HINGHAM -- Eight students at St. Paul School in Hingham spent their April vacation Week in the Dominican Republic.

They did not relax at a luxury resort. They slept in small beds in the visitors' center of the Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (NPH) orphanage near the city of San Pedro de Macoris. Their rooms had no air conditioning and were crawling with cockroaches. Their showers were cold.

When speaking to The Pilot on May 7, the students were quick to point out that their conditions were vastly preferable to those in the nearby batey, a temporary settlement built to house workers on a sugar plantation. Such shantytowns are commonplace in the Dominican Republic. Workers' one-room homes are typically made of rocks and scraps of metal. Electricity and running water are luxuries. The plantations, which own the land the bateys are built on, can seize them at any time, leaving the workers homeless.

The bateys were supposed to house workers only during the growing season, but have since become permanent settlements. St. Paul students visited the batey and met a man who had been blinded, most likely in an accident on the plantation, and therefore could no longer earn a living. The students gave boots to the workers and helped build the foundation of a house where one of the "pequenos" (orphans) would live with his family after reuniting with them. Most of the pequenos come from the bateys. They live in the home because their parents are deceased, abusive, neglectful, or cannot properly take care of them.

"It's a rude awakening to go there and see that in 2026 there's still people living in really, really harsh conditions compared to what we live with today, and I think that's really unfair," said eighth grader Sloane Siegmann.

"It's crazy to see the conditions that people are living in and how they have so little, but all of them are so happy and welcoming," said seventh grader Caroline Andrassy. "It's really sweet."

Sixth grader Lucas Khayat said that the pequenos are far more outgoing than kids in the U.S.

"They're always really welcoming," he said. "They always want to be friends with you, and they like playing with you and talking to you, even if we speak different languages."

Since 2017, St. Paul School has sponsored mission trips to NPH homes in Latin America. The organization was founded by Father William Wasson in Mexico in 1954 and has now spread to nine countries, providing housing, healthcare, and education to children.

This year, St. Paul students, joined by four adult chaperones and Principal Lisa Fasano, pulled weeds on a farm, painted beds for the pequenos, played with them, and brought clothing and medical supplies donated by their school. The trip was also a way for the students to practice their Spanish.

"It was a good moment, even though we were doing hard work, to just be in nature and take in all the different sounds we could hear and could smell, like the different plants," said Natalia Khayat, an eighth grader and Lucas's older sister.

The Khayat family sponsors two pequenos at the orphanage, regularly donating money for clothing and other necessities.

"They would always come and greet us with tears in their eyes, happy tears, because they were so happy to see us, and they'd be giving us the tightest hugs, and they were so grateful for us sponsoring them," Natalia said.

She saw a tearful goodbye from one pequeno who was going to rejoin her family, and the arrival of another pequeno, a girl about eight years old. After only a few days, she was friends with everyone at the orphanage. The pequenos call each other "hermanos y hermanas," Spanish for brothers and sisters. Their caretakers are tios y tias, aunts and uncles. The pequenos who leave the home to reunite with their families are hermanos y hermanas mayores, older siblings.

"It's so great to see how much they're connected and united as a family, rather than just all living together," Natalia said.

NPH also operates a school with 420 students, some residents, but most from the surrounding area. St. Paul School has 230 students from preschool to eighth grade. Lucas taught an art class to students at the Montessori preschool. He received hugs and high fives from all of them.

"They were so happy, even though they never met us," he said.

Every night, the students would reflect on what they saw and did that day. Each of them would point out the day's "God moment."

Sloane's "God moment" was when, talking to the kids playing in the streets of the bateys, she discovered that they consider each other family -- regardless of whether they're biologically related. Eighth grader Ceb Baker's "God moment" was playing basketball with the kids. Lucas's was attending Mass in the orphanage chapel, and hearing the lively music and singing. Third grader Griffin Park's "God moment" was making balloon toys for the Montessori students. Natalia's was when the batey's farmers hugged the students after they got their new boots.

"Hearing everyone's stories made me realize how grateful we should be back at home and how much we do have compared to the kids here," she said, "and how money doesn't buy happiness, because these kids don't have a lot, and yet they're some of the happiest children I've ever seen."