Dominican Trip Bound by Heartstrings

As we head into a season of great thankfulness, junior Mary Henningsgaard writes about her memories of her mission experience in the Dominican Republic. The next cross-cultural mission experiences sponsored by Spiritan Campus Ministry will be over spring break, with students returning to New Orleans, Immokalee, Fla., and Pineville, W.Va.

The greatest part of my cross-cultural mission experience to the Dominican Republic with the Spiritan Campus Ministry was the people I had the opportunity to meet. While in San Juan de la Maguana, we facilitated a camp for the local kids. Working with them reminded me how easy it is for us to take for granted all the things we have and how we forget to appreciate the little things in life.

I worked in the craft room every day, helping the kids do different projects we had planned out. At the beginning of the week, I was a little worried that the projects would not run smoothly, and we would end up with unhappy kids. However, I soon learned this was not the case. The culture teaches not to stress about little things, and the children were so appreciative of everything we did for them that it seemed impossible for them to be unhappy.

They didn’t argue about wanting different colors or fight over the supplies; they were happy with anything and everything they got. One of the most popular crafts was making beaded bracelets. The day we did this craft, I watched the kids get so excited over picking their colors and stringing their beads onto a bracelet that they could wear proudly.

In our last group, I noticed one boy who was taking special care to pick matching colors and string his bracelet very carefully. At the end of the session, as the boys were lining up to go home, I watched this little boy go up to Kate, my partner in the craft room, and give her his bracelet. I could not believe the selflessness of this little boy. The next time he will probably get the chance to make a bracelet of his own will most likely be next year, when Duquesne students come to facilitate another camp. He chose, without prompting or an alternative agenda, to give his bracelet to someone else.

This little boy impacted me so much because his actions represent the whole San Juan community. I believed this boy’s selflessness to be rare, when in fact that is how the people of San Juan are. They are loving, welcoming and would give the shirts off their backs to help someone else.

I had an amazing experience in the Dominican because of the people who I got to meet and got to know. Even without speaking the language, I found out that the people of San Juan are some of the most warm-hearted people I have had the opportunity to meet. They truly made my experience one that I will never forget.

 

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