VISIONS: Dominican Republic High School Service Program

Why did you decide to volunteer with VISIONS in the Dominican Republic?

Zoe: I decided to volunteer with VISIONS because I wanted to experience something completely different from anything I had ever done before. My family history, much like the history of the island that I live on and the international school that I go to, is really a melting pot of cultures, ethnicities and nationalities, making culture something that I have always greatly valued. I really appreciated the emphasis that VISIONS puts on immersing yourself in the culture, language and traditions of a new place, rather than simply working there.

I chose to work in the Dominican Republic specifically because it was relatively close to home, and not because I didn’t want to be too far from home and become homesick or anything of the like, but because I wanted to contribute to the Caribbean community that I have always lived in, yet only really began to appreciate after my VISIONS experience.

Describe your day to day activities as a volunteer.

Zoe: I would wake up and go eat breakfast (or wake up early and prepare breakfast if I was on home base crew). Once we arrived in San Luis, I would either be on the worksite or at the campamento (day camp). The day camp had four classes: English, Art, Sports and “Clase Divertido” (fun). The people on the worksite would work, guided by Dominican maestros, on the construction of a community center: leveling dirt for a parking lot, mixing cement, building a stairway, etc. At around noon, everybody would have lunch together. Afterwards, the people who were at the day camp would work on the worksite, and the people who were on the worksite would do something else: painting rebar for windows, designing a mural, or painting desks and chairs. In the afternoon, we would have some sort of activity: visiting the tres ojos caves was my favorite. Three or four times a week, we would have communidad, a sort of “sharing circle”.

What made this experience unique and special?

Zoe: All of the wonderful people I met are by far what made my VISIONS experience special. Curacao is so small that it isn’t on most maps, and the size of its population matches. The social bubble that I live in can sometimes be rather restricting, and meeting interesting, new, open-minded people through VISIONS was really incredible. In the seemingly short period of one month, I have made friends that I am sure will last a lifetime. Even when we were doing something seemingly boring, like riding the bus (or the gua-gua, as the Dominicans would say), everybody found a way of making it interesting. We would often just sit all together and talk about anything that came to mind, sing songs, play the guitar, and make jokes. I honestly felt, and still feel like I could tell any of my VISIONS peers, staff, and members of the Dominican community anything at all and that they will be supportive, friendly and helpful.

How has this experience impacted your future?

Zoe: I used to be rather self-conscious about my poetry. I never read it to anybody, until VISIONS. One day, we were all just having fun, one of my friends played guitar and sang a song she wrote, and somebody else read us one of her short stories out loud. I decided to share one of my poems. Their reactions were incredibly supportive, and since then, I have become more confident, and have been published online and at my school. Although this is a very specific example, I feel like it is a perfect illustration of everything I love about the VISIONS community and how it affected my life.

As cliché as it sounds, my experience at VISIONS was incredibly moving. I came back from the Dominican Republic with a completely different view of the world, a new appreciation for what I have, and a clearer vision of who I want to be.