On January 4th 2018, My best friends Tess, Jace, and I left for the Dominican Republic to stay with Tess’ father and step mom for 9 days in paradise. They live in Punta Cana, and work for an organization who helps rescue children from sex trafficking. We stayed at their apartment for a few days and explored their town. They are a five minute walk from a BEAUTIFUL beach. Also, for those of you who don’t know Tess and I are minoring in French, and we went to a Spanish Speaking country haha.. We learned more Spanish in those nine days than our year of French, we should’ve minored in Spanish but oh well. The culture is much different than America, but this town was more of a tourist area, they even had a Wendy’s. They don’t really have any rules about driving either, we would see seven or so people on one motor bike. Surprisingly I saw zero wrecks. Their apartment was this super cool, yellow orange color on the outside- I can’t even put into words it’s unique beauty. They had white pillars lining the balconies. They did not have hot water though, and everything had to be cooked on a stove or oven so that was interesting learning how to live much more simply.
A few days later we drove to Santo Domingo and stayed in a hostel. This jewel was hidden in a maze of streets. It had amazing architecture and colors. On the second floor there was a wrap around balcony with no roof above us overlooking a pool below us. The rooms were so peaceful and the showers were hot!! They served us breakfast in the morning. We would sit down and they would make our breakfast and bring it to us. One way we learned a lot of Spanish words like “leche” for our coffee. We walked around the historic town of Santo Domingo. The first day we found a coffee shop with a backyard full of huge trees and vines and spent lot’s of time there playing cards and trying fun coffee drinks. They had lots of stores where people could buy local paintings on canvases and random little souvenirs. People would come up to us and try and sell us their products. There was this kind of square or downtown area where families would come and kids would ride bikes. We all sat at a restaurant and ate and talked and watched for hours. The last night in the hostel Tess and I actually got to spend the night in a bigger and better room and I have never laid on a more comfortable bed in my entire life. It felt like a cloud. That was probably my favorite part about Santo Domingo, besides all the late nights of card games and laughter.
Our next place we visited was Santa Barbara De Samana
This place had very few tourists and it was deep in the jungle. Tess and I had a view of the ocean from our bedroom. We went to a few different beaches, jumped waves for hours and played lots of games. My favorite day of being here was when we went on excursion to a beach 20 minutes away on boat ride. Locals and a French man took us on one of my favorite adventures of all time. We rode the waves and laughed when the boat driver misjudged and caused the boat to be rocked. At one point the boat hit a wave so hard Jace, slammed his toes into the boat and actually broke 3 of his toes. But this was only the beginning of the injuries for the day. Later that day we decided to go snorkeling.. bad idea. The waves were SO ROUGH, pulling us deep into the ocean and slamming us back into coral. Tess was mauled by coral so bad her leg was bleeding. I tried to stand up and accidently stuck my hand on a sea urchin. I was instantly struck with burning in my hand and as I brought my hand out of the water I see 10 black spikes and blood coming from all of them. I put up the peace sign because we decided we should do that if we are in trouble. When we all finally got back to shore and showed the locals what happened ( who again, spoke only spanish.. and I do not haha) they begin yelling “fuego fuego, kill it with fire” My hand is then taken to the same grill that is cooking our chicken and fish for lunch and they force me to put my hand over it until I can’t bear it. They pour alcohol over it, lime juice and then Tess’ Stepmom Alissa gets a needle and begins working on getting the spikes out. The only thing that helps my hand feel better though is when they pour candle wax on it. It was definitely an experience to say the least. Later that day we learned to dance with locals and drink yummy drinks out of fruit, It was so much fun!!
My favorite memory from this trip though was our last day. We were back in Punta Cana and got to meet some of the girls who had been rescued. Tess, and Alissa and I met them at a salon where they are learning to work. They did our nails, and hair. They spoke mostly Spanish so communication was quite hard. But we were still able to see their personality’s shine through. Some girls were being sassy, some a little more quiet and shy. I could empathize with each of them and what experiences could’ve led to their certain characteristics. The little girl who did my nails was super sassy, but when I asked to hug her goodbye she softened and I felt she was almost surprised at me wanting to give her real raw love. Leaving these girls made me cry, and I barely knew them but I understood them. After learning so much about sex trafficking from Tess’ Dad and Step mom and after my experience with these girls my passion for helping with it has grown unlike anything else. If anyone has happened to read my article and made it this far please research sex trafficking so you are aware of it. I know it’s an extremely uncomfortable topic, but it is real and it is happening to so many people. Help be an advocate against anything that affects sex-trafficking, and yes that means porn, ESPECIALLY porn. I will stop myself before I rant even more than I already have but porn is the new addiction for our generation and It needs to be fought against.