In line with Whitby School tradition, our 7th and 8th graders went on a service trip to the Dominican Republic. For the second straight year, they worked with the Mariposa Foundation, a nonprofit that educates and empowers girls in the remote barrios of Puerto Plata. Read posts written by our students as they reflect on their experiences.
¡Hola a la República Dominicana!
By Hope, Eighth Grader at Whitby
Seeing how the foundation has changed in just one year was astonishing. They have new materials for the girls and are working on building new things that may help the girls learn about what they are passionate about. For example, this year the girls have been introduced to yoga and now have an outdoor studio.
They also built an experiential learning area based off of Eric Carle's children book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, in order to provide the girls with hands on learning. It was also nice to see that many things that I enjoyed last year stayed the same such as the activities like baseball, the food – we had rice and plátanos tonight, and the beautiful overall environment, especially the mango trees.
In addition, after being able to learn more Spanish throughout the year before coming to the Dominican Republic, I feel that I can now connect with the girls on a new level that I wasn’t able to last year because of the limited Spanish I knew.
By Lauren, Seventh Grader at Whitby
Imagine waking up to the sunrise in the Caribbean, warm in your bed, and excited to start off your day. That was what the morning was like for the 7th and 8th graders of Whitby. Now imagine it is your birthday, that's what this morning was like for me.
Breakfast was served quickly after we were woken. It was a delicious meal filled with fruits, pastries, pancakes, etc. Anything we might want as needed. After breakfast, we gathered our things to get ready for our snorkel trip. Once we arrived, we got to sit back and enjoy the view until we got to the reef. I personally have snorkeled many times in the past. So I, along with the other "expert snorkelers," of Whitby were able to snorkel while the others were given instructions.
Once everyone was in the water, however, I found it was hard to tell who were the experts or the beginners. The whole experience reminded me of my dad, who was usually the one to snorkel with me in the past. We went to two different reefs that housed numerous types of beautiful and exotic fish. We spent the majority of our time out on the boat, so we were able to eat a nutritious meal there as well. Once we drove home we had an hour to get ready for our dinner.
Dinner was served at the Mariposa Foundation, which we toured yesterday. Again we had a wonderful meal prepared by the kind kitchen staff of Mariposa. To my surprise, we were also given cake in honor of my birthday. After dinner we were given choice time, which is free time where we have the choice to either swim in the pool, go to the beach, or explore the town/shop. I decided to go shop, along with many of my friends. Overall, it was a wonderful day that I will never forget.
By Jason, Eighth Grader at Whitby
By Jack, Eighth Grader at Whitby
By Aaliya, Seventh Grader at Whitby
For me the DR felt like getting glasses because I had bad vision; opening up to a world which wasn’t in our privileged little corner really effected me in a good way. Today my group went into the community, taking away from what we saw — I realized that these people make the best of what they have and are very close as a community. Though they live completely different from us, it doesn’t stop them from being happy and kind to one another; actually knowing one another... unlike us in the US whom don’t pay attention to their neighbors. These new glasses that I have really changed my thinking of the world; my eyes finally saw clear.