I had been eager to travel outside of the country ever since I have started college, and with a shortage of study abroad trips for engineering students available, I’d had my eye on the TCE Alternative Break trips for years. Finally, I saw the announcement for the Fall trip to the Dominican Republic and the timing of the trip was perfect. Suddenly, after months of paperwork and preparation, the trip was finally here.

The first thing one notices about the Dominican Republic is the heat. There was a stark difference between the ice-cold air conditioning on the plane and the stagnant heat outside the airport, as we awaited the arrival of the rest of our group. Throughout the remainder of the trip, we came to appreciate the slightest hint of a breeze, even lingering an extra few minutes inside of an air-conditioned gas station after stopping to use their restrooms. We also came to welcome and celebrate the frequent, yet brief, rainstorms that helped to cool things down.

We traveled from the airport to the lodge where we stayed for the week in a small van, weaving through narrow, bumpy streets. Even though the ride made everyone a little carsick, it gave us a great chance to see many different parts of the Dominican Republic. Since we drove from Santiago in the center of the country to the northern coast, we got to see farms, rolling hills of lush greenery, and many different types of architecture.

We also got to see the many different types of transportation that Dominicans use to get around, such as cars, motorcycles (lots of motorcycles), as well as horses and donkeys. It was a little unnerving at times when our driver would pass someone on narrow and winding road, but we arrived safely to all our destinations.

Throughout the trip, we saw many vendors selling traditional Dominican foods, such as rice, beans, chicken, and fish. At the lodge, all of our meals were delicious and typically featured rice with some type of protein and vegetables. My favorite was probably La Bandera (The Flag), which is a traditional meal consisting of rice, beans, and chicken in a red, tomato-based sauce. It was also served with a simple salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado. However, the best food of the trip was hands-down, all of the amazing fruit and fresh fruit juices, which were served with each meal. I swear you haven’t had truly good tropical fruit until you’ve had it in the Caribbean. The mango and pineapple were sweeter than any candy I’ve had in the US, and were the perfect dessert for each meal. I would probably go back to the DR just to have more of their fruit.

For the service aspect of our trip, we spent a few days at one site where we helped to finish the construction of a house using recycled bottles. The plastic bottles served as insulation material within the walls to help block out some of the aforementioned Dominican heat. We used chicken wire and staples, which we hammered into the framing by hand, to encase the bottles within the walls.

Then, we mixed concrete on the ground using shovels and covered the wiring with cement to seal everything inside. We were told that after we left, another group would come in and finish the walls with a final layer of cement to smooth everything out, and then paint it a bright shade of blue to match the rest of the house’s walls. While time-consuming and arduous, we were pretty efficient and even surprised our guide by how quickly we finished. We also spent a day at another site near a batey, a Haitian-Dominican community, where we mixed more concrete in order to provide flooring for a house.

Overall, this was a great trip, and one that I would recommend to anyone looking for global experiences. I was able to experience and learn about a different culture while providing service to communities in need. Even though there were some not-so-great aspects of the trip, such as the heat and missing a flight on our way back to the states, the positive aspects, such as the other members of our group on the trip, greatly outweigh these and leave me with a wonderful memory of the TCE Alternative Break to the Dominican Republic!