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Swap bikinis for community service vest this spring break |
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Thursday, 17 January 2008 |
The moment I’d begun to lament my lack of worldliness had long since passed when I first received word in December 2006 about the upcoming Alternative Spring Break trip to the Dominican Republic.
As I learned more about the trip, which was partnered with Habitat for Humanity, my selfish little ears perked.
I recognized it as a chance to practice my Spanish, learn about a new culture, and get on a plane for the first time. I wasn’t kidding when I dubbed myself unworldly.
After signing up, I didn’t give the trip much thought (unless pausing to bask in the encouraging words of
friends and family praising my “selflessness”) until the week before.
My friends were gleefully contemplating their week of sleeping in, partying, and tanning, as I rolled up
some decrepit knee-length shorts and a bottle of some SPF 50 for my trip into culture shock.
The following week was the best, and most eye-opening, of my entire life.
I could reminisce endlessly here about the indescribable beauty of the Dominican Republic. I could
attempt to give some literary justice to the most sincerely warm and wonderful people I will probably
ever meet.
Anything I could say, however, would fall short.
The only thing I could accurately describe would be the swiftness with which I mentally kicked myself
as the selfishness of my prior motivations washed over me.
Actually seeing poverty in a Third World country firsthand versus reading about it is simply
incomparable.
San Juan, the area we worked in, is statistically far from the poorest region of the country, yet it was
still shell shocking.
The people we worked with (on the houses and in all other encounters) were so genuine, so funny, and
so grateful.
Never before had it felt so good to actually be doing something - something that we all knew would be
making a profound difference in someone else’s life.
However, the host family I stayed with and all surrounding members of their community (which, really,
was like one enormous, kooky family in and of itself) taught me far more than I could have ever hoped
to bring to them.
Some of the people we met lived in shacks made out of sheet metal and barbed wire, but they were the
most content, laid-back and giving people fathomable. They saw firsthand the insignificance of
physical wealth.
Alternative Spring Break, or any similar activity, is the best possible way I can think of to spend a
week in the middle of a semester where you’re constantly stressing about grades, your future, your job,
and your career.
Simply put, it’s the best way to just get over yourself.
It puts you in situations where you realize what a sheltered bubble you live in as a college student, and
to get out there and make a difference, however small.
I recognize that I am wildly idealistic at this point in my life, but never before had I felt so moved to
help others while being enormously humbled at the same time.
All international ASB trips are full for this coming spring, but there are 16 amazing domestic trips
waiting to be filled.
They offer the benefits of travel and stretching outside your comfort zone at almost a seventh of the
price of the international trips; they are $165 each (and no, I’m not getting a cut of that for this sales
pitch).
They range in activity from hurricane relief in Mississippi to working with the Boys and Girls Club of
America in Chicago to wild horse rescue in Georgia.
Posters will be hung up throughout campus with contact information for each trip’s leaders.
All domestic trips will run through a lottery system this year.
For those interested, go to the Appalachian and the Community Together office, or the ASB contact
table in Plemmons Student Union, Jan. 29-31 between 10 a.m.- 3 p.m. to register for a lottery number.
Then go to sign-ups Jan. 31 at 9 p.m.; you will receive an official lottery number and when your number
is called, you sign up for the trip of your choice.
For further information, contact the ACT office or Jenny Koehn at
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