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