Monday March 26, 2012
Recess
Seeing all the poverty on Sunday opened up our lives to a different way of life. Being able to meet the families we will be working with showed us that in a country like the Dominican Republic, money is not all that matters, and unnecessary materialistic things is not what is needed for true happiness but rather love, God, family, friendship and laughter. From the very beginning of our work week, we realized that we will be learning as much from them as they will from us and that we will be bringing back with us many things which we can share with those we love that are more important than a new soccer ball or nice car. Unless you come here, you are blind to the depth of poverty in the world and sometimes even have no idea of the poverty within your own country. When we leave here, it might be easy for us to forget about the poor, small houses, the tin rusted panels of the walkway, the conditions of the school and of the people and animals. However, at the same time, who are we to judge whether it is ok to be poor or not, or to make comments about whether or not they have a good life. The people here don't feel sad for themselves but instead have smiles on their faces, are filled with laughter and giggles and don't need material possessions to give them this sense of happiness
Seeing the kids faces as they interacted with us and with each other at recess made us forget where we were and just be happy to be getting to know these kids. They made us feel special because of how excited they were to see us and how badly they wanted to play with us. At points throughout the day I couldn't get the kids to stop hanging on me or keep them from following us wherever we went, even if it wasn't in the school or church. One little boy, Juan, wouldn't get off my back. Although I thought it was adorable, it was also heartbreaking to learn that part of the reason he didn't want to get down was because he had blisters on his feet from wearing his shoes without socks and that didn't fit him right. Another girl was crying in the street because she didn't feel well and did not want to go to school but she didn't want to go to the doctor again either. Despite instances such as these, these kids have an understanding of life that I don't think we fully comprehend, and the lessons they can teach us are far reaching.
Seeing the kids faces as they interacted with us and with each other at recess made us forget where we were and just be happy to be getting to know these kids. They made us feel special because of how excited they were to see us and how badly they wanted to play with us. At points throughout the day I couldn't get the kids to stop hanging on me or keep them from following us wherever we went, even if it wasn't in the school or church. One little boy, Juan, wouldn't get off my back. Although I thought it was adorable, it was also heartbreaking to learn that part of the reason he didn't want to get down was because he had blisters on his feet from wearing his shoes without socks and that didn't fit him right. Another girl was crying in the street because she didn't feel well and did not want to go to school but she didn't want to go to the doctor again either. Despite instances such as these, these kids have an understanding of life that I don't think we fully comprehend, and the lessons they can teach us are far reaching.