Hello to everyone reading my blog!

I wrote last night with no power by candle light, but the connection got lost and after I tried posting, what I wrote got lost.  So here we go again...

Tuesday was great!  Santiago is a big city about an hour away.  We had to stop in a mall so Chris could stop at a bank.  That was a little bit of a culture shock. haha  The school we went to go visit had a group there finishing up building a couple more rooms of the school.  They are adding rooms while having classes still.  It was a little crazy.  I sat and talked with Shelley, the woman who started the school about 8 years ago.  She also started with just a preschool.  It was very inspiring talking with her.  She gave me a handful of lesson plans and worksheets all in spanish.  I need to get to translating those.

Thursday morning I spent in El Estrecho Abajo, one of the villages where I will be teaching.  I walked around house to house and let all the families with 3 and 4 year olds know that the class is starting on Monday in their church.

Friday, Chris and I were both "out" for the day.  We ate something with fresh milk in it and as yummy as it was, our stomaches didn't enjoy it as much.

Saturday I spent the day with Suni, in Pueblo Nuevo.  We spent the morning going over what I have planned for Monday.  I taught her some songs, read a couple of books, and explained the project and the activity.  She loved the songs and stories.  She got a digital camera from who knows where, and she video taped the songs and the props I made for them.  She has a cord to hook the camera up to her tv and when there is power she said she was going to hook it up and practice.  She was then walking around all day singing them.  She is very excited about helping with the class.  We then spent the afternoon walking house to house telling them we are starting on Monday.

So as of now, the plan is I will be in El Estrecho Abajo from 8:30am- 10:30am for the first class, and then in Pueblo Nuevo from 2pm-4pm for the second class. I'll be teaching Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.  I'm keeping Wednesdays open to plan and prep in the morning, and hopefully help out at the Kindergarten class I have been working with in the afternoons. I'm a little nervous about how its going to go, but excited to start as well. 

So I'm going to be keeping busy, as usual... haha

To all reading,
I'd love to get a comment or 2 back... Let me know how you are doing and what you have been up to! :)

Well I need to get to finishing up the garden before the sun gets too hot.

Buhbye!

(Tim, 5 our of 6 of your eggs hatched!  I'm expecting a visit now! (:  haha ) 

Buenos Días!
Well it has been raining on and off all weekend, but I woke up to sunshine today :) 

As my plants are growing in their little cups, this weekend I started to clear a spot for my garden.  I have four blisters on my hands from it, haha and still more work to do on it.

Friday was Chris' birthday and he bought 2 pigs for a pig roast yesterday in Pueblo Nuevo.  It was a great day!  Lucky me got to watch pretty much the whole process... :/  haha

Here is a couple of photos of the ducklings... as promised...

Chris also has a bunch of chicks that just hatched too.  (Tim not your blue eggs yet, but any day now! (:  )

Also, I have gone for a few runs in the morning time... Here is a sunrise photo...

Tomorrow, Chris and I are going to Santiago to go see a school which was started with a similar idea to what we are doing now.  They are now 8 years in and have over 200 students! :) 

That's all for now!

Buhbye!

Hola!

 

Everything is wet wet wet.  I woke up yesterday morning to pouring rain on the zinc roof.  It rained for most of yesterday morning, and again on and off in the evening.  It must have rained more last night as well.  Some areas are not too muddy because the ground gets so super dry that it just soaks up the rain.  But other areas turn into this super sticky, dark brown mud.  When you walk through it it just cakes onto the bottom of your shoes and with each step you take, your foot gains another layer of the mud cake under your shoe.  I'm glad I have my boots! :)

 

I spent the morning yesterday with Suni.  She is such a sweet person!  I think she is going to help me with teaching the little kids.  When I asked her she was first a little nervous because she dropped out of school at 4th grade and doesn't know how to multiply.  I told her that with the 3 and 4 year olds that wouldn't be a problem.  I read some of my kids books with her so she could help me with the pronunciations.  We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Cookies Week, and Not A Box (all in spanish).  She got a kick out of all of them and told me that they don't have books like those in the Dominican.

Last Sunday, I planted about 15 different seeds to start a garden down here.  I started them in cups with holes on the bottom.  7 of the cups have already sprouted!  We are going to make some plant boxes for them.   I can't wait to start eating dinner out of my garden!!!

I have been at my rosetta stone and trying to talk with whoever I can, but I still get pretty frusterated with it.  I wish I could just plug my brain into the computer at night and wake up speaking spanish...  haha if only...

Alright that's all for now!
Adiós!

Oh yeah, and Chris' ducks just hatched nine little ducklings.  I do believe they might be the cutest little yellow fluff balls I have ever seen.  I'll try to post a picture of them soon!

Hello everyone!
Right now I am sitting on my front porch, because that is the only place the internet will connect.  I have a little usb that I plug into my computer and it goes through the phone service.  It's super slow, but not too too bad in the early morning and late at night.  Right in front of me is a cow grazing on the small lot next to our house, and all I hear is roosters, and some donimican music in the background, as well as some bikes zooming by out on the main road. 

I have been learning how to drive the bike.  We have a suzuki.  I'm still getting used to it but I'm not doing too bad.  I have practiced in the fields near our house, and I have driven it to Pueblo Nuevo a couple of times.  I seem to be the "side show" in town.  I'm not only the white girl in town, I'm now the white girl attempting to drive the bike. haha

This past week, I went to Pueblo Nuevo on Wed, Thur, and Friday to work/ help out in the kindergarten class.  The kids and Elba, their teacher, were happy to have me back.  When Elba gives them work to copy, they usually all crowd around me waiting for my help of talking them through it.  We have also sung "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" about 100 times.  They love it! haha

During their recess time, the older kids from the other classroom come over and want to learn english.  I made a poster for their class room with the numbers, alphabet, colors, shapes, and some animals in English.  They all ran and got their notebooks and started copying it down trying to say them.  :)

I have eaten lots and lots of rice and beans and lots of yucca.  Nani (who my group built a house for in '09) invited me for Dulce. So after school on Thursday, I sat with her and her 4 girls and we ate together.  It was yummy.  Everyone makes their dulce a little different here, but that is what they make when they invite guests to their house.

Alright, I need to go do my laundry, 
Adios!
:)

Well, I am back in the Dominican Republic.  It's been great seeing everyone and getting lots of hugs! :)

The weather has been about 85 and sunny, and cooling off at night to about 75.  There has also been a nice breeze!  I don't know about you, but this is pretty much my idea of fabulous weather!  (and nope, not missing the snow at all!!! :) )

I am excited to go see all the kids I worked with in October in the schools!

That's all for now! :)

"The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life.  It provides human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started."
 ~Norman Cousins