Weekend Trips

Where I've been traveling:  I have been lucky enough to go on a variety of weekend adventures lately.  They made the month fly by.  I still cannot believe it's almost April.  Here's a little overview of my trips.

TRIP #1: Cabarete

Over Independence Day weekend (Feb 27th) I went to the beach with some teacher friends from SCS.  We stayed at a cheap hotel that had AC and a nice pool.  We were right in town, so we could easily walk to wherever we needed to go.  We found a new beach, Playa Encuentro, that was basically deserted.  We hung out there on Friday and Saturday during the weekend.

I had Flat Stanley, so we took him around and got lots of pictures.  My friend Carrie participated in an ice cream eating contest which was great to watch.  We ate really great breakfast at a place called Friends.  I had bacon and french toast the first morning, and I ate a nutella banana crepe the next day.

I read a lot, and we ate yummy dinners.  Carrie also brought along glow sticks, so of course we wore them to dinner each night  We got to watch some kite surfers, which is what Cabarete is known for.  It was a relaxing weekend.

TRIP #2: San Jose de las Matas

I met Casilda and her family through a mutual friend, Gail.  Gail works at New Hope.  Casilda invited me to spent the weekend with Gail and her family at their farm in the campo.  We walked around and saw lots of cows and chickens.  I got to meet Casilda and her husband's families.  I loved being surrounded by family for the weekend, even if it wasn't my own.  Here's a picture of Oscar's dad pushing me on the swing.

We also went to Aguas Calientes.  It was a freezing river, and one pool that was filled with aguas termales.  That pool was pretty warm, but it was packed.  Gail and I were the only gringas in sight.  This crazy old guy decided he wanted to talk to me.  He kept saying, "you likeees the Republica Dominicana?"  He was speaking Spanglish, and it was practically impossible to understand him.  He asked me where in New York I live (because that's the only place in the US where people live according to some Dominicans).  It gave us a good laugh and we kept quoting him the rest of the evening.

I got to try lots of new foods.  I tried batata asado (sweet potato kind of-bottom right picture), panicio (which I loved- yuca packed together, breaded and fried-top left picture), casave con mani (cardboard tasting dry flat bread), bollo (cornish blob stuck together which I also loved), cicarron, yuca, and lots of new fruits like tamarindo (top right picture), and guayaba (bottom left picture).  Here's a picture of some of the foods.

I met Casilda's neice, Jenny, who is 26.  It was really fun to talk to her and get to know her.  Hopefully I'll get to go back to Sajoma soon.  It was such a simple way of life, and I really loved slowing down and appreciating the little things.

TRIP #3: Jarbacoa

Michelle and I were going to go to the beach, but that plan fell through.  Instead we spent Saturday, March 14th at the waterfalls of Jarbacoa.  Akari and her three daughters also came with us.  The girls swam in the river (even though it was freezing!), and we ate a picnic lunch.  It started to pour down rain, so we ran back to the little hut by the car.  Michelle and I decided we still wanted to walk to the waterfall, even though it was raining.  Akari's youngest daughter came with us, too.

I felt like I was in Oregon.  Waterfalls, "cold" weather, rain.  But then I put a plastic bag over my head, and I felt semi Dominican.

It finally stopped raining when we walked back to the car from the waterfall.  On our way back to Santiago we stopped by the colmado and got morir soñando, which means to die dreaming.  It is an orange creamsicle drink that is SO GOOD.  It's one of my favorite things to drink in this country.

I really want to take the boys on a field trip to this waterfall.  Michelle suggested we could look at water velocity, cleanliness, the dam that provides the city with electricity, etc.  We could also compare it to several other rivers in the area and see which ones are healthier.

Wonder what other trips I'll adventure on.  I love the endless opportunities to discover new treasures in this country.  

March Madness

What we've been doing: I remember all throughout middle school, high school, and even college, people talking about March Madness.  I never really got into it, but I remember it being a big deal.  Now all of my students play basketball, so I thought it would be a good way to connect with their lives.  As I set up the basic part on the board, they kept asking me what I was doing.  Even Rosa wanted to know what I was up to.  This sign to cover it peeked their curiosity even more.

The second week in March, I turned on the Pump It Up song from Spacejam nice and loud on a Monday morning.  I called the boys and told them to come into the classroom.  They walked in with big eyes, wondering what crazy thing we were going to do.

We watched this video that's an overview about the tournament.  Then, as we ate brownies, we all filled out our brackets.  Everyone voted for the first round of "games"

We did a mini tournament with a paper ball to see who could score the most points.  There was also a mini photo shoot with everything basketball related from the day.  The best part?  We got to swear jerseys and sweat pants.  Score!  Can't wait to find out the top book from the year (so far!).

Con mucho amor.

Field Trip #5: Samana

Where we have been going:  We went on our fifth field trip of the year two weeks ago.  We started learning about Samana with a KWL chart, only in Spanish.  "Saben" "Quieren saber" y "Aprendieron"  The boys really just knew that it was a beach and that tourists traveled in the providence.  Look at the far right column at all they learned!  I should have had them add even more when they were done with the field trip.  When my family was there in December I found a book about the history of Samana that I figured would be perfect to use with the boys.

It was a challenging book.  I created a graphic organizer to help with vocabulary and questions about the text.  The boys read sections by themselves, and I also read to them.  One of the sections I copied and cut up onto poster paper.  They took turns write questions and responding to their classmates questions.  If I were to redo this lesson/unit, I would have practiced this strategy first in English.  It was challenging in Spanish because they struggle with spelling.  If I had a bigger class, the pages would be much fuller, I believe.

We left bright and early on Thursday morning.  Rosa and Joy came to get me at 4:30am.  We went with another family, the Salgado's.  They are a missionary family here in Santiago.  If you're interested in supporting them or learning more about them, visit their Facebook page.  I was really excited to expand and interact with more students.  Plus, they have two girls.  It was nice to have some more estrogen around for the day.  :)

We made the normally 4 hour drive in 2.5 hours.  There was a positive for waking up at the crack of dawn.  I organized the trip with Santi, the same guy we went on excursions with.  After meeting up with the rest of the people that would travel in our group, we headed for the harbor.

The whale watching came first in the day.  It was competitive, which really surprised me.  There can only be three boats around a whale at once.  Those boats can only be there for thirty minutes.  We were around a momma whale and her baby.  One time there was four boats around the whales, and the guides started yelling at each other that one boat had to leave.  We didn't get to see them jumping or anything, which was a bit of a disappointment.  But it was pretty incredibly to be so close to the big, majestic animals.

After the whale watching we went to Cayo Levantado, an island nearby.  We swam in the ocean there for an hour.  We explored the mangroves of Los Haitises and got to see birds and crabs in the water.

At lunch the kids did ziplining.  We ate at the same place that we ate with my family back in December.  This time, however, there was a buffet.  The yummy pasta filled my stomach.  The ziplining took too long, so we weren't able to go to both of the Taino caves, which is unfortunate.

We did get to go to the cave with all the drawings and paintings on the walls.  I noticed way more than I did the first time I went.  It was fun to see the same thing with new eyes this time.

The very end of the day was spent at Cafe del Mar swimming in the pool and resting.  I was finally able to relax.  I wanted the trip to go well, so I was a little stressed throughout the day.  But it was a successful day; we got to see some new things and hang out with some new friends.

We spent the night at a hotel right in the town of Samana.  I got to have a sleepover with the girls from the other family we went with, which was so awesome.  The next morning we were going to go to Playa Rincon, which we learned about, but it started raining.  So we got pan de coco and left.  It was another tiring, but successful field trip. :)

Here are links to the boy's blog posts about the field trip.

Andrew                  Isaac                 Joseph 

Teaching at the Haitian School

What we've been doing: A few months ago my friend Michelle and I were talking about teaching.  She works at the private school in Santiago.  She also helps out with a Haitian school run by her friend Yves.  Michelle suggested we work with that school.  I went with her one weekend to bring them food for lunch, and I got to hear about the history of the school and church.

It used to be a night club with cabanas along the outside for prostitutes.  It went out of business, and Yves decided to turn it into a church.  One of the church's first members?  A lady who used to dance there when it was a nightclub.  Talk about a redemption story.  I love how God can change people and places from something sad and horrible into people and a place of worship.  Yves began to have Bible studies with the Haitians that moved into the little cabanas, but he realized many of them did not know how to read.  The building turned into a school during the week.

Michelle and I were talking about how it would be a cool opportunity for the boys and I to go and read to the kids there in Spanish.  Most Haitian kids know a little French, a little Creole, a little English, and a little Spanish.  Most are not fluent in any of those languages.

I met with Yves, and he seemed to like the idea so we set a date in the beginning of March for the boys and I to go and read with the kids.

The boys and I went to the little bookstore in Nacional (a supermarket) here in Santiago.  The boys and I each picked out a simple picture book in Spanish to read with the kids.  Then we created flashcards with the word and an image we drew.  The cards were laminated and we practiced reading.  Each flashcard also had a motion to go with it to help the kids remember and learn the motion.

We prayed for this trip for the month before as we prepared for it.

TRIP #1:

When we got there Yves showed Rosa and the boys the church/school.  He explained the history and why he created it.  Then, we got in a circle with the older kids and practiced names while throwing a giant inflatable basketball.

The kids sat down and I taught the vocabulary for my book, Yo Tambien.  We did the actions.  They loved running and jumping while learning "correr" and "saltar."  I would sat the word and they would do the action.  Then, I read my book with the whole group.  When I said the word while reading the book, the kids would do the action.  At the end, we reviewed the vocabulary and I quizzed each kid, giving them a Spongebob sticker when they said the word correctly.  Once that was done, we divided up the larger group, and each boy read his book and did the vocabulary with a group of 6-8 kids.

Then the little ones came in and I read my book to them.  We divided them up into smaller groups like before.  The little ones were not as focused, but some of them don't regularly hear Spanish.  I was so proud of the boys.

Afterwards when we discussed what went well and what didn't, the boys mentioned how nervous they were.  They also mentioned how some of the kids were talking when they were trying to talk (which made me chuckle a bit).  The walls of the school are just partition walls, they do not go all the way to the ceiling.  You can hear everything going on in all the classes, which the boys said was a little distracting.  Overall, it was great first experience and it made us excited to continue working with the school.

TRIP#2

We started off with the older kids, just like the time before.  We stood in a circle and practiced names again.  Then I quizzed them and reviewed the vocabulary that we all learned from my book.  The boys read in small groups, and then again as a whole group.  Joseph and Rosa had the best idea to hand out the flashcards to different kids, so that when they heard their word that they would raise it high in the air.  They LOVED doing this.

After we were done with the books, we played "pulpo" or octopus.  It's a tag game.  Joseph was inside with the littles, which was precious.  Andrew, Isaac, and I were outside with the big ones.

We ended the day by passing out cookies to everyone.

At the end I gave the books and flashcards to the teachers.  Next time we are going to do a play with them.  Thank you to Rosa for the awesome idea.  I figured animals would be a good topic that most kids like, so I think we will try to do Noah's ark.  The little ones can be animals.  They could make animal masks for the performance of the play.  Prayers appreciated as we continue to work with these wonderful kids.

Con mucho amor.

When I am weak, HE is strong

*meant to post last Thursday*

What's been going on in life:  It was a long week.  An exhausting week.  But I was still able to see God's hand at work.  I was able to see His hand more because I desperately needed His help.

Last Sunday night I spent an hour talking to mom and dad about our latest fieldtrip, about getting me a visa to teach here, about trips, about life... I love talking to people from home, but it also can make me a little homesick.  On Monday guess what I finally got in the mail: my birthday package from Sydney!  It felt like I had a little piece of Oregon here with me in the DR.  Just what I needed.

Chandler sent me this sloth picture on Tuesday, and it brought a smile to my face.  Sloth pictures and videos are the key to cheering me up.  Only 114 days until Chandler and Sarah come visit me. (insert party hat emoji here)

Tuesday night I did my laundry, but I wasn't able to start it until I got home from teaching Amalie.  By the time I got my clothes hung up, it was dark.  In the morning they were still a little damp and I did not have time to take them down.  When I came home Wednesday afternoon, Amanda had taken them all down for me and folded them.  It was the best surprise to come home to.  It was just one little less thing I had to do and worry about.

Every Monday I go to the SCS Bible study.  We are learning about Gideon this semester, and I love the study we are doing.  It's by Priscilla, and it is all about God using our weaknesses.  Tuesday night I was feeling really exhausted, drained, and overwhelmed.  I texted those words to my mother.  Wednesday morning I decided to be good and get up early and read my Bible.  I opened to a day of the Bible study.  Guess what the first words on the page were...  I couldn't believe it.  The whole section was about us being overwhelmed and exhausted and how God uses those moments even more.  It was exactly what I needed to read.    

"Our weaknesses are the conduits through which we experience God's strength."  

Tomorrow I leave for the beach for the weekend (yay for Independence Day and no school Friday!).  I thought I was going to have to go to La Sirena to pull out money from the ATM.  I know going to the grocery store may seem like a little thing, but for me it means walking or getting a ride there.  It means having to wait in lines, and it means having to take a taxi cab back to my apartment.  Taxi rides can sometimes mean  spending 5 minutes in the car with a creepy stranger.  But this morning I looked in my desk, and I found just the right amount of money to cover my expenses for the weekend.  AKA I do not need to go to the store or ATM anymore.

This week I also finished reading God's Smuggler.  If you haven't read it, go buy it on Kindle or Amazon because it is one of my favorite books.  I am teaching it to the boys later this spring.  It is about Brother Andrew who smuggles copies of the Bible to communist countries.  It was such an incredibly convicting book.  There are and were people in this world who don't have access to a Bible, who can't afford a Bible, whose government doesn't permit the Bible to be read.  I have access to it whenever I want.  I have the ability to read it in English or Spanish.  I need to use that incredible privilege and not take it for granted.

from: here 

THANK YOU, JESUS!  I needed these little reminders of Your presence this week.