How has your time working in Cabarete affected you, now and then?
What did the experience mean to you?
Wow. Where do I begin? Cabarete changed my life. I had never
devoted a large portion of my time to teaching, but this was a
huge challenge and a very rewarding
one. I lived for a smile or a glimmer of interest in a child’s face as
we taught, and when I look at my pictures of them riveted to the books that they
read, I am moved. I was struck by the children’s love for life, despite
their hardships, and their appreciation for everything around them. They were
genuinely the happiest people I had ever seen -- they seemed to focus on the
small joys in life, and taught me to slow down and enjoy my surroundings. They
helped show me that I should spend more time with my friends and family, because
they are the most treasured things I have in life. They inspired me with their
passion for music, dance, the outdoors, and laughter.
Now, I think about the people and the friends that I have in
Cabarete almost every day. It influences every decision I make
about my life now, and has sparked
new academic interests for me. When I came back from the Dominican in
March, I realized that the academic path I was taking was not making
me as happy as
it should. It inspired me to return to the Education courses I had originally
started taking as a freshman and sophomore, and also to see the value
in talking to people, not just doing quantitative research which
is all the rage in Psychology
(my major field). As a result of my experiences there, I have become
more and more interested in cross-cultural research, specifically
how children’s
moral values and beliefs differ across cultures and how they are transmitted.
I am interested, in large part due to my experiences with the machismo culture,
in addressing women’s issues as well. More importantly, my fellowship has
brought a spiritual side to my academic endeavors. On a daily basis, I try to
remind myself that my work, my studies, and my actions should work toward the
benefit of others -- that whatever I do should help other people in some manner
or another. I hope to inspire people into doing the same with their own lives.
Finally, Cabarete has sparked a desire in me to live abroad in some country (I
am not sure where yet) for an extended period of time; the personal growth that
I experienced as a result of exposing myself to another culture was invaluable.
After I graduate, I will most likely be living abroad for a year and am attempting
to find a job in the field of education and/or social services.
Do you feel you or the program made a difference in the lives
of the children and in the community? (Give examples.)
I felt as if we were very much taken in by the community. They
admired us because we were educated women who showed a strong devotion
to the children and who really
made a concerted effort to educate the kids on a daily basis. The women
in the community were impressed that we worked so hard and that
we were still in school.
The children were able to get more individual attention and help with
their reading and writing due to the fact that we tried to work
in small groups, and because
having two more teachers at the school automatically reduces class size.
The teachers were appreciative of that, and I think felt better
able to manage their
classes with fewer students. The children were happy to be told that
they could, and should, succeed at anything they wanted to do.
What you are doing now?
I’m taking courses at Dartmouth college and working as a teaching assistant
for a course. I’m also the intern for the Sexual Abuse Awareness Program
(Women’s Resource Center) and work for Professor Andrew Garrod of the Education
Department. Professor Garrod and I will be published at the Association of Moral
Education conference, and are (funding pending) planning a trip to Bosnia in
December to examine inter-ethnic friendships and moral reasoning in children
and adolescents. I’m still involved at the Tucker Foundation, doing some
volunteering at the Intensive Care Nursery at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
