Day before Departure

So here I sit just over 12 hours away from the time when we will be leaving on our adventure to the Dominican Republic. As I sit here there are still many things running through my head. All from what still needs to be done as far as packing as well as still some apprehension about heading into a culture that is entirely different from my own here on Wartburg's campus.

Right now the biggest challenge for me is going to be the language barrier that I will face. Never have taken any spanish previous to a few words I have learned so that I can somewhat function I am feeling just a bit nervous about not being able to fully communicate. Especially since I value my voice and language as one of my valued assets so this ought to be interesting. I'm also worried somewhat about how I will initially respond to the environment I will be in. I believe that our class sessions leading up to our departure have prepared us as well as it could to go into this country, but what I think will happen can be entirely different from what will actually happen. We are going to be entering a country that is facing poverty with not just a lack of money standing in their way of prospering. There are many other factors that come into play making supporting a family seem like fighting a world war of some sort. I could go on to try and explain it to you but then I would be writing a book for you not a blog (as there are books reserved on this topic)

I don't really know entirely what I was just trying to get at, but I hope I was able to help you know how I was feeling about this trip. I also hope you will also enjoy seeing how things develop as I guarantee you I will be fully honest with what my feelings are as I experience them so that maybe you can see through my eyes what is going on in the Dominican Republic.