I ve never had a lot of time to go out and see the world growing up. My family didn’t have a lot of money, so my most exotic trip was usually to Birdsnest Virginia where my mother was from. So as the years went by I never had an interest to see what else is out there. Now as I get older and either meet people from different countries or talk to friends that have been out of the United States my curiosity is at an all time high. I’m starting to wonder how other cultures live and what life outside of America is really like.

This past week my wife and I went with some friends to the Dominican Republic to watch two of our good friends get married. You hear all the horror stories about going to a 3rd world country as soon as you tell someone that you plan on going (you’ll get kidnapped, don’t eat this or that, American kidneys go for a lot of money on eBay etc) What a lot of people don’t understand is that most likely you’re going to be staying on a resort, not in the middle of town with the locals. Fortunately for some of us that went to the wedding, we took an excursion out into town and got to experience some of the culture of the Dominican Republic.

We took a shuttle about forty minutes away from the resort to a town called Samana. After we arrived the twelve of us rented quads (four wheelers) and followed our tour guide through the town and into the country. Our tour guide was on a quad leading us, and then we had  two guys on mopeds behind us, another one riding on the side of us, and then two more riding ahead of us taking video taping our trip. Getting a chance to see how the people of Samana live out in the country is an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.

After I got the hang of my quad I was able to actually concentrate on the scenery and not possibly falling off and sitting in a wheelchair for the wedding. I was blown away by how much we take for granted. I’d say about 90 percent of the houses that we rode by in the country were shacks. They were made from wood boards and a lot of them had no electricity or running water. Did you take a shower this morning? Because that would be a luxury for most of the families that we saw. 99 percent of households in the United States have at least one television. We must have gone past a couple hundred shacks on our ecursion saw maybe 3. I was blown away by the conditions that these people lived in every day. I kept thinking what if this was me. Would I survive? Would I be able to make the most of my situation? One thing I can tell you for sure is that the people we saw were happy. It’s not surviving for them its life. They don’t need a washer and dryer to do dirty laundry, or a dishwasher to do dishes. They make the best of what they have and live every day not worrying about what they don’t.

“Rain, sleet, snow, or hail the day is what you make it”.

As we rode through the country little kids ran out to the roads and waived and gave us high 5’s, while mothers cleaned and fathers fished or worked on their shacks. Then we’d see little groups of people sitting around a table outside and just talking and enjoying each other’s company. I know personally if I see a group of people in New Jersey at a table half of them will be on their cell phones. It was refreshing to see what we sometimes forget, and that’s how to communicate with one another.

We went to a deserted beach that was absolutely amazing and hung out for a little while just talking with one another, and for me it was a chance to use my spanglish (English and Spanish mix) to order something to drink and get a gift for my wife. It was honestly paradise, and I thought that not having electricity would be worth it if I could get to hang out here every day.

Towards the end of our trip we pulled off to the side of the trail and we were escorted on foot through the woods. This is the point where all those stories you hear start coming back into your head. Luckily for us our final destination was a beautiful waterfall. Anyone that knows me understands that there are a lot of things that I’m not great at but one in particular is swimming. I have a great doggy paddle and I can swim underwater somewhat but I’m never the first person to say “hey lets go to the beach”. All that changed the moment I saw the waterfall. I thought “when am I going to be back here again to experience this again” and then reminded myself that when I get back to jersey it’s going to be 40 degrees. As I got in the water I couldnt believe I was actually thinking about not going in. We must have stayed there for a good half hour before walking back through the woods and driving back to drop off the quads.

On our shuttle ride back to the resort (between talking to my friends) I thought about how many things we take for granted here in the United States, and also how oblivious we are to what’s going on around us in other parts of the world. I made some promises to myself on that ride home. One is definitely going back to Samana to help build something there for the kids. I know they’d appreciate it more than words could ever say.

A house falling can be anything in our lives, it could be literally like those unfortunate families in New Orleans, Haiti, China etc or it could be figuratively like when we get laid off from work, suffer a death in a family etc. Sometimes it seems when the foundation is gone life is over, that doesn’t have to be the case. Just build it back up again and whether the storm.