Recycle to the rhythm of the Dominican 'dembow'

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It's nine in the morning, shortly after breakfast, and the music is already playing in Sabana Yegua.

The hours pass and, at two in the afternoon, it is still at full volume in the town.

At bedtime, he still hasn't stopped for a moment.

This is what typically the days in the Dominican Republic are, where you eat, play, walk and talk to the rhythm of music.

And being that way we think: why don't we also recycle with music?

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It's been six years since we discovered Sabana Yegua, a rural community in the southwest of the country.

We came as volunteers for three summers and fell in love with the town, the people and the project.

This time we have come to coordinate the Recicla + recycling program, promoted by the Nuevos Caminos Association and which began in 2016

hand in hand with the Sagrada Familia parish and young enthusiasts in the area, convinced that better waste management could be done.

More than four years after it began, on February 9, three volunteers arrived from Barcelona with the aim of helping to make Sabana Yegua the first town in the Dominican Republic to separate waste to be recycled in all its homes.

It was shortly after arriving that we discussed the project with our friend Yomaira, a 20-year-old Savannah woman from Yegüense whom we had met in our previous stays.

He lacked time to improvise verses and the next day he came up with a

dembow-

style song

for the project.

He had written it while walking towards his mother's house, with a pot (bottle) in hand to go and throw it in the trash (trash).

That talent is what has led her to create her own songs and adopt the stage name Mala Queen.

In a genre like 'dembow', in which most of the lyrics of the songs are sexualized and about love problems, it is very valuable to find songs that, without going out of the fashion rhythm, give a positive message and with educational values

This new song from Mala Queen, titled “Recycle”, we loved it. She was singing and we were listening, amazed, to the verses that came out of her mouth. With each phrase we heard, he was more accurate in his words. In a genre like 'dembow', in which most of the lyrics of the songs are sexualized and about love problems, it is very valuable to find songs that, without going out of the fashion rhythm, give a positive message and with educational values.

"In the house or on the sidewalk it is contaminated as it wants ...",

begins the first verse.

Indeed, wherever we are, we pollute and from Recicla + we offer workshops to community groups, businesses and schools to raise awareness, above all, of the importance of caring for the planet in all environments.

Mala Queen simplifies our solution in its catchy chorus:

"If it is in the house, recycle

If you are on the street, recycle

If it's on the beach, recycle. "

"A job for anyone, you can do it your way,"

continues the song.

Again, the lyrics reflected one of our ideals.

The right to a healthy environment should be for everyone, as well as the duty to care for it as well.

For this reason, our activities are aimed at children and adults, Haitians and Dominicans, women and men.

A recycling bin in the Dominican city of Sabana Yegua.Asociación Nuevos Caminos

“It is very easy to recycle and it will cost you nothing.

Just by taking simple steps, you will become a hero ”,

says the topic later.

Mala Queen emphasizes the importance of small actions so that it is the sum of all of them that has an impact.

None of us will change the world individually, but our every action is important to do so.

Yomaira is giving some examples of those changes that we can all make:

"Let's no longer use foam cups,

Those hurt a lot.

You can recycle a pot

Throwing it in the trash can.

You can use it again

for your water to carry

This way you save money

And you help to recycle. "

In a country where there is very little talk about the environment and sustainability, the really difficult thing is to reach the public and raise awareness of the importance of waste generation. In that sense, Mala Queen's collaboration with the project is being a great help to us to move to the rhythm of a country that follows in the footsteps of music at all hours. The song is already playing on local radio stations, through the streets of Sabana Yegua and can be found on YouTube.

It fills us with illusion that we cannot take any credit for the song - beyond the 4 steps without rhythm that we take in the video clip.

The future of this and any international cooperation project depends on the involvement of the local population.

In our case, the production of that song is just one example of the involvement of the people of Sabana Yegua, but we have also signed a collaboration agreement with the City Council and the acceptance in shops and schools is being very good.

Over the next year we want it to go further, to reach the entire population and expand it to the neighboring community of Project 4. In the meantime, we will try to get some of the Dominican rhythm to stick with us.

Marta Samitier, Marc Vila and Carlota Comellas,

volunteers from the Nuevos Caminos Association.

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