Having participated in similar service projects in developing regions of the world in the past, it was a refreshing experience to give back to my fellow man for a week in the Dominican Republic. I took the role of male chaperone on a whim and felt honored to have been trusted and chosen to participate. From the day camp, the service project, and the interactions with the Dominicans, the trip reinforced my desire to travel and experience as much as possible while simultaneously devoting my time to those who have not been as fortunate as I have been in life. Now that I am back in the United States and have had a few days to reflect on the experiences, my goal is to rally support for the 4-H and this program in Bath County amongst my World Geography students, both past and present. Many, if not all, of my students need what I have dubbed a "cultural reawakening," an experience where they are able to travel outside of the rural confines of Bath County to experience what the world has to offer. With my enthusiasm, I believe that several will take a vested interest and give their teacher a reason to be proud.
Probably the most rewarding part of the trip was seeing the reactions of my fellow volunteers to the scenes around them -- begging children, open-air meat markets, being the ethnic minority for the first time, being unable to freely communicate...What makes trips such as this one special and memorable is their ability to take teenagers from rural Virginia out of their comfort zones. I hope the Virginia teens were able to recognize the luxuries we enjoy in the United States (clean water, readily available food, access to basic amenities) that serve as challenges for so many people in the Dominican Republic.
With the day trip to the relatively impoverished town of Higuey and the visit to the small village outside of Macao as guides, the 4-H does a wonderful job at introducing Dominican culture and way-of-life to teenagers who are often more distracted by texting, gossip, and Facebook at home. Seeing the stark differences between the socioeconomic classes of the Dominican Republic, particularly with the parallel drawn between the impoverished people of Macao versus the posh lifestyles of millionaire foreign investors near Punta Cana Resort, was something I will never forget and will be sure to educate my students on in the near future. If invited to participate again, I would hope to offer even more lessons on sociological and anthropological aspects of Dominican life, while tying in some historical facts and geopolitical knowledge. Above all else, students need to be made aware of the facts of life in an ever-shrinking, globalized, homogenized world, something at which this 4-H program and its coordinators excel.
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Contributed by Justin M. Broughman
Bath County High School
U.S. History and World Geography Teacher
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