Jeffery Anderson's Thanks

I was fairly apprehensive upon arriving in the Dominican Republic on the afternoon of January 2^nd.  After all, it was my first time visiting a country that embraced a culture that differed significantly from that of the United States.  Despite the piles of trash on the sides of the roads and the reckless and unorganized driving, center-city Santo Domingo (for the most part) resembled the modern and westernized cities I have already visited in the United States.  However, as we exited the city on our way to Don Juan, the small town in which we were going to stay, the scenery began to rapidly change.  Looking out from the windows of the van, I saw for the first time in my life what third-world poverty actually consisted of: houses (if one could even call them that) that looked like they would be blown over in a stiff breeze, fires on the side of the street for burning trash (for there was no waste service, or trash cans for that matter), and, most prominently, individuals who looked as though they had not eaten a healthy meal in days.  Little did I know at this point that seeing these things would appear second nature to me less than ten days later.
      Our arrival in Don Juan was one to be remembered.  After a long day of traveling and a two hour trip northwest of Santo Domingo, we had arrived in the small town in which we would be staying for the week.  Almost immediately upon arrival and without very little instruction, we were dropped off at different houses throughout the community.  My house consisted of a large two-room wooden building with cracks in the wall (I could literally see my family’s chickens outside from the main room).  There was no discernable privacy whatsoever, and my family spoke absolutely no English.  What I had thought of only ten hours earlier as my primitive Spanish language skills had now become a valuable life-line that I would need to utilize for the next week.  While this first night’s stay might have seemed a little scary at the time, I can honestly say that it was an absolutely wonderful experience.  My primitive Spanish skills actually proved incredibly useful as I was able to learn from my family a great deal about the Dominican culture while at the same time personally experiencing the living conditions in a small third-world town.
      Every day, at approximately 8:00 in the morning, all of the Americans (my Sigma Chi brothers) would walk from their houses to our “central location,” Father Ron’s residence.  From there, we would spend the next 30 minutes traveling through the Dominican countryside to the town of L’Elmo, the site of our project.  Over the course of the week, we performed a great deal of manual labor and were able finish the walls of the newest church in the Dominican Republic.  Our tasks included digging a foundation, mixing and laying cement, cutting rebar, carrying and laying cement blocks, and leveling the inside of the church.  After each day of intensive labor, we would climb into the pick-up truck and travel back to Don Juan for a relaxing evening.
      Although this account to this point has not encompassed even close to everything I have to say about the trip, it is all that I have written to this point.  Throughout this last semester of my college career, I will be adding a significant amount of material to this brief overview of my Dominican experience.  In doing so, I will be personally reflecting not only the state of this third-world country, but also on how this experience has changed my life for the better.  As I begin to pursue a career in medicine next year, I have begun to think about the many ways in which I can contribute to assuaging the conditions in third world communities similar to Don Juan and L’Elmo.  Although I will continue to consider my options as a physician, I am confident that a significant portion of my career will be dedicated to international medicine.  Why?  As a Catholic who is called to serve the poor communities of the world, what kind of person would I be if I spent the rest of my life pretending that this kind of suffering did not exist?  Although I know I cannot solve the problem of world poverty or world hunger, I know that with my particular skill set, I will be able to help alleviate the situation by giving individuals in the third-world a chance to live the life that I have been so lucky to live.
Thank you again to everyone who helped make this trip possible, especially to our financiers without whom such a journey would never have been possible!