Walking with Caminante

“…it’s OK to be leaving and I’m able to go, only because I know that I will return one day.”

walkingwithcaminante — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 05:19:15 +0000

Kimberly loving “Carlitos” at the los Cocos School

It’s been two weeks since we left the Dominican Republic and I miss it terribly. We flew out of Santo Domingo to Atlanta, Georgia and as we started to land in Atlanta, I remember looking out of the window and feeling guilty. We were flying over huge houses that had water and electricity, houses that had backyards with play sets for children, cities that had skyscrapers and fast food places on every street, and developed highways lined with expensive cars. I felt guilty that this was what we were coming back to; these are luxuries that are in our lives every day, while we just left a place where people don’t have the chances to enjoy these luxuries like we do. The people in Boca Chica and surrounding areas work hard every day and come home to houses that are made of scraps of metal with no electricity and are barely big enough for their family. Children don’t have school buses that pick them up every day for school, but rather these children are forced to walk miles back and forth. Some of the schools that we worked in consisted of one room with desks that were falling apart and the schools had hardly any supplies for the students. It was just hard to realize that even though we adapted to life in the Dominican during our time there, we can easily go back to our comfortable lives in the U.S.

The trip changed my life, which I expected that it would, but I never imagined to this extent. I am so grateful that I got a chance to work with Caminante to help educate children of the Dominican Republic. Education is very important to me and to be able to pass on knowledge about topics that these children wouldn’t normally be educated about, meant a lot to me. I really hope that the children took a lot from our lessons and I hope that the teachers will continue on with our lessons to reinforce them. These children are capable of learning so much, but they just need the opportunity to learn. If these children are given the opportunity then I know that they can do great things in their lifetimes.

Leaving the Dominican Republic was very emotional for all of us. The people at Caminante, our hotel, and friends that we made along the way became like family in just a matter of eighteen days. If we had the chance to stay longer, I know that all of us would’ve stayed. But as I was leaving, I told myself that it’s OK to be leaving and I’m able to go, only because I know that I will return one day. I would love to go back, perhaps during my time in optometry school and educate them on eye care and to provide glasses to those in need.

I want to thank Caminante especially for allowing us to teach in their classrooms and for treating us like family. The work that all of you do is amazing and you are all amazing people. The workers of Caminante are huge role models and devote their lives to helping others. We were only there for eighteen days to help, but you help these children and families every day. Thank you for everything!

-Kim

Team Caminante 2012 with Julito’s boys

Day 15: Jenessa’s Reflections

walkingwithcaminante — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 05:37:36 +0000

Today, both the education and nursing teams had the morning off. We spent it laying out on the beach, gathering supplies to hand over to Caminante, and hanging out with each other. In the afternoon the nursing team taught at Caminante, and the education team visited an orphanage. The orphanage was interesting to explore. We all split up with different aged kids and worked on different activities; some played volleyball, read a book, jumped rope, or played various games. Kim and I were with a group of 12-15 year girls. We taught them a few of our dances from home, the Cupid Shuffle and the Cha Cha Slide. They were quick learners, so we had them teach us a few dances they love. Beyonce’s Girls (Run the World) was their favorite, and all the girls got together and did a choreographed dance. We recorded it on our cameras to keep the memory.

To end the day, all of us girls decide to get dinner together since we only have a few days left. It’s bittersweet. The majority of us are ready to get home and see friends and family, but are not yet ready for this amazing adventure to end. This experience has impacted our lives in ways we didn’t imagine, and we’ve made great friends. Not only friends here, but also friends with each other. Coming into this trip I only knew one of the girls, but all of them have become great friends and I love them all. I couldn’t pick a better group of girls to share this experience! … and the professors aren’t half bad either!

Day 14: Alyssa’s Reflections

walkingwithcaminante — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 05:45:20 +0000

Today was a relaxing day for us Hiram students because we didn’t have to teach or work. The only thing on the schedule for us was the Son festival in the evening. A group of us relaxed on the beach all morning and some napped in the shade. On Sunday’s, the beach is packed with people that live locally. It’s nice to see a lot of people and families taking advantage of their day off and using the beautiful beach.

After lunch, most of our group got ready and went to the Son festival. This festival happens every Sunday evening and is packed full of people dancing to a live band playing traditional music. When we arrived, we were suprised to see people sitting down and not dancing. We later found out that someone that was special to the community had passed away the day before so the festival was cancelled in tribute to his life. We were bummed we couldn’t dance and sad that someone had died but thought it was very nice that the people of the community would cancel something that happens every week to honor this persons life.

Day 13: Kelcie’s Reflections

walkingwithcaminante — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 21:47:30 +0000

Today (Saturday) the education team began the day by teaching at Caminante. It was a great teaching session devoted to children’s right and feelings. The kids and adults that attended the lesson were so attentive and really understood what we were trying to teach them. Some individuals shared really personal stories about their lives that added a great deal of “realness” to the discussion. After the morning teaching session, the education and nursing teams spent the rest of the day together with Julito’s boys. It was a great time filled with laughs, games, and swimming in the ocean! We first started out by making coconut jewelry with the boys at La Cosona. It was a wonderful experience and the boys really liked teaching us their trade. We all had the opportunity to buy some of the jewelry the boys made, which was really special for us. Once we were done with that activity, we took all the boys back to the beach where we swam and played games on the sand. We drew quite a crowd with our games and even got some of the onlookers to play with us. It was also Junior’s 15th birthday (one of Julito’s boys) and we surprised him by throwing a mini-party for him. We got a cake and candles that were really hard to blow out! It was a great day filled with lots of fun and laughs, and a great time spent with the boys.

Day 12: Kimberly’s Reflections

walkingwithcaminante — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 02:04:37 +0000

In the morning, the nursing team and the education team both taught in La K today. It was our first time in this classroom and it turned out to be a rough day for us. There was was only a couple small rooms and barely enough desks. The desks that they did have were all broken with missing backs and sometimes missing legs. Alyssa and I taught our lesson on Children’s Rights. We read them one of our stories which is about having the right to express your opinions and ideas. In the story, the character George, talks about how he held a strike against a school until they got enough desks and chairs for all of the students, because not only do you have the right to an education, but you have the right to a GOOD education. The children in La K agreed with the story and they started requesting that they get more chairs, because of the kids that were standing in the back. (So a few of the students that were sitting actually went next door and brought a few more chairs in for their standing classmates.) It was really touching to see them learning from our stories and recognizing that they are entitled to these rights no matter who they are. I hope that they continue standing up for themselves and demand the best education that they can get. This area that we were in is apparently really prone to child violence, so I hope that they also took from our lesson that they have the right to not be harmed. The biggest thing that these kids need to do is learn their rights and stand up for themselves.

In the afternoon, Alyssa and I got to teach our Children’s Rights lesson again, but this time at Monte Rey. We had a group of mothers this time instead of children. We taught them the eight rights that we think all children should have and we read them one of our stories. We then went into Kelcie’s lesson on feelings. We asked each mother what they were feeling and most said happy or proud. There was one woman who said she was sad, but she wouldn’t share why with us and another woman said she was in love. She made it clear though that she wasn’t in love with someone, but rather she was in love with her life and herself. She said she was blessed to have a wonderful family. It still amazes me that these people have rough lives compared to us in the U.S. and they have less money, but they still love their lives. They are some of the happiest and generous people that you’ll ever meet. These ladies were also so appreciative that we asked them how they are feeling, because these mothers are often overlooked for all of the hard work that they do. They also expressed that they were very appreciative that they got the chance to learn what we have been teaching to their children, because they want to be able to reinforce the lessons at home. At the end of the lesson, Caminante arrived and did a little Mother’s Day celebration for the mothers, which was a perfect ending to our lesson. These mothers work so hard to take care of their family and they should be appreciated for it. It is also satisfying that they agree on the importance of these children’s rights and they will work on giving their children the best life that they can have.

This trip has been amazing so far and every day we experience great things. Everything has been so rewarding. Everyone keeps thanking us for the work that we are doing and saying how grateful they are, but they don’t know that we are getting just as much out of this trip as they are. We’re so grateful that we got this experience and that we have the opportunity to help people’s lives here.

Day 11: Carson’s Reflections

walkingwithcaminante — Thu, 31 May 2012 18:41:49 +0000

Carson spreading love and hope.

Hello from the DR!

All is well. I’ve actually completely lost my voice on two occasions now, but I’m alternating between sounding like a 92-year-old man and pre-pubescent teen boy, and we’re calling it my “sexy voice” I’m lucky enough to be fluent in Spanish and have been using it every opportunity I can.

Today was our day off and I arranged to spend the day with Esperanza, a sort of liaison between Caminante and the HIV & AIDS clinic. Although I was bummed about missing out on the waterfall excursion the rest of the group enjoyed, I’m glad I took advantage of the opportunity to spend time with her. Esperanza is essentially a version of Mother Theresa re-incarnated. She is not a trained health care worker but is more of a community social worker and visits HIV patients (mostly children) in incredibly impoverished areas. I’m writing this blog post on one of the twelve homes we visited today…

Ms. J: This was one of the harder cases, but by far not the worst. After taking a motorcycle to the outskirts of Boca Chica and across dirt roads, we stopped and walked a little over a mile into the depth of a rural, impoverished community. We turned and went between a few shacks, emerging in front of a large trash pile with various livestock milling around and over it, picking for edible scraps. To the left of the pile was what I later realized to be Ms. J’s living area. There I met two young boys; a naked toddler and his younger brother wearing an old, to0-large-t-shirt that swung down close to his knees to cover his otherwise naked body. They greeted both me and Esperanza with warmth. Ms. J is HIV positive and has been, to her knowledge, for the past eleven years. She has had five children. The first three died of AIDS. Their disease went untreated, mostly because she says she lacked the knowledge of the disease. Her two remaining children are currently HIV positive, but she refuses to take them to receive treatment, despite the fact that the treatment and medication are completely free and only on the other side of town. When I questioned her further about her refusal to seek treatment she replied with a distant look, a shrug of her shoulders, and the simple reply of “No quiero” (I don’t want to).

Ms. J was abused by her family and the fathers of her children. Her current husband returns home only to beat her and the children and then leaves to go work in the capital. She is emotionally unstable, justifiably, and has minimal comprehension over her current situation nor the resources to help improve her circumstances and the circumstances of her children. This is simply an example of a family I interacted with, there is so much more left unsaid about our conversations and interactions. Saying goodbye to her two boys was the hardest goodbye I’ve had in a long time, and was one of the few occasions I shed tears. My tears were not out of pity, or sadness, but they were tears of hope. I saw the light in their eyes, the joy in their hearts and the copious amounts of love they have to give in their hearts. Simply because I depict the reality of their circumstances, should not take away from the utter exuberance, tenderness and humanity I encountered.

With that said, does being happy with what you have mean that your human rights are not being denied? Our encounters within the schools were much the same, there were instances of incredibly happy children who worked and played in conditions that otherwise may be deemed inappropriate. These children looked content with the few toys they had and the poor conditions of their play center, but does that make it okay? Is it okay for the government to allow these kids to play here just because they haven’t complained? The room was small and cramped, and the toys were old and moldy. Is this right?

It’s been an incredibly life changing experience, and it solidifies the type of community outreach I want to do in the future. Interacting with these families has led me to not only understand the value of education- but the true heart of compassion, love and most importantly, community. I am taking so much more away from this experience than I could ever dream to give back, and for that I am eternally grateful. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to express in words the experiences that I’ve been able to have, but will carry them with my on my future endeavors as an international public health nurse.

Carson

Day 11:Lindsay’s (“soggy”) Reflections

walkingwithcaminante — Thu, 31 May 2012 04:03:12 +0000

Today, we went to the attraction, 27 waterfalls. It was a 4 hour drive to Santiago. There were 13 of us that hopped onto a bus armed with our towels, tennis shoes, and bug spray. We woke at 4:30am in order to make sure that we were ready to leave by 5am. I squeezed into the bus in between Megan and Julito, which turned out to be the best spot on the whole bus. All three of us snuggled pretty much the whole 4 hour ride. We finally arrived. We were all excited but still unsure of what was to come! We then got fitted for our life jackets and helmets. I don’t think any of us were ready for what happened that day, in a good way. We got there and hiked almost an hour up hill when we finally reached the river. We did our first ‘waterfall’ jump and it was so awesome! It was kind of scary at first, jumping off a stone cliff but it felt really great to just jump. It was exhilerating to jump into freezing cold water and do something kind of crazy. We did many jumps that were great but the best of all was the really high jump that was at least 30 feet (I’m estimating). I planned on sitting the jump out but as I watched the people in front of me jump, I felt like I had to do it. I knew that I would never get another opportunity like this. I hopped in line to jump and waited for my turn. I stepped close to the edge and paused to look around and take in all the beauty of the scene around me and the wonderful people who I was with. This trip has been rewarding, in so many ways including gaining great friends and lessons learned. I was nervous to jump but I did it….and it was AWESOME. We continued to follow the path and then finished all the waterfalls/slides. We then ate lunch and hopped back into the van to head back to the hotel. It was such a great day! I can not believe how much fun it was. The ride there and back was SO worth it. I think many of us were skeptical but that changed very quickly. It was one of the best things that I have ever done! The end.

Week 1 Reflections from Kelcie: Jose “Albertico”

kelcie12 — Tue, 29 May 2012 12:18:54 +0000

“Albertico” playing “hot hands”!

One experience thus far in this extraordinary trip that has impacted me greatly is having the privilege to meet Jose, a boy who lives on the street/beach in Boca Chica. He is a tiny little boy who claims to be 11, but really is probably only 8 or 9 years old. He has lost all of his front teeth due to rotting. He has beautiful curly hair and an infectious smile. He is dirty, possibly carrying diseases, but I hug and kiss him every chance I get. Jose is ornery, likes to play jokes on you, and gets himself into trouble sometimes. He has the soul of a 40 year old man and is far too cunning for his age and lack of education. He is not the sweetest or cutest boy I have met so far, but to me he is absolutely perfect. If I could I would take Jose back to Ohio with me in an instant. He has stolen my heart and has shown me love that I know I will never experience again. He is an example of one of the thousands of children living in Boca Chica who do not deserve this life. Jose, at 8 years old, should not be fending for himself on the streets. My heart breaks for him and all the other children here who are in the same situation. When you meet the children here like Jose, who have nothing but give you everything, you can’t help but be changed forever.

-Kelcie

“Albertico” charming all the ladies! (this time with Cristina)

Added on June 4th, 2012….

It was brought to my attention that a few individuals, who are highly invested in the work that Caminante does in the Dominican Republic (but not on the Caminante staff), found my blog post about Jose “Albertico” offensive. Let me start off by saying I never meant to offend anyone by my post. My intentions when writing the blog post were to give my raw feelings and observations about a boy that I care deeply about. I wanted this blog’s audience to see that the appearance of children on the outside means nothing, and we should never judge any human being based on physical appearance alone. I love Jose for his spirit, resilience, and his true desire to be wanted by others. I am fully aware that taking Jose away from his home would not solve any real child poverty problems in the DR, but that does not mean that I don’t desire immensely a better life for this incredible boy. I thank those of you who responded to my blog post for your honest feedback and concerns. I care very much about the work that Caminante is doing and the children they are giving great opportunities to. I would never intentionally write something about a child, especially one that means a great deal to me, that I thought would be offensive towards them. With Love, Kelcie

Day 4: Sylvia’s Reflections

walkingwithcaminante — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:21:36 +0000

On our way to Los Cocos that morning, the van was stopped due to a worrisome sight. There was a young girl, probably around the age of 3, she was crying and it appeared as if she was lost. Cristina and Yocasta jumped out of the vehicle in order to help the young girl. There were no houses that were in plain view nor were there any people around. The young girl continued to cry while Cristina and Yocasta tried to find an individual that they could ask for help and to see who this young girl belonged to. Eventually, a woman came over and told Cristina and Yocasta that she would take the girl back to her mother who apparently lived further up the street. Such an event truly makes one question, where is the mother? Does she care about her child? For a child that young to walk so far away from home without having her mother realizing it is baffling. This struck me very deeply because I know that when I was young, if I wandered 3 feet away from my mother, she immediately began looking for me. Yocasta told the woman to warn the girl’s mother that her daughter can be taken if another incident like that happened. I am happy to know that there are people like Yocasta out there, fighting for the protection of children.

Day 3: Challenges and Flexibility for the Nursing Students

walkingwithcaminante — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:01:39 +0000

As we prepared for this trip we tried to plan our schedule and activities as much as possible, but already we have had to make a number of small adjustments. We did talk with the students about this ahead of time, but they are now in the midst of it.

One challenge we are dealing with is that the ages of the children within the groups and between groups varies from early elementary through high school – making lesson development and flexibility a challenge, especially when most of us don’t have the language skills to adjust as we would in English.

Yesterday afternoon we hit one of those challenges. We were scheduled to teach our lessons to a youthgroup in Monte Adventro, on Nutrition and Healthy Lungs – two priority health issues based on the work we did last year. However, at lunch we found that our afternoon group would be older teen boys who live in a very high-risk environment and we were asked to switch from the Nutrition lesson to the HIV/STD/Human sexuality lesson as this was felt to be priority information for this group of boys. The Healthy Lungs / Don’t Smoke lesson would also be important, but Megan needed to modify it for the age group as well. Fortunately, the two students who were called on for the rapid changes are also the two with the strongest skills in Spanish. For the Healthy Lungs lesson, instead of using her planned narrative, Megan worked through the different topics by asking the boys what they knew, and then reinforcing or correcting information as needed. Carson, who is fluent in Spanish, conducted her class in a similar manner – having the boys work in groups to prepare brief presentations about what they knew about different aspects of these topics, having them write questions anonymously, and so on. We used the bananas planned for the nutrition lesson to demonstrate condom application.

All in all, our students rose to the occasion and the boys were very attentive and seemed to really enjoy the class.