Part 2….

I decided to make this a separate blog… because it’s kinda a big deal!!!

I DID IT! I DID IT! We have a pre-school up and running.  This past year of immersing myself into the culture, pushing through more personal barriers then I thought possible, and challenging myself to have a school up and running in a year has more than paid off.  J

I have to send out a huge thank you to the group who came down to help fix up the building.  Also, here’s another huge thank you to all the groups and people who came down with suitcases of supplies.  And finally the biggest THANK YOU goes out to all of the people at home supporting me with their thoughts, prayers, emails, facebook messages, and notes.  I wouldn’t be where I am today without you guys! J   

So here’s what my days look like now.  I leave before 7am to pick up kids in El Estrecho Abajo by 7.  On my way back I pick up a few more kids who live on the main road.  I drop off those kids at the school and leave them with Jamie, a girl from Ohio who is here helping out with the school.  I then drive through Pueblo Nuevo to Sandra’s in El Canal and pick up breakfast for the kids.  On my way back through Pueblo Nuevo I pick up either Sujer or Suni, my 2 Dominican helpers along with 3 kids. (Angel, son of Rosanna and Jorge, Kelvin, son of Yolanda and Boho, and Isaura, daughter of Nani)  I am back at the school around 8am where we begin our day with outside play. 

We built a sand box, and thanks to Teresa we have sand box toys.  The first day I opened the sandbox and put out the toys and they just stood there not really knowing what to do.  After I showing them how to how to dig, rake, sift, and pile up sand, the kids didn’t want to go inside. There are a few that like to sit inside looking at board books.  They enthusiastically flip through pages pointing out every animal and object they know.  In a culture where the only books people pick up and read are school books and the bible, getting kids excited about looking at books and reading for fun is a huge deal.

After outside play, we wash up for breakfast.  We wanted to make sure to include in our program a hearty, nutritious breakfast for the kids.  Many of the households don’t have a family table to eat on, let alone money to feed their family a nutritious diet.  We have put together a menu which includes oatmeal, eggs, fresh fruit and yogurt.

Following breakfast we sit for circle time.  This is where we sing songs, read stories, talk about the calendar month, days, and numbers.  I also will try to do an activity around the theme for the week. 

From circle time we divide into centers with the project being one of them.  The kids have been playing with matchbox cars, play dough, pattern blocks, and drawing on small chalk boards.  They are having a ball other then the fact that they all want everything for themselves.  We are working hard on learning to share. Haha They are 3 and 4. 

After centers, we come back together to either sing or dance some more, or read some books on CD.  Once 11:30 rolls around, the parents from La Sabana (the village where the school is located and where I live) come and pick up their kids.  I then load up the El Estrecho Abajo crew and drive them all home while Jamie says with the Pueblo Nuevo crew.  After driving everyone home, I sit down for lunch with a family and breathe again.  Haha

This is a class photo but it was taken the second day.  We had 3 more kids join the next day.  Hopefully we get another class photo taken soon with everyone!

My afternoons have been filled with running around grabbing something for Sandra to cook, running to the yogurt factory and picking up fresh (the best ever) yogurt, cleaning the school, prepping for the next day, and when I can, sitting and keeping up with emails, and writing this blog. J

I feel like I had a whirl wind of a first week of school, but I am just so thrilled that it all came together.  I haven’t quite figured out why, but after this summer, making many more acquaintances and a couple of good friends, and running my own classroom, I finally feel like I’m at home and I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.  It was a long, stressful, challenging journey, but here I am running a pre-school in a 3^rd world country. 

Woohoo!!! J

Part 1....

I hate starting with this again… but I do apologize for not writing for quite a while. 

~An overview of my camp this summer…

I was in 4 different villages running 2 camps per village, one for 3-6 year olds, and the other for 7-10 year olds.  Camp ran for 2 months and overall we averaged about 150 with all four villages combined.  Overall I’d say it was a huge success.  The kids were thrilled to be able to sing songs in English for and with the participants.  Kids are still asking when the next camp day is.  I also had several parents tell me how happy they were with the program.  I had one mother tell me her 2 daughters make her sing some of our songs every night before they go to bed.  Another mother said to me, “My daughter loved your camp and so did I because before camp she walked around shy and timid, but after going to your camp every week she was bouncing around the house happy and singing all you songs!” And then she thanked me with a hug.  Even though I already know of things I will be changing for our next year, we had a fabulous summer! :)

My mom was here for 2 weeks in August.  We had a fabulous time.  Her first week, we worked with Ben and his family on a roof for Maria.  She is one of the many Maria’s in Pueblo Nuevo.  She is the sister of Oneydo who has helped out and worked with the mission for a number of years.  The VMM had built her a block house in 2005 but that was before we included a zinc roof.  Here is a couple of photos of us working on the roof.

After a very sad day of saying good bye to Ben, his family, and Anna, my mother and I spent a few days visiting with different families.  Everyone was VERY excited my mom was coming to visit, and everyone wanted to meet her.  We ate dulce with a couple of different families.

One family I have become very close to this summer is a family in El Canal, Sandra and Obie, and their three children, Diana (11), Odil (9), and Israel (7).  As a gift for the family, my mom and I took Sandra and her kids shopping for new school uniforms.  We all had a fabulous afternoon which ended with my buying everyone ice cream and eating it in the town square.  It was a great afternoon.

In the middle of the second week, my mom and I spent 2 days and nights relaxing by the pool and enjoying walks along the beach.  The resort is going under so there weren’t many people around.  But we had some nice relaxing time.

After my mom’s 2 week visit I was sad to see her leave but anxious to get everything set for school to start. 

Hello everybody!

Well we have been busy busy busy this summer.  The last group of the summer just arrived last Thursday.  They are finishing house number 6 in El Canal today. 

Other exciting news… One of the groups from Ohio helped me out fixing up my little school house.  They also were able to join in on a couple of camps!  It was great having them help out!   Here are a few photos of us fixing up the school.

 

The local kids were ssoooo excited to help out. I had to find lots of little jobs for them to help the group with.  We walked up the street to my house to grab the tires I had been collecting for the playground.  Here is a photo of them walking/rolling them to the school. 

The kids of La Sabana were thrilled to be helping out.  Here is a group shot of the group from Ohio as well as the kids who helped out.  And here is a huge THANKS going out to the group!!! J

And  of course I couldn’t have a preschool without a sand box!!! J  (Thanks Teresa for the sandbox toys!!!)

My branch of “The Village” Mountain Mission is the C.A.R.E. Project (Children At Risk Education).   The little girl in this photo is Robaisi.  She is 3 and comes to camp with her 2 year old sister and 5 year old brother.  She has become my shadow and whenever I get up to walk around, whether I’m passing things out or leading a game, she is always right behind me.  And as soon as I sit down, she plops herself right into my lap. Haha! 

Camp has been going great!  For the older groups of kids, the 7-10 year olds, Anna and I have been trying to get them thinking.  We keep the themes the same, but when the little ones learned the Itsy Bitsy Spider, we had the older kids draw a spider and on each of the 8 legs they had to write 8 different ways to be a good friend.  Also when the little kids decorated stars,  we explained what reaching for the stars meant, and they wrote what they wanted to be when they grew up in the star.  They then pasted strips of paper coming off of the star and on those strips, they wrote how they were going to get there.  It was great listening to their hopes and dreams. 

This week is our last week of camp.  We have lots of fun things planned for the kids! 

2 weeks ago Kendi turned 8.  His family received a house from VMM in 2009.  Anna and I took him and his family to the beach for his birthday.  When we went to go pick them up the kids came running out to the car yelling “La Playa, La Playa, La Playa!”  They were singing it the whole ride there and squealed with joy when they saw the beach.  It’s their excitement that fills me!  We had a great afternoon! 

Last week was Ana’s 6^th birthday.  Her family received a house from VMM also in 2009.  Anna and I took Ana and her family to the River for her birthday.  Again, the kids were squealing with excitement.  Here’s a photo of Anna with the family.

And…… Saturday night was a big night!!!  Our cat had kittens!!! J And Sujer, a girl who works with me, had her baby as well! J

 Can’t wait for my mom to come down in a couple of weeks!!! J

Good bye for now!

I am going to start off apologizing to the parents who check my blog daily to hear that all is well!  All is well but extremely busy!  Anna and I are running camp in 4 villages with 2 separate age groups in each village.  We have just under 200 kids.  The first couple of weeks have been very successful! Anna and I create activities around the theme of the week.  The first week our theme was dinosaurs.  The kids made dino head bands, built villages with blocks for the toy dinosaurs, read dinosaur books, and played a dinosaur game.  We put sand in a big bucket along with cut up dinosaur pictures.  The kids had to dig for their color dinosaur, find all the pieces, and put the puzzle together.  They loved it.  We did all of this as well as play with the parachute, sing songs, and of course dance.

Here are a few photos of all of that from different villages.

For the past 2 weeks our theme has been the ocean.  The kids made paper plate fish, used ocean stamps, played a fish memory game, and had a blast with some water relay races.  The camp in La Sabana is held in what used to be a little block house.  We let the kids in that camp draw all over the walls inside and out with chalk.  We have some giant fish, sea horses, and star fish all over the walls.  The kids thought it was hilarious we were letting them draw on the walls. 

As far as groups and the construction goes,  the 2 Bermuda groups completed one house and almost finished the second house in a village called El Canal.  The Jersey group started 3 houses in El Estrecho Abajo.  Most of the group had been here before so they flew through the construction.  We just had a group from Goshen, CT.  They finished 2 of the houses in El Estrecho Abajo.  I’ll have to run around and grab some photos of the houses with the families to post on here next time.   We had a group fly in late last night from Ohio.  They are going to be fixing up my little school house in La Sabana.  Come September that is going to be where I bring my class to.  I can’t wait to have one central location to be teaching out of. 

Having the staff and all of the groups here has been fantastic!  I have been trying to spend as much time as my schedule allows with the groups (which unfortunately sometimes isn’t as much as I’d like).  As many things are down here, it is a blessing and a curse for me.  I love having the company and meeting and visiting lots of new people, but it is also hard to then see them go.  To those who have come and gone, I am looking forward to seeing you again next year!  To those who haven’t been down here yet, what are you waiting for?!?!? J

Well that is all for now.  Buhbye!

Hello!

It has been spectacular having Ben and Anna down here!  They are 2 of our 4 interns for the summer.  Ben was in the youth group I co-led at my church and he is working with the building groups.  Anna used to work with me at the daycare and for the last week she has been translating for and working with a group of nursing students and a couple of nurses who have been teaching our Healers about injecting vaccinations, and stitching up wounds.  Once the nursing group leaves she will help me out with the camps I’m running this summer.  I’m close to both of them, and it is great seeing them shine down here! J

So as I said, we had a group of nurses and students here working with the Healers.  (For those that don’t know who I’m referring to when I say our Healers… We employ 6 local women to be Healers.  They learn basic medical information and go out in pairs to different communities teaching door to door.  Their topics range from the importance to washing hands to cholera.)  They worked on giving injections for vaccinations as well as practicing stiching wounds.  A group of kids 14-16 years old from Bermuda left today sailing back to Bermuda .  They have another group from Bermuda which sailed down yesterday, which have taken their place.  We also have a group of 35 people here from New Jersey.  I have been spending time with the groups in the evenings, and I'm meeting lots of great people!

This past weekend I walked door to door in 2 villages telling them about the summer camp.  It was sunny and super hot!  But the parents and kids all seemed excited.  Yesterday I had parent meetings in the 2 villages I have been teaching in.  Luckily they went well!  Here is a few photos from class…

yeah that's right... we are doing the Hokey Pokey! :)

And for all the teachers out there who know how easily kids get distracted, here is a photo of just one of the many distractions that happen regularly in my class when teaching here in the Dominican. Hahaha

Yes that is a cow sticking his head in the door to see what’s going on.  J

Gotta run! Getting eaten alive by mosquitos!!!  Adiós!

Hey Every body!!!

Sorry I have not been so good at writing as regularly as I used to.  I’ll try to get back into the habit of writing more often.

            So here is an update on what’s been going on…

            May is apparently a VERY wet month.  We have been getting rain quite often and everything is a muddy mess.  It is also the month when mangos come into season!!! J mmmm

            My garden is pretty much all dead.  When I chose a spot for it in our yard, little did I know, I chose the lowest part of the yard.  When it rains and rains, it turns into a pool.  L  Once everything dries out, I will have to find dirt to raise my garden and then start all over again.

            The classes have been good!  Last week was transportation week.  Here’s a photo of a game we were playing.  They were “driving” their cars while the music was playing.  When I paused the music, they had to sit in a chair and tell me what color car was taped to the chair. 

This week we are learning about the life cycle of a butterfly.  The kids are really enjoying it.  They are amazed by the photos of the life cycle in the books I have.

            This summer I will be adding 2 more villages. (God help me! Haha)  Luckily I will have lots of help this summer.  An Intern and friend of mine, Anna is coming to help run the camps.  There will also be people from the groups in and out, helping where they can and when they can.  I can’t wait for the extra help and company! J

            Last Sunday  was la día de las madres (their mother’s day).  I was invited to a service at the church in Pueblo Nuevo.  When I said “But I’m not a mother!”, their response was, “You are not a mother, but you have many kids.”  Haha couldn’t argue with that one.  After the service they handed out little cards to the mothers and me.

            Sunday, I was also invited to a birthday party in my neighborhood.  It was for a little girl named Noelis.  Here is a photo of her.

            I bring her and her sister to my class in the mornings.  She is a sweetheart.  I gave her a box of crayons, and a princess coloring book. She sat right down and started coloring for the remainder of her party and for a while afterwards.  Her mother told me the next day she slept with it.  I believe I was the one of two guests to bring a gift.  I was surprised at first but then when I realized/ remembered where I was, it all made sense.

            Bill, the mission’s founder/ director, is coming tonight and 2 of the 3 interns for the summer are coming Sunday as well as our first work group.  Can’t wait to see everyone! J

¡Adios!

Hey everyone!

It was fabulous being home for a little bit.  Thanks to everyone I saw! All of you made my week home a great one!  To those I missed, I’m sorry and I’ll see you in late November.

I got back Sunday and started the classes right up again Monday morning.  The kids were so excited they all came running when they say my car drive into their village.

I asked the kids how their week was… and their answer was, “Bad!” And when I asked them why it was bad, their response was, “Because you left.”  It was a little sad and a little cute at the same time.

When I was home I ordered a few new cds of kids songs in Spanish.  The kids LOVE the new songs!!!  One of the cds has the Hokey Pokey in Spanish.  And now that’s what they ask for everyday. J

Also, today was a big day!  I was given my first chicken.  Hahaha ( I knew it was only a matter of time.)

I was visiting Suni this afternoon when she told me she had a chicken for me.  I’m sure my eyes grew super big because I was really hoping she wasn’t giving me a chicken to kill, pluck, and cook.  But then she said that when she the chicken grows a little bigger she will lay eggs and I can sell them and make some money.   Haha I was relieved!  She also said she would hold onto it and keep it with the rest of her and Samuel’s chickens for now.

Well that’s all for now!  I can’t wait for groups to start coming down.  Just a couple more weeks! J

Buhbye for now…

Hello everyone!

I woke up to pouring rain early this morning crashing onto our zinc roof.  Luckily it stopped for a little bit so Carmen and I could get our fresh produce in town.  When I was driving to class in El Estrecho Abajo, it started to pour again.  And just as I was thinking how I really didn’t want it to be raining (because my car leaks everywhere), at that moment Chicha said, “ Mira, un arco iris!”  There was a huge rainbow to the right, so I slowed down the car and pulled over to take a look.  For the first time in my life I saw the beginning and end of a rainbow, with everything in between.  I really wanted to run outside and take a million photos, but it was pouring and at that point wasn’t too sure where my umbrella had disappeared to.  But it was a great way to start off my morning. 

The kids are off from school all week so expecting more kids, I made my lesson plans a little different.  We have been playing more games.  Yesterday, we played musical chairs and limbo.  The kids had a great time.  Today we did some relays races.  I had them blowing feathers across the floor and hitting balloons into the air; the kids couldn’t stop laughing.  They loved them.

Here are a few photos…

We are also going to play a game with the parachute, have a jump rope contest, play hot potato, and red light green light (which I turned into stop and go, because most of these kids have never seen a stop light before.)

Other great news, a year or so ago, Chris started a pig project down here.  He was given a donation, bought 2 pigs, and gave them to 2 families with the agreement of taking 2 piglets from the first litter and 1 from the second litter to give to other families.  The rest are theirs to either raise and sell for a good chunck of change, or eat, or just keep raising them.  He based the project off of The Heifer Project.  Most of the people around here know how to raise pigs and you can raise them for close to nothing here.  They feed their pigs food scraps, as well as whey or the runoff from all of the cheese factories.  This is a huge dairy area with a ton of cows (who I have to stop my car for daily), and therefore a ton of milk to make cheese with.  Those factories sell the whey to families for close to nothing.  Anyways, Carmen was one of the families and her pig gave birth to 7 piglets this weekend.  Here is a photo….

They are super cute!

Here is a photo of me with my hair braided… hahaha (although they are out now... the little elastics kept breaking and their hair says in braids, mine does not...)

Oh yeah and if you haven’t heard yet, I’m coming home to visit. J  I fly in super late April 28^th, and I fly back down here May 8^th /9^th.  I am super excited to see everybody!!! 

I hope everyone has a fantastic Easter!!! J

Adiós!

Oh yeah and p.s. my garden is doing fabulous!  I have a couple tiny melons starting to grow as well as a zucchini J  And today I was visiting with Nani, and I asked her how I can get a certain kind of flower that she had in her yard into mine, and she ran and got her machete and dug out some roots of a little branch.  She then continued to take clipping of other flowers that she had and told me what to do with them. J I’m super excited to have flowers growing all around the house too!!

Hello everyone!

Bill Benson, the director/ founder of “The Village” Mountain Mission Project, came down last week for a visit.  He had always wanted the mission to get involved with the children of the Dominican through one way or another.  He was thrilled to sit in on a couple of my classes.  He was almost as happy as the kids who were more than delighted to have him there.  J

I have a couple of class photos here…

 Pueblo Nuevo Class

 El Estrecho Abajo Class

And a couple of random photos of the class…

And this is Chicha (Carmen’s daughter who helps with one of the classes and who spent 2 hours this evening braiding my hair J ) and Michael (the 2 year old who Carmen took in) and me ofcourse…

And here is my twin for the day… J Isaura… she thought it was so funny that we were wearing the same color clothes!

I also had my first parent’s meeting.  I was super nervous, but both the meetings in each village went very well.  I just hope the parent’s understood my butchered Spanish.  Hahaha

To the daycare people, the kids come running into class singing and asking for the “tooty ta” song, which I have in Spanish.  They just love it! Haha (for non-daycare people, “Tooty Ta” is a song where you tack on a different motion each time you sing the little song, it starts with thumbs- up, and ends with thumbs up, elbows back, feet apart, knees together, bottoms up, tongue out, eyes shut, and turn around. It’s a great song!)

That’s all for now!

Buhbye!