Journal #28- Cultures

Going to a foreign culture and spending time with others of different social statuses can be a very interesting experience.  Many years ago when I was in the Dominican Republic for a missions trip.  The area I was in was a very different culture from my own.  Everyone in the nearest town I was staying by lived in shacks of metal scraps and other types of material they could find.  The nicer houses were made out of concrete and every floor was a dirt floor.  The people there lived the best they could with the resources that they had.  Most of the kids did not have shoes and had to walk quiet a distance to get to school.  This trip was very eye opening for me.  I got to experience a foreign culture and realize just how blessed I am.  I also helped teach Vacation Bible School while I was there.  The kids loved to laugh and play games.  They came from up to a mile away on foot to celebrate with us.  We just set up in the middle of a dirt road and played our games there.  One of their favorite games was kind of like ring around the rosy.  I had a great time playing with them.  The culture of the children was so different than what I live in here in the United States, but many things were still similar.  The children like to have fun in very similar ways as we do here.  Another difference in their culture is the food.  Down in the tropics, fruit is a lot more common and I had many different types of fruit that I had never previously had.  When it comes to social classes, the area I stayed in seemed to have only one.  The lower poor class was the area we were helping out.  It was amazing to me to see that people can have so much joy even when they have so little physical gains.