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| 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!
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