One Sunday last fall I saw a notice in the church bulleting about an upcoming Mission Trip to the Dominican Republic. At the time I was a new Minnesota transplant, a new widow and a new parishioner at St. Joes, but an older adult. I was prayerfully considering what the Lord was calling me to do as I lived out all these “news” in my journey of life. The Mission Trip was an idea I had often wished I could do, but it seemed I had other missions (children, work, caring for an ailing husband). But now I was waiting for a mission, this trip seemed like something worth exploring. I met our team leader and other team members and after hearing their stories I was hooked. I have done very little traveling and even I was surprised that I signed up to go to a foreign country. My prayer time with the Lord seemed to confirm this was truly a gift from the Holy Spirit and I need not fear. He would equip me and turn my timidity to courage. When the day to depart arrived, beginning at 4 a.m., I was more than anxious as to my very peaceful routine life would be different for a week.
I was really excited to start our first day at the work site. I had already been impressed with the interns, mostly college students, that volunteer their summer to direct our work assignments. Our day began with our 6:45 a.m. recitation of the rosary and a hearty breakfast followed by an hour-long drive from our compound to Santiago. Our duty for the day was to remove a corrugated galvanized roof from a 4- room concrete block house. First task, assist them by removing all the household belongings to a place safe away from the demolition. It was amazing to see how quickly we organized caravan of people carrying the woman’s treasures across a busy street between cars and mopeds. On this first day I am growing in my understanding of how I have some definite opinions of how things should be done and what has value and how perspective plays in forming one’s views. It is unique for me to see these wonderful young interns direct our team to accomplish our day’s work. I suspect most of our team are used to being the directors. I tried to stay quiet and do as I was told. But it was against my concept of efficiency to carry individual pots or dishes one by one. But with help from the team and some of the children the job was quickly accomplished even without the efficiency that I would have chosen. Teamwork and camaraderie made it an act of love. I had to patiently wait during discussions about the plan. A plan I thought would have already been clearly defined. I saw the joy of the children running around with little bare feet in a hot rocky area, even one young boy just walking around with no clothes. They were unbothered by the heat, the lack of conveniences, and just seemed glad to have some new people to give them attention. I learned that communication comes in many forms. The high fives or fist bumps with the children was easily interpreted as welcome. The strangers coming in and accepting conditions without judgement or condemnation meant others cared. I find the mixing of languages of Creole, Spanish, French and English to be very interesting and with our interpreters and I am learning some words so I can talk more freely with the people. I have so much to learn in serving and accepting others and how values are tempered by perspective. Tomorrow I will try to make it my new routine to be on time for the 6:45 rosary.
Patricia Imai
