Why I am returning to the Dominican Republic for a second year By Siyani Fullerton

      This will be my second year in a row heading down to the Dominican Republic for our service trip. Many people have asked me why I am going again when I could be relaxing at home over break, sleeping in and playing video games. To that I simply respond, this is what I would rather spend my time doing. Life experiences such as this help you to mature as an individual and understand what is truly important in life, and it was not until I went to the Dominican Republic that I finally understood the magnitude of my blessings in life and how lucky I am.

    Constructing a building basically from scratch for one of the poorest communities in an already poor country opened my eyes to a world we all overlook. The work we did was taxing and required us to put in long hours in the heat and humidity of the Caribbean, but looking back all that didn’t matter because what got us through it was knowing that what we were doing was unheard of for these people and will still be in use long after many of us have left this world. The feeling I got when the young children were laughing and smiling and wanted to help by picking up the branches and rocks in the construction site, because they were going to finally have a safe place to play makes any pain I felt from the work seem non-existent. To them, this was a big deal and a luxury for the community that, without our doing would never come to fruition. Amazing how a project that we would simply hire a contractor to do in a weekend could mean so much to so many people. 

     So when people ask me if it was worth it, I most certainly say yes. I choose to give up my time to see old friends and unwind from the semester because the impact those people made on my life. In a way, I feel like I have known these people all my life. They took me into their homes and gave me shelter, food and welcomed me into their community like family. I get excited just thinking about seeing my host family again and sitting on the porch with their bird “Cucka”. I can still remember the feeling of the dirt sticking to my skin as I ran around the baseball field with the school children and joking around while listening to music at the barbershop, all things that I do here at home. I truly feel as if we became more than just a group of Americans to the people of L’Elmo, we became family, and there is not a better way I can think to spend my break then to go see my second family.