Mountain Air and Village Service

This trip was a life changing experience. The staff was amazing and I still stay in touch with some of them. Together as a group we dug trenches and laid piping for the town to have an aqueduct. This was hard work, but the staff made it fun the whole time and allowed us to take numerous breaks making it bearable. It was amazing to see how thankful the community was and how much work they put into our project. The next day we were the leaders of running a camp for the kids. This was hard because the counselors stepped back and gave all the responsibility to us. This was amazing because you form a bond like no other with these kids. Not being able to speak the language you are forced to communicate in different ways. One of the little girls did my hair and put flowers into it, something that wouldn't usually happen in the United States. After long days of service we would have free time which was so fun and helped us build friendships, playing cards and banagrams after a long day of working in the dirt was so fun. The trip was the perfect balance between learning about the Dominican Republic culture and helping a community in need. The sights we saw such as beaches and waterfalls were one's I will never forget. The counselors taught us history of the DR and taught us their traditional dances that we were able to perform the last night when we had a going away type party. Everyone's ability to give up technology even when we were in areas that it was available made the experience so rewarding. This is an experience that I will never forget, and the friendships I made were amazing. I still stay in touch with over half of the people from my group.