I traveled to the Dominican Republic with Rustic Pathways in June 2019. My time in the beautiful country is one I will always cherish. Before this fantastic trip to volunteer, I have never traveled without my family, so I was a little nervous. Though, the Rustic Pathways traveling team was with the other kids and me the whole time, which made me feel safe. When I arrived in the Dominican Republic, our group's lovely leaders met up with us. On our bus ride to the first place we were staying, they told us more about this country I would call home for the next week and a half. On my trip, I helped with the black water treatment system. This is a system that would help re-use water and clean it. Since freshwater is not found all over in the Dominican Republic, this system would be able to help out the community so much! Other places I volunteered during my duration in the Dominican Republic were helping at a local garden, cleaning a beach sadly ridden with trash, and my favorite, re loacting mangroves. Each time volunteering made me feel so good knowing that I was helping the people and the Earth as well. Rustic Pathways is very good at teaching kids on their programs about helping out whenever you can. Before my trip, I did volunteer around my community, but, after my journey, I have more than doubled how much I help out in my community. No matter where you live, there can always be places to go and help out the earth/community. I started my Rustic Pathways trip nervous of what would happen. I left with a new understanding of the world I live in, life, long friends, and memories that will always hold a dear place in my heart.

This past summer, I had the amazing opportunity to travel abroad through the Rustic Pathways "Service Off the Grid" program. Initially, I will admit I was very nervous. Will I make friends? What will the program leaders be like? 5 days without my phone?! Reflecting back on my trip, I must say that I got pretty lucky. I was able to bond with all of my peers and program leaders. To this day, my group continues to stay in touch! Cell phone separation anxiety was a real thing, but the lack of service brought my group and me closer together and forced us to bond with the community. I can't even begin to describe the kindness I was shown by the locals. Every meal, every dance party, every hike, etc, they took us in with open arms and showed us what it meant to live a happy life. Although the language barrier was difficult at times I was still able to make meaningful relationships with people of all ages, races, and economic classes on the island. 9 days in the Dominican Republic was not long enough! Every Rustic trip has something unique and special about it, but what you make of it is the defining factor. I know for a fact that all the program leaders and other staff at Rustic Pathways are working their hardest to guarantee that each traveler gets the best experience possible. My experience embodies the phrase, "A trip of a lifetime", and I would strongly encourage others to take advantage of the many opportunities Rustic Pathways has to offer.

This summer I went to the Dominican Republic with Rustic Pathways on the marine life and coastal restoration program. I was very impacted by this experience working with a community in need (Bayahibe). The people of Bayahibe and those from Fundemar showed me different ways to reduce my carbon footprint by eating less meat, reducing my plastic consumption, and using public transportation. I really enjoyed doing beach cleanups because I could see the progress my group made each and every day. We were also able to participate in kid camps where we interacted with different age groups of kids. It brought me great joy when a young boy asked me to make him a paper airplane and he spent the day throwing and watching how far the plane would go. It was really fulfilling to see a big smile on a kids face knowing that you impacted their life.

I was a little bit hesitant in the beginning coming on this trip knowing no one, but after getting to the airport and meeting everyone going on the same program as me, I knew I would have a good time. This program was educational and fun. I had a great time and I hope to go back for more years to come. I made some great friends that I hope to keep for a long time and the service I did here had a great impact on me. The food was phenomenal, having a home cooked meal basically everyday 3 times a day was great. All of the hiking and swimming we did was super fun and the service we did really helped out the people in the communities that needed it. We also learned about many different things and about the culture. This has by far been my favorite trip that I have ever been on and I highly recommend it to anyone that is thinking about it.

Over the past summer, I got the opportunity to join a Rustic Pathways Trip to the Dominican Republic. This trip was an extremely valuable experience for me and allowed my to come more out of my shell. Before attending this program, I was just a shy high school student who was a little too afraid to put myself out there. When offered the opportunity I was scared but ready to try and enact positive change in the world. This experience has offered me the opportunity to meet and work with new people and collaborate with others in an efficient way. Thanks to this program I have now become more open and I have been able to take more leadership in day to day tasks. I am forever grateful for this life changing experience and I hope this review helps you decide whether or not to join Rustic Pathways.

I did this program because I would like to go into the medical field. This trip showed me the types of health facilities in the Dominican, and how people live and work. This program also helped me get my Wilderness First Aid Certificate. The class was very fun and informational. For a few days we mixed cement and built floors for multiple houses. We also finished working on a latrine. For two days we went to four different villages to weigh children and hand out vitamins to the village residents. For the final two days we went to the beach and hung out. The entire trip is one that I will never forget. I highly recommend this program for anyone wanting to go into the medical field and is not afraid to shovel lots of dirt and mix a lot of cement.

What was the most fun on this trip? Perhaps it was running around the community late at night, playing Cops and Robbers with the local kids. Or, falling in the river one afternoon and laughing so much that it made swimming difficult. It could very well have been frolicking at the beach. One of the highlights was our third to last night. We were camping in the mountains, and it began to pour. So we rushed into our tents, mine stuffed with 6 people, and waited for it to end. Only, it didn't. So after half an hour, my friends and I recklessly left our tent to dance in the rain. It was freezing, and maybe a little foolish, but it was tremendous fun.
And what was the most impactful part of the trip? Maybe the long, informative bus ride through Santo Domingo and into the mountains. We experienced a completely different setting, climate, and culture. And the most unexpected impact was the bond our group built over those 9 short days. I cried the night before we left, and again at the airport when we all had to part.
But the definitive answer to both of these questions is service. It was during our service that we interacted with the community, learned about their lives and culture, and got to eat Dominican food!! Service is physically demanding, but insanely fun and a wondrous opportunity to learn.

This summer I went on a service trip to the Dominican Republic. My trip was titled “public health in the Caribbean.” I have always been interested in medicine and public health, but I didn’t know what to expect. As soon as I showed up to the airport i was greeted by so many amazing girls and I immediately knew that it would be a great trip. We stayed in an amazing base house, and went to very informative and interesting NGO’S (non-government organizations) regarding women and children’s health and rights in the DR. After we learned the issues we had a man named Gary teach and certify us in first aid, cpr, and other wilderness first aid skills to use in the community health workshops. After this we went into the Batey communities and saw first hand the many issues that people in these communities face. Although they faced so many hardships, the people in these communities were so outgoing and caring. One of my favorite memories was when we were pouring a concrete for a family of 5, and the abuela gave us fresh mangos and coconuts. Her compassionate personality really stood out to me, and my whole group formed a really amazing and tight bond with her over the 5 days we worked to help the sanitation in the community. After doing the construction projects like pouring cement floors and building latrines, we used our knowledge of wilderness first aid to do public health workshops that went to 4 communities in the bateys. This was definitely the highlight of my trip, because we really got to know and understand what the families in the communities go through. We gave them anti parasite medicines, weighed and measured babies, gave vitamins and much more. When I got home, I realized how fortunate we all really are, and how important it is to help others who may not be in the best situations. Forming bonds with different people around the world is one of the things I love to do most in life, and this rustic trip really helped me do what I love.