In this chat, we hear from Mitchell Smith. Mitchell is a Peace Corps volunteer working as a CED (Community Economic Development) volunteer in Dominican Republic. What Mitchell shares gives us a better understanding of the work volunteers do. We learn about the challenges, rewards, and personal growth that happens from volunteering in a new place. Mitchell talks about living in a different country, working with local people, and dealing with surprise situations. Join us as we learn about Mitchell’s journey and see how volunteering with Peace Corps can change lives.
Table of Contents
- Volunteer Experience and Motivation
- Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
- Surprises and Challenges
- Advice and Support
- Practical Tips and Language Learning
- Final Thoughts
Volunteer Experience and Motivation
1. Tell us more about serving as an CED volunteer in the Dominican Republic.
A CED volunteer in the Dominican Republic has three main project goals:
- increasing youths’ capacity to pursue and achieve economically productive livelihoods
- increasing individuals’ capacity to implement and manage small-scale economic activities
- increasing individuals’ capacity for personal money management
CED volunteers primarily work in Dominican high schools, giving classes around the previously mentioned goals. I teach classes to juniors and seniors in high school on personal finance, employability skills, and an entrepreneurship course for prospective small business owners.
CED volunteers are also encouraged to volunteer at existing businesses within their community, helping with things like digital marketing, basic accounting practices, and identifying new business opportunities for small business owners. I have partnered with about half a dozen businesses in my community to help them create professional social media accounts and organize their finances.
Many CED volunteers also work with the English teacher at their school to help give English language classes to students or adults within the community. I have taught an English class during both of my two summers here while school was out to help me remain an engaged member of the community while there is less work to do.
2. What motivated you to join the Peace Corps and choose the Dominican Republic?
Growing up, I played soccer as much as possible and consequently ended up befriending the Latino community in my hometown, as this was predominately who played soccer; from there, I began speaking more Spanish and grew curious to understand more about Hispanic culture. I traveled abroad with my university to Cuba, Argentina, and Uruguay during college.
Once I got closer to graduation, I knew I wanted to continue to study and learn more about Latin America, and the Peace Corps gave me the best opportunity to do that. Since arriving here, I feel like I am getting a chance to experience a culture that is not my own and learn more about Dominican culture while also hopefully being a good representative of the U.S.
Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
3. Tell us more about your home situation
In my first three months at my site, I was required to live with a host family, and it was a challenging but good experience. My host Family was 8 people, and in their house, there was only one bathroom outside for us to share. However, they treated me like one of their own. They were a great help in getting me integrated into the community, as they were either related to or knew just about everyone in my community.
My community itself is somewhat small, with about 7,000 inhabitants. My community is heavily focused on agriculture, with most of the male population working in this industry. They grow tobacco, tomatoes, plantains, bananas, and other fruits. The food is, for the most part, very delicious. I am convinced you will not find bigger, juicier mangos elsewhere. Vegetables are very fresh, and you must always have your rice and beans.
4. Any memorable experiences or interactions you’ve had with community members?
On the day of our swear-in ceremony, my host mom from our training site was planning on attending the ceremony along with the host families of the other volunteers. When she arrives at the venue of our swear-in ceremony, she comes rushing in looking for me and hands me the biggest mango I have ever seen. It was objectively even a big mango by Dominican standards, as I received many comments about it throughout the ceremony. This is one of my favorite memories, as this was my first host mom’s parting gift to me, and I think it really shows the culture of love and generosity that exists here in the Dominican Republic.
Surprises and Challenges
5. What has surprised you most about CED challenges in the Dominican Republic?
The Dominican Republic is one of the fastest-growing economies in Latin America. The tourism industry is exploding, with the DR receiving more tourists than larger countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia. However, with a rapidly expanding economy, this does not always mean everyone is receiving the benefits. There are still many parts of the DR that lag behind in aspects such as education, health, poverty, etc. My project site being very far removed from the tourist areas of the DR meant that we faced many of these challenges.
In terms of CED, the biggest challenge I saw was just simply getting businesses to be more organized by encouraging them to write down transactions, separate personal and business budgets, utilizing social media to help promote their business. Some of these may seem obvious to someone from the U.S. or Europe but you must consider that many of these business owners have no prior experience and figuring out how to better their business from trial and error.
6. What challenges did you face while working on CED projects with community members?
The hardest thing for me has been getting people to take me seriously and understand my goals during my service. As a young American with no personal experience of starting a business it is common to feel overwhelmed and that people in my community dismiss you. However, being committed to gaining rapport with people in your community by not being afraid to put yourself out there has helped me to make friends and gain their trust so that I can help them with their business.
7. Could you share some of the secondary projects you have been involved?
One of the projects I have worked on that is not connected to CED is starting a boys’ soccer team at my site. The Dominicans are known as a baseball-loving country, so I did not expect to find many kids who love soccer. However, with my site being closer to Haiti, there is a large segment of the population of my town that is of Haitian descent, and in Haiti, soccer is the most popular sport.
Since I grew up playing soccer and have always jumped at any chance to play soccer with whoever I can I immediately knew that I wanted to help organize a team in my town. So, for a little over a year now, I have held a weekly soccer practice on Fridays at my school’s basketball court and have gotten around 18-20 kids to come play weekly with our team, even playing against a couple of other teams from surrounding communities.
Advice and Support
8. What advice would you give to someone considering serving as an CED volunteer in the Dominican Republic?
I would recommend to anyone to try and practice and improve their Spanish as much as possible before coming to the DR. This helps you integrate, make friends, and perform your job all the easier because you are better equipped to communicate with your colleagues, host family, PC staff (not all PC DR staff speak English).
I would also recommend spending a little time reading about Dominican history, culture, and current events to understand better the country. Whether it is understanding Dominican-Haitian relations or just knowing some of the history of Dominican independence, you will have a much better understanding of the country.
9. What skills or qualities do you think are most important for a CED volunteer?
I think it is resilience. As I stated earlier, I spent a lot of time early on in my service dealing with people in my community who did not take me seriously or just did not understand what I was there for, leading to many feelings of inadequacy and confusion about how you are supposed to carry out the goals of CED.
You couple this with already being in a foreign environment where you do not know anyone. It can feel pretty overwhelming, and you are just doing a bad job. However, being resilient is remaining positive, trying to control the things you can control, and just focusing on being a good community member. People will start to trust you and open up to you, making your PC service really feel worthwhile.
10. How has the Peace Corps training helped you during your service?
For me, our Spanish and cultural facilitator during PST was most valuable for my training. I felt that I was not only able to improve my Spanish, but she did an excellent job of explaining Dominican culture, helping us navigate through interactions with the local community, and just overall helping us become better PC volunteers.
Practical Tips and Language Learning
11. Anything that you packed that you’d like to tell future volunteers?
I bought a Kindle from Amazon, and I absolutely loved it. I have read several books during service and is a great way to unwind after a long day or just to pass the time on a balmy Sunday afternoon.
12. How has learning the language been?
Dominican Spanish can be pretty challenging at times because many people speak so fast and there are so many words that are only used here that you will probably never have learned before in a classroom. For that reason, I feel like it is good for volunteers to come in with at least a basic level of Spanish.
Final Thoughts
13. Any last comments or observations you’d like to pass on to future volunteer in the Dominican Republic?
Dominicans are some of the nicest people I have had the pleasure of meeting. I can honestly say that I have received far more than I could ever give to this country, and I am eternally grateful for that. If you decide to serve in the DR, you will have some challenging days, but I promise you you’ll also make some of the best memories of your life and some of the best friends one could ever have here in the Dominican Republic.
What are you waiting for? Opportunities like this don’t come often. If you have a passion for service and an adventurous spirit like Mitchell‘s, apply to the Peace Corps today. Expand your horizons, push your limits, and create positive impact as a volunteer. You never know how serving as a Peace Corps volunteer could change your life.
The content of this post does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, or the Dominican Republic Government.
