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| DREAMS |
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| DOMINICAN REPUBLIC EDUCATION AND MEDICAL SUPPORT |
| TESTIMONIAL OF LORI PEGG, PARENT CHAPERONE |
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| Through the gentle support of Filomena Tassi and Father Michael King, I became involved in DREAMS. It was a great honour for me to accompany these 15 students and five chaperones to |
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| the Dominican Republic in April 2000. |
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| My role was that of a parent chaperone and my motives were complicated and somewhat selfish. I am the mother of Heather Pegg who was killed by a drunk driver in May of 1999. Heather had been a student at St. Mary's since 1996 and would have graduated in 2000. Heather's death has been devastating and the work of grieving takes a lot of energy. But energy is a wonderfully dynamic force. Although at times the grief is beyond endurance, there is a balancing loving energy which becomes a deep well of hope. I wanted to invest some of the loving energy that went into being a mother into some of Heather's friends. In return I hoped they would keep the memory of Heather alive and extend her kind spirit. Also, I just wanted to be with them. Five of Heather's close friends came on the trip as a tribute to Heather. Besides Father King, these five girls were the only people I really knew in the group. |
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| My motivation was not to serve the poor, but, more selfishly, to ease my grief and be with my daughter's friends. Now, one month after returning, I often catch myself in a delighted state of wonder -- awed by all that has happened and continues to happen because of this journey. It would take a whole book to describe all of the events of the week. I would like to relate three incidents that have especially moved me. |
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| Most of our group spent four hours in church on the night before Easter. This was quite an ordeal when you consider that these are energetic teens in a new country, the church was very hot and crowded and the vigil was entirely in Spanish. No one complained but we chaperones understood when the majority of our group said they did not want to g6 0 the mass at 7:30 on |
| Easter evening. I intended to go and believed I would probably go alone, which I did not mind at all. That evening, at around 6:30, we were listening to a man named Pasqual who was kind enough to come and speak to us about the history of the Dominican Republic. After the presentation, our group was excited about exploring the town and having some fun. During the presentation, Sister Mary Jo came to me and asked how to spell Heather's name because Father Lou Quinn wished to dedicate mass to her. This was unexpected and I was extremely moved. I was trying hard not to cry. I was so touched by the kindness of this priest and nun -- that they would be so thoughtful during a time that was very hectic for them. I passed a note to a student beside me telling her what Sister Mary Jo had told me and that I needed to leave and would see them all after mass. I went to church and sat at the back. Sister Mary Jo moved me to the front. Then something extraordinary happened. Our entire group came to attend mass. I was amazed that they had all changed their plans to support me. Who said young people are selfish? |
| The next incident took place in the mountain village of Las Caobas. There were six or so of us in the room where we dined. One of our students came to us in an emotional state with a letter she had just discovered in her back-pack. She read it to us and it was from her mother, telling her how much she loved her and how proud she was of her. I was very moved at this sharing of mother-daughter love. I was also hit with what I call a "grief spasnf', overwhelmed at my own loss. I put my head down so no one would see my tears. Three students, including the girl with the letter, came to me. One put her arm around me from the right, one from the left and one boy put his head on my back. Such a beautiful, tender moment. I thanked them and walked outside to the back of the building where I took some deep breaths to compose myself and said a prayer of thanks to God for putting these wonderful people in my life. I felt a feather-light touch on my arm and turned to see a young Dominican girl beside me. She was 13 years old and had the deepest, darkest eyes and a smile of such kindness. She reached her little hand to my face, touched a tear, then kissed the tear on her finger. She then took my hand and just held it as we both stood silently looking off into the mountains. I will always remember this. This 13 year old girl, Damaria, is unable to attend school because she has no shoes. |
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| Another incident of immense power was as we were leaving the village of Las Caobas. Three days previously, when we first arrived at the village, many of our students were stunned at the poverty and lack of things we take for granted, such as running water and electricity. We were also stunned at the size of the spiders. One mischievous Dominican boy thought it was hilarious how our students ran and screamed as he chased them with a dead tarantula. I was trying to be a good role model and suppressed my urge to run screaming to the nearest plane home. I have an unreasonable fear of spiders. Darkness fell quickly and a few of our girls went into the house with a flash-light. Then they were screaming because there was a huge spider on the wall. A few of our boys ran to the rescue and I heard a few masculine screams before the offending spider was evicted. I was afraid and wondered how I would make it through the night. Two of the girls came to me. Their shoulders were hunched up to their ears, their arms were crossed and their hands were tightly wedged into their armpits. They said, "Get me out of here! I can't do this! I'm not going back in there until it's light out! GET ME OUT OF HERE!!! Even though they were voicing my sentiments I tried to calm them and told them folks live here all their lives, surely we could put up with a few nights. They were both in a state of high agitation but eventually morning came without incident. The next few nights were fine. During the day everyone worked hard and one of the girls who had been so frightened on our first night spent quite a bit of time with a five year old Dominican girl. They couldn't speak the same language, but their hearts did. I watched them, side by side picking up rocks, communicating with smiles, gestures and touch. In the evening, the little girl would curl up on the lap of our student. When it was time to leave we were loaded onto the back of the truck with the few belongings we had left (our group gave away almost everything they had). This student, who a few days before was begging to leave Las Caobas, was standing off to the side, holding the little girl tightly in her arms, crying because she didn't want to leave and embarrassed for anyone to see her crying. It is a beautiful image which has been burned into my heart. |
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| We all know that to work for social justice is one of the essential pillars of Christianity. Genesis affirms that God made all people equal in dignity and rights. Also, that all human beings, equally, are co-responsible with God, in helping to protect the dignity of everybody and everything. The gospels of Matthew and Luke stress how essential charity is. As I think about these teachings I remember how indignant and disturbed I felt when we were at the airport in Santo Domingo waiting for our flight back to Toronto. We had seen acute poverty. Now I was seeing wealth and waste in other people returning home from resort vacations. I quickly realized that I was in no position to stand in self-righteous anger for I also live in relative luxury and ease, and I've enjoyed tropical resort vacations. While my reasons for becoming involved in this project were quite sentimental, I've come away with a fire in me. I am learning all I can about the Dominican Republic, am in the second level of Spanish, and I will go back. I am amazed at the blossoming I've seen in each person on this trip and I feel close to each of them in some way. We have shared a fire. |
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| When I think of those words: "all people are equal in dignity and rights" I think of our own children as well as the people in the Dominican Republic. We saw acute material poverty, but we also saw a depth of love, community and dignity that is not so common here. In one week I saw an immeasurable increase in the dignity of each and every one of the 15 students on the trip, not to mention their compassion, respect, kindness, acceptance, honesty, hard work and sense of fun. This experience is sure to be an esteem builder for our kids as they head into their adult years. What a wonderful way to see how important their contribution to the world is! It makes me wonder who were the givers and who were the recipients. |
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| I believe Winston Churchill coined the phrase, "this is the end of the beginning". We are at the end of the beginning of DREAMS and now we continue. I see much evidence that this project stems from the power of love and the power of truth, with the loving touch of God. I feel confident that this project will continue for the purpose of making that Power known and not for making ourselves known. |
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| I wish I could take a fraction of this experience and inject it into a jelly-bean, so that whoever ate the jelly bean would experience a fraction of what we've experienced. Any person with a conscience, who ate one of these jelly beans, would not be able to walk away because the appeal to the heart and dignity would be so deep, so universal and so right. |
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