Hello students! Here is a poem to help you relive the memories from your trip to the DR!
Elite 8
This is what went down
Saturday night the Sports Service Adventure group arrived into town
From west coast to east coast
Formed the Elite 8, no mean to boast
In the morning we met our surf instructor, Pedro
Who always goes with the flow
He taught us the most important rule
It’s to have FUN because that’s what gives you the fuel
And don’t forget about the baseball games
We tried to learn the locals’ names
Where there were lots of swings, misses, and hits
And by the end, we were dancing and laughing at all the Dominican wits
Didn’t matter how much Spanish we spoke
We somehow still understood even if it was a joke
And when we traveled the long bus ride to our service site
Singing songs and hand-mixing cement left us covered in white
Where we worked from scratch on a soon to be basketball court
So that community members could eventually have a space to play the sport
And what a nice surprise when the cement mixer arrived
And it was then we knew we survived
It cut the intensive labor
We even had so much help from the neighbor
And the days when we stayed around the home base was nice
In the mornings we tried to catch a wave after our one-minute meditation
And for lunch always more chicken and rice
And by the end of the night, we just wanted some good relaxation
Brison broke us out in a sweat and sunburnt red
Along the way we were greeted by Dona Juana with limoncillos and sweet bread
We spent two hours hiking to get to the top
And on the way down we had to make that icecream stop
We went to Dudu and went on the zip line
And we played volleyball laughing in the sunshine
The falls and jumps in the water felt so good because of the heat
And getting access to wifi was super sweet
Nightly lectures were spent learning about different themes
From the Power Positivity to the corruption of Dominican baseball in sport teams
And what about the Haitian and Dominican relations?
How could 2 countries on the same island be such different nations?
Loubens helped put it in perspective
And it caused us to be reflective
Of our privilege,
and our right
Which made a difference going back to our service site
For such a small group
Even if we didn’t put up the hoop
We started something that will leave a huge impact
And that’s a fact
We can only dream of what this space will do
And throughout the project how the Elite 8 grew
But we have to give ourselves credit for what we did
And how it made a difference, even if it’s just for one kid
-Written by JoLyn, International Director
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