Dominican Republic: Introduction
By EmilyRuskamp. Filed in Uncategorized |
I apologize to anyone who read my post and was lost without some background information. My name is Emily Ruskamp, and I’m a junior Journalism major/Econ minor spending this semester in the Dominican Republic through the Encuentro Dominicano program. There are 13 of us Creighton students here this semester and we’ve been here two weeks, though it’s hard to believe it’s only been two weeks. We’re living in Santiago at ILAC, the Institute for Latin American Concern. We spent the first week in orientation meetings and activities, including a weekend trip to the capital, Santo Domingo, and a scavenger hunt around Santiago to help us become familiar with the city. Last week we started our classes; we’re all taking Spanish and a course about the DR, and some are taking an extra class. Donna Pawlowski from the Communications Dept. is down here now teaching a course and brushing up on her Spanish.
The other students studying with me here are: Andy Bauer, Anna Budinger, Celyce Graves, Cameron Hinkson, Adam Kavan, Cat Keating, Sean Kenney, Dee Kimata, Meagan Lard, Kate McKillip, Heather Robertson and Greg Wittenburg.
In addition to taking courses, we each also attend a weekly service site, ranging from schools and tutoring to a nursing home and a few others. I started service today as Hospicio, a nursing home and hospice home. I should have more to share about that later. In two weeks we will go on our first immersion in a campo, or rural community. We will each be living with a family for 10 days while building an aquaduct system for the community, which will allow them to have running water. I think some of us (including me) are a little nervous about little things like showering with buckets but I know that I am extremely excited for the experience.
That’s a basic run-down of the program. More to come soon!
By Emily Ruskamp
Tags: Encuentro Dominicano