This is the second trip I have taken with the Global Initiatives program, the first being a trip to Guatemala just a year past over spring break. This trip to the Dominican Republic (DR) began just two weeks before the start of the fall semester, and despite the trip home, it was a very memorable experience.

Both trips I have taken were provided by Discover Corps and I was very pleased with both trips as far as the projects, and that they were somewhat similar. I am a Civil Engineering major, so constructing walls and pouring concrete for floors is right up my alley. It was interesting to experience the differences between constructing a schoolhouse room for the children in Guatemala to building a kitchen for a family and pouring a floor for another in the DR.

Constructing the kitchen was unique because we used a wire mesh on the outside of the room stapled to a wood frame and on the inside, we stapled straight wire and put plastic bottles in between to act as insulation to the heat of the tropics. To hold the bottles in place, we stapled another layer of the wire mesh onto the uprights supporting the wall. After we finished meshing the wall, we hand-mixed cement to spread on the mesh in preparation for a smoother finishing cement layer and paint.

The bottles-as-insulation idea was ingenious. Considering the amount of littering due to the lack of education, the idea coincides with sustainability which is something of which civil engineers must be mindful. This was very different from Guatemala where we did not use anything for insulation at all. We just built a wall out of sheet rock, aluminum C channels and bolts.

The second project we worked on in the Dominican Republic was a concrete floor for another house in a half Haitian, half Dominican community. We hand-mixed ten bags of cement with the help of the community leader, masons, and other members of the community. It was hard work, but very rewarding once we finished the floor.

The rest of our time was spent sightseeing, snorkeling, and on other activities. We went to a variety of beaches and the place where we stayed and ate meals was within walking distance of a beach.

Both in Guatemala and in the DR, it surprised me how fresh the food was and how good it was. Here the food is nowhere near as fresh and the sodas contain corn syrup instead of real sugar. I do not think I will ever be able to eat a pineapple here in the US again, considering in the DR it was so sweet and freshly picked and cut. When we went snorkeling, that was a first for me; it was an interesting experience and was fun, even though the movement of the ocean made me seasick.

I did not do as much research before I went on this trip as I did for Guatemala so when we got to see a video about the relations between Haiti and the DR it was interesting. Before the trip, I was aware that the relations were not great, and the video our guide showed us really put it into perspective why the relationship was strained, and it was eye-opening to see the communities like La Grua, where Haitians lived as a community in the DR.

It is a good experience to see different countries and experience different cultures, and I was lucky to have been able to go on both this trip and the earlier trip to Guatemala. In both places, I felt very uncomfortable and out of place because comparing both Guatemala and the DR to the United States, we are very rich while they are not, but it was different because both countries did not feel poor and they had the necessities. Even if I do not get another opportunity to travel on another trip while I finish my degree, I am very glad of the experiences I have gained on these two trips.