New to Blogging

I wanted to introduce myself to the blog. I am new to blogging and I am very excited to be part of this blog as well as part of the group going to Caminante. I am one of the five nursing students going on the trip. We are all Juniors at Hiram College. I am very interested in going on this trip and using my nursing knowledge and skills to help others. I have had 4 years of Spanish in high school and I am hoping that it will come back to me some while we are down there. As far as some plans for what us nursing students will be doing on the trip is we will primarily be performing physical assessments on the children that Caminante works with. We will be leaving behind the assessment forms so that the children can be followed up on and in years to come when other students return to Caminante to follow in our steps they will have some kind of baseline for a follow up assessment. We also plan to donate a manikin that has pull out organs for the children to learn with. We plan to teach them about the parts and organs of the body as well as, basic health teaching. We are also working on collecting donations of health products to donate to Caminante as well. This will be a life changing experience and I hope that the work and skill that we are able to provide as nurses will impact the children and the community as well.

Learning More Each Day

Days like these really make me wish we were already in the Dominican Republic. This snow is killing me, but I've lived in Ohio my whole life so you'd think I'd be used to it by now. Unfortunately, I am not able to attend the Sustainable Science class, but I have been brainstorming on my own. Last year I was a teaching assistant for the class "Chemistry in the Kitchen." The students in this class learned all about what composed some of the things they consumed each day. This class helped me develop ideas for my lesson plan for the Boca Chica children. I plan to teach the children about basic food science by using the food pyramid. I realize that they do not have access to all of the resources that we have. Hopefully I will be able to structure my lesson plan around what resources are available to them.
On the other end of the spectrum, the History class for the students going on the trip has been hard at work. We have been spending most of our time learning about the culture and history of the Dominican Republic. Sugar is a very important part of both of these topics. We have completed excerpts from Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History and Slave Revolution in the Caribbean and composed our first papers speculating why Saint Domingue was so vulnerable to the slave revolution they experienced in 1791.
Learning of the history of the Dominican Republic has been somewhat painful. The documentary Sugar Babies has given us a vivid look at the lives of the children of the Dominican Republic. It is upsetting to see so many children displaced or simply forgotten by the government. Professor Bill Fillner brought up a very important point after watching the film. He noticed that many of us had been gasping or sighing while viewing the film. He informed us that while in the Dominican, we too would come across people living in extreme poverty. We discussed planning a day in class where we would figure out how to handle our emotions in these situations and better prepare for the road that lies ahead. Our next step is to read "Why the Cocks Fight." This documentary novel will take us deeper into the Haitian and Dominican Republic conflict and help us understand what started it all.

Having a heart

First of all, let me wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day! So in my mind, today is the perfect day to blog about giving back to others and that's exactly what Hiram College is doing. Our mission is to travel to the Dominican Republic to enrich the science education within their school system. Unfortunately, I'm one of few students in the course who will not be traveling on site and interacting with the future scientists. However, this course so far has been a fantastic experience for me. Currently, I've been working on health & body lessons focusing specifically on the heart, an essential muscle key to our survival. What I love most about this topic is that no matter what race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation an individual is we are all similar in having a heart. I'm hoping that the young children learn the shape, function, and location of their heart. I also hope that they learn the importance of a strong heart and how they can protect it over their lifetime.

About Us

In the course Science in the Dominican and Haiti, we have the goal of bringing science education to the less fortunate young residents of these islands whom would otherwise never have access to these kinds of experiences. The central idea of our efforts is to design simple and sustainable, yet informative lessons over basic scientific principles for the children to learn about the natural world. We would like these lessons to be as easy and fun as possible so the students develop a natural love for learning and knowledge. With the economic status of the local area in mind, the lessons are developed to be easily repeatable with the assets readily available to the school staff. In this way, many generations of students can benefit even once we have left! Following the thorough design of our activities, we plan on personally traveling to the Dominican Republic to actually be a part of what we created. It is our hope that the students impacted by our presence continue to develop as informed citizens and rise above the circumstances in which they were born by improving the quality of life for those surrounding them.

Right in our own Backyard

I looked around the room as we learned about the dark side of life for some of the children in Boca Chica.  I could easily read the sadness, disbelief, and confusion on the faces staring back at the slide show.  While the idea of human trafficking and child exploitation wasn't new to any of us, hearing a firsthand account of what we might be seeing in the DR forced a different perspective.  I'm sure we’ve all heard about it on the news, read an article, and even seen a movie that depicted the atrocities of modern day slavery, but it’s different when you find it staring you in the face.  It’s much easier to look past things that are happening far away (where we've never been).  It’s even easier to subconsciously  convince ourselves that it’s not "real" when we see it on TV; after all, even so-called "reality" TV is contrived. However, the unimaginable truth remains that it is happening… at alarming rates… even in our own backyard.  

spread the word!

In 1994, Sister Denise Prichardo Rodriguez began her work for the children of the Dominican Republic, through the creation of Caminante. Situated in the tourist destination, Boca Chica, which has elevated levels of drug and sex trafficking among adolescents, she sought to provide an educational program. The children are not only taught the basics of a traditional education and the importance of physical and recreational activity, but how to protect themselves from the dangers prostitution and drug trafficking. Caminante also provides counseling services for the victims and families, while developing higher levels of self-esteem, by teaching them Christian values. Caminante offers a safe haven for those who might not have anywhere else to go.

I am so thankful to be a part this group so we can continue on with Sister Denise and her journey in helping the people of the Dominican Republic, by spreading the word! By going down there I believe we can help make a difference in the lives of those we meet! I am most excited to see the effects that it will have on my life and the memories that I will take away from this experience!

and these are the "cooler" months (2000km north of the equator)...

Holy icicles, Batman!

It's about 75°F in Boca Chica right now and the prospects are partly cloudy, but very warm for the remainder of the week.  This is quite a contrast to the official snow day we had at Hiram and to the state of emergency that several Midwestern states have declared because of this winter storm.  When our class met on Monday, we brainstormed over several of the lessons we are preparing  – one of which is about the weather.  I wonder how the children of Caminante would react to the snow?  I imagine that they would love it and all of its potential for fun.



We are working on a way to bring some “snow” with us, but (just in case) we’ll have plenty of pictures as visual back-ups.