by Kara Harvey
First, I want to begin with thank
you! I would not
have learned
these lessons that I hold close to my
heart without YOUR support. Your donations
and prayers sustained
me through the
5 weeks that I was
in the Dominican Republic. For this
reason,
I want to dedicate this
list and its contents to YOU.
I hope that you will
be able to experience the Dominican Republic through these words. Thank
you again!
**Throughout
this list, there
may
be references to reflections I participated in as
well as the daily mass readings
and passages from Simply Surrender, a reflection book of writings
by St. Therese of
Lisieux.
1. Living in the moment is not an excuse to be
crazy. It is a
reminder to sit still.
Pause. Be
patient
with others, but
first
and
foremost, be
patient with yourself. During the school year,
my
mind is as busy as my planner,
which if you ask my friends, looks “scary”. I am a color-coded,
list-
making, schedule-follower. My first
day
in the Dominican Republic
(DR) transported me into another culture
where getting the most done
is not the status quo. Taking care of yourself and spending time
with people is valued above organized chaos.
I was even encouraged to sit
still. Siéntese.
Sit
down.
2. Take pride in where you are from, where you are at, and where you are
going. God is present in all of these.
On the outskirts of
Santiago, there is a community called Cienfuegos.
We
were given an inside view of
the community from a Deacon who has faith, trust and pride
in this community
that has
come so far. Cienfuegos began as a shanty town and then
became a place of crime
and
delinquency. More recently, the community
has become a place
with schools, safety,
and growth though it is still in
deep poverty.
We
were able to go up on a
hill that over looked the entire area.
The
Deacon asked us, “Isn’t
it beautiful?” Si! From most people’s eyes it is a
group of run-down, poor buildings. For him, it was
an improvement of life for thousands of
people. It
is his legacy. God is present and at work in his
life
and in all of our lives no matter
how it may look on the outside.
3. Take chances. Jump off
a cliff into a waterfall.
There are times in our
lives (such as going out
of
the country for the first
time)
when
we come to the edge of a challenge
and
we don’t know what
is waiting. It is in this moment when we must jump into
God’s waiting arms.
Once I acknowledge that
I need God,
it becomes obvious that God will catch me, carry
me, and give me
peace in the mist of
the
challenge.
Going to 27 Waterfalls to jump,
slide and wade through the water
in the mist of God’s beautiful creation was a kind of trust fall. In the
end,
to jump is not to succeed, but
it is to try. It might not be pretty at first, like me trying to speak Spanish, but
if I go into the unknown dark tunnel, I have
the possibility of singing like a
canary.
4. Interprofessional teamwork is important.
The communication between professions, students,
and translators was
what made our clinic in San
Felipe run so smoothly. As
a team, we were not afraid to help out
someone who needed
it no matter what our
“job title” was.
5. Juice builds community
The families
in San Felipe, the
community where
we lived
and served, loved
juice. Each time we entered
a home, they brought out homemade
juice. Chinola (passion fruit), cherry,
limeade, pineapple,
and many others. They did this to welcome us. To give
to
us. They saw us
giving to the community through the daily clinic and health visits and responded with
generosity.
Gratitude leads to generosity. And the generosity of
San Felipe led me to deep gratitude for each
person, the community, the
juice, and for
God’s
love for us all. We grew
as a community
by asking our hosts questions about themselves while
drinking juice.
6. You can adapt to almost anything.
Chirping birds, crowing roosters, dishes being washed,
the scrape of
a plastic chair, card
games, Dominos,
the wind, the dispensing of filtered water,
buzzing of bugs. Silence.
Not understanding the language.
Weather. Scenery. A bed. Bucket showers. A home.
But maybe not the bugs…
7. Take care of yourself.
Look clean.
Take a shower. Show others that you care for
yourself
to
give them confidence to put
their trust in you.
8. Take a step
back
and let God have
all the
credit.
Many people in our group came to the DR
to
do good. In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus
references hiding our
good deeds so that others can not see them.
This is not to belittle
us and how we
want to help the
people of the DR, but to allow God, the source of
the
good, to shine. When I take a step
back, humbling
myself, others can
experience God through my actions
giving God the
glory. In this, I am learning to
depend and trust in God more
and
more, which allows more mercy and more love
to
shine on others.
During my time in
the DR, I was continually humbled by my inability
to
speak Spanish. In this, God
reminded me of my worth as
a person and then He used
me to connect to others in ways
I did not originally think of. I pray that my
patients and the people
I met in San Felipe saw God
through me.
9. There is a universal language.
I won the
superlative for
best Dominican hand language,
which is funny looking back because communication was the component of
this trip that I was most nervous for. One evening I told my
group, “Mireya made me
put
on
a long-sleeved shirt
before I left!”
They responded “Wow! You understood that she said
that!” I responded,
“No… she pointed
to
my room, rubbed
her arms like she was cold,
and then pointed to my
bare arms.” Language
is not always words.
When in doubt, find a child. Children and food gather people
together
and create a common language of
smiles and hugs.
10. Confidence is the combination
of experience and trust.
Throughout my
time in the San Felipe clinic, I had chances to perform wound care,
ear irrigations, assist with a small procedure,
set
up pap smear trays, complete intake forms, and above
all, interact with and
advocate for my patients. This experience increased my
trust in myself. This improved trust
in myself has increased my confidence in my
nursing ability.
11. Chocolate comes from
a fruit.
Google
it! This is a fun fact that
I learned first-hand in San Felipe where
they grow cacao.
12. Holding someone’s hand can be enough to form
a bond.
Benita came to the clinic many
times throughout
the month for her
chronic
disease management and I was
able to form a deep friendship with her.
She
taught me to listen,
even
when I don’t understand.
She taught me that
supporting someone
through sadness does not have to be through words, but
through a
hug
or a squeeze of a hand.
And
in these meaningful
actions, a friendship was born.
13. Sometimes a pair
of earrings is more than
just
that.
A few days before
I left the DR, my Dominican mom, Mireya,
handed me a
pair of earrings. We did not
speak the same language
so
we mostly communicated through tone of voice, actions
and hand gestures. I saw that she only had an earring on one of her
ears. I tried to communicate
to her that these were her
earrings. She told me she
had
her matching earring in her
room
and pushed the gift
towards me.
She told me to wear them en la mañana. In the morning, I put on the
earrings Mireya had given me. When I
walked into the kitchen, her entire face lit
up
with a smile.
I learned that generosity does not come out of
wealth, for Mireya
did
not have money, but
from a heart of love. I learned that I could show my
gratitude for this
generosity
by accepting the gift.
14. Siempre ~ Always
A common
response to gracias in the DR is siempre.
In a way, they are
saying that they are always there for you.
As a culture, I found that the
Dominicans in San Felipe
prioritize people. This directly correlates to a phrase we heard every day
in clinic, gracias a Dios.
After the patients find out that
their
glucose or blood pressure
is normal, they praise God. They
thank God. They are
grateful for their
health and for the people
in their life. They
put people first because
there is nothing (material, jobs, etc.) that is
worth more.
15. Home is
people.
Home is not a building,
or food, or weather.
Home is not
a structure built
by
man. It is the people built by
God
that will be forever in your
heart. The bonds that
were
created with my family in San Felipe
is not one of
blood, but it was just as
powerful. After only a month, Mireya, my Dominican mom, made an irreversible mark on my
heart. As I stood in our kitchen watching her make me a warm drink for the last time, I started to sob.
She
loved me through morning coffee and crackers, Domino games, big hugs,
and staying up late
to let me
in.
Mireya and many more people I now call friends are a part of my home.
With love,
Kara Harvey
