A Reality Walk for Priceless, Humbling Moments. (Day 6)

May 22nd, 2014
Day Six

Aerial View of the Village

Santiago Slums

After a long night of drinks and partying, it brought me to an early morning of service and duty. Today we were traveling to the The Accíon Callejer youth center in Santiago. It's located near a batey (or a slum) in Santiago. Being able to see and be around the kids was definitely something I was looking forward to being around. Many people in the city and in the slum village are able to participate at the youth center. Children living on the streets, family program participants, displaced unaccompanied children, victims of rape, or children with no legal identification populate the children who benefit from the youth center.

Priceless Moments

 
 

A Beautiful Dominican Little Girl

Most of the children come from poor rural households in the village and they do not have the basics covered, with high rates of domestic violence and a link at an early age into the labor market, the street becomes their workplace and source of income.

Something that I won't ever forget during my time at the youth center is that the children really enjoyed our time with them. It was one of the best feelings to see how my peers and I could make their day. While the children were playing games outside near the basketball court, Dr. Tyler thought it would be a good idea for me to do a slam dunk for the kids. When I did it, they all enjoyed it, and it made me feel really great seeing that something so simple could brighten up a bunch of children's lives. I wish I could've spent more time with them.

Me Dunking for the Kids

After our time spent with the children, we had the chance to walk through the entire village and see how the people lived and interacted there. During our walk, reality had began to really hit us as a group. When all had seen poverty at some form, but this experience was different. This experience created a new definition of what poverty was and is. Really humbled me. It's crazy because you see poverty in developing countries on television and you don't believe that people are really living like this, until you see it with your own two eyes. Seeing how they lived in "shacks'' built on top and next one another the way that they are puts life into perspective and makes you question the things you really complain and stress about.

Beautiful Children

Motivated Dominican Boy

 I'm almost certain that the people living in the community do not have access to clean water, and the resources that they have are extremely limited. The pictures I have can only do so much for the message that I am trying to convey. It was saddening, that they had to live the way that they live, but the thing is the people of the village lived and greeted us with such a high spirit and joy when they interacted with us. Children were taking pictures with us displaying a smile so genuine and innocent as if they didn't have a worry in the world. Seeing this made me really think about and appreciate where I came from and where I will be going in my life. What an experience!

Dominican Family

Dominican Boys

#BreezingInTheDR

1st Night Out (Day 5)

May 21, 14

Day Five

           

By this time with our experience in Santiago, everything has turned into a routine, with the days starting out as breakfast then going to class, our lunch break then an afternoon session with ISA. Our session today was a professor from the local university came in and spoke to us about the Dominican and Haitian relations. He spoke a lot about the history and the independence that the Dominicans have as well.

After all the business was handled we took the rest of the day to have some fun and hangout at our classmates Home-stays. We were all looking for an opportunity to step out and see what the nightlife in the Dominican Republic was all about. From the word of mother of other classmates’ host-siblings, we found out that there was a “Ladies Night” at a near by club called Dubai. With it being ladies night, all ladies were able to get in for free and drink for free. I don’t know how it happened but I know the guy in our group got in for free, lucky us!

Me and Kayla

Dominicano Breeze

Me and Indigo

            We arrived very early so there weren’t many people in the club but we enjoyed listening to the music that they were playing. Not too much different from what we were used to in the states, but it was a pleasure to see the influence American music had on their songs. Many of the songs they played may have used some of the similar beats and ballads in their songs.

The Roommates Sean and Josh

My Girls Dajuan and Alaysia

          

         As time has passed, people begin to pour in the club and they ended up playing American music in the club. One thing I found interesting was that their drinks were really strong and that it is a norm that Dominicans have 2-3 drinks in an outing, and Americans we almost drink until we can’t no more.      Needless to say, I woke up with one of the worst hangover’s I’ve ever had. Ahhhh I hate those!!

#BreezingInTheDR

150 Pesos for a haircut?? That's $3 in American Money! (Day 4)

May 20, 2014

Day Four

This day was pretty similar to yesterday with the likes of having class early in the morning and having our lunch break. But after our lunch we visited the Centro León Museum in Santiago. The museum was a basically a pretty well in depth timeline of how the Dominican people have developed and grew over time with many of their culture influences coming from African, European, and Spanish ties.  

After our day at the museum we went back to our home-stay and I went with my roommate Sean to watch him get a haircut from the local barbershop that was around the corner from our home. I would’ve been a little skeptical about allowing another person cut my hair, but I always feel that way. Sean needed a haircut bad though.

 

When we got to the barbershop, we ran into the language barrier again and the best way we were able to explain to him how Sean wanted his hair cut was to show him old pictures in his phone and on the hairstyles poster. I would say the barber’s method of cutting hair was different but it was good. Sean’s haircut came out really smooth, the barber got him together. The best thing about the haircut was the price that it was. The haircut was only 150 pesos, which is equivalent to about 3 American dollars. So that was a great deal, because the average price for a haircut in the United States is roughly around 15 dollars depending on what type of haircut you get.

1st Day of Classes! (Day 3)

May 19^th, 2014

Day Three

Day 3 of my trip started with an early morning with all of us having to walk to our first day of classes. Our classroom for the week would be in a room that would be in a room of a local hotel.

            Our initial class was a Spanish speaking class, where ISA brought in a local Spanish professor from the university to teach us the basics of the language. I feel that this was necessary because once we arrived to Santiago; the language barrier was an instant obstacle we had to overcome with the people in the community.

            In the lessons we learned pretty much the basics of words we would use interacting with our homestay families and people from the local markets and surrounding stores. The only thing bad about the experience was that it was tough to keep my attention after the first hour and a half. The entire class was almost 4 hours long.

            After our first class we had our lunch break and I was really looking forward to that because here in the DR, it’s a norm to have a 2-hour lunch break in between class and professions. So we were able to come back to our homestay have lunch and then have enough time for a quick nap.

            As lunch ended we proceeded to make our way back to class. Our next class was very interesting we were discussing how much of an impact the culture had on us so far during the experience, the similarities and differences in cultures and things we should look forward to trying to take away from the abroad experience. What I liked from the discussion was that everyone was from various backgrounds and had experiences that all made us appreciate the opportunities we have as Americans.

            This pretty much sums up the day for all the activities we had to do.

Day 2 in the DR! (Sunday)

May 18^th, 2014 (Sunday)

Day 2

C-A-T-S! CATS, CATS, CATS!

              Waking up from my first night in Santiago was ok. I was somewhat rested from going to sleep so early, but I kept waking up in and out of my sleep from the humidity that was in my room. We don’t have any AC so the outside temperature reflects how the house feels during the day. When Josh and I are in our room, we have the fan on full blast!

            When it was time to take a shower I didn’t know that I was supposed to use the heating element to take a shower. So my first shower was very cold and quick. I later learned that you must turn the heating element on at first to allow it to warm the water up for 10-15minutes prior to getting in the shower.

An abandoned house with Barbed Wires a block away from my home.

            As we made our way downstairs, breakfast was already made for us, or prepared for us I should say. We had cereal and fruit before we left the house.

            Heading to the ISA office where we had the welcoming orientation and met with the staff. At the ISA office a lot of the students were excited because we all finally where in a place that had Internet service. During our orientation we met two students that were from other schools. Mark who is from Delaware who attends West Virginia University, and Kory who is from Michigan and attends the University of Michigan. They are interning for 8 weeks here in the Dominican Republic. In our orientation we were informed about rules, procedures and regulations of life and the culture here in the DR.

            After orientation, we made our way to the “Super Mercado” which is the supermarket where we could exchange our money into the pesos. I exchanged out $200 and I received 8,610 Pesos. From My amount it seems like I am wealthy compared to the typical person living here.

            We had lunch at this pretty cool restaurant called, Square One. Square One on the outside looked like it was a gas station but it was pretty nice inside. ISA gave us an allowance of 500 pesos for our meal. I ate Chicken quesadillas with Chicken and Steak Fajitas. I also got a "Tequila Sunrise" that was equivalent to $3 in America. The Price difference is real out here.

Pesos (Dominican Currency)

            After lunch, we toured the city and we got a great first hand look at how the people in the community interact and live. A lot of the places and buildings in the community of Santiago look like high poverty stricken areas. Trash is everywhere on the ground and streets of the city. I can remember a guy was trying to sell live rabbits out of a cage to us. There are a lot of markets and corner stores.

A Brief Video driving through the city of Santiago, Dominican Republic

 One thing that stood out was I seen a whole family on the back of a motorcycle. Seriously, like 4 people on the back of one motorcycle driving through the streets. I don’t know how they did it.

Heroes of the Restoration
Monument

            We were able to visit the Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration, which we learned about how the Dominican Republic gained its independence each time. In the monument they had very nice paintings and décor. Probably my favorite part about the visit was the view that we had overlooking the city of Santiago. The view was incredible.

My Girl Whitney and I at the top of the
Heroes of the Restoration Monument

Dominicano Breeze

            Once we arrived back to our host family’s house we pretty much had the rest of the day to ourselves. The first thing I did was getting me some sleep. My nap was only for a couple of hours but it were well needed. Waking up early and walking around and being active in that heat will definitely take a toll on you. When the rest of the guys woke up from their nap we went walking around the neighborhood to find out what was around us and to interact with the community. We found a corner store and we were able to buy bottled waters and snacks to have at the house. I had seen that they had the “Presidente” cervezas, so I had to try those. Cervezas is the Spanish word for beer, and the “Presidente” is the popular brand of beer to drink. I thought they were good they remind me of a Corona or a Heineken. Leaving the store we headed back to the house to get ready for dinner.

            Eh, The first dinner wasn’t really ideal food for me. Especially for the eating habits I have. I’m used to eating small meals 4-5 times a day, but not 3 meals a day, where the lunch meal is the biggest meal of the day. For dinner, we had salami and plaintains. I’m not a big fan of the plaintains though. They definitely were too bland and needed a whole lot of flavor for my likings.

            After dinner, we were privileged to have some of our friends/classmates come over and we were able to hangout and play cards. This was good and appreciated because our host aunt didn’t have to allow us to have company, but she did, and we all were able to bond together and talk about our trip so far from what we experienced. We had a great time!

More words, and more experiences tomorrow!