I loved my time in Samana with Aldeas de Paz

To start, during my stay here I had the chance to work with the kids with special needs in school. I enrolled in that particular project because I wanted to gain experience in my feild of studies. I really enjoyed working with everyone in the school, but mostly the kids who great you
everyday you arrive in school and are all just very adorable. I had the opportunity to work with a variety of children with disabilities, which is what I was mainly here for. Also, changes and improvements are being done in the school which I think will greatly benefit the kids attending.
Finally, I was able to contribute to the school with a project involving pictograms that will greatly help these children, more so the ones that have language disabilities.

In addition, I had the chance to be in contact with Kim an amazing Canadian that has been living here for over 30 years and is taking the rights of animals here to heart. I had a chance to work hands on with the animals, mostly dogs, and actually had the opportunity to start a totally new project in association with Aldeas the Paz.

I really appreciated the encouragement and interest expressed by the coordinators and
volunteers. I am very proud of my contribution and participation, which turned out to be more
than expected. Aldeas de Paz is the only organisation that I saw that had a good variety of projects to work on, which provides a lot of flexibility. I was able to participate in a lot of different acitives and programs such as the english classes and café intercultural. For a month was able to give intermediate english classes to dominicans, as well as dancing classes in the café. The responsibles really encourage us to participate in a variety of projects and the
options are really there for us to explore.

The organisation has a really great team of coordinators that work really hard to make our experience here the best it can be, even if there job is not always easy. It was my second time in the Dominican Republic and more specifically Samana. I really wanted to come back here because the first time I really fell in love with the spirit of the people, the culture, the dancing, the music, the scenery and saw that there was a need for volunteers. I wanted to make sure for my second experience that I was to be part of the community, the people and meet different
Dominicans. I have so many good memories with the volunteers and dominican friends I made. I found it very important to have an interest for the people here and an open mind. By doing
so, I was able to know, see places and live experiences I would of never had if it were not for my dominican friends. Also, when spending time with them it was the perfect occasion to pratice and learn more spanish, which was one of my goals when coming here.

We did so many great trips and activies that really made my time here that much memorable. I can say that I fully experienced Samana and the DR and would do it again without a doubt.