My Cultural Experience

Two summers ago, I went to the Dominican Republic on a missions trip. While I was there, I encountered many things that were very differen than what I was used to in my community. One thing that was different was that there was no air conditioning. All day every day, we were hot and sweaty. The funny thing is that we didn't really care, and that after a few days of deing there we didn't even notice it. Another difference was the people around us. Normally, you can just listen in on any conversation that was going on around you, but there, you can't. I knew a little bit of spanish, but even if i tried as hard as I could, I could still only understand a few words of the whole convwersation. It reminded me of the spanish people that some into Sears, where I work, and try to buy clothes. They are completely surrounded by a language that they do not know. I never realized how wierd it was before and how awkward you felt speaking a language that the people around you did not know. Everywhere we went, we had to have a translator with us.
Another different thing there was the mood of the whole country. Everywhere we went, people were happy. Even when we went to the slums, which were houses as big as a bathroom stall in the U.S. that were made out of wood and housed up to 8 people, people were happy ans laughing. Everybody everywhere was nice. They would literally give you the shirt off thier back if you asked for it. They were also very free spirited. They went swinning in waterfalls and jumping off rocks naked and didn't care about what anybody else thought of them. A final difference was the appearence. Every house was a diferent color and had a different colored roof. If you went up to the top of a mountain and looked down at the city, you got an amazing view of a colorful town.
Overall, my experience in the Dominican Republic was amazing. I not only got to help the Dominicans out, I also got to learn alot about thier culture and morals.

Personal Experience

One thing that happened to me that changed my life was joining the police explorers program. I had no clue what I wanted to be or what I wanted to do with my life, all I knew was that I did not want a desk job. So I started looking through more active jobs and found Police Officer. I decided to check it out and found a program called police explorers. I joined the program, and after the first meeting, I knew for sure what I wanted to do in my life. The explorers program meets about three times a month and while we are there, we learn about what cops really do for a job. We also get to role play and practice things like handcuffing, searching, and responding to different types of calls. Every week I would look forward to my next meeting and learning more and more new things. We also got to go on ride-alongs with the officers in the department. These just helped to maximize my dedication to becoming a police officer.

My earliest memory

My earliest memory is from when i was about one year old. I was at my neighbor's house and i stood up on a stool that i did not know was broken. It only had three legs instead of four. When I stood up on the stool, I fell over, bit my tongue in half, knocked my tooth out, got blood all over thier white carpet, and started to bawl my head off. My mom came over and drove me to the hospital. the last thing that i remember is falling asleep in the back of the car on the way there, but my mom says that I was awake for the whole time. When we got to the doctor's office, they would not let us go into the ER, but instead gave us a 15 minute long lecture about why they never send tongue injuries to the ER before they even looked at my tongue. After they actually looked at my tongue, they told me I had to go to theh ER. I ended up getting stitches, but they kept falling out, so I had to get them replaced a couple of times. I still have a scar on my tongue to this day.