During Spring Break, most people might go on vacation to relax. Others might stay at home and catch up on sleep. Normally, I'd probably do one of those things as well. Except, this year, I had the opportunity to go to the Dominican Republic to do community work by building water filters in underprivileged areas and doing science outreach in different schools.
In the DR, the main language everyone speaks and understands is Spanish. In the major cities, English is also spoken but where we were staying, the rural areas, English wasn't as widely understood and I had to improv using my 9th grade Spanish knowledge.
One of the days we were at the DR, we visited an elementary school called, Santa Maria del Batey. This was a school in a rural area so everyone spoke Spanish. There, we taught the elementary schoolers hygiene lessons and the importance of clean water and proper hand washing methods. When we came to the school, we were told that we were only going to be giving lessons and that the kids all spoke Spanish. They never told us how much love the kids would show to a group of high schoolers who don't really understand what they're even saying in Spanish.
When we first got to the school, the entire school had put on a celebration for us. There was music, dancing, food, decorations, and so much more. The way we were greeted was better than how a celebrity would've been greeted. Going into this school, I didn't realize how much of an impact I would be making on these little children.
Once we did our hygiene lessons to the children, we were given a chance to go talk to the kids. Even though my Spanish was extremely limited and minimal, the little kids I had met were extremely loving and treated me like I was a huge celebrity. The little girls knew my Spanish was poor so they had to adjust to me and started using their hands and slowing down for me. They showed so much love and care even with a huge language barriers. They were constantly hugging me and holding my hands. These little girls taught me that language barriers don't matter when it comes to friendship and love. Even though it was harder to communicate, we were still able to build a strong friendship that I'll always remember for years and years.
