It was about the third day into the trip that we finally settled into a routine. I was told “you will be hot and grimy by hour one” that was the first truth we learned. What I wasn’t prepared for was the dirt, trash and exposed sewage or the smell of burning plastic. We traveled in vans and relied heavily on the translators. We spent most of our time in Maggiolos-which means Hole of Pigs - a mixed community of Dominicans and Haitians which sits near a garbage dump where ma

Life is an all-day, every day struggle to turn something into money for Vanessa and Shelia. They are 19 and 16 respectively. These young women live in a mixed Dominican/Haitian Community called “Hole of the Pigs”. Their work consists of cleaning up plastic jugs that have been found in the garbage dump. They use diesel fuel to get the labels and glue off of the outside by scraping and then with Clorox and soap water they wash the buckets inside and out using a toothbrush and