Today, we arrived at Chicago! We took public transportation to our hostel and became acquainted with some of the areas surrounding downtown Chicago. We bought some groceries and made specific plans for the next few days. We all look forward to having a great week!
Safe arrival in the village!
I received an email from our contact at the bus company, and he informed me that the students arrived safely in Arutam village at 7:00 am yesterday morning without any problems. He will give me another update when they return to pick the students up next week!
Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic
Below is a link to a map that highlights the exact location of the Orphanage Outreach site that the team will visit in the Dominican Republic.
Dominican Republic Trip Updates
We have been monitoring the situation in the Dominican Republic closely. Please see the links below for more information regarding travel to the country:
Update from the bus company
I just received a message from my contact at the bus company. He also said the students all arrived safely at the airport and so did their luggage! His brother, the owner of the company, was there to meet them. That’s whose phone they used to call me. They were expected to arrive in the village at 7:00 am. I asked him to let me know if he hears anything else, and I’ll be sure to post again if I get new information!
Safe Arrival at the Airport!
The students have arrived safely in Quito and located their bus driver. They used his phone to call me! They are on their way to the village, and there is a possibility they will be able to make one call when they get there. I will post again if I hear from them!
Ecuador
The ASB trip to Ecuador will be leaving on Wednesday, January 13th. I will post another entry on this blog when the students have arrived safely!
The end is the begining
Hello All,
I wanted to take the time to write some closing words about my personal experiences in the Gulf Coast this week. I know that all week, much of the stuff that has been written has been about the destruction that took place down there and all of the things that have been lost in the storm over three years ago. Two things that I have taken from the trip is not about the destruction, but what has blossomed as a result of the destruction. Those things that have blossomed are the human spirit, and a renewed sense of belief in the college student.
There was a lot of spirit in those storm victims. Amongst all of the things that have gone wrong down there from the lack of help from insurance companies to corrupt city officials who actually made money off of the desaster, these people still forge on with a smile on their face, a song in their heart and recipies for good gumbo on their mind. They love to see volunteers and I was personally treated with respect from those whose houses I wasn’t even working on. If nothing else, that area has a lot of love to offer and that was enough for me to cherish this experience forever.
As for my belief students, you have to understand, I have always believed in the potential of students. Whether or not they met that potential was totally up to them. The main reason that I fulfilled my dream of becomoing a student affairs professional, which is an odd dream to have in the first place, was to help students meet that potential. Unfortunately, as I have gone up in the ranks, the majority of what I have seen is the bad side of students. What made this trip important to me was that I got to spend time with an exceptional group of students whom I may not have had any contact with if I haden’t been a last minute replacement in the advisor position which makes me actually pretty lucky. I was not the only lucky one at Camp Coast Care either. There were countless numbers of people from Virginia, Minnesota and Conneticut who came to me frequently telling me what a joy it was to work with these students. They continuously told me that the future is going to be a great place because we will have students like these leading us and I could not agree more. Then, these folks would go on to thank me for bringing them, at that point I had to stop and say, “They brought me.” These students did all of the work and they did a great job, for that I say thank you. Thank you for not only downgrading and bringing me along on this trip, but for also helping me to see the good in students once again. Hopefully I do not sound too much like Whitney Houston by saying that you are the future and I feel pride knowing that you all have and will make large contributions to our society. Also, I wanted to let you know that just because our short journey has ended it does not mean that we will part ways. Rashidah, Christy, Ryan, Nick, Kelly, Chris, Monica, Jeff, Pooja, Donna and of course Zoe, you are all my friends and I hope that you all feel the same towards me. Besides, we all sat under the “Friendship Tree” so we are kinda obligated now. Take care and thanks for reading.
Scuttlebutts
So, we never made it out to Scuttlebutts, but we still managed to have a good time during this week. Through a lack of sleep, a multitude of bugs, and the inevitable conflicts within our respective groups, we still walk away with some important life lessons. I think one of the most important lessons that I will be able to take home and apply throughout my day to day is the fact that its not so important how much you are doing to help people out, but simply that you are making the effort to help. Every little action that you take to assist someone helps to spread hope and optimism, and this is the easiest and most effective method of helping people in the long-term. Another take-home message I gathered was that although it is important to enter into a new environment with new people, especially an area such as the Gulf Coast which desperately needs extraneous help, we must use this as a model and continue to lend our abilities, no matter how rudimentary or in whatever field they are, to the people that need assistance in our own communities. And of course remember those values that we wrote down during the one reflection, and realize how the vast majority of them had nothing to do with materialistic preoccupations. Go home and hug your mom and dad, spread that hope and whatnot. Alright, I’ll get off my soapbox and stop preaching. Just think about what we all learned about this week, think about your personal values, and how the experiences of this past week relate to them, and try to get more in touch with those values. It’s been a pleasure working with all y’all.
Our last day
Today was our last day of work at Camp Coast Care. Early tomorrow morning we head back to PA. I can’t believe how quickly time has flown. It seems like it was only a couple of days ago we arrived at the camp.
After working in the kitchen yesterday, I returned to the house I had worked on earlier in the week. Our team finished siding the last wall and we were all very satisfied with the work we did at the site. Our site construction supervisor made us a BBQ lunch and we had time to admire all the progress we had made throughout the week.
After work, we had our last reflection. After grabbing food at Sonic, we headed to the shore and spent some quality time under the Friendship Tree, which is a large oak tree on a beach-front college campus. I will miss the natural beauty of the Gulf Coast and bonding with the group during our evening reflections.
I am really sad to be leaving MS. Throughout the week, our team grew incredibly close and it will be hard to not be together all the time back at Lafayette. We also met many other amazing people at Camp Coast Care whom we have developed amazing friendships with and it will be hard to leave our new friends behind. I will always remember this week as one of the most influential and cherished moments in my life.
I hope you all have enjoyed reading our blog and following all the great things we have experienced on our trip.