Ryan Brosseau

Schools divisions in the Dominican republic are divided into 2 different divisions, public and private.

Schools in the DR

Public schools are schools for the children in the general public, similar to Canada. However, public schools in the Dominican are much poorer than public schools in Canada. Some schools in the Dominican do not even have supplies to teach kids proper education. Some schools only have the supplies to teach kids basic skills like writing letters and making a signature. Public schools suffer mainly because of the Government in the DR. The Government of the DR only funds 2% of the countries overall income to education unlike Canada where education is paid for by taxes.

Public Schools

Private Schools Private schools are much different from public schools in the Dominican. Private schools are schools that are paid for individually, so parents who send their kids to private schools have to pay for it. Children who go to a private school receive a much better education. The Kids Create program was designed for toddlers to use their imagination to learn.

I found the Dominican people very traditional to their culture. For example, the people there all knew how to dance to their music. It seemed like everyone can do the salsa. Canadian culture seems like it has strayed away from their traditions, then again there are many different cultures here in Canada. The Dominican people take their culture seriously.

Dominican Culture

I had many different experiences in the Dominican that I will never forget. The things that I learned in the Dominican are things that I could never learn in a classroom.

Experiences in the Dominican

The whole trip was a great experience for me, but for this I have counted the top five best experiences of the trip for me.

My fifth best experience in the Dominican was when we got to tour around Santo Domingo and see some of the history there. I found it interesting because I didn’t know anything about the Dominican Republic or its history. Touring the oldest part of Santo Domingo was interesting for me because everything was kept in such good condition and original that you could almost see the history there as it took place so many years ago. And learning about Trujiro was interesting because we never learned about him in school and that there were more evil people out there than just Hitler and Stalin.

5th Best experience

My 4th best experience in the Dominican was getting to see the schools in Santo Domingo. I found it so interesting because the differences between public and private schools was like the difference between night and day. I found some of the kids, especially in the all girls school, so resilient because you could see how they were trying to change their life from poverty to an average life.

4th Best experience

My 3rd best experience was when we got to spend the day with the college students in the Dominican. I found that day fun because we got to tour the chocolate factory, and I love chocolate! One of the main reasons I enjoyed that day was because of the time that we got to spend with the college students there at the dorms and share our ideas of the importance of a second language in the Dominican. It seemed like although we were from different places, we seemed to have the same ideas on how to help others around us.

3rd Best Experience

My second best experience in the Dominican was playing with the kids. I had a lot of fun just being a kid with them. When we got to do stories with the children in Porto Plata, although the first one was rough, the second one was a success and the children were so fun to work with. It was amazing to see how the kids there could use their imagination and create a story. And the kids in Neyba on the retreat centre were so fun to play with. They were so amazed to play with us and just have fun with us.

2nd Best Experience

My best experience in the Dominican was working in Neyba. Working with the children was very close to being the best experience in the DR, but I really felt like we were doing what we came for in Neyba. The work was hard and the heat was intense, but I feel that the work we did in Neyba was the most beneficial for the people. I felt like we did make the biggest differences for the people that we put the floor in for, because we could see how much of a difference it made for them and how much that floor can benefit that family. I felt personally that my main purpose for going to the Dominican was to do the work we did in Neyba

Best Experience

I learned a lot about myself and my personal life in the Dominican. It’s funny how you have to see how other people suffer in order to see how fortunate we are. I can’t lie, before I went on this trip I rarely thought about how privileged I was and focused on how unprivileged I thought I was. I focused more on what I wanted and less on what I really didn’t need. Until this trip I didn’t fully understand what I had that millions of people in this world don’t have that they need.

What I Learned about Myself in the Dominican

Being able to compare Canadian culture to Dominican culture was one of the best learning experiences I had on this trip. I found it personally amazing how we as Canadians waste what the Dominican people beg for. For example, after our night out at Tony Roma’s I had a guy almost beg me for food. And to think about how much food we waste in Canada, we could feed not only our starving people, but all the starving people in the Dominican as well, possibly even more.

Continued……

The Dominican trip really helps me appreciate the field of work that I am pursuing. After my experiences on this trip, I feel the need to go and do it again. I can’t wait for the next opportunity to go and work in another country and help the people less fortunate than I.

Continued……