The document discusses the educational divide between public and private schools in the Dominican Republic, highlighting the struggles of public schools due to limited government funding. It shares personal experiences from the author's trip, emphasizing cultural differences, impactful interactions with local children, and personal reflections on privilege and the importance of giving back. Overall, the author expresses a deep appreciation for the learning opportunities and insights gained during the trip.

1. Ryan Brosseau

2. Schools divisions in the Dominican
republic are divided into 2 different
divisions, public and private.

3. Public schools are schools for the children in the general
public, similar to Canada. However, public schools in the
Dominican are much poorer than public schools in Canada.
Some schools in the Dominican do not even have supplies to
teach kids proper education. Some schools only have the
supplies to teach kids basic skills like writing letters and
making a signature. Public schools suffer mainly because of
the Government in the DR. The Government of the DR only
funds 2% of the countries overall income to education unlike
Canada where education is paid for by taxes.

4. Private schools are much different from public
schools in the Dominican. Private schools are
schools that are paid for individually, so
parents who send their kids to private schools
have to pay for it. Children who go to a private
school receive a much better education. The
Kids Create program was designed for toddlers
to use their imagination to learn.

5. I found the Dominican people very
traditional to their culture. For
example, the people there all knew
how to dance to their music. It seemed
like everyone can do the salsa.
Canadian culture seems like it has
strayed away from their traditions,
then again there are many different
cultures here in Canada. The Dominican
people take their culture seriously.

6. I had many different experiences in the
Dominican that I will never forget. The things
that I learned in the Dominican are things
that I could never learn in a classroom.
The whole trip was a great experience for me, but for
this I have counted the top five best experiences of the
trip for me.

7. My fifth best experience in the Dominican was
when we got to tour around Santo Domingo and
see some of the history there. I found it
interesting because I didn’t know anything
about the Dominican Republic or its history.
Touring the oldest part of Santo Domingo was
interesting for me because everything was kept
in such good condition and original that you
could almost see the history there as it took
place so many years ago. And learning about
Trujiro was interesting because we never
learned about him in school and that there were
more evil people out there than just Hitler and
Stalin.

8. My 4th best experience in the
Dominican was getting to see the
schools in Santo Domingo. I found it so
interesting because the differences
between public and private schools was
like the difference between night and
day. I found some of the kids,
especially in the all girls school, so
resilient because you could see how
they were trying to change their life
from poverty to an average life.

9. My 3rd best experience was when we
got to spend the day with the college
students in the Dominican. I found that
day fun because we got to tour the
chocolate factory, and I love chocolate!
One of the main reasons I enjoyed that
day was because of the time that we
got to spend with the college students
there at the dorms and share our ideas
of the importance of a second language
in the Dominican. It seemed like
although we were from different
places, we seemed to have the same
ideas on how to help others around us.

10. My second best experience in the
Dominican was playing with the kids. I
had a lot of fun just being a kid with
them. When we got to do stories with
the children in Porto Plata, although
the first one was rough, the second one
was a success and the children were so
fun to work with. It was amazing to see
how the kids there could use their
imagination and create a story. And the
kids in Neyba on the retreat centre
were so fun to play with. They were so
amazed to play with us and just have
fun with us.

11. My best experience in the Dominican was
working in Neyba. Working with the children
was very close to being the best experience in
the DR, but I really felt like we were doing
what we came for in Neyba. The work was
hard and the heat was intense, but I feel that
the work we did in Neyba was the most
beneficial for the people. I felt like we did
make the biggest differences for the people
that we put the floor in for, because we could
see how much of a difference it made for
them and how much that floor can benefit
that family. I felt personally that my main
purpose for going to the Dominican was to do
the work we did in Neyba

12. I learned a lot about myself and my
personal life in the Dominican. It’s funny
how you have to see how other people
suffer in order to see how fortunate we
are. I can’t lie, before I went on this trip I
rarely thought about how privileged I was
and focused on how unprivileged I thought
I was. I focused more on what I wanted
and less on what I really didn’t need. Until
this trip I didn’t fully understand what I
had that millions of people in this world
don’t have that they need.

13. Being able to compare Canadian culture
to Dominican culture was one of the
best learning experiences I had on this
trip. I found it personally amazing how
we as Canadians waste what the
Dominican people beg for. For example,
after our night out at Tony Roma’s I had
a guy almost beg me for food. And to
think about how much food we waste in
Canada, we could feed not only our
starving people, but all the starving
people in the Dominican as well,
possibly even more.

14. The Dominican trip really helps me
appreciate the field of work that I am
pursuing. After my experiences on this
trip, I feel the need to go and do it
again. I can’t wait for the next
opportunity to go and work in another
country and help the people less
fortunate than I.