Dear Dominican Republic, I Can't Wait to Meet You!

Spring Break is less than two weeks away and I am excited and nervous, anxious, and ready to go! Very soon I will be in the Dominican Republic helping to construct buildings, and working in coffee fields to set up a sustainable way for the Dominicans to continue a profitable business when we leave. There have been several meetings so far that have been prepping me for our departure. The first one was a time where I got to meet the group of ten people that I will be going with and we just chatted about our expectations and our personality types and how all of our differences are going to help make this trip that much better. Every day of the trip we will be doing prayer and reflection; we each have one of the core values that we will represent on our day. My partner and I were given cura personalis or care for the whole person. I think that this will be fun to do some sort of reflection on in the morning time because the whole point of the trip is to help someone else, and to understand them. Not to put them as person of their circumstances, but as a human being who is striving to be beyond their circumstances. I really hope this trip will help me to act more in line with this value, because it is one that I have never been quite sure how I can express it or how I can be better at it, and I think this trip will help me explore that more. I am excited for the experiences and hard labor that will be coming from this week and the insight that I hope to gain from it. I encourage everyone to try to go on one of these trips, to get out of your comfort zone and open your mind to the different things that are happening in the world around us. For me that is what I have been challenged to do ever since I have come to Rockhurst. To challenge my preconceived ideas and to think through them to new insights, and new reasons for how everything works.  

Photo Citation: http://tarletonphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/galleries/post-45/full/ILAC_Dominican%20Republic05.jpg