Note From The Editor: In Darling Issue No. 10 we announced a new partnership with International Justice Mission (IJM), specifically partnering with their work to eradicate sex trafficking in the Dominican Republic. We’re excited to introduce the fifth in a series of update posts, taking you along and behind-the-scenes for a deeper look at how exactly that is being accomplished. Today we’re hearing from Jan Haugen, wife of IJM founder Gary Haugen, after a recent trip to the DR.

I recently had the absolute joy of visiting the Dominican Republic and seeing first hand IJM’s work in that beautiful country. Even though I’ve traveled many places, it’s always a bit of a shock to experience a new country: The humid heat – nearly liquid air, the amazing beauty of a city built on a coastline, the juxtaposition of crazy extravagance and extreme poverty – a fancy hotel with lots of Louis Vuitton and a neighborhood of dilapidated buildings with dogs and teenage boys sitting on rooftops whiling away the time, and the amazingly blocked up and stopped daily rush hour traffic jams that would give NYC or Austin a run for their money.

But what I will take away from my visit was so much deeper than my first sensory impressions of the DR: