ISV-Dominican Republic

This volunteering experience ended up being the most wonderful experience of my life. Being surrounded by new friendly faces and a completely different culture gave me a sense of happiness that allowed me to express myself completely and laugh the entire time. There were serious times when we needed to get to work and pour our hearts out into our volunteer work, but even this ended up being fun and extremely rewarding. I think the children and environment made more of a difference in me than I could ever give back to them. I know it's cheesy, but when I committed everything I had to experiencing such a beautiful experience, I now look back at that time with such a desire to go back and laugh with the people I met during these four weeks. The two weeks of adventure after volunteering made me wish everyday was filled with that much thrill and excitement. I tried so many new things and made so many fulfilling memories with people that I daydream about when I'm having a bad day.
One of the most memorable moments on this trip was on the adventure tour when we ziplined into a pool that was 50 feet below where we started from. A few people had successfully gone down and plopped into the water shouting and laughing. The next person to go did not hold on tight enough and when she got just barely past the edge, she fell and hit the wall when she plummeted to the bottom. Not a second after he saw her let go, Adolfo dove to the rescue and was in the water before she even got there. He was like superman and although it was a scary situation, the girl who fell was completely fine with nothing but a scrape on her knee, and Adolfo was our new hero.
There is a treasure chest of priceless memories I have of that trip, from skinny dipping in the atlantic ocean, to being intentionally bitten by ostriches, I can't say I have experienced such freedom to do whatever comes to mind. Propelling down waterfalls was by far the scariest thing I have anticipated to do, but once I started, it was beautiful and rewarding. In the volunteering portion, the children were so lively and energized, it gave me a sense of playfulness and happiness. I remember one recess session where the children all lined up to the swing, and I began swinging them and laughing at their extreme excitement to get a turn with the swing!
Another beautiful memory in the school was at the very end when we had a talent show, and two talented dancer boys competed against one another in a dance off. I could see the freedom and beauty in this culture and the joy within themselves spread through their dance moves and into my heart. It was also extremely rewarding to work on the house we finished for a school teacher at the school we were helping with. It was amazing to see a direct correlation between the two types of work we were doing, and it was also amazing to swim down the river behind the house except when we saw a chicken floating down it, inflated with water. This was definitely a memorable time. Yet another memory was when we spent time in Santo Domingo and got to see all of the ruins from the colonial times. It was fascinating to hear the history of this beautiful place, and to spend time in a large city for a change. Dinner at Blue Moon was always special, we ate chicken, beans and rice for basically every meal, and it was delicious to be immersed in the food of this country. There are too many beautiful memories to list them all, but these were a few of my favorite ones!