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Mara Droppers
October 8, 2015
Professor Johnston
Knowledge CQ
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic has held a special place in my heart for
a very long time. When I was eight years old my parents started
leading a middle school mission trip to the Dominican Republic and I
attended even as a child. For 10 years I spent at least one week every
summer in the Dominican Republic. This early exposure to a different
culture was quite forming for my faith journey. The Dominican Republic
is an incredible country with many wonderful people who I admire and
love. Yet, while serving there for so many years there were a few things
that I noticed that were different about the people and how they did
things. Such as how they interpret time, and how they treat women,
and how they respond to having Americans among them. I have
learned a lot about Dominican culture over the years, yet I never was
fully comfortable being there because I could sense the tension
between the Dominican way and the American way and it often times
made me question why we were there.
After reading David A. Livermores Cultural Intelligence
Improving your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World. I believe the
tension I experienced between the Dominican way and the American
way could have been minimized. The tension will probably always be

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somewhat present, but I believe if we as Americans can improve our
CQ then our mission work and relationships over seas will be better.
The first topic Livermore brings up is as part of Knowledge CQ is
that to gain in our knowledge we must first understand American
culture. I remember arriving to the Dominican Republic for the first
time and being very nervous about what was going to happen within
the next 8 days. We landed at the airport, and when we walked down
to baggage claim there was a whole slue of Dominicans waiting for us
with wide smiles and open arms. I was by far the youngest member of
the group and I remember quickly making friends with a few of the
Dominicans because of my childlike cuteness. We eventually grabbed
our bags and hopped in the van. It was not uncommon when I would
get in the car in America to ask how long it would take to get to the
final destination, and to be given a straight up answer. What I
eventually learned though is in the Dominican Republic this was not
the case. I asked the driver how long it would be till we reached our
final destination and he remarked 45 minutes. We spent two hours in
the van that afternoon. I remember being frustrated thinking I had
been lied too, and that he did not respect me by giving me a straight
up answer like I had asked for. Later on I found out that anytime you
asked the driver how long it would take to get somewhere he would
always respond with 45 minutes. This concept perplexed me. Yet what I
did not understand at the time is that, the Dominicans were not lying

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to me to make me angry or to make fun of me. They simply were not
concerned with the time it would take to get there; we would get there
when we get there. Yet, they knew that us Americans would ask every
time we got in the van how long would it take, so they purposefully
answered with 45 minutes, so as to almost condition us into
understanding that time was not the issue, and we were not to be so
concerned with it.
The first time I visited the Dominican Republic I was unaware of
the things that are innate to me through culture, like the value of time.
Maybe if I would have realized that the idea that time is precious, and
that I need to know how long things will take is woven into who I am as
an American. I could have more easily dropped my need-to-know
attitude if I understood it is the American way and that does not mean
it is the Dominican way. Livermore points out that The inward,
transformative journey of cultural intelligence involves a heightened
understanding of our own cultural background. (pg. 77) I have found
this to be true in my time spent overseas.
While in the Dominican Republic our team of middle school
students and their parents would spend the whole week constructing a
chapel that would then be put up at the end of the week. Each morning
we would wake up early, eat breakfast and get to work. The whole
process took about 7 days. One important piece to the chapel
construction is the foundation. Building the foundation took a whole

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day by itself. Typically the Dominicans would take all of the men and
boys from our team to go to the site and build the foundation. Yet, one
year we did not have quite enough boys, so since I had been on the
trip many times, and was a hard worker the American men asked me
to come with them to help build the foundation. I was nervous at first
because although the American men were very accepting of the idea of
me coming to help, the Dominicans were not so sure. They had always
seen the foundation as the mans job, and now me an 8th grade girl
was coming to help. It was a little comical Ill admit. Yet, I was ready to
work, and in typical American fashion I was ready to prove to them that
I could do it.
What I did not understand at the time is that gender roles were
a large part of the Dominicans cultural space. Women did the cooking,
and cleaning, they wore long dresses and skirts out of respect for the
men, and they did not do the hard grunt work like building the
foundation. Where as I was raised to think that women could do
anything. We are not to be limited by our gender, and are to be strong
as well as tender. These two different approaches to women come from
our different cultural spaces such as the homes, neighborhoods, and
regions we grew up in, and much of what we learn from these spaces
comes from non-verbals. Such as I observed my mother working hard
not only in the kitchen but in the garage, as well as my mom had a job
outside the home implying that women can be professionals just like

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men. Martin and Nakayama write in their book Intercultural
Communication in Contexts that Sometimes cultural differences in
nonverbal behaviors can lead to stereotyping of others and overt
discrimination. (p.307) This stereotyping I experienced on that
foundation day because the American men expected me to be hard
working, and to not complain while the Dominican men expected me to
give up, take breaks, and not be able to handle the hard work required
of me. At the end of the day, I had shown the Dominicans that I can
handle the work and my being a woman did not hinder me from greatly
contributing to the hard work of the day. Yet, I ask myself often is it
good that I proved that to them, or was I simply culturally ignorant and
disrespectful to the way things are done? None of the Dominican men
were angry with me and they spoke highly of my hard work, yet I often
times wonder if what they were thinking in their minds is different than
the praise they gave me verbally.
Finally, on our last day in the Dominican Republic we would go to
a village and put up the chapel we had built throughout the week. It is
important to understand that the construction process during the week
consisted of building different wall and window panels along with roof
panels and a few doors and shutters. So that on chapel day building
the chapel is like putting together a giant puzzle. I have helped build 9
chapels in the Dominican Republic all in different villages. Each village
that I have had the privilege of visiting has its own cultural space.

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Some villages are simply overjoyed to have a sturdy building. The
people in these villages do not give us Americans any trouble, and
often times they even help with construction. Yet I remember one
particular village that with the exception of the pastor, and a few of the
existing churchs congregants, the people were not excited to see us
there. The people in this village would cat-call and make fun of us while
we built them what seemed the be the nicest building in the entire
village. At first in this village I felt extremely uncomfortable. I asked
why are we giving a building to a people who did not want it? I
remember talking to one of our Dominican leaders and asking him,
why we were building a chapel in this place. He said the people here
are mixed. Meaning that some of them are a part of the local church,
and some of them do witchcraft type worship and are very against the
spreading of the Christian church in their village. Yet the pastor had
applied for a new building, and had waited on the list for almost three
years. My Dominican friend continued to explain that the pastor hoped
that this building would unite his village; because he explained when
the rain comes the building we built will be the most protected and dry.
Although I see the benefits the building will have in this village. It
is hard for me to understand if a bunch of Americans coming into a
small village that is culturally diverse is really that helpful, after
learning about cultural space. I know on a practicality side the building
provides shelter and that is good. Yet will it divide this village even

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more? Will the people begin to resent each other because of the
building we brought? These questions all come from the essence of the
contested cultural space that already existed within this particular
village.
I treasure my time spent in the Dominican Republic to this day,
yet after learning about cultural space, and the knowledge required
entering into a new culture. I wish I could do things over again. I
believe our team could have been more effective in relationships, and
respectful of our international hosts if we would have dropped the
American way for a week to fully embrace our Dominican brothers and
sisters.

References

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Livermore, D. A. (2009). Cultural intelligence: Improving your CQ to engage our
multicultural world. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2007). Intercultural communication in contexts (Sixth
ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.