Traverslogue - Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

When our son was about 6, he came in from playing and said, "Mommy, I want to help poor people". Right away, we went to the website of Plan International and selected a child to sponsor named Carlitos. Carlitos was our son's age and we were happy to select a child in a country that we could someday visit.

In 2002, when David was 8, we visited Dominican Republic. DR is a beautiful island in the crystal blue Caribbean but much of the tourism is of the "all-inclusive" variety, which separates the tourist money from the locals and the local economy. Rural poverty in Dominican Republic is persistent and widespread.

Family Snapshot

The beauty of travel is not to experience the protection and isolation of the all-inclusive resort, but to meet the people and experience the common threads of mankind in every culture.

David and John discuss currency values before David heads downstairs to buy candy at the market just below our balcony.

David and John window-shop in Santo Domingo.

In Dominican Republic With Carlitos. Written by our son David, at age 8.

Above, David with Carlitos' grandfather and the Plan International worker.

"We went to go visit Carlitos. Carlitos is our sponsored child. Carlitos lives with his grandmother in a small community just outside Barahona, Dominican Republic. When we first got there they pulled chairs out for us to sit in. "

"Carlitos' house on the outside doesn't look good. The roof is made out of metal and the walls were made out of sticks. The floor is concrete but we had to give money to Plan International in order to make Carlitos have concrete floors because before that the floor was dirt.... They have no lights and water. They have no oven or anything. The only way they have to make hot food is wood to make fire outside. "

"Carlitos' grandmother told him to bring his books out to show us his school work. My dad thought it was strange because the book tries to teach them fractions in first grade. We're in third grade and we've just started fractions."

"We went and played basketball after we looked at his school work. The basketball court was one house away. My dad, Carlitos and I played against 3 other boys."

"The boys on the other team would take the ball away from Carlitos just by grabbing it. So my dad would have to pull the boys off Carlitos. And even though my dad didn't speak Spanish they still knew that he was just kidding around because of laughter. Laughter is the same in all languages so everybody knows what it means."

"While we were playing basketball at least 30 people were playing baseball."

"After we played basketball we gave Carlitos presents. We gave him 5 T-shirt and some drawing stuff. He seemed shy but my mom saw a tiny smile. His grandmother told the translator that she thanked God for us."

"After we opened presents we went to Carlitos' school. He had a playground but no equipment to play with. In his classroom he only had a chalkboard and desks. Some of the classrooms have 60 kids in them. ... On the way back my dad let Carlitos drive (sitting on his lap). Now Carlitos is the hero because he is only 8 and in 2nd grade and driving a car."

"I had almost all the feelings when I was there. For example, I felt scared and safe at the same time. I felt scared because at first I thought that everybody was going to be violent and trying to steal money. I thought this because I had never been to a place with very poor people. When I got there, I felt safe because I found out that nobody was going to harm anybody. I felt shy because what if I said the wrong words in Spanish and everybody laughed at me. I also wanted to play. I felt glad to help Carlitos. It was fun and I hope to visit again."