A Beautiful Journey

I had the privilege to travel to the Dominican Republic, an experience for which I am truly grateful and blessed to have lived. It was a true honor to have been a part of this project and work alongside the friends I made on the trip that are now like family. My cohort fully cemented two houses and started building a home from the ground up. From this moment I felt we were already making such a huge impact and our hard work was paying off. The day before we began our service-learning project, we spent time getting to know the community. We played tag, freeze tag, pato pato ganzo, hide and seek, hide and seek tag, and we also face painted with the kids. I allowed them to wipe my face out in paint; watching it cause them so much laughter and seeing their innocent smiles light up with so much joy was truly heartwarming. We also shared a meal together with all the families! My CAP days were the most beautiful moments that I have lived and it made me feel so satisfied with my work, I learned to appreciate the things I have to another level, made me more compassionate and aware of the different lifestyles we all have but what unites us is the shared love and happiness that are hearts have to express. It is in that very moment where nothing else matters but to have love and compassion for humanity. In the first week, we played baseball with kids from a foundation called Impacta. Impacta is a program for children to play baseball in hopes of reaching the major leagues and becoming professional players. A few days later, we learned about the inequalities and discrimination that occur in the Dominican Republic, especially in the sugar cane industry. We were shown a demonstration on how to cut sugar cane, which is an intense process. Luckily, a foundation called Ascala helps people from Haiti, the neighboring country of the Dominican Republic, receive assistance with legal documentation to stay in the country. This allows Haitians to be allowed to work, usually in the sugar cane fields in which they are exploited. There is a system and foundation that are designed to protect people, and they are work in progress. I learned so much about immigration policies in the Dominican Republic and how the governmental leaders are using strategies from the United States to minimize Haitian migration. We had a power and water outage when we were finishing up our nightly reflection. I am truly grateful my cohort made the most of what was supposed to be a bad experience, but we ended up playing hide and seek in the dark, and it was one of the most memorable times of my trip. One way my cohort made a collective effort to keep everyone healthy was having “water fiestas” a fun way to share a moment to hydrate and keep each other accountable. Towards the end of the trip, my cohort and I enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the Dominican Republic at the beach with a close-out dinner. The friends I made on the trip are people who I admire because of their passion and drive to make an impact. Our trip was filled with a lot of time to reflect, relax, and maximize time together as a global glimpse family. We played a lot of card games, banana grams, and shared pool time together. We had a fun day and free day where we went to local stores to buy souvenirs for our families and friends, we bought a lot of snacks to bring back as well! There is a special ice cream shop we went to at least four times because of how good it was! The dulce de leche was the best. During my time in the global glimpse trip, I realized how passionate I am to help others and to be a leader. This experience only made me so much more confident and motivated to pursue a career in medicine to share and contribute my knowledge, skills, and passions to communities. This was only a global glimpse of my leadership journey, with endless memories that I will carry in my heart forever. Gracias, Republica Dominicana, por abrirme tus puertas con tanto cariño, es un honor haber compartido con tu gente hermosa!