As a child, I would visit the Dominican Republic every summer with my mother and sister. Unfortunately, just after my sixth birthday, the yearly trips ended. I have vague memories of my time there. I always remembered smells and tastes, feeling nostalgic when my grandparents would visit us in New York, bringing Dominican cheese and sweets every time. I longed to return to the country of my heritage and relive the moments I could hardly remember. This summer I was finally able to return to the neighborhood my parents grew up in, and it was not exactly what I expected.
I didn’t think culture shock was something I would experience since I had been to the Dominican Republic before. I definitely remember mosquito bites, bathing from a bucket, and having no air conditioners when I was six years old in Santo Domingo. But when I actually arrived at Aeropuerto Internacional de Las Americas, I felt unprepared and quickly realized that what I experienced as a young child would be very different to what I would experience as a young adult.
The first thing that hit me was the humidity, and I was quickly covered in a layer of sweat that I learned would remain for the entirety of my trip. I relived my childhood memories of bathing from water in a big yellow bucket every day. During the day there were times when the power would go out and a backup generator would kick in. When this happened, we had to keep the lights off, refrain from using outlets, and even keep some or all the fans off to prevent from draining all the backup energy. I never uttered the words, “Se fue la luz,” so many times in my life. At night, my sister and I had to check our bed for bugs and sleep under a mosquito net. After the first few nights of being attacked by insects, bug spray became my best friend. Each day started with loud greetings from roosters at 6 in the morning.
It was all very different from what I am accustomed to. There were times when I wondered how people could live with such heat and lack of order in the streets, but I understood that most of the people there don’t know any other way to live. It made me appreciate everything that I have in the country I live in. We Americans have a knack for complaining about what we have, not even realizing that elsewhere people don’t have access to things that are completely normal to us, such as constant electricity or Wi-Fi.
Just like there are many things I have at home that I didn’t have access to in the Dominican Republic, there were many things I experienced in DR that I personally do not have in the US. My grandparents have an avocado tree that produced the biggest avocados I’ve ever seen in my life. We ate avocado everyday. My family and I traveled to the campos, the countryside, where my father has distant family members and where my grandmother grew up. While I was there, I went to the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen in person. The water was completely blue, the sand was white, and there were palm trees surrounding the whole thing. It was there that a local boy climbed a tree and knocked down coconuts. A companion of ours had a machete and voila, coconut water straight from the source. The way people can just live off the land was so amazing to me. Exploring the land, the mountains, the river, and enjoying the sheer beauty of nature that I don’t see in New York City, made my entire trip. And yet, those are the very things the locals don’t always notice because they’re surrounded by it every day.
I saw parts of the Dominican Republic where people don’t have much. They live off the land and make their entire livelihood selling their produce and anything else they can. And yet, I encountered some of the most kind and generous people while there. People were so quick to show hospitality, to open up their homes, and show us something new. They had little, but at the same time, they had so much to offer. It made me reflect on how in the US, people can have the whole world, or just be well off, and don’t lend a helping hand anywhere. You don’t need to have much to be content. You don’t need to be rich to help someone out. I knew all this before, but witnessing it in action, completely reinforced it for me.
Finally visiting the Dominican Republic again after all these years was truly eye opening. I definitely refuse to take for granted the many privileges I have as an American citizen, but I have a much greater appreciation from the culture I come from. I learned not to be afraid to try something just because it’s different from what you may be used to. I learned not to make assumptions about people’s standard of living, something many of us have struggles with. Most of all, I have become more aware of the fact that you don’t always know where a person is coming from.
With a new semester starting and having the privilege of being on a campus with students from over 80 countries, I am not only aware that my classmates come from different cultures and situations, but I have a greater appreciation for them. I hope to learn more about my culture as well as the cultures that make up the student body of UB. I encourage my fellow domestic and even international classmates to do the same. When you’re open minded and aware of the people around you, you have the world at your fingertips.
