Personal Narrative: My Trip To The Dominican Republic

It was my first time in the Dominican Republic, away from my parents and traveling alone. It was also my first mission trip and I loved every minute of it. As I sat and looked around the village of slums and shacks, I saw that the people were so giving and friendly. They had next to nothing, and yet they were still volunteering to give more.

When spring break began my parents gave me the opportunity to have 2 weeks of spring break, where I would spend the first week hanging out with my and fiends and the week they go back to school I go on a cruise. While I was on the cruise me and my family visited 4 different islands over the 8 day voyage. On the third day on the boat we visited the Dominican Republic, on the fifth day we visited St. Thomas, on the sixth day we visited Puerto )Rico, and on the seventh day we visited are final island Grand Turk.

When arriving to the Dominican Republic it was as if a whole new world opened up to me. Puerto Plata was full of different changes; the streets were full of wandering animals, there wasn’t as many cars as there is back home, and mopeds were racing with several people on them at a time. The differences that I experienced were nothing that I have seen before. America is in constant expansion of technology while the Dominican is further set back. When you travel to different parts of the world you begin to see how people live their lives differently. The culture along with the aspects of living are completely different from what we are used to seeing in our everyday lives.

When thinking of my memories it’s as if you were surfing through TV channels. Some making me wish I could go back to that day and relive it. Some I hope I will never have to relive. Most memories make me smile and think of how much I want to be little again. Although at that age, all I wanted was to grow up and live my own life. My memories can range from being at home to being anywhere but home. Although, some stick out more than others. One of those few fond memories is going to the Dominican Republic with my family.

Since transferring to the University of Southern Maine from Colby College to become a student of the University of Southern Maine School of Nursing, I have been looking forward to the opportunity to travel to the Dominican Republic with the University of Southern Maine School of Nursing Dominican Republic Outreach Program. The Dominican Republic Outreach Program travels from Maine to the Dominican Republic every six months to provide basic health care and health education to residents who otherwise would have no access to such care, and I am beyond excited to announce that I will be taking part in the January 2017 trip to the Dominican Republic!

Despair , a sharp tenderness in my feet every step i took, the smell of plastic and boxes flooded my nostrils like a tsunami , this is how i felt after my first officially as a working american .

The reason we chose the Dominican Republic was because, as a whole, they are a very poor country. My family and I enjoy going over there to try to help their economy. When we visit we try to take as many items as we possibly can to give to the people. It brings so much joy to me when I see how happy they are by something so small.

When people think of gifts, they often think of something they have received from Christmas or from a birthday. One of the most special gifts I have ever received was not from a holiday or for a birthday. My most prized gift was from two little girls, Alexandria and Tatianna, in a different country. When I went to the Dominican Republic with a big group of people for a mission trip, I received three colorful bracelets from two of the sweetest girls a few days before we traveled home. These bracelets were my most prized gift for many reasons.

One intercultural experience that changed my life was when I traveled to the Dominican Republic. I had the opportunity to go with a girl's youth group to the poor sugarcane villages in the outskirts of Santo Domingo. It was my first time out of the country, experiencing a different culture.

I was always careless about all of my valuables,that was until they were all gone. It was Christmas vacation of 2011 and my mom was planning a flight to go to Dominican Republic to escape the cold Boston weather. My mother could only pick between me and my sister to go with her and naturally she chose my sister. She was probably still mad at me for times she has bought me electronics and video games that i don’t even touch anymore. I wanted to stay home by myself while they were away but she practically forced me to go to New York where my dad lives. I wasn't against the idea of seeing my dad I just didn't want to go a state where he was the only person I knew. But it was already decided so I got my stuff ready and got ready to leave and left in a transportation bus to New York. When I arrived there my dad was waiting for me in front of the apartment that he lived. Before even entering in his house his took me out to eat.I didn’t even have time to unpack. About the time we were eating my mom and my sister were arriving to Dominican Republic. After me and my dad finished eating he asked me

My family is big on education. My grandparents never thought about sending their kids to college, not because they did not want them to go but because they did not know how or where to send them. The forms, the money, all the questions, they did not know how to deal with it. Besides, they had just arrived to America from the Dominican Republic. So they worked, their 7 kids went to high school, some graduated and most didn’t. With the little education that they had, my uncles resorted to working in the streets. My family had become a street family and had been known. Years in the business and they begin to settle down and have kids. It’s true when people say having kids changes people’s mentality. My uncles wanted nothing to do with the streets once they met their little babies. My family has built big dreams for the children of the family. They wanted us to have everything that they did

One thing that most people do not know about me is that I am a missionary. I have gone to four short-term missionary trips in the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. In these experiences I learned many things. The first thing I learned was about the Pharmaceutical career. The second thing I learned is how to engage and teach kids who haven’t gone to school about God. The final thing I learned on these mission trips is how to translate Spanish to English faster and more effectively.

I just dropped my best girlfriend at the airport. Along with all her necessary belongings and a one-way ticket to Panama, she is leaving a place she called home for the past 11 years, and taking the plunge to start a new chapter with the love of her life.

On our vacation to the Dominican Republic we had a goal to go scuba diving,when we noticed that there was a scuba diving hut we went to sign up right away. When we arrived at the front desk, we were filled for excitement. We asked the people working there the cost and details about the process of earning a certificate, but what we did not ask was about the cost. Later when we paid the expensive cost we actualized that the schedule was 2 day longer than we were staying in the Dominican Republic. We ran straight to the scuba hut only with a devastating answer, we could not get our money back.

Tossing and turning in my bed on Sunday morning I hear salsa music blasting on stereo downstairs. As I make my way downstairs I see my mother dancing while cleaning and she tells me “This reminds me of the days when I used to live in Puerto Rico.” As the songs change she keeps talking about her memories, until my father walks into the room and says “Oh! Its Sunday so you know what’s on TV? Sunday football turn it on!” Once he turned on the channel the national anthem began to play and my father spoke about how when he entered the Navy he knew nothing but Spanish because he came from Puerto Rico but the only thing he knew in English was our national anthem. He stated how when entered the Navy he quickly assimilated into the American lifestyle