NDCU Supports Trip to Dominican Republic
This past summer my mom and I went to the Dominican Republic with Absolute Ministries. Absolute Ministries is a team of young adults who go around Canada to high schools with the message: “Life is valuable, you have purpose and you can make a difference in the world around you.” Every summer Absolute makes an opportunity for these kids to become a “real-life hero” on what they call ‘Hero Holidays’. You can check out www.heroholiday.com and go to FAQ’s for more information if you want.
When we were in the Dominican we helped build 3 houses for homeless families. We got to meet the people who lived there and talk with them as much as possible. It was hard to talk to the people because they spoke Spanish and we spoke English. There was one little girl who was about 6 years old at one of the houses and she would always pick fruit off the trees and get different kinds of food and bring it to us. This little girl lived in a house that was about the size of my room and she was giving us things. The people there were so giving and selfless.
We went to different villages and set up medical clinics. Most of the time a few of my friends and I would take all of the children and take care of them while their parents were getting looked after. In one of the places we went to, the kids brought us to their swimming hole. It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen! It was one of those places that if it was in a city it would be a public place that people would pay money to go there. I thought it was extra beautiful because it was just a place where the children could go. In these villages we also went to houses and gave out gift bags (school supplies, toothbrushes etc.) to hundreds of families. Lastly we visited a dump site just outside of Puerto Plata, were people where living and scavenging for food. The people who were living on the dump site were Haitian refugees who walked 3 days just to live in this dump.
Another project we had was going to an orphanage. We woke up at 6AM and drove 2 hours to the other side of Santiago. All of the children who were there were mentally and physically handicapped. Most of them had been abandoned by their parents, mostly because their parents couldn’t afford to keep both of them alive. They get about 4 visitors a year. A lot of the kids were in cribs and had basically no muscle. Some of them couldn’t even lift their heads up, let alone stand. One boy who was laying in a crib looked about 1 or 2 years old. He couldn’t walk or talk or anything. All he did was move his head back and forth and hold onto your fingers. It turned out that he was 5 years old. Another little boy could walk around and he seemed like a normal little kid. But the more time you spent with him you realized that he was really clingy and if he didn’t get his way he was violent. He bit and slapped you if you didn’t go somewhere with him. I think he was just used to getting his way. I was walking down the driveway with him and underneath these trees there were 2 men sitting there. He wanted to go over to them and so we did. One of the men didn’t speak any English but the other one knew a few words. He basically told me that this was his son and asked if I wanted to bring him back to Canada. I politely declined but it showed me that the parents of these children just want the best for them. They didn’t put them in the orphanage because they didn’t want them; they put them in the orphanage because they love them.
While we were there some of the leaders heard about a small Haitian village that only got water once a week and it wasn’t even clean water. So they talked to a few people and next thing we knew it we were driving an hour to get to this little 100 person village. We dug the trench that they were going to put the water pipe in. It was 2 feet deep and about a kilometer long. This was the hardest work we did. We were outside in the blazing Dominican sun doing hard labor and doing our best to talk to the people. There was one little boy who would just sit and watch us dig with a smile on his face. All of the other children were playing with us or helping in some way. So one of the girls on our team who knew how to speak Spanish went and asked the little boy why he was just sitting there. The boy answered, “I’m just so happy you guys are here. If you hadn’t come to dig this trench, my whole village would die.” It was things like that that made my trip. It was the best experience of my life.
In closing, I’d like to thank the Credit Union for giving me the rest of the money I needed to finance my trip to the Dominican because without the Credit Union’s support I wouldn’t have been able to have touched these people’s lives. Nor would I have been impacted by what I experienced.
So thanks again.
