Today has been a crazy and unexpected day at the office.

While Tom and I were talking in the front office waiting to have a meeting with the director of MUDHA (A Human Rights Organization Started by Dominican and Haitian Women), Sonia Pierre, the MUDHA jeep was stolen. Needless to say, chaos has ensued in the office. Although this is an extreme case, in general, my time here has had its times of confusion and chaos as well.

My primary job here is designing a new website for MUDHA. The first couple weeks were difficult, largely because of language barriers and little communication between the staff and me about what they wanted on the website. (It can be difficult talking about web design in Spanish). About a week ago, however, I made a deal with another American intern in the office, who could speak better Spanish, that he would gather the information needed for the page and I would put it on the internet.

The other part of my job here is accompanying the legal team to Bateys that MUDHA works with. Bateys are communities of workers, originally brought to the DR to cut sugar-cane, who are left largely without jobs or support from the government most of the time. Many of these people have no citizenship in the DR or in Haiti since the government many times refuses to accept children of Haitians as citizens. The MUDHA legal team goes to the Bateys and speaks to the people about documenation and the importance of trying to get their official papers.

The pictures shown are of me with some of my co-workers and a trip to a Batey.