The summer following my junior year of high school, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel to the Dominican Republic for two weeks on a service trip with a group of people from my high school. I had known some friends who had already gone on this same trip and who absolutely loved it and I was excited for the chance to travel to a new place in the world and to practice my Spanish. Looking back, I am not sure what exactly I was looking to get out of the trip during the months of preparation. I was excited to meet new people, experience a new place and culture, help provide resources to people living in poverty, and have fun. I don't think that I was expecting my two week service trip to have a lasting impact on my life and I was completely wrong.
At both my high school and my college, there is an idea held by some which is that many people only go on service trips for the Instagram photo, or in other words, to promote their own image on social media. I do not completely disagree with this idea. I have seen people on social media return from a service trip, post a picture on social media of them surrounded by children, and then by a week or a month later the trip seems to be forgotten and all bonds that were formed on the trip seem to be lost.
I'm not going to lie, I returned from my trip to the Dominican Republic in July of 2014 and uploaded an Instagram photo and a Facebook album of my time away. However, my connection to my trip did not end there. Two years later I still write to my home stay family about twice a year or as often as someone I know is returning to the DR. I have helped fundraise for Education Across Borders, the organization that planned the trip I went on. I went to a fundraiser for that organization this past April and have made it my goal to return to the Dominican Republic in the near future.
Why do I still feel such a strong connection to my service trip almost two years after returning? Because the people in the Dominican Republic changed my perspective on life and touched me with so much love and hope that it has been completely impossible for me to forget my experience and move on in life as if it had never happened.
The people who have been the most unforgettable for me have undoubtedly been the family I stayed with during my week home-stay in a remote mountainous village called Franco Bido. I lived with my two host parents and my sister, Maria, who is just a few years younger than I am. I will never forget how generous my family was to me. They live in a state of poverty unimaginable to most Americans. They moved into a home only the year before that was labeled as suitable for Americans to home-stay in, meaning it had electricity and an acceptable bathroom. You would never have guessed this though as my family gave me the nicest room in their two bedroom house to stay in, meaning the whole family was pushed into one bedroom for an entire week. They always made sure I was served food first and offered me more and more food until I became so full I had to refuse. My home-stay mother would wash my clothes for me and my sister would paint my finger and toenails after a day of my house building efforts. My sister would also show me her school work and her notebooks in both English and French as she shared with me the struggle it was for her family to pay for school and the commitment it would be to have to travel a long way away to the nearest middle school as she grew older.
I have never seen or could have imagined such generosity, joy, and hope in people who have so little. I do not know how I can ever forget or repay my family for the love they showed me immediately upon meeting me and I feel it is my responsibility to show them I have not forgotten them. I write to my family every chance I get and they always write back with letters that warm my heart and fill me with such a pang of homesickness to return to these truly amazing people who hold a spot in my heart as if they actually were my family.
My classmate who did the home-stay with me was equally moved by the generosity our family showed us and she helped organize our group to fundraise enough money to send our sister, Maria, to school for another year. I dream of returning to the Dominican Republic to see Maria graduate from high school and I pray that she gets this opportunity because she holds so much intelligence and passion and I have zero doubt that she will be so successful, if only she is given the chance to follow her dreams.
Reflecting back on my two weeks in the Dominican Republic, I could go on and on about the people and experiences during my stay that I will never forget and that gave me a new sense of hope, awe, heartbreak, and that instilled in me what I hope and believe will be a lifetime commitment to justice. My pictures of my stay are only the surface of what has now come to be the most transformative experience of my life. It is one that I think of every single day and that has touched my life in so many aspects, from the clothes I buy, to the food I eat, to my perspectives on current world issues. While I know that not everyone has the opportunity to go abroad as I did, I hope that everyone in their lifetime can have the opportunity to meet people that can open their eyes to the injustices in this world that are fought with overwhelming love and hope against all odds. Injustice is everywhere and I have come to believe that it is not until we as a society begin to confront it, carry it with us, and let it shape how we try to live our lives that the world will begin to change for the better.
