VISIONS has been in the Dominican Republic since 1991. We are part of summer life in the Sabana Perdida neighborhood where we reside. Participants in the D.R. become part of a long legacy of service and friendship.

Our home is a two-story house in a quiet neighborhood in Sabana Perdida, a section of Santo Dominigo on the city’s northern edge where we know our neighbors well. The neighborhood in which we live is Milloncito. Streets are narrow and people always about. It is an intimate neighborhood where we’ve lived off and on since 1992.

Staffers and students live together in gender-separate rooms. There are bunk beds and cubbies for your personal stuff and handy access to bathrooms and showers. Keep in mind that fresh water is precious, so showers are short and not always taken every day. That’s when bucket showers kick in! Our living space is  simple, clean and sufficient. We do laundry once a week. In some sections of Santo Domingo electricity is shut off routinely for a few hours daily, including in our neighborhood. VISIONS has a generator for such times, to keep electricity and lights on in the evenings. Living is simple, clean, easy and welcoming.

Five days a week after breakfast you will head to your chosen service project with your work team and a staffer or two. We typically work five or six hours, with short breaks and at least one hour for lunch. A rotating group of three or four students and one staffer stays back from projects each day for "home base" crew. The crew tidies up and cleans our living space, collects the mail, goes to market for the day’s fresh-food shopping, prepares lunch, and helps Victorina, our cook, with dinner preparations and clean-up afterwards. Home base crew might join another work crew later in the day. Several evenings each week after dinner, we set aside time to meet as a group of volunteers. This is a slow-down time to speak and listen to each other, share our reactions to the day or iron out occasional issues together. Once a week, everyone has the opportunity to call home.

After work we make time for going to the beach, playing soccer or bitilla with local youth, strolling the lively marketplaces, practicing Spanish with local friends, showering and just relaxing before dinner.

In the DR you are fully immersed in the life and language of our Sabana Perdida neighborhood. We work side-by-side every day with maestros who speak only Spanish, no English. This doesn’t stop them, however, from the good-natured nudging they’ll give you to use your Spanish language skills to communicate with them. We will visit a traditional sugarcane community, have meringue dance lessons and intercambios with Dominican teens, explore the historic Colonial zone and the upscale shops of Santo Domingo, perhaps visit the home of a renowned author to learn more about the DR’s history, and have day visits throughout your stay with local families who know VISIONS well.

Weekends are all about exploring. We’ll spend days at the beach swimming and snorkeling, take a three-day trip into the Dominican Alps for hiking and to visit a popular waterfall, have get-aways to beautiful beaches, and an evening of dancing at one of Santo Domingo’s most popular dance clubs built within a web of underground caves. Because there’s music everywhere, all the time, impromtu singing and dancing are daily occurrences.

The Ramos Family - Santos, Lidia, and Alberto
In many ways the Ramos’ are characteristic of Dominican families, warm and outgoing, loving, hard working, ready to laugh. In other ways, the Ramos family is unique. They are legendary in their community for their integrity and selfless service. For nearly two decades the Ramos family has been our family in the Dominican Republic. They embrace us, guide and advise us, provide loving wisdom and active support. Their contributions to their own community and to VISIONS embody the commitment to service that VISIONS strives to pass on to our participants. Indeed, the service model of the Ramos family transcends the borders of their or any other country.

Santos and Lidia are long-standing, still active charter members, and both past Presidents, of Club de Leones Sabana Perdida, El Milloncito (affiliate of the Santo Domingo and international Lions Clubs).

Carlos “Santos” Bonifacio Ramos owns a small colmado corner store in the Elio Franco neighborhood of north Santo Domingo where the Ramos’ make their home. He works seven days a week selling food and supplies to neighborhood residents. Somehow, Santos finds the extra time to actively volunteer in his community, and throughout the year Santos coordinates and plans projects, builds and nurtures key relationships that make VISIONS’s program unique. Each summer Santos leaves his shop in a neighbor’s hands and joins VISIONS on a daily basis to supervise work projects, create and develop ever-stronger ties between us and our host community. Santos is nothing less than the wise, discerning and eminently respected elder.

Ysidra Espino—Lidia—is Santos’ wife. She is an educator and coordinates philanthropic and service projects in the poorest of the poor local batey communities where Haitian immigrants and unemployed sugar plantation workers struggle to make ends meet. Lidia, mother to all, to her family and to VISIONS staff and participants as well, offering love and affection in a faraway and often challenging environment.

Santos and Lidia’s son, Alberto, was 16 when VISIONS first came to Sabana Perdida. As a teenager he worked alongside VISIONS participants to build Melvin Jones School, which also serves as the hurricane shelter for El Milloncito neighborhood. He later taught English for several years at Melvin Jones. Alberto is currently working on his Ph.D. in French and English. Alberto is VISIONS’ Program Coordinator during the off-season. Every summer Alberto makes the difficult choice to leave his wife, Kenia, and their three adorable children at home in order to live at VISIONS’ home base. Defining the many roles Alberto plays in a VISIONS summer is impossible; his contributions are so diverse and absolutely indispensable. Like his parents, Alberto cares deeply about the betterment of his community and holds a profound belief in the power of VISIONS to positively affect the communities and our participants that come together summer after summer. To Santos, Lidia and Alberto, nuestra familia en La Republic Dominica, we extend our gratitude.