It’s 10 o’clock, I’m kind of exhausted, sitting next to a pool full of teenagers with seemingly endless energy and I need to reflect. I am in the middle of an opportunity, traveling to the DR on a school service trip to help a group called the DREAM project. I’m with a group of highly privileged students working with many kids who have nothing.

In this place of beautiful beaches and shanty towns in the woods, I have found peace and confusion, beauty and disruption.

I have actually implemented a few of the systems I hoped to at home. Waking up early enough to see a sunset, exercising and relaxing before going to work (if you can call it that). I have won each morning and the days have been energized and productive.

Today, I got to work with a seven year-old girl that tagged along at my side or pulled me around the playground with nothing but smiles and requests to play or read. Hers was a face of joy.

Simplicity is the word that has been ringing through my ears all day. The students I am traveling with seem to be finding a new understanding from the simple joys in children. I see the power of simplicity in my techless days, the power of a beat up picture book in the hands of a child who takes pride in learning to read, my early to bed, early to rise, energy- giving mornings, and a group of people who work tirelessly with minimal resources to provide opportunities to children and a community that have little.

Please check out the DREAM project (dominicandream.org) if you can. They are great people doing great things with little recognition.