red pieces forcefully on to a fading black table. Arms extend upwards, slam down quickly, the crowd is quiet, concentration etched in furrowed brows. The men study their tiles, scan the board, sly smiles peeking through their seemingly stoic exteriors.
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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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I wrapped up my International Development Fellowship last week and this is my final post for the CRS Blog. There is so much I could still write about savings-led microfinance. In the end, I decided that since the process of organizing and training savings groups has been a new experience for me, I would summarize some of the lessons that I’ve learned over the past several months. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but I’ve tried to highlight the main points.
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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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