Festival of Student Achievement

The festival of student achievement was held on April 14, 2014. I went to the opening awards and ceremony. The opening speaker was Chris Trani. He was a former student at Rockhurst. He graduated in 2003. His speech was very interesting. He talked about how when he was a student here, he was not a high achiever. In fact, for the first two years that he was her, he was just floating through college, not really sure of what he wanted to do. He visited Mexico with Rockhurst, and it changed the course of his life. When he came back from Mexico, he had more of an idea of what he wanted to do. He felt like he was surer of what he was meant to do. So, he started picking up majors and minors left and right, because some of them were easy to get.

After he graduated, he moved to Juarez, Mexico and worked with a non for profit in Mexico, and he felt like that is where he was meant to be. He brought doctors to underserved parts of Mexico and for a week or two weeks they would do checkups for patients. One day, while he was with a doctor on a call, they were able to diagnose the child with a heart murmur. Instead of being grateful the dad was upset, because they had diagnosed his child with something, but they did not offer any type of cure for the problem. This made Chris feel like he needed to do more. That what he was doing was not enough,

                Through his work he ended up meeting another Rockhurst graduate who had graduated in ’68 and who was working on a project called American House. This is a home for undocumented immigrants. The home is open to them and provides hospitality to them. The Rockhurst graduate, who began this home, took the core value of cura personalis and walked the streets to see who the poor were and to understand better how he might be able to help. Chris helped to document the Annunciation House and helped to create the documentary called an American House which is about how the Annunciation House was started.

                At the end of his speech Chris wanted to pay it forward and told students that he had business cards and if anyone was interested in getting involved more with nonprofits then to give him a call. He really wanted to help and give back for everything that he received from Rockhurst. I thought that was really cool that he was willing to pay it forward and help out current Rockhurst students even though he might not know who they are.

Battle for the Bucks

Residence Life hosted our annual Battle for the Bucks program a few weeks ago. It was a huge success. I think this is one of the better years that we have had. The program ran a good amount of time and a lot of people won a prize of some sort. Battle for the bucks is a program that we do every year, to give students something else to do besides going out on Friday nights. It is an awesome opportunity to spend time with friends in a positive environment and make money as well. We played several games; including the price is right, deal or no deal, and pyramid. The RA’s had a lot of fun acting out the different games and getting in touch with our more outgoing side as game show hosts. My game was minute to win it and Bingo. I think that they both went well. It was fun watching how competitive people got with the silly games. Whenever money is involved people go crazy! I think that the participants enjoyed the games and the rewards.

                Besides the games, we also had free food and snacks available. So even if you didn’t get called up to play a game you were still able to get freebies. We also gave out door prizes to people, so there were multiple opportunities for as many people as possible to win. I hope that next year goes as flawlessly with Battle of the Bucks this year did. It is crazy to think that I won’t be a part of it next year. I won’t have a say in planning or executing. It feels surreal as my semester is starting to wind down. I realize that I am experiencing some things for the last time, and there is no turning back to comfort but only moving forward towards graduation day and a future career. It is scary to think about, so I will stop thinking about it for now!

Service and Class Work Hand in Hand

For my Biology II class our professor asked us to volunteer with Kansas City Wildlands to help remove invasive honeysuckle from a bottom land forest along Blue River. This was the first time that I had been asked to do service for a class. I went with some of my residents on a Saturday morning and we helped to clean and remove litter from the area. It was an interesting and sad experience. There was a lot of trash, litter, and clothing that had been thrown away in the area that we were working in. I found a car mat and a sleeping bag that had not been disposed of properly. They were littered about the area that I was cleaning in. I also found old porch materials and busted up concrete that had been covered poorly by someone with brush from a tree. When I started out in the morning volunteering, I wasn't expecting to pick up as much trash and litter that I ended up picking up from the site. I was appalled by the amount of things I found. It is disconcerting because a few people, who chose not to spend the time or the resources to properly dispose of their garbage, are creating a very dangerous environment for wildlife around the area. I talked to the conservationist that we worked with and he told me about a lot of the biological things that were going on in the area. It was really cool getting to see service and education work hand in hand.  I love getting to do hands on projects and it helped that this project could be directly related to things that we had gone over in class. Having the things I am learning being reinforced when I do things in the real world make me feel confident in the education I am receiving as well as confident in my abilities to succeed next year after I graduate.

Si Dios Quiere Part 2

We left for our campo of Venue early the next morning. It was two hours to the North of the ILAC center. The ride there was shaky because after the first hour we began to climb up very steep hills to get to the mountainside where we would be staying. I was scared for my life when we started up the very narrow and windy road to the top of the mountain. I swear the bus was almost vertical during that trip. We arrived at the campo site and began to unload the bus and carry our supplies for the week into Venue. As I walked down the steep hill I looked around me at the village that would be our home for the next week, and I was amazed. We were told that we might be taking bucket showers because there wasn’t running water, but it wasn’t bad at all. The main part of the village that we stayed in had several houses that were spread around. Everyone in this part of the village was related by blood or by marriage. Our mom during the trip was Adita, she lived outside of the village and she walked to all of the parts of Venue every day. We received our housing assignments for the week, and went to our homes to meet the families that we would be living with. Our mom also ran a store in the village that people could buy snacks and treats from. After, we met them we had lunch and went off for our first day of work.

Blue floor we layed for son and his mom.

The work that we were brought to do in Venue was concrete floor laying and planting Cocoa. A typical day would start off with us laying concrete floors and end with us planting cocoa plants. Laying the concrete was back breaking work. The concrete was mixed in the street and then we carried buckets of it to the houses that needed the new floors. Something that I thought was very cool was after we layed the floor, professionals would come a spread a mixture of colored powder and concrete together to create a colored floor. I thought this was something so neat, because when I heard that we were going to be laying concrete floors, I thought of the gray concrete floors, not about making them aesthetically pleasing. We layed several floors throughout the week, and every person that we layed a floor for was a person who was in need and deserving of it. We layed a floor for a deaf woman who was unable to afford getting her floor replaced. She was a very sweet woman. The one that touched me the most was when we helped a woman’s son lay a floor for her. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and the son wanted to lay the floor for her so that she could have a smooth floor to walk on. He amazed me by how hard he worked to lay the floor for his mother. He was putting all of the rest of us to shame. I admired his dedication, after we finished with the floor; he bought us all a couple of two liters to share. Our guide said that he had probably used his life savings to get his mother that new floor. Late, we found out that he had a mental disability, but you never would have guessed it with his interactions with us and how hard he worked. That memory will always stick with me.

Cocoa plant that has been freshly opened.

In the afternoon we would plant cocoa plants on the mountainside. The way that we planted things there was not orderly; it was just wherever there was space that is where we would plant the cocoa. The first day our planting site was an hour hike away from our campo. I lost my shoe in the mud that day, and I dug around in the mud for it and had to have one of the other Rockhurst students help me dig it out. We hiked and hiked to get to the first location. The kids were running in front of us like it was nothing, while we were panting trying to keep up with them. Once we reached our site, we began to plant the cocoa. The kids showed us how to pick ripe cocoa and crack it open. You could eat the beans in the cocoa, but it is super bitter. Later during our week we would go and see where the cocoa is dried before it gets shipped out to become chocolate. The mountain where we were planting the cocoa at was very steep. There were little fire ant hills everywhere, and it became a rite of passage to get bitten by them at least once while we were planting cocoa. The rest of the week flew by, as we worked during the morning through the afternoon. Then we hung out with our families at night.

Drying area for the cocoa.

On our last night in Venue, the village threw us a goodbye party. They played music and we danced most of the night away. It was a really fun visit and a good way to end the trip. I can honestly say that I laughed, thought, and cried during my time there. Our week ended sooner than I would have liked. The day after our farewell party we left and headed back to the ILAC center. The ride on the way back was just as scary as the ride up. When we got back to the ILAC center we all showered and then went out into the town to visit an orphanage and go souvenir shopping. The orphanage was also another unique experience. The orphanage there was filled with people who were seen as burdens to their families. Not because their parents had died and they couldn’t go anywhere else. I was happy to see that they had found somewhere to care for them, but still there weren’t enough caretakers there. It pulled at my heart strings and I wanted to be able to do more for them than just visit and interact with them. After we left the orphanage we went souvenir shopping and I felt weird going from the sadness I felt from the orphanage to become an American tourist. This trip was a once in a lifetime experience for me and I really hope that everyone takes advantage of the opportunity that Rockhurst offers to go and help others and become servant leaders.

Si Dios Quiere Part 1

ILAC center that we stayed at our first two days.

Over Spring Break I went to the Dominican Republic. I was so pumped for his trip and I couldn’t wait to be off. We left early on Saturday morning and began our journey. There were ten Rockhurst students that went on the trip with two faculty members. I was excited to create new friendships with some of the people that I did not know that well from campus. I could not sit well the whole way there I was excited to get there and to begin working and helping. We traveled for six hours on the plan and had several hours of lay overs. We arrived in the DR at night and went through customs to get into the country. Andy the head coordinator with the Institute of Latin American Concern or ILAC came and picked us up from the airport. We rolled all of the windows down in the van on our way to the ILAC center and it was nice feeling the fresh air flowing across my face after the stagnant air of the plan. We had a light dinner when we arrived at the ILAC center, and got a brief rundown of how the weekend would look. I was excited that we were finally there, after we were excused for dinner I explored the center with a few others on the trip. The center was really pretty, and even though it was dark outside, I could tell that it was a very relaxing and calming place.

                The next morning we got up and went through orientation that gave us a brief introduction of the Dominican culture. The orientation was important because it gave me a better understanding of the culture that we were going to be living in for a week. Something that stuck with me was that in the Dominican culture, it is more important to stop and talk to someone as opposed to being on time. I loved this about the culture, because this is something that I always do, my friends have even given me the nickname of “chatty Cathy” because I always stop and talk to people. Another interesting fact, and one of my favorite parts is the saying “Si Dios Quiere,” which means “If God Wills It” or “If God Wants It”. Dominicans say this is all the time, especially when saying see you later, or good night. It simply means that none of us knows what the future holds and it’s up to God if I will see them the next day or not. Some people might think that this is morbid, but I see it as a way to trust that what happens is supposed to happen according to God’s plan.

After the orientation we went to mass. It was interesting being a part of their worship, especially since it was in rapid Spanish. I am not Catholic, so I was already confused about the service then adding the language barrier to the service made it an interesting thing to take part in. After, mass we went into the city and explored.  We took a guagua which is a bus that can take you into the city from the country side. Since it was Sunday everything was closed in the city except for chain stores. So we couldn’t go into some of the more cultural stores.  We went back to ILAC that night and repacked our clothing and care items to take to the campo with us. We would be leaving in the morning to start our week of service. I could not wait to get started!