“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” -Marianne Williamson
This quote, along with many others, decorated the walls of the Outreach360 volunteer house I called home for seven days along with 38 other students and teachers. I spent many mealtimes in the common area of the house pouring over these excerpts and thinking about how they not only applied to my time there, but how they will apply to the months I will spend on the World Race. 
Home sweet home, our vibrant volunteer house in Monte Cristi.
Over a week ago I reluctantly left the beautiful rolling mountains of the Dominican Republic where I had spent a week teaching English to over 200 eager children, grades first through fifth. To say that my time spent there was life-changing would be an understatement, because in reality I changed 200 lives. And I’m not boasting when I say that, I really did. 
“The barbed wire isn’t there to keeps kids in school, it’s to keep other people out.”
The Dominican Republic is a country that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti and relies heavily on income from tourism to support their economy. Working for the hundreds of tourism and travel agencies on the island promises a better life free from the crippling poverty that has worked its way across the island, and the best way to elbow your way into that profession is the ability to speak English.
The Dominican Republic has been in the middle of the country’s worst drought in 20 years for sometime now, making drying laundry on the line much easier… Well that and the lack of dryers.
Outreach360, the organization I was volunteering with, has a simple yet daring mission “Our vision is a transformed world in which every child is able to pursue a college degree or to be gainfully employed upon reaching adulthood, enabling them to live a life of choice.” In order for this mission to be achieved Outreach has ten essential volunteer traits they consider necessary in order to get the most out of not only the volunteers, but also the kids they are teaching. Number six on that list is my favorite, “Poco a poco” (Little by little).
It wasn’t until the last night that I realized that a mosquito net tucked under my mattress was not going to keep me from falling off my bunk.
The first day of teaching I left the classroom completely flustered because the class of 20+ first graders I had just taught failed to grasp the ten vocabulary words (mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living room) that my team was given 45 minutes to teach. When they yelled out answers, mother was barely distinguishable from brother and for all they knew bedroom and bathroom were pronounced the same way, “ba-rum”. However, just three days later, my wonderful class of six to seven year olds was able to confidently say “The sister is in the living room” when presented with two flashcards and asked to use them in a sentence.
The concept of a zoom lens didn’t really translate well when I snapped this picture.
I walked into the small, blazing hot classroom the first day expecting my students to be fluent by the end of the week (45 minutes later I realized that would not be the case), but after five days of teaching I was just as thrilled that my first graders knew the family members and that the third graders could differentiate between the numbers sixteen and seventeen as I would have been if I left and they really were speaking fluent English.
90ºF in the shade, but “Teacher Stevie” is still rocking it.
When I left the D.R. I took those volunteer traits on the plane with me and I continue to apply them to my everyday life. It’s easy for me to be overwhelmed by the fact that by next August I need to have raised more than $13,000 to go on the World Race, but the money will come, poco a poco. I lay down at night and think “How much am I really going to change the world”, the answer is poco a poco. That’s how Jesus did it too. He could have said one word and changed the world, He has that power, but He did it poco a poco too. He spent years on Earth with the humans loving them as He still loves us, unconditionally and poco a poco.
Monte Cristi’s (literally translates to Christ Mountain) highest point is adorned with many crosses like this.
I still have 11 months to go until I leave for the Race, but in reality it’s already started! I need your help to acquire the funds necessary for this to happen. I’ve already been overwhelmed with generous gifts of support from family, friends, and strangers, but we’ve got a ways to go fam! I’m selling really awesome T-shirts you can check out in my previous blog post (the last day to order is the 31st of October). And there will be many more fundraising projects to come. Anything you can give is much appreciated even if it’s poco a poco. “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.” -Proverbs 13:11
