My trip the Dominican was an experience on several levels. The abject, relative poverty is shocking.
Families live in small, poorly constructed shacks; often without running water, a stove, or any sort of
bathroom. Children run shoeless and unattended. Animals rummage among the strewn trash, looking
for food. The conditions for an American seem completely obscene and unthinkable.
However the people are happy. Children laugh, and entertain themselves in this simplest of ways. In
America a child requires the latest, most advanced electronic gaming systems to entertain themselves.
In the Dominican children use a cracked and worn plastic ball – bouncing it against a tree and
chasing it in pure joy. In American adults obsess about achieving their next goal on an endless list of
increasingly prestigious goals. In the Dominican, grown men sit on a log and play dominoes, enjoying
life and each other.
In the end, the most valuable lesson I learned was not an appreciation for what I own. Granted, I
do have a greater appreciation for my comparably vast possession, and my comparably wealthy and
privileged life. However the greatest lesson learned was an increased understanding that happiness has
little or nothing to do with possessions, and everything to do with your appreciation for what you truly
have – family, friends, and maybe even a cracked plastic ball and some dominoes.
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