Well I will start off by saying HAPPY EASTER!!

The month of March was quite a busy one, starting off with my alma mater coming down.  A group of students from Cazenovia College, along with students from La Sal were here on their spring break.  They worked  in Pueblo Nuevo on a new house for Pavel, Sujer, and their baby Paula.  They also worked on a house in Novillero for Kenya, Leo, and their 3 kids.  This house was finished by the group that followed.  It was great having all the groups down here on their spring break!

After the groups, Bill came down with a couple of board members to start staking out where buildings will be going on out new property.  Also, while they were here they checked out the couple of vans Chris had been looking at and…

WE BOUGHT ONE!!!  Here are a couple of photos…

I have been practicing driving it and will be picking up the kids in it tomorrow!!! J

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to my fundraising efforts for this new vehicle for the school!

(The Toyota also had a nice fix up,  THANKS SO MUCH JOHN!!!)

On a side note, we now have out mail set up and running smoothly.  My mom has begun sending down kids clothes that had been donated by families at Madison Learning Center.  I had brought a suitcase of clothes which I sold at a parents meeting in the school.  I divided the last box of clothes between 3 students in my class who I knew needed them the most. We still have a ton more clothes to get down here.  My mom is sending it box by box when she can.  Here is a photo of Isaura showing off her new blouse.

I received the most interesting gift last week from a boy in my class.  As I was picking up the students one morning for school, José came running out to the car with something in his hands.  He ran right up to me with a pigeon in one hand and a bottle top of crushed corn in the other hand.  With a huge grin on his face, he looked up at me and told me this pigeon he caught was for me.  I looked up at his mother and with an apologetic look on her face said, “ He really wanted to give it to you!”  Hahahaha  I obviously thanked them both while thinking in my head, what in the world am I going to do with a pigeon.  He climbed into the car with the bird still in his hands.  Here’s a photo.

Luckily Chris is taking the pigeon to his property. 

I hope everyone has a fabulous Easter!  I wish I was there to celebrate with everyone!  It’s days like this that are a little more difficult being so far away!

We have been working on assessments of the kids in school.  I wish I had done them when they first started.  I know how much they have progressed and it is so very rewarding to see and be a part of!  We have been giving Suni many more responsibilities in the school and she is thriving!  It has also been extremely rewarding watching her grow in confidence when working with the kids.  There are some photos in the post below of this.

Well, after Odil learned how to sew a little pillow for her doll, she went ahead and sewed 3 more.  Haha When I asked her where the blankets were to go with the pillows, she responded with a “ you didn’t teach me that yet?”  Haven’t done that yet, but we did build her a doll house as well.  I had her and her sister and brother help me build it and them I let them go to town to build a box/bed for their new puppy. Today I am going to bring over paint for Odil's doll house.  She wants it to be pink.  A girl after my own heart! J

I have started the seeds for my veggie garden, and made the plant boxes so they hopefully won’t drown again.  The soil here is so fertile here that you can take a branch off of a bush and plant it, and I will usually grow.  It’s amazing!  Sandra loves to garden and has lots of plants and flowers.  She got me started with a collection of my own.  They are beautiful!  They are all planted in containers.  I hope they all grow well.  We’ll see just how green my thumb is.

This month is Carnival.  It is not so big out here in the campos but in the cities it is Huge!  Last weekend, for Chris’ birthday, we went to Puerta Plata and experienced Carnival first hand.  They had closed off a huge section of the street by the beach and there were beer tents all over.  There was a main stage area where the costume/dance contest was held.  Groups of Dominicans dressed up in elaborate costumes and one at a time went up on stage for a minute or two.  Some had little skit type dances, and some just jumped around.  There were street venders walking around selling masks.  Jamie bought one with spikes, and we both bought some with feathers.  Boys walked around with a ball on a string and hit the people walking by.  There were tons of Dominicans and tons of tourists.  The energy was amazing.  It was a great day! I took a ton of photos of this.  I'll post some of them later after I go through them.

This morning we went kayaking.  We went to a spot where supposedly there are a group of manatees living.  The boys that took us out said that they are always in this cove area.  Today unfortunately we saw no manatees.  Oh well… maybe next time.  It was still a beautiful kayak trip!  Chris took some photos.  I’ll try to get a few to put up.

Before we went out on the kayaks, while walking around the beach, I found a beached starfish.  I threw it back into the water.  J

I found another when we got back but it was dried up.  I took that one home with me! J

Here are some photos...

Suni, Anthony, y Romer used every block for their castle.

Maicol

Suni working with Isaura and Jose.

Emilio

Everybody LOVED the doll house I made! :)

Eimy and July playing ball.

Well after a couple of months at home, I am back in the Dominican.  I can’t say my time at home was very relaxing, but I can say it was productive.  In addition to working part time here and there, I fundraised, fundraised, fundraised.  I succeeded in raising the funds for a new vehicle.

For those of you who are unaware of the vehicle I drive here and there, village to village, picking up kids, dropping them off, driving to the city of Imbert to get groceries for the school, and occasionally when I have time (which isn’t often) to the beach….

It is a very run down station wagon from the 80’s.  There are holes in the floor, 2 of the 4 windows don’t close, one of the back doors doesn’t open, while when unlocked the other back door flies open while driving down the road (since I have been back, the front passenger door does this as well.).  I put water in the radiator every other day and have to disconnect the battery every night if I want the car to start in the morning.  The seal is broken on the front windshield, therefore when it rains, I get wet. (I just put silicone on this, don’t know if it worked yet. I haven’t driven in the rain since.)  There is no power steering; I have also become a pro at changing tires.  I pick up 7 children on my first run, drop them off at the school with Jamie, I then drive out to pick up the breakfast and continue to pick up our local helper and 4 more kids. This vehicle is not safe for me and not safe for the children.  But we are a small mission and so we have had to just use what we have. 

Anyways, due to lots of generous donors and one very very very generous family, we are shopping for a new vehicle for our “school bus”.  Thanks to everyone who donated!!!  I’ll let you know when we are up and running with a safe reliable vehicle! J

I spent my first couple of days cleaning the house, reorganizing my things, and of course visiting families.  I received lots of hugs!!! Early last week, Jamie and I went house to house of our students in the pre-school letting everyone know we were back and starting right up again.  The parents and kids were all super excited!  One of the boys ran to put on his shoes and grab his backpack.  He was very disappointed when we told him he had to wait just a couple more days.

Our first day of school went almost too well.  The kids all listened well, shared the toys, participated in circle time, and listened to the stories.  It was totally not expected but a great surprise!  Our second day went pretty well also.  The kids showed their excitement a little more by being a bit more wound up.  Haha  But it was a great start to this semester.

I have been working on a doll house for the school.  I built and painted it before I came home.  I made some furniture for the little dolls I brought back with me. ( Thanks Susan and Alex!) I’ll have photos up soon of it!

Sandra’s girls, Diana 11, and Odil 9 were over visiting and admiring the doll house.  This led to a lesson in sewing little pillows for their dolls.  Next lesson, blankets!

I am also going to try again on a vegetable garden.  I bought wood to make some boxes to raise the plants up in hopes of them not drowning and becoming mush again.  Both Sandra and Suni want to try to grow veggies too.  It’s a good thing I brought down a bunch of seeds! J

That’s all for now!

New Year’s resolution… I’m going to try to make more time to keep up this blog!  Sorry to all that were reading this regularly.  Here’s to the New Year!

ADIOS!