Chelsea Desrochers, a junior, studying psychology and child welfare / family studies, shares her experience of visiting the Dominican Republic and performing community service.
College brings about many opportunities that you may never be faced with again. This is a time when you should be filling your brain with as much knowledge as possible, taking risks, learning lessons, and making your own decisions. March of 2011 was when I was presented with the opportunity to travel to the Dominican Republic as part of a social work elective course called Exploring a Caribbean Nation. The course was going to be offered for the first time at Plymouth State University. Initially I contemplated the idea of taking the class or not, mostly due to the fact that I was nervous and intimidated by traveling out of the country; especially to a third-world nation. My roommate at the time, Sophie Dexter, influenced my decision the most, expressing that I may never be given an opportunity like this one again. Not to mention the many great memories and stories we’d have to share. Sophie ended up taking the class and going on the trip with me, along with two other PSU students, Megan O’Gara and Rissa Meyer. I am glad I did not pass it up because it ended up being the deciding factor of which career path I wanted to follow and showed me possible options for future careers. I became passionate about this type of work and started planning the rest of my education and future around what I had just experienced and learned.
The class itself prepares you for the experience you are about to encounter and answers any questions you may have about it. After completing the course and meeting with the professor Matthew Toms, I became eager to experience everything we were discussing first hand. This includes the culture: food, music, and liveliness that he kept referring to. As part of the course you watch movies, read articles, write reflections, and have discussions. It was very important to have a background about the history of the country and be aware of the relationship between Haiti and the DR. Also, since we were about to travel to a third -world country it was important to learn about the health and safety concerns. You need to be prepared for the possible culture shock, and the different types of attention that you will receive. There will be negative attention, with machismo as a part of their culture, and also the positive attention that you will experience with the children, yelling, “Americana Americana”, holding your hand, playing with your hair or jumping on you. It can be overwhelming.
You need to keep an open mind, and be willing to do things that you might not normally do or feel comfortable with, like learning how to dance Bachata and Meringue. That was the one thing, which I was very intimidated by, but it turns out it was a lot of fun and I wasn’t half bad at it. The only other thing I was initially nervous about was the language barriers and being able to communicate with Dominicans. After all, we would be cooking, working, dancing, spending time with and living in close quarters with them. However, once I was there I have never felt so welcomed and comfortable with people I have just met for the first time. I was no longer nervous about anything after leaving the airport; I was ready to go.
The trip itself includes experiencing culture, exploring poverty, performing community service, and visiting various places. A typical day usually includes working at the worksite, (which is currently finishing a community center at a batey in San Luis) from 9 am-1pm, then visiting various places i.e. (schools, orphanages, women’s rights, and CONANI; similar to DCYF) following an evening reflection. There is also an over night home stay, where you stay with one other person at a local families home for the night to see what a typical day involves for a family. For me, this was one of my favorite parts of the trip because I was able to learn a lot about what life is like for a young adult my age. During my home stay I was able to learn about what it’s like going to school, hanging with your friends, working, learning about different values they have, and traditions they practice. You also get to go to the beach, visit a marketplace, spend time in the downtown colonial part of Santo Domingo and go to other attractions like Tre Ojos which are natural caves. There are many different things that you will get experience and I can promise that most of this will involve fun, laughter, and the formation of life long memories.
Since I have returned from the trip in June, the Dominican culture is now embedded into my daily life. I enjoy listening to Meringue, Bachata, and Salsa. I now have a whole playlist on my ipod; it actually works perfectly for gym music. I crave on a weekly basis for the taste of authentic Dominican food: rice, beans, fresh mangos and of course fried plantains. I also attempt to communicate in Spanish daily to my friends in the Dominican Republic through Facebook and Skype. After my first trip down to the Dominican I really wanted to improve on my Spanish and be able to communicate with some of the people I met. I also wanted to be able to speak at places like the airport, marketplace, restaurants, and beach without translation. I have recently enrolled in a Fundamental of Spanish I class after returning from my second trip to the Dominican this past winterim. I decided to go back to Santo Domingo with some friends and students that have previously made the trip and taken the course. We wish to continue working on the community center, where we were building and spent time with the friends I met in June.
I promised myself that after that week in June it was not going to be the last time I was going to see the people I met and formed relationships with. I started saving my money as soon as I got back over the summer in hopes to return during winterim. The experience changed who I was as a person, inside and out. I’ve maintained a fiery passion to continue the work I’ve started. This includes spreading awareness about poverty and some of the challenges the people face in a third-world nation like the Dominican Republic. For example, before returning to the Dominican Republic in January I held a program in Smith where I act as a CA to expose students to a different cultures. I did this by cooking Dominican food, listening to music, and sharing stories with them about my experience. Also, as part of the program I asked if they could donate clothes or school supplies that I could bring down with me, and was able to fill a whole 50 pound suitcase thanks to their generosity. Many of the students were really interested in the work that I was doing and to some, the class was something they were interested in learning more about and potentially taking this summer. I enjoy sharing my experience with others, whether it’s by showing them photographs I’ve taken or talking about what I found eye opening and most enjoyable. I was able to make a change in someone’s life and help give hope to the people of the Dominican. They are truly grateful for the work we do and also for the interest we have in helping them, and learning about their way of life and culture. For the first time, I found something that I was truly passionate about and I finally figured out what I want to do with the rest of my education, career and future. I encourage everyone to embark on a journey like this one and consider every opportunity that comes your way. So consider enrolling in the summer elective course Exploring a Caribbean Nation with Professor Matthew Toms.
There are also other ways to help:
• You can make a monetary donation by sending a check to the Batey Foundation PO Box 15, Bethlhem, NH, 03574.
• Please visit thebateyfoundation.org or join the Facebook page for updates on current projects or to learn more about the foundation. There are also flyers posted in academic buildings regarding the class so you can also look for those as well.
• Also, feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about the trip/class or just in general, my e-mail is cldesrochers@plymouth.edu or the professor matthew.toms@whitemountain.org