This past summer, I was privileged enough to travel to the Dominican Republic through the Global Glimpse program, which has eminently impacted the person I am today. I have to confess that this trip was by far the most challenging, yet extraordinary I have ever experienced. Before going on this trip I always had an idea of what poverty is like, but I didn’t intentionally know how I would feel about it. Through this trip, I was fortunate enough to speak to different communities who were facing poverty and was given the chance to personally talk to the community of the Bejuco Aplastado, where I worked on a Community Action Project. Regardless of the struggles the orphans and locals have to unfortunately face, they never fail to put a smile on their face. In the Dominican Republic, I had the opportunity to teach students English. It was uplifting to see the children rush to make it on time to class. Despite the storm and pouring rain, the students were always eager to learn. Not only did I teach students English, but they also …show more content…
taught me various words in Spanish. This made teaching so amusing. However, I encountered the reality of poverty in the landfill of Costanza. I still have this vivid memory that invariably appears in my mind. The intensity as I got off the bus and the vile smoke of burning trash continuously rising into the sky, polluting the air. The workers and the children took the time during their insufficient break to kindly answer questions. I learned that the children are required to help their father, because the government is against it or there isn't enough funding to continue education. It was devastating to see that not every student is inclined with basic education. After seeing the lack of employment, education, health, and clean water is when I became mindful of how fortunate I am to live with all my basic necessities and education. I learned that life is too short to waste time thinking about what I don't have. Being able to have witnessed two different realities of the world has been remarkably empowering and eye opening. Being the first person in my family to go to college is important for me to achieve my goals.
After witnessing the misery and horrific destruction in the Dominican Republic, I realized that it’s going to be a long path to a recovery in developing countries around the world. This opportunity has substantially shaped me and it’s an experience I will remember for a lifetime. This trip has ultimately led me to pursue my aspiration of becoming a social worker and study abroad in your outstanding program. I am fully aware that to be inclined as a social worker it takes leadership skills to advise people in solving and coping with their problems. I want to continue to travel to developing countries because I believe that one person can make a difference in a community, no matter how big or small the situation is, there will always be a solution. Continuing my education will allow me to make a difference and help the people in my own
community.
I was born in Guatemala in a city called, called Guatemala City. Life in Guatemala is hard which is why my parents brought me into the United States when I was eight months old. Some of the things that makes life in Guatemala hard is the violence. However, Guatemala has plenty of hard working men, women, and children who usually get forced to begin working as soon as they are able to walk. However, unlike many other countries, Guatemala has a huge crime rate. I care about the innocent hard working people that live in Guatemala and receive letters, threatening to be killed if they do not pay a certain amount of money at a certain amount of time.
I was born in the Dominican Republic, November 2, 1982. I lived and grew up in a countryside where everybody knew each other. My childhood years were full of wonderful experiences where I felt loved by my parents and my family. I went to school around 6 years old. I had to walk around 30 minutes to get there from my house. My father was a farmer who had to work long hours in order to sustain our big family. My mother was a housewife; she was in charge of taking care of us. I have five siblings, three boys and two girls. I remember that at that time we did not have many things in our house. We did not have electricity and also we did not have a service of water. I remembered that my father had to go to the river to get water for the necessities of the house. At that time my family was very poor, but my
As my father and I finally fit the statue of the little Virgin Mary in the back of the car, it was time to get on the road. I could already taste the guavas from my great grandfather’s ranch. Feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin. The smell of my aunt’s cooking. Hearing the excitement of my great grandmother’s voice. I wanted to be there already, be in the beautiful country of Mexico. My thoughts wandered as we left my house. How much welcome, love, and the sadness of leaving was going to happen. It was too soon to find out.
As my family and I walked into the plane, we were excited. The plane ride to jamaica stopped in L.A. and, after that, it went to jamaica. When we arrived in Jamaica it was really hot, but it was wet. I immediately took off my sweater I was wearing on the plane. We took a bus to our hotel. Then we started swimming in the water park. Every night there was a show in the main stage. The next day we woke up early to go to chukka. It was awesome. We saw a great house, rode on horses, and did a challenge course. After we came back from Chukka, we went to the water park and swimming pool at the hotel. Then we ate at fresh, which we went most of the time. The next day we woke up earlier to go to the dolphin cove. The bus was an hour late, but the wait
Mother Teresa said “let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” Many times in life the only way we can extend love to others is through a smile and an embrace. A great example of those times is on a mission trip to a place that speaks a different language. I have experienced just how true this is firsthand. This trip truly changed my life, completely affecting my outlook on my daily life as well as the “big picture” plan for my life. I now appreciate things I once took for granted, luxuries that we have come to expect in our sheltered lives that we live here in America. In my life, I have never experienced extreme poverty for myself, but this trip gave me just a glimpse into what life is like for those who are not so pampered as our country.
When I was little, I heard stories of Third World countries where people lived in complete poverty. I would hear of how they had dilapidated domiciles, contaminated water, deadly diseases, and shortages of food. I was always told how blessed I was to live in a country where I was free of these situations, but I always took this truth for granted. I would go along every day, not worrying about where I was going to sleep or what I was going to eat, when people all over the world were facing these situations as problems. It wasn't until I was sixteen that I realized how blessed I was, when I was given the opportunity to visit San Jose, Costa Rica.
On July 18, a group of 26 students, including myself, embarked on a service trip down to San Juan de la Maguana, Dominican Republic. San Juan de la Maguana is an impoverished town on the western side of the Dominican Republic, right in the middle of the island of Hispaniola. While there, we organized a camp for the local children in the town through the local parish, Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza. While there I came to two realizations. One being the language barrier separating the groups of Americans and Dominicans couldn’t keep away the genuine human connection between us. The other was questioning whether these kids needed our help as much as some other people needed it.
I was to leave to the Dominican Republic at 10p.m. on a Thursday night. My flight was with Tower Air and it was leaving John F. Kennedy airport. I had to be there three hours before departure and I was I was there at 7p.m. It felt like they longest wait of my life. At 9:30p.m,they announced that we would not be leaving on time because the plane had technical difficulties. Our flight would now leave at 12p.m. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. It was a nightmare. They had already changed my flight like five times before. I was leaving one day, then I was leaving the next and so on. Then they wait for the last minute and the food shop had closed, so there is about a good 200 or so people without food and all upset cursing up a storm. To top it all off, half of the people there were teenagers going to the Dominican Republic to play baseball. Can you imagine? A hundred something kids hungry and sleepy screaming their lungs out.
Words never fade. Whether they help or hurt an individual, words influence his or her thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors long after he or she hears them. Even though Mother Teresa has passed away, her work and quotes influence me as an aspiring social worker. She once said, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples” (as cited in Bradberry, 2015). Mother Teresa worked in the slums of Calcutta, India with the poor and the outcasts. Even though her outreach was limited, she influenced the entire world by creating ripples. I desire to be a social worker that continually welcomes those who need empowering while simultaneously creating ripples to the broader society.
The first images that pop into your head when you think about poverty are the commercials on TV with the “In the arms of an Angel” song casting pictures and videos of kids in Africa, starving to death. It is all heartbreaking to imagine, but it does not mention that every year, developing countries are robbed of more than one trillion dollars that could fight poverty. disease and hunger. Gordon Parks’ distinguished way of capturing poverty in Rio de Janeiro, as mentioned in the Journal Entry “Flavio's Home,” is a great way to demonstrate the struggles of families in poverty . Photos taken by Parks made it on Life magazine which were originally based on his autobiography Voices in the Mirror in the 1990s to inform the inconsiderate rich about
I can remember leaving my home in Haiti with only my favorite stuffed bunny in hand as we drove to the airport. As I sat next to my sister I could see the plane leaving the only place I’ve ever known, take off across the Caribbean Sea. My dad brought his family to the United States to give us a better chance at succeeding in life. My parents have always instilled that we could not take this opportunity for granted and that no one in this country would give you handouts. As I grew up, I’ve seen my parents struggle and face many hardships that I work hard to not have to deal with in the future.
Being part of this study abroad was an experience unlike any other. That is to say, I experienced parts of my own culture that I had by no means witnessed before and I returned to the United States with a superior knowledge of my cultural roots. Similarly, as an educator after a week of teaching in Las Clavellinas I’ve gained an immense amount of understanding that would have taken me years to acquire in a traditional classroom setting in the United States. Consequently, this study abroad has confidently equipped me as an educator as I commence my teaching residency and for the real-world once I graduate and begin teaching.
I remember the day that I felt a call from God to go on a mission trip, I was in seventh grade on my first retreat with my church. I was sitting in this large room with two hundred other kids in middle school, a speaker from Restore Haiti came to talk to us about what he does. I had never heard anything like it, I had never heard about third world countries, or poverty, or world hunger, or kids not being about to go to school. Within the first hour of getting home after the retreat I told my dad that I wanted to go on an international mission trip. I didn’t care where, and I didn’t care when, I just wanted to go. He emailed the missions director at our church and exactly a year later; my dad, brother, and I went to Haiti for the first time.
When I was in high school I got the chance to travel to the Dominican Republic with my dad. It was the first time in my life that I would be traveling to a country where a fairly large percentage of the local population live in, what is considered by the United Nations, “extreme poverty”. Many people do not have access to clean drinking water or an education beyond primary school. I did not legitimately understand the situations of these people, and of over 1.5 billion people in the world for that matter, until I was able to see it firsthand.
When I was growing up, I remember attending elementary school, learning a new language seems to be difficult at first, but I was able to learn the English language because of the dedication of one of my teachers. Now, as I reflect on this experience, it is obvious that she was dedicated and enjoyed teaching her students to be successful. I know today that she made a difference in my life as I navigated through my education experience and high school years to present.