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Tag: Dominican Republic

Final Reflections – DR Service Trip 2022

“I cannot do all the good that the world needs. But the world needs all the good that I can do.”– Jana Stanfield

August 10, 2022

Justin and I finished our amazing adventures and life-changing trip with so many peak moments on Saturday, August 6. We left Constanza around 6am and headed down the mountain for under 4 hours. We spent some time in Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic. We toured the old city, flew to Miami, then to Chicago, and arrived home around 1:30am. We were energized (though sleepy).

Before we headed to the airport, we visited the old colonial city, the oldest fort in the Americas. We saw a raucous public demonstration regarding immigration policies headed for Independence square, where we had just visited.

To spend this time with my son was incredible and fun and a huge proud, peak moment for me. As Justin enters his Freshman year of high school and I as I start what is very likely my 4th to last year as a full-time public educator, we both got to laugh, enjoy each other’s company, serve together, work together, experience life together, and so much more!

Ideally, he and I will have more opportunities like this! Ideally, he has the confidence to travel and serve as he goes from young adulthood to adulthood. He is an incredible young man, and I am proud to be his dad.

As a life-long educator, I see firsthand how education with emotion and education with hands-on experiential opportunities becomes lifelong learning. Thanks a ton for following our adventures! Thanks a ton for letting me brag about my son 🙂

Finishing up an amazing week with Justin! In Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic- First Nation Columbus came to the Americas. Culture and history end our adventures here! 

Sharing some images. The first cathedral, live protest March heading to Independence Square, 16th Century city walls.

Oldest fort in the Americas! Wow! So much history… need to come back!! 16th Century-20th Century. In use for various purposes. So many socio-political implications here!!

Thanks to World Servants, LifeTouch, the AASA, Cecaini Foundation, and so many others who, together in service for humanity and in furtherance of the dreams and visions of Pastors Angel and Jacqueline Moreta, have built schools and changed lives — forever!! Including those of my son and me.

Gun Turret in the oldest fort in the Americas, La Forteleza Ozama

Beautiful view on the way to the airport in Santo Domingo

One of the cannons – one is Spanish, and another is English – so much history!

5th Reflection – Dominican Republic Service Trip – Reflections

In this post, I am sharing more reflections, thoughts, and images from a LifeTouch Memory Mission reunion trip to the Dominican Republic, Constanza, La Vega, and Cecaini School in Rio Grande. In these several blog posts, I’m sharing my reflections. One major personal “peak moment” for me on this current trip is that my son came with me! With words and images, I am trying to do my best at telling our story — of our life-changing, humbling, impactful, and seriously amazing set of experiences! Thanks for reading 🙂

Back in 2016, I was lucky enough to be a part of the LifeTouch Memory Mission trip to the Dominican Republic and I was a representative of AASA, The Superintendent’s Association. I wrote about that set of life-changing experiences on my blog — BLOG POSTS ABOUT TRIP IN 2016

Sharing short posts from August  3, 4, and 5 with images

August 3, 2022

Today’s post will have a collection of images that really help tell the story and illustrate the incredible impact, humble service, powerful relationship building, and overall cultural experiences we are privileged to be engaged with.

Today our Dominican hosts and teachers encourage us to slow down and enjoy every moment. The figurative saying that one rock creates a ripple, or one journey of 1000 miles begins with one step, or to lower a rock pile one must do it one rock at a time, became a reality.

We literally reduced a large rock pile one rock at a time. We slowed down to enjoy each moment we were immersed in this incredible location. We savor every minute with the children we have the honor and privilege of playing with daily. And we savor each moment we spent getting to know our Dominican hosts as people, as friends, and his fellow world citizens.

Thank you for sticking around and following Justin and my adventures in life.

August 4, 2022

Today Was another incredible day here in the Dominican republic. Justin and I continue to do really good hard work and enjoy playing with the children and engaging with members of the community. 

Yesterday Justin had his home visit today I had my own visit and it’s really awesome to step inside someone’s home sit down, have a cuppa coffee, learn about their family, and share about yours. We build community, relationships, and friendships and help improve the schools that have become community centers that have impacted and changed the community for the better. 

Tonight‘s post is going to have a lot of photos. I’m going to switch (from posting on Facebook) to my blog to put in longer reflections which I probably will post over the weekend if not sooner.

Thank you for experiencing our journeys together through our words and photos.

August 5, 2022

Deeper reflections will be posted on my blog in the next few days.

Bittersweet end of work today!  Jobs well done. Friendships created!

Life-changing adventures!

Sharing some more images from our mission, culture, service, and “life” trip to the Dominican Republic 🇩🇴- sorry if there are some repeats.

Justin and I are preparing for our final day in Cecaini Constanza Constanza today!

Part of the overall beautification project in the back – many separate projects went one here. The tires will become planters!

Tim Gibson – an amazing leader! Wise, kind, deliberate, intentional, experienced – just amazing! And me and Nick – our worldwide adventures and friendship take us to life-changing places!

Justin made many new friends on this trip, little and big!

We did enjoy some “grilled” ice cream!

Our incredible crew – wonderful people who we are proud to call friends!

Proud to highlight contributions from AASA and members over the years!

4th in a series -Dominican Republic Service, Mission, Culture Trip Reflections 2022

In this post, I am sharing more reflections, thoughts and images from a LifeTouch Memory Mission reunion trip to the Dominican Republic, to Constanza, La Vega, to the Cecaini School in Rio Grande. On these several blog posts, I’m sharing my reflections.

Once major personal “peak moment” for me on this current trip is that my son came with me! With words and images, I am trying to do my best at telling our story — of our life-changing, humbling, impactful, and seriously amazing set of experiences! Thanks for reading 🙂

Back in 2016, I was lucky enough to be a part of the LifeTouch Memory Mission trip to the Dominican Republic and I was a representative of AASA, The Superintendent’s Association. I wrote about that set of life-changing experiences on my blog — BLOG POSTS ABOUT TRIP IN 2016

August 2, 2022

What a day and night we had today! We put in a full day’s worth of hard labor at the Rio Grande Cecaini School — it was amazing and fulfilling on many levels.

A mural in the cafeteria painted by Ken, the amazing painter, teacher, and friend!

Justin painting and learning a lot of Spanish from Ken

Time with the children of Rio Grande was a highlight for each of us every day!

Nick and Domingo removed the well used rim and net in preparation for replacement “break away” and new nets.

Pam was an amazing painter!

We all helped wherever we could.

Friendship between our two nations.

As we enter Rio Grande, the sign by the bridge!

The building behind the basketball court was built just before and just after the Pandemic. It will house a library, computer lab, infirmary — for the school and the community. We finished this building (paint, window guards) on this trip.

The beautiful views of the countryside were breathtaking.

Our awesome crew with representation from all over the USA! New Hampshire, Minnesota, Arkansas, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Minnesota

Jan was an excellent painter!

I spent a lot of time back here – moving rocks, raking rocks, moving dirt, moving sand, making planters out of tires, pouring concrete, learning a ton from Domingo.

We made a lot of concrete. We used cement mix, water, sand, rocks, and dirt. And we mixed it A LOT

Every morning we started by gathering as a group, getting instructions from our Dominican hosts and experts (Ken and Domingo) and establishing our work teams, expectations and goals!

By the end of the trip each room was painted well, cleaned up and the window frames/decorative and security bars were installed.

Tonight’s Face Book post had less text and more photos – it was more of an Insta Gram type post vs the “blog” type posts I have shared the first few days of our adventures on Face Book.

Justin and I, along with our new friends and community are humbled by so much we are seeing, doing, and learning in Rio Grande, Dominican Republic. Today we were able to apply learning, enter into new cultural space, learn, do, build, create, play, speak, and engage with an entirely new set of people.

It’s fun to paint, to sand, to scrape, to fix up, to mix concrete, to put glue on PVC  pipes for plumbing, to move rocks, to move dirt, to connect PVC tubes … that’s all  a lot of what’s depicted in the pictures.

It’s also nothing short of amazing to walk the street leading up to the school with the neighborhood kids who waited hours to play with us and to hang out with us and to speak with us and learn about our families and share with us about theirs!

Today we started with a quote from President Ronald Reagan, “live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest of God..” The word for today was generous. While it might appear that we were generous, I submit that the people of Rio Grande at Cecaini School are the ones who are generous. Ken the head painter – he is amazing. Domingo the head engineer – he, too, is amazing. They and the entire community shares their generosity allowing us into their culture, their school, their homes — their generosity is humbling and powerful.

Tonight we reflected on our experiences, we discussed the applications for learning. We enjoyed being in our collective and individual spaces. Until tomorrow

Third in a series on Dominican Republic Service trip 2022

Gratitude is the single most important ingredient to living a successful & fulfilled life.”
– Jack Canfield

Back in 2016, I was lucky enough to be a part of the LifeTouch Memory Mission trip to the Dominican Republic and I was a representative of AASA, The Superintendent’s Association. I wrote about that set of life-changing experiences on my blog — BLOG POSTS ABOUT TRIP IN 2016

This is another post, the third in a series describing and showing the creation of peak moments in service, learning, and culture. This summer, July 30-August 6, my son and I went on a reunion trip to the Dominican Republic, to Constanza, La Vega, to the Cecaini School in Rio Grande. Through these blog posts, I’m sharing my reflections.

Once major personal “peak moment” for me on this current trip is that my son came with me! With words and images, I am trying to do my best at telling our story — of our life-changing, humbling, impactful, and seriously amazing set of experiences! Thanks for reading 🙂

August 1, 2022

We engaged in thoughtful, hands-on activities to help us get to know ourselves, share about ourselves with our new friends, and to get to know our friends.

We focused on learning, doing, and reflecting. What did we learn or experience? “So what”, “Now What” – we learned about each other, we served with each other, we started as strangers and left as friends!

Today we continued cultural orientation with some really engaging activities designed to activate and challenge our thinking, help us prepare to enter a new culture — it’s beyond simply “traveling” or “touring”, it’s more. The activities also allowed our group of 18 to further develop bonds of trust, fellowship, friendship, and camaraderie. We have a mix of “middle aged people” like me 🙂 people in their 20s-30s and some teenagers 14-19. In addition, our tour leader is very experienced in these types of travels and our translator is amazing! While our ages may range from 14-75, the depth of each one of our stories and, more important, the stories of our Dominican hosts, guides, teachers, and friends, makes an impact on each of us each day during each of the varied experiences.

Our day today was focused on preparation for entering into a new culture, as I mentioned above. Our leader Tim started the day with inspiring words from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., regarding the “Good Samaritan” “The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But the good Samaritan reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” If you are blessed, who are YOU blessing? The focus is that if you are blessed but you are not blessing anyone, then you are not really blessed. We discussed not mistaking joy for happiness (there was great depth in our lessons and reflection today, again!).

The gist of the whole World Servants meaning on trips like this is learning, serving, storytelling- “Learner, Servant, Storyteller”. Tell your story AND tell others’ stories. We were reminded to stop — listen — immerse in the target culture – find out what’s going on with others. It’s like the Dominican greeting, “Que lo Que” (“what’s up”). We are here to learn, serve and tell our collective stories.

We engaged in several hands, on, experiential learning activities today — I hope and plan to adapt for my own work as an educator. We completed a puzzle that was different from what we expected. We put squares together from shapes without speaking (when we followed the rules :)), we discovered there are many more ways to complete the task than meets the eye. Repeatedly we changed our perspectives through “doing” and reflecting after doing. It was exceptional pedagogy.

As Americans we’re pretty task focused in general, and as a school superintendent I’m really task focused. So, it’s powerful and smart for me to stop — listen — be immersed in the present and in the moment – especially for my son as well as the group I’m serving with (and learning with and story telling with). It’s NOT always about the task — and the task may change, and the “square” we make might prevent someone else from making a square – so take some time and really listen and observe (the points of the activities).  The bottom line from these activities and a few others we did with culture role plays and trust guiding all led to a common point. It’s about the “dash” — it’s about the PROCESS not only or always the task.

Prior to engaging in the actual physical labor, the engagement with the community, and even the recreation with the children after work, we reminded each other through task, word, deed, and activity that teamwork was the main aim of our time together. Each one of us would meaningfully engage, immerse, do, learn, serve, have fun, and “be”— as a team. We do then we reflect then we do more. The orientation activities were well designed, clear, meaningful, allowed us to mix up and work with everyone, and to generally create community as well as expectations for our intense labors of love and service.

We went to Rio Grande to the school where our work is focused, where the school is becoming the community center, and where I was six and a half years ago when it all started here at school #2! Due to the hundreds of other volunteers and service participants, the school is far more than merely a school. Don’t get more wrong, as a superintendent, a school in and of itself is pretty awesome and amazing. BUT … when a school becomes a community center, a community playground, a community health center – it’s beyond amazing.

The last time I was in Rio Grande the roads were gravel/dirt leading up to the school site (it was not yet a school). School 1 was built by groups prior (2011-2015). In 2016, the second school was a dream about to happen. We built the first floor and a wall – we played in a cow pasture up the road! Today – 6.5 years and a lifetime later, we have a beautiful school with two floors, a basketball court, a retaining wall, vibrancy, life, jobs, hope, and we’re finishing a health center.

In the years since this school opened, the government invested in the infrastructure. They began to assume some of the salary responsibilities for the employees (the community had to prove their concept prior to government support/sponsorship). The schools were built by Dominican engineers, construction works, professionals who guided scores of volunteers over the course of many years and many private funds raised and donated. It’s a colossal partnership that is more than a decade in the making. The constant has been World Servants and their support. A great lift was from LifeTouch (the photography company) through its Memory Missions that brought educators, photographers, and others together year after year after year.

The community is united in service. The community is united in hope. The community is growing, improving, sustaining, living, and thriving in great part due to the school and the relationships built and sustained for more than a decade.

We worked really hard today and you’ll see that in the images.

Thank you for following our adventures. Justin is checking out Duo Lingo, practicing Spanish with kids, adults, etc. We’re beyond blessed to have this time together as father and son and as we learned today, we’re sharing these blessings, per Dr. King and Tim Gibson, in learning, service and storytelling!

We’ll share more tomorrow. Hat tip to Jan Haeg for the awesome photos. Today we put our phones away – we disconnected for as long as we could and we were in the moments fully and today was full of many peak moments.

View of the school from the “comedor”, lunchroom. Looking at the sand/rock/earth pile – we spent a lot of time making concrete at that pile for our multiple projects.

The sign at the bridge from the mountain road into the community of Rio Grande, where our school was!

Our crew on one of the many bus rides!

Huge infrastructure investments from the government, in part, due to the success of the school! The community center, the change in hope, opportunity, pathway, family outlook, and so much more!

Me and Justin out of our hotel room heading to dinner!

Teamwork, Teamwork, and more Teamwork.

Each morning we gathered and took directions from our Dominican hosts! Ken on the paint crew and Domingo on the concrete crew. We did what was asked, we learned as apprentices and helpers. We served along side and with our new friends and hosts!

 

More Reflections – Dominican Republic Service & Culture Trip 2022 – 2

This summer, July 30-August 6, I went on a reunion trip to the Dominican Republic, to Constanza, La Vega, to the Cecaini School in Rio Grande. On the next few posts, I’m sharing my reflections.

Once major personal “peak moment” for me on this current trip is that my son came with me! With words and images, I am trying to do my best at telling our story — of our life-changing, humbling, impactful, and seriously amazing set of experiences! Thanks for reading 🙂

July 31, 2022

What a full and fulfilling day and night here in Constanza, Dominican Republic. Justin and I started the day with a fantastic breakfast. New tastes and foods along with some familiar ones. After a great breakfast with the group, we headed into a study room for more cultural orientation activities. We participated in a “scrap book” activity. One that my good friend Nick Polyak and I have adapted and adopted in adult professional development & training for many years (we first did this activity 6 and a half years ago on our first mission and service/culture trip here in Constanza with LifeTouch and the American Association of School Administrators, the AASA, The School Superintendents Organization).

So in this scrapbook activity you have a poster board, glue sticks, scissors, and magazines on multiple topics (everyone was asked to bring 3-5 magazines to cut up). With images, “share your story” — who are you? What is/has been your leadership journey? Whether you’re 14 or 54 or 60 or 35, what’s your journey in life so far and what is a graphical representation of this story? In 15 minutes – NOT a long period of time, we made some pretty cool posters. Then we mixed up into triads, triads with people we just met on this trip. We each had 3 minutes to share our journey/story. Our new friends and partners had two minutes to reflect/ask questions and we repeated the process for each member of the triad. In just over 30 minutes we three learned A TON about each other, what and who we value, what our journey is/has been, etc. Like an image you see, you make a “judgement” or “assumption” but until you listen, look, ask questions, engage, you really do not know what the “perspective” you have is. In fact, our perspectives change – and they should change and be pliable (think “growth mindset” for example).

The exercise serves multiple purposes, it allows us to become friends and fellow travelers, explorers, servants, leaders. It also allows us to be fully present in what we are doing here – each experience, each set of moments and peak moments. It allows us to experience an illustration of the power of open mindedness to change (one of the Big 5 Personality Theories of human being) as we embark on community building and service along side our Dominican hosts and friends.

We were invited to Pastor Angel’s church, the message was of hope and faith, universal principals good for us all to hear and internalize. In addition, today is Father’s Day in the Dominican Republic and we were honored with some cool cultural experiences! We then walked about a half mile through town for our lunch at a local restaurant. We had some time dodging motorbikes on the street while enjoying the act of being present in a new town, in a new space, with new learning and living.

Each night after dinner we reflect upon our learnings and experiences, What, Now What, So What, and Applying our learning is the focus. Tomorrow we engage in some more education, “activating schema” and opening our hearts and minds to full presence of being while here (and in life in general).

Tomorrow we also head to the school site for some manual labor at the invitation of our hosts and community. See some images today from our adventures in the city, our time at Pastor Angel’s church, some recreation and fellowship with our fellow travelers and more.

Thanks for following our adventures.

 

The orientation activities were designed to help us enter into a new culture. Helped us to enter into new environments with openness, empathy, understanding, intelligence, and joy.

Our first night I celebrated my birthday! On the second day we were invited into Pastor Angel’s church service. After the service, we were happy to learn that it was Father’s Day in the Dominican Republic so we enjoyed some local treats including a photo booth.

The hotel we stayed at was incredibly beautiful and the meals were excellent and the grounds were great. Here Justin and I were zip lining on the grounds with some early recreation time.

The views into the city, on the grounds of the hotel, in the community where the school is at — all were incredible and impressive views. This is a beautiful part of the world and I captured as best I could.

Part of our service, learning, culture, growing, included visiting Constanza, the city in the area. Rio Grande is just up the mountain on the outskirts or “heights’ of the city. We were able to walk the city streets, get some ice cream, we also had a great lunch.

Menu at the local restaurant. The food we ate was incredible and we needed the fuel for the hard labor in which we were engaged during our time at Rio Grande Cecaini School.

Pastor Angel’s church service. Welcoming and engaging.

 

Mission, Culture & Service Trip to Dominican Republic – 2022

Back in 2016, I was lucky enough to be a part of the LifeTouch Memory Mission trip to the Dominican Republic and I was a representative of AASA, The Superintendent’s Association. I wrote about that set of life-changing experiences on my blog — BLOG POSTS ABOUT TRIP IN 2016 and

Post 2 of 2 – Global Service – Dominican Republic- IASA 2021

And I also wrote about that trip three years later, Link to Anniversary Post

This summer, July 30-August 6, I went on a reunion trip to the Dominican Republic, to Constanza, La Vega, to the Cecaini School in Rio Grande. Through the next few blog  posts, I’m sharing my reflections.

Once major personal “peak moment” for me on this current trip is that my son came with me! With words and images, I am trying to do my best at telling our story — of our life-changing, humbling, impactful, and seriously amazing set of experiences! Thanks for reading 🙂

July 30, 2022

Mike and Justin leave the USA and head to the Dominican Republic. Beyond the 4:30am wake up and the 8pm arrival at the hotel at our destination, the “dash” or the “in between” is what really matters. We woke up, we were mentally prepared for the journey — eager with excitement, anxious with anticipation, and uncertain of all the details working out (plane from ORD to MIA from MIA to SDQ, meeting with the group, getting on the bus, making it to the middle of the Dominican Republic, meeting new friends, getting ready to immerse in another culture in a new land, etc.).

The journey, the adventure, the learning, the service, the reflection, the “what now” is what’s really cool about all of this! Justin and I are two of four people from Illinois. There are others from Minnesota, Arkansas, Washington, New Hampshire, Oregon, and of course, our hosts from the Dominican Republic.

After we arrived at our hotel, our home base in Constanta, DR for the week, we ate dinner. Food is a huge part of culture, dining together is a nice, subtle way to embrace and immerse in the new and different. Following dinner we engaged in some cool orientation and get to know you activities, we thought, we spoke, we shared, we even jumped around and danced a bit, all in the spirit of living and serving in the present.

Pastor Angel, our host and the local visionary leader who is responsible for so much good in the communities he serves and represents welcomed us. He shared the history of the past decade of work in the communities (school building, community center, government acknowledgement and support, and more). He thanked us for being part of the mission, vision, values, and goals of so many, and the impact and legacy of the service. We’re invited friends and partners. We serve and learn along side our Dominican hosts.

We are here in the service of humanity and the bond of love and service. As an educator and as a father, it’s great to see my two worlds integrate and unite.

Over the past decade, and due to Angel’s hard work, leadership, and vision, he acknowledged the “harvest” of good from all of this fellowship. This is his community; we are invited members, servant leaders from so many groups (including World Servants, the group we’re with on this trip) and we are now part of the DNA of Constanta and the La Vega/Rio Grande region.

Some images of our 4 hour bus ride up from sea level in Santo Domingo to about 4000 feet altitude. More to come this week! Thanks for checking our this set of peak moments for me and Justin.

 

Me and Justin on the airplane at O’Hare in Chicago getting ready for a trip of a lifetime!

On the mission trip, we brought donations of school supplies, painting supplies and tools and first aid kit materials.

We landed in Santo Domingo on the South Coast (Caribbean) and we drove for about 4 hours up the mountains into the center of the beautiful country. I share views and vistas in each of the posts.

We arrived on my birthday and the team surprised me with a cake, a candle, a song and this was just the start of many celebrations and peak moments.

The Dominican Republic is an island nation, it shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. We arrived in Santo Domingo, traveled north and stayed in La Vega, Constanza, at the Hotel Altocerro.

The red “pin” depicts our location with respect to Santo Domingo.

This is the shirt I received in 2016 on the Life Touch Memory Mission I participated in. This trip was a reunion trip of sorts, several of us were alumni of previous trips. One of the families on the trip attended service trips multiple times. They were inspired by an alumna from a prior trip!

Post 2 of 2 – Global Service – Dominican Republic- IASA 2021

Post 2 -IASA Global Service Trip – Dominican Republic October 2021

This is the second post describing and documenting a global service trip I had the opportunity to attend in the Dominican Republic with 30 colleagues. Each member of this international travel experience was a school superintendent, school or district level administrator or elected member of a Board of Education. Under the exceptional guidance and care of our team from Education First and the Dominican people, we led, learned, served, grew, opened our minds and hearts and set the foundation for student learning and teacher learning opportunities at home.

In this blog post, I will share the rest of the story that was started in the first blog post about this incredible set of adventures and experiences. As I left off in post #1,  this post will highlight our visit to Santiago (the 2nd largest city) visiting the historical district and learning about street art history and culture. I’ll describe the visit to the artisan area in Moca where we learned how to use pottery and bricks for stoves that help reduce the use of wood and lumber by 70% in the mountain areas, our adventures on the north coast of Cabarete, the Dream School and Inspire DR.

Thank you for reading the posts about of our journey in the Dominican Republic! Below I’m showing some photos from the Environmental institute I wrote about in the first post.

Trail “oasis” “after” completion

Tree Nursery

Hands on service!

Trail “oasis” “before” work

Trail Restoration Project

Creative reuse of plastic bottles to insulate wall of outdoor greenhouse

Discussing environmental possibilities

The journey from Jarabacoa towards Santiago afforded us the chance to visit with a local artisan and engage in several workshops and hands on learning experiences at a pottery shop. The artisan was located in Moca, Dominican Republic, and at our briefing we learned cultural and historically significant information as well as sustainability and direct impact on rural Dominican homes as well as the greater environment, health, and wellness.

Briefing at artisan site

The cultural lessons centered around a faceless doll. This was a special art project that originated in 1977. Essentially, in a nod to the complex and mixed ethnic and cultural and racial ancestry of the Dominican people, with 2% Taino (native peoples), 23% Spanish, and 75% African heritage and DNA in its citizens, the artisans wanted to make a statement about the pride and complexities of the mix. Therefore, the idea of the Faceless Doll of a Dominican women was born. A proud, interesting, and creative example of telling a highly complicated and high level concept (ancestry, heritage, etc.) in a clay doll. Beyond our new learning and appreciation for the progression of “who am I” and “who are we”, we actually had the chance to make a doll (though it’s really not easy! And the art teacher was as patient as anyone could be with our amateur creations).

Attempt at making faceless dolls

Artisan pottery – chimney brick project

Brick stove with chimney – transformation

In addition to the Faceless Woman project, we also received a briefing on the stoves in the homes of folks living in the rural, mountain areas and the toll on health, especially for women and children that their old, traditional stoves were taking. For example, cooking indoors with wood, fire, and no chimney or ventilation system led to severe impact on trees (wood for cooking), severe impact on lung/respiratory health of women and children (traditionally in the home while the men go in the fields and work) and skin issues due to the smoke and its carcinogenic properties. So at this pottery artisan production center we visited in Moca, they also make bricks for new rural stoves that use bricks and chimney design to ventilate the toxic smoke, and it has benefits on health, the forest, and lungs! These brick ovens reduce the wood usage by 70% — this is already having a positive impact on the island.

Proud to learn and serve making bricks for brick stove

 

 

Our work in brick makingThis focus on sustainability is also impacting the Haitian side of the island. Together in partnership we all benefit. We on this trip are planting seeds of international cooperation and respect that we will ideally recreate so that students in our schools can learn, do, experience, and we can all pay this forward. The artisan shop is also an example of supporting the local economy as there are locally produced handcrafts for purchase.

 

 

After we visited Moca’s rich artisanal history, and experienced projects of value and of meaning for us and for future student groups, we headed to the nation’s second largest city Santiago. In Santiago, there is a recently restored historic neighborhood with incredible street artwork. I’m sharing a bunch of photos from this visit – I feel that the imagery is far more powerful and descriptive than my words can be.

This visit to Santiago shared for us urban redevelopment in the historic district as well as a visual representation of culture, history and the society over time. The streets on which were were walking are centuries old and have stories of their own.

From Santiago we headed into Puerto Plata on the north coast of the island nation. Our destination was Cabarete. Cabarete is a culturally significant city with a cosmopolitan and international flair. Cabarete and the Puerto Plata coastal area was the original spot for Dominican tourism prior to Punta Cana’s creation on the southeast side of the island. Cabarete is known for international visitors and “expats” as well as kite surfing and surfing on the Atlantic Ocean.

In Cabarete we visited and served at a community center/Montessori-inspired school called the Dream Center School, and we also visited Inspire, an after school and year round STEAM/Shop/Culture/Values program for boys 18-25 years old. Here are some photos of Dream Center and our on site, hands-on beautification service projects. 

 

Fixing up the recycling and trash receptacle after relocating

Our take aways, amens, and epiphanies are many and varied. With the school sites, the after school social organizations, the community library, and their integration and interdependence to supplement and in some cases supplant the overall social-educational systems in place, we saw firsthand how EF works with value and mission driven local organizations and groups so our students can be part of something much larger than their typical education/school experiences. We adults were highly moved and  affected by our service, the informational briefings, and the reflections We got to experience what our students will go through. The Dream School Center allowed us to see how a private school interacts with the public school system.

Finished project!

We saw how early childhood education up through grammar school is organized in very similar fashions to our US educational system. Montessori philosophy is popular in many settings around the world. The Dream Center shares a STEAM classroom with the local public school.

The Dream library is a community library, they have a “book mobile” as well and their outreach is community-wide, not just for the students in the school or special programs. Their Bachata sister academy for older youth (High school ages) demonstrated some Bachata music in an impressive display of musical talent!  As the photos show, we helped them with requested beautification projects and functional projects designating space for motorcycle parking, movement of a recycling and trash receptacle to the back of the grounds, as well as touch up painting throughout the classrooms.

Finished project!

The service elements, similar to what our students will experience, showed us that a group of people may start as strangers, yet they emerge as friends in part due to the opportunities that forge authentic bonds. The problem solving, skills development, team work and overall satisfaction with jobs well done meant a lot to each and every one of us every day on this fantastic set of adventures.

We left the Dream Center feeling a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction and reward. We finished up our exploration and inquiry at an after school program for boys (though they are also adding girls programming) InspireDR – Free After-School Programs in Cabarete, Dominican Republic This private foundation “NGO” community based center offers swimming instruction, computer literacy, health education, wood shop, economics, a dojo for marshal arts, and more. We were truly inspired by the emphasis on technical life skills, problem solving, positive, moral, ethical, community focused learning and living. These boys and young men were learning English, swimming safety, and we were able to engage and interact with them on site. In addition, they teach public speaking and communications. This free (privately funded) community center has a waiting list of 90 students and they are serving as many as they can free of charge. This and so many of our new discoveries would each and all make great fund-raising, sponsorship, visit/exchange, education, and of course service projects for our own youth, Rotary and other civic organizations and other foundations.

We also ate lunch at Water to Wine, a water purification team — the opportunities to serve and make our world a better place seemed to be never-ending.

As I close the photo journal and documentary accounts of our incredible 2021 IASA Global Service Project, and as I again thank Dr. Polyak and our business partners, I’ll share some final thoughts, reflections and comments. In North Shore School District 112, we are going to explore the possibilities we can create with our own local partners for a student trip and relationship moving forward. Inspire…Innovate…Engage – our aspirational motto — in action!

Captivating natural beauty

We had so many “to do” or “do now” opportunities. We had so much history and culture learning and education experiences. We were not blind to the irony of our service during the Indigenous People/Columbus Day observances (at home and in the DR). It was not lost on us that we were meeting in Columbus Park for our Santiago art/history walking tour.

We learned and lived and engaged and built lasting relationships in a relatively short period of time.

Our world is complex. Our work is complex. Our past is complex.

In order that we support and facilitate the support for teachers and students to create conditions for a sustainable and globally connected world, we must get out of our safe and small circle of our worlds at home and jump out of comfort zones and live, learn, do, think, be open minded to change, and to lead.

With experiences in the educational, social, cultural, artistic, political, geographic, environmental, and service genres (and more), I simply say Thank YOU to all who put in so much effort to create the spaces where we and I could enhance ourselves and our worlds.

Here’s to the next time … truly we are all unfinished! Opportunities like this help us frame our paths to become the next versions of ourselves.

For nearly 30 years I have been serving public education and schooling in suburban Chicago, Illinois, USA. I’ve been a public school superintendent for 12 years (so far). Each year, each job/role, each child for whom I lead, each adult with whom I lead, each family I serve, each community I serve — each one enhances my sense of self and my body of work. My answer to the call of duty in an ongoing and unfinished, never ending cycle of service is to serve, to lead, to push myself and to make my wife, my children, and my community proud and respectful.

Proud and grateful to sponsor partners

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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