LASALLIAN SERVICE INTERNSHIP 2017
INTERNATIONAL SITE
LOCATION: Dominican Republic
Kids Alive International Students will have the opportunity to experience four Kids Alive International service sites: ● ANIJA, Ark, Palo Blanco, Jarabacoa, DR ● Casa Monte Plata, Eva Russell School, Monte Plata, DR ● Arc C, Costanza Care Center, Costanza, DR ● Caraballo Care Center, Caraballo, DR
Kids Alive International is a Christian faith mission dedicated to rescuing orphans and vulnerable children – meeting their spiritual, physical, educational and emotional needs. Kids Alive provides children with the love and care every child deserves, and raises them to be contributing members of their society and witnesses to their family and community.
PHONE: 829 755 7746 (Vic Trautwein)
WEBSITE: www.kidsalive.org
SITE DIRECTORS: Jarabacoa – Vic Trautwein 1 829 755 7746 Monte Plata – Ramon Prenza 1 809 399 9402 Constanza – Fred O’Brien 1 809 967 4180 Caraballo – Alberto Polanco 1 809 399 2595
LSI CONTACT: Randy Farris
SUPERVISOR: Randy Farris (Randy has been leading Jan Term trips to the Dominican Republic for 10+ years through LSI - and when it was called CSI. In addition, he takes groups of students to the Dominican Republic, Peru, and Costa Rica from other colleges and universities year-round through his non-profit organization, Here for Kids International.) http://www.hereforkids.org 1 408 334 8256 (Cell in U.S.) 1 809 256 3937 (Cell in D.R.) [email protected]
LASALLIAN SERVICE INTERNSHIP 2017
# OF STUDENTS: 6-8
SERVICE WORK: This is a sports ministry where students will teach P.E. classes and conduct recreational sports programs with disadvantaged children and orphans.
QUALIFICATIONS OR SKILLS REQUESTED: Required: Willingness to engage in athletic activities with kids and a willingness to respect and conduct self in an appropriate manner in a practicing Christian faith community. Preferred, but not required: Spanish language capable, some sport teaching background, travel with groups in a community service capacity, some familiarity with immersion into deep poverty situations
APPROXIMATE MONDAY-FRIDAY SCHEDULE AT THIS SITE (subject to change): ● Breakfast & prepare for the day ● Prayer ● Work at service site (with lunch break) ● Rest ● Community dinner ● Prayer, journaling, group reflection ● Rest & bed
ESTIMATED TOTAL COST OF COURSE: $2,330 Estimate based on the following costs: ● $215 – Materials Fee (includes $35 insurance fee) ● $900 – Airfare ● $1215 – Room and Board (also includes in-country transportation, museum admissions, special events etc.)
Please note: ● Students incur no other costs on the trip except for their personal spending money for souvenirs, occasional snacks, etc. There are not a lot of opportunities for these optional expenses. Students have taken as little as $50 for spending money up to $300. Those who have taken amounts more than $100 almost always return with leftover money. ● Additional cost NOT included in estimate above may include: passport and vaccination costs ● Flights for international LSI trips will depart from San Francisco International Airport. Approximate dates: January 11-February 6, 2017 LASALLIAN SERVICE INTERNSHIP 2017
● A 50% deposit is due to the business office by 4pm on September 19. This deposit should be 50% of the most expensive travel site/course you are interested in (LSI or other travel course). If you get into a course with a lesser deposit due than the one you paid, the excess will be credited to your final payment. ● If you are applying for a Jan Term Travel Scholarship, you should wait to pay your deposit until you know your applicant status. (Scholarship applicants will be notified September 16.)
VISA/PASSPORT: ● A valid passport is required and must have at least 1 blank page ● No visa required
VACCINATIONS: From Randy Farris: No vaccinations are currently required to travel to the DR, nor have there been any required vaccinations in the last 9 years. While the CDC does recommend some vaccinations for malaria, tetanus and typhoid, depending on the areas of travel, we do not visit areas currently infected by these diseases. Students are required to make an appointment with the Health Center and get clearance. The Health Center will recommend these vaccinations as a precaution anyway and it is up to the students to consult their personal family physicians to make these decisions. Sunscreen and insect repellent are essential and should be a part of each student’s packing. However, they are readily available in the Dominican Republic as well.
From the CDC: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that travelers to any foreign country are up to date on their routine vaccinations. These include measles-mumps- rubella (MMR) vaccine, diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine, varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, and your yearly flu shot.
In addition, travelers to the Dominican Republic are advised by the CDC and/or Saint Mary’s College Health and Wellness Center to get the following vaccines because there is a risk of these diseases: ● Hepatitis A - CDC recommends this vaccine because you can get hepatitis A through contaminated food or water in the Dominican Republic, regardless of where you are eating or staying. ● Typhoid - You can get typhoid through contaminated food or water in the Dominican Republic. CDC recommends this vaccine for most travelers, especially if you are staying with friends or relatives, visiting smaller cities or rural areas, or if you are an adventurous eater. ● Malaria - When traveling in the Dominican Republic, you should avoid mosquito bites to prevent malaria. You may need to take prescription medicine before, during, and after your trip to prevent malaria, depending on your travel plans, such as where you are going, when you are traveling, and if you are spending a lot LASALLIAN SERVICE INTERNSHIP 2017
of time outdoors or sleeping outside. Talk to your doctor about how you can prevent malaria while traveling. For more information on malaria in the Dominican Republic, see http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/malaria
Complete information can be found on the CDC’s “Health Information for Travelers to Dominican Republic” webpage that can be found at: http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/traveler/none/dominican-republic
In addition, please consult your personal physician regarding any additional steps you should take to protect your health.
See Health & Wellness Center Immunization Reference chart provided in packet given at information session
ACCOMMODATIONS: Students will be housed in non-luxury, simple, but very comfortable homes or dorms, depending on the location: ● Jarabacoa, La Vega Province: Rented, Western-style house, enclosed (not open-air) with concrete floors, fans, warm showers, and flush toilets. Students sleep in western-style beds. The rooms have solid windows and screens. ● Monte Plata, Monte Plata Province: Campground setting - Cabins with with bunk beds. The windows are screened, but added protection from mosquitos is provided with mosquito nets. The cabins are plumbed, and there are flush toilets and showers. ● Costanza, La Vega Province: Rented, Western-style house, enclosed (not open-air) with concrete floors, fans, warm showers, and flush toilets. Students sleep in western-style beds. The rooms have solid windows and screens. ● Caraballo/Sosua, Puerto Plata: Rented, Western-style hotel/resort, enclosed (not open-air) with concrete floors, fans, warm showers, and flush toilets. Students sleep in western- style beds. The rooms have solid windows and screens.
In general, bedrooms are very large with individual bunkbeds. Males and females have separate bedroom quarters and bathrooms. There are common kitchen and dining areas at all locations. Standard bathrooms are available in all accommodations (regular US-style toilets, except for poor plumbing requiring toilet paper not be flushed and showers. Hot water may or may not be available, but the water is always tepid in the tropical environment). Drinking and cooking water is never drawn from the tap, but purified bottled water is ALWAYS available and provided. Water is always filtered, and available in 5 gallon jugs for students to fill and refill personal water bottles.
LASALLIAN SERVICE INTERNSHIP 2017
MEALS: Simple meals of rice, beans and occasionally chicken are prepared fresh daily by Dominicans cooks for the groups who come to the DR through Kids Alive International. These are cooks who specialize in cooking regularly for American teams with care and attention given to particular sanitary practices and meal planning to avoid problems with sensitive stomachs and digestive systems that are somewhat common in Americans. Pots, pans, and dishes are sanitized after each washing. Dietary Needs: With notice, special accommodation will be made for vegans, vegetarians, kosher, etc.
TRANSPORTATION: Private V-W style vans, obtained through the partner organization, Kids Alive International, will be used for pick up from the airport, drop off at the end of the trip, and all travel between sites.
WEATHER: Students can expect the weather to be generally warm, sometimes hot, and they will be in the sun much of the day playing sports with children. They should take precautions to wear hats, sunscreen, and drink plenty of water.
RISKS/EMERGENCIES: Our hosts who work directly with our group are American-born US Citizens. Vic Trautwein is the National Director of Kids Alive in the Dominican Republic and his wife is a pediatrician, a graduate of Dartmouth who was born and raised in Moraga. There are medical emergency centers at all of our locations. There are no specific, unusual safety or risk issues at any of the locations to which we travel. While technology is scarce in our working environment, the Trautweins maintain contact with the USA and telephones and Internet are available in case of emergency. The partner organization, Kids Alive International, maintains regular contact with staff in the U.S. and if needed, we would be able to use their communication capacity (phones, computers, internet access).
Surrounding area: There are domestic and undomesticated animals in the various areas, as they are mostly in rural areas. Students may expect to encounter stray dogs and cats, as well as farm animals such as sheep. During their pre-travel orientations, students will be advised to keep their distance from these animals.
Weather/climate: Students are encouraged to wear a hat, sunscreen, and drink plenty of water to avoid harm due to too much exposure to the sun.
Activities: The daily activities include sporting activities with children, and there is the possibility of injury. (In the 10+ years of conducting the course, only one emergency incident LASALLIAN SERVICE INTERNSHIP 2017 occurred - a broken wrist from a fall in a soccer game - and the student’s family was notified immediately when they arrived at the hospital for examination - within ½ hour of the injury.)
If evacuation became necessary, the group would move to a different Kids Alive International site (there are 4 different sites visited on the trip) if needed. In addition, Kids Alive International, the partner organization, maintains a 50-60 member staff, and the vast majority of them would be able to take in our group in an emergency. There is a U.S. Embassy is in the capital city, Santo Domingo (Phone Number: 809-567-7775). In an extreme situation, the students would be flown out of the country from the international airport in Santo Domingo.
COMMUNICATION: Students should not bring cell phones or computers. As far as during our regular programming, students come into contact with an occasional Internet café on average once a week. They are generally discouraged from making excessive use of Internet and telephones in order to maximize and enrich their immersion experience. The general rule of thumb is one contact weekly to family back home, though this is not mandatorily enforced, rather it is strongly recommended. Randy Farris will have a cellphone for any emergency needs.
BEHAVIOURAL EXPECTATIONS Students are required to sign a contract in order to participate in the course. What is not delineated in the contract is a “curfew,” or policy regarding independent excursions. These policies are established and reiterated at each location as we move between each of the four locations. Some locations are more conducive than others to students making excursions (in groups) to town for an occasional ice cream or internet café run. This is very rare, inasmuch as the students have very little free time and almost always want to stay with the group and reflect on the day’s activities. They typically work/serve and have programming from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM with our seminars and discussions concluding the day. They are usually quite exhausted at the end of each day. After all, the days consist of teaching and working with children at their schools and in the community.
CULTURAL AWARENESS: The Dominican Republic is a very impoverished, third-world country without many of the modern conveniences and technology our students in Moraga may be accustomed to. And therein lies much of the beauty and spiritual and educational growth-potential of the course. There is no television nor is there radio in any of our accommodations. The Dominican culture is very “relational.” Without access to texting, Facebook, Twitter, etc., students learn that spontaneous conversations and daily dialogue face-to-face, in the simplest of formats, is the fare of the day. The relationships they build with the at-risk, underprivileged and usually abandoned children are often cited by our students as some of the strongest bonds and relationships they have ever encountered in their lives. These relationships are based on powerful circumstances that are difficult to articulate. Many of the children we work with have come from such conditions of neglect and abuse that they have never encountered anyone (much less a college- LASALLIAN SERVICE INTERNSHIP 2017 age, privileged student such as ours) who has devoted time and attention and encouragement to the degree that our students give them. Conversely, rarely have any of our class members encountered children who have been neglected and abused to the degree that these children have. In their journal writings and discussions, they often allude to the fact that they have often read about poverty, but never experienced and embraced the depth of poverty that this class thrusts them into, in a working, serving capacity. They often write about how previous to the trip they thought they were coming to give to the poor, and teach them a new view of life. But they come away realizing they have been taught humility, appreciation, etc. The children teach them through the universal language of love.
EVERYDAY LIFE: Life in the Dominican Republic can be summarized in one word: Simplicity. Some college students in the U.S. may find this objectionable. Additionally, in the communities in which we work, the culture is modest. Though few are fluent in English, most Dominicans understand English words and language and dialogue that many would find objectionable and distasteful and not appropriate for a classroom. This too, some students might find “objectionable” or too difficult to maintain decorum. For this reason, students need to be aware of required conduct and carefully and thoughtfully consider all of the points of the “personal agreement and contract” before signing up for the course.
IMPORTANT LSI DATES: Fall - Sunday, late afternoon/evening preparatory classes: October 16 & 30; November 6 & 13 Jan Term - Pre-travel meeting: January 9; Likely travel dates: Depart SFO Wednesday, January 11 (there will likely be a couple days of pre-trip meetings beginning earlier in the week) and return to SFO Monday, February 6 Spring - Final Class: Sunday, February 19 (late afternoon/evening); “Exit Interviews” (final 1-1 debriefing with each LSI student) to be scheduled around students’ schedules: Late February through early March; Grades finalized and posted mid-March