Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Hey Team,

I've now been in the DR for a little over two weeks and am settling into a regular routine. We had a orientation week so we just started our "normal" schedule last Monday.

In the last two weeks I have:

• ridden many a guagua (a public bus that comfortably fits about ten people, however the owners pack as many people as feasibly possible, I counted twenty-five the last time, and ride around with the door open)
• visited Sousa, a beautiful but incredibly touristy beach in the North
• visited Cien Fuegos, the urban slum in Santiago
• discovered that in the DR Diet Coke exists in the form of Coca-Cola Light-it's not the same but it will have to do
• Spent some time at my service site for the semester, Caritas in Licey, a feeding program for children before they go to school
• Plus more...

I have learned:

• Corbin doesn't translate into Spanish so I should just be prepared to have people mispronounce my name (My favorite was when I was called Corvette- like the car)
• In the Dominican Republic, traffic laws are just suggestions
• In the Dominican Republic, it kind of is a fashion show
• A little (I still have a lot to see and experience) about life in the Dominican Republic, good and bad
• How infinitely blessed I am back in the United States to have a home, food to eat, access to education, and loving friends and family
• Plus more...

A lot has gone down in the last two weeks, but what sticks out the most to me about the DR is the huge gap between wealth and poverty here.  One can see a tin home next to a large home with several cars parked in the front, a child with no shoes standing on the street as a BMW drives by. It's shocking to see such poverty next to such wealth. It is even more shocking to realize that this discrepancy carries to all parts of the world. For instance, there are great excesses of wealth in the United States. Many people drive nice cars and have nice homes; however, many people go without in America and throughout the world. Perhaps we just don't take notice as much because the discrepancy is not in your face: the rich and the poor standing right next to each other. Take this next week as a challenge to look at your city/ community in a different light. When you see a child with loving parents and warm clothes try to image a child in a third world country with no parents and limited access to what they need. See an opposite reality because it is indeed a REALITY of this world.