2.5. 17. 14. 32 - What's the Deal with These Numbers, Anyway?

*Latin American countries' commitment to education as a percetnage of GNP remains stable at 5%, but the Dominican Republic's investment is less than 2.5%

*According to the DR Ministry of Education, the families I am going to work with have a illiteracy rate well above 17%.

*The first grade dropout rate int he Dominican Republic is 14%.

*Around 32% of the Dominican population lives on $2 USD or less per day.

Today was my first day of orientation. Besides getting my little, old-school Alcatel dumb phone with a DR number (I feel so terrible saying that but, it is the appropriate term, no?!) and opening my Dominican bank account, I learned a lot about the community in which I will be working and.....my country. 

Turns out that Cabarete isn't a typical town. Many years ago, there was the beach and a town in the Loma (hill). Literally. There was one family that lived out here and they were by the last name Perez and that's it. It was just them. They mainly lived off of agriculture. Then, one day, some French-Canadian dude came to visit and realized the beach was awesome for wind-surfing (kite-surfing comes later) and came to live here....should I finish the story? lol. As you've probably already figured out, tourism boomed, hotels started lining up the beaches and fortunately for SOME Dominicans, jobs became available. The folks that were prepared for those jobs, however, came from more developed cities like Santiago, Puerto Plata and even Santo Domingo in the south. They started to settle into what's now known as Cabarete which is all fine and dandy until you think....what about when those folks start procreating? What schools will they go to? How will they get the job training that they need to be able to work in their own town? Exactly. It's ridic.com.

My organization came about from a service trip. That has blossomed into a wonderful organization that is, literally, providing the foundation for something remarkable. Aside from running Montessori schools for 3-7 year olds (Montessori is a different type of teaching that involves multi-grade classrooms and allows students to make sense of the world around them on their own terms, as opposed as having the teacher define those parameters), the organization runs a multitude of programs from job-placement to sexual education to sports. Any Cabarete-an (haha) from the ages of 3-24 can find something to do with the organization. Pretty amazing. 

Aside from being a very overwhelming day, full of information that my brain has probably already forgotten, it was a very sobering day. It was hard to hear the numbers and realize that my little sister and brother are growing up in a real messed up system. It was very powerful, however, in validating my decision to come here. My reasons for returning home keeps growing every day but the #1 reason stays the same: it was already written.