It is Thursday. This morning started very, “Dominican”. Let me tell you how.
We had breakfast at 7:30 (this is later in years past. We’ll get this cart going in full swing soon). We start meals off by sitting and waiting: we wait to ensure everyone is there and then we wait until someone stands up to pray, after which we begin eating. We seemed to wait ‘extra’ long for someone to start the meal off with prayer but, thankfully, Christine eventually stepped up.
This morning’s breakfast was a meal of porridge, fresh papaya and pineapple, and bread with one’s choice of PB, jam and/or Nutella. To drink we had the options of Rica orange juice, water and fresh Dominican coffee with raw sugar. Max sat at the head of the table and was flanked by our group of 23. Sarah (a chaperone) and I were closest to Max and discussed our day and various other Dominican intricacies. As per usual (for anyone on the trip before this is usual, it is still new to this group), I stood up and read my spreadsheet. 12 students were slated to go to 3 different schools, 4 students were going to begin work at a construction site and one student was sick in bed. Jesse was assigned to the construction site and the other four chaperones chose where to go. Chelsea and Olivia volunteered for dishes. After having 20 minutes to get ready, Max got in the driver’s seat and I told Harry to sit shot-gun. In the rest of the van was Lauren, Sarah, Nadine, Eric, Danielle, Kyanna, Jessica, Juliana, Brittney and Ashley. I decided to hop in for the ride.
We began our drive – something I love in the DR. Sarah similarly commented when we turned onto the main road. Driving is great because, I think, there is always so much to see. Here are some memorable things: the lack of indicators. You watch other vehicles and sense where they want to go. Afterall, with Dominican driving you only pay attention to what’s in front of you so you don’t waste much time by looking behind. Speedbumps: Max hit a big one and apologized to the rest of us who struck our heads on the ceiling. We then decided that Harry (in shotgun) was in charge of alerting Max to speedbumps (Max made some sort of comment like “the blind leading the blind” but we chose to ignore that). Harry did a really good job…until we ran over the biggest one yet that, because it was so large, he assumed Max saw. Max was clearly paying attention to many other important things but, don’t worry, our heads and necks are all fine. In addition to these things there are also a plethora of colours, Spanish words, an abundance of people, animals and unique construction to pay attention to. My personal favourite is the exposure of just plain life facts. Disclaimer – the next part may cause queasiness. One thing we see from the van is that on the right hand side of the road there are little shacks/shops, butcher shops to be precise. They are live, real butcher shops. As in there are goats tied to posts of the shops and other goats hanging from the roofs of the shops. Although it grosses many of us out, it is an example of a direct food story with fewer steps in the journey.
We arrived at the first school, Nueva Creacion, and the students unloaded their water and food coolers and headed to the door. Max talked with the principal of the school and the students were promptly loaded back into the van: there was a school trip today. Okay, no biggie. We headed to the next school, San Pablo, and this time Max and I told the students to stay in the van as we scoped out the situation. Although the principal was excited at the idea of us teaching there she sadly told us the same thing: we couldn’t teach because they also had a school trip (but they were excited for us to come tomorrow). Off we went to our third school, Esperanza. The four students got out and Max and I talked to the principal. We were a little concerned because yesterday, our first day at the school this year, the principal (who is new) was hesitant to have us teach. Max and I wanted to make sure she was okay with us being there so we checked in with her. Not only was she okay with us being there, she invited the other 4 students that could not teach elsewhere to join her at her school! We left 8 students and 3 chaps at Esperanza.
Max and I headed to the van so we could go back to the base and pick up the other half of the students. As we tried to start the van, there was nothing, not a noise at all. The van was dead: there was no electricity. After trying for a bit to start it, Max lifted up the driver’s seat and jimmy-rigged something and got the vehicle to start.
Of the other students, 4 of them were supposed to go start our construction site (Petch, Olivia, Megan and Christine) and 4 were to teach, however, they were supposed to go to a school that we already knew we couldn’t teach at today. As we were driving I suggested Max take the leftover teaching group (Tim, Laura, Maddy and Chelsea) to Renacer – a school we haven’t taught at since 2011 or so. A fabulous idea that was! The principal was excited to host these teachers. When Max asked if we could come back again tomorrow he was met with a resounding ‘Yes!”. Then he asked, “how many teachers can we bring?” to which she replied, “20!”.
As I was writing this blog after lunch Max all of a sudden came in with the Renacer group. They had already been picked up and have been given the challenge of creating their own adventure this afternoon. They have Brian as a chaperone so that shouldn’t be difficult!
After lunch Max and I headed to the local barrio in search of SIM cards and cell phone minutes. We brought his passport because he has always needed a passport to get a phone number here. First we tried to get Max minutes for his phone. We went to a store that had a sign that said you could buy minutes there but someone in the store directed us to a place down the road: we were directed to someone’s front gate. The guy that took us there hollered something and a lady emerged from a back room. The gate was opened, we walked through a bit of an open area and then we found ourselves almost in her living room. Soon there were two other elderly ladies who came out to greet us as well as a young teenage boy. She went back into her living room and came out with an electronic payment machine. Max gave her his telephone number and soon he had his minutes and we were off to a cell phone shop down the road to get SIM cards for my two phones. When I say ‘shop’ I really mean “store the size of a closet”. There was a guy at the front counter (let’s be honest, the whole thing was the front counter) and another mysterious man working in the back. The guy helping us would call out to Orlando, the mystery man in the back, every once in a while and only a hand would appear above the half door: sometimes this hand gave us a SIM card, sometimes it took the phone and worked on it and sometimes it seemed to be waiting for nothing. Somehow after about 20 minutes and $25 CDN we had two SIM cards and minutes on each phone.
Students have taught, done some work around the base and began work at our construction site. We’ve painted the outside of the dorm (Eric’s height and Juliana’s lack of fear of heights was a great benefit here) and did various little things around the base. Everyone has taught and been exposed to the Dominican Christian education system. While teaching/at the schools, Tim was punched in the face by a young student, Eric and Nadine absolutely rocked it with very little children, Christine found a younger girl who was great at volleyball, Eric and Harry played volleyball and had their opponents scared when they went up for a hit (“No! Blancos!”), Kyanna is constantly expected to know Spanish as she fits in as a Dominican and Megan and others taught people their same age. Some of us discovered (or were given) Spanish names. This will make interaction with Dominicans easier for our students and will help Dominicans actually remember some of our names. In a classroom Olivia introduced herself as Olivia and a girl responded, “Sophia?” Olivia politely agreed so that is her Dominican Spanish name. Megan introduced herself and the student’s response was, “Lucy?” That works, too.
Work at the construction site has begun as well. At this site we are going to finish building a house for Magaly, one of the ladies who cooks for us. Magaly has faithfully served the Christian Reformed Church Dominican head office (in fact she celebrated her 30 year anniversary on March 1st so we bought two cakes and celebrated with her!).
Max has known Magaly for a long time and she has quietly served in the background (that’s a lie, she isn’t quiet: she is a bubbly, fun personality, but she is quiet in the sense that she doesn’t/hasn’t asked for things). Max’ desire was to bless her with a house that she could own and stop paying rent. Last year I took a team down on March break (which includes 4 of our current chaperones) and we were able to begin this process: we dug the foundation and poured the footings. Since then 6 courses of block have been laid and now we are here this year to finish the house. On the first day of working here Jesse went with Johnny, Olivia, Megan and Christine. They, with the free help from some locals, hauled 550 blocks to the jobsite. The next day Danielle (Spanish name: Daniela), Jessica, Laura (Dora), Lauren (Rosa), Nadine (Dina), Chelsea (Becca), Maddy and Tim (Luca) headed to the construction site. Tim helped ChiChi (a faithful construction co-worker of ours) mix concrete and mortar. Tim also was needed to go into ‘town’ often to get stuff as he was the only guy in the group (other than locals, Max and Brian). Nadine, Laura, Jessica, Lauren, Chelsea, Maddy and Danielle spent time between cutting rebar, making rebar columns and assisting the block layers by hauling buckets of mortar or concrete and handing them blocks. We made some great progress! The hope is that all blocks are laid and columns are poured by Tuesday.
We have added a new element to the program this year - helping the cooks prepare food. Ashley, a chap, has been quite excited about this rotation and has taken the lead on it. They go in to the kitchen mid-afternoon and help the cooks with any and everything. On the first day Ashley learned how to make our beloved fried chicken while Olivia and Megan took care of cooking the beans and rice.
All in all, we are well. We’ve had one sick student so far but other than that spirits, attitudes and energy levels are good. Students seem to be enjoying Max time as they rotate sitting in the front of the van with him on drives and Laura sat with him for over two hours after dinner one night this week. In down time the slack line, Dutch Blitz, Wizard and Pump seem to be go-to’s. We’ve done some colouring which has resulted in ‘art’ on the walls. We have created a quote wall and a calendar of our trip. Students are becoming absorbed in the routine and have adapted to changed plans and waiting well. We continue to eat like it’s going to be our last meal but are protecting ourselves quite well against the sun for it is fierce here. Week one of our adventure is almost complete and it has been a good one.
We had breakfast at 7:30 (this is later in years past. We’ll get this cart going in full swing soon). We start meals off by sitting and waiting: we wait to ensure everyone is there and then we wait until someone stands up to pray, after which we begin eating. We seemed to wait ‘extra’ long for someone to start the meal off with prayer but, thankfully, Christine eventually stepped up.
This morning’s breakfast was a meal of porridge, fresh papaya and pineapple, and bread with one’s choice of PB, jam and/or Nutella. To drink we had the options of Rica orange juice, water and fresh Dominican coffee with raw sugar. Max sat at the head of the table and was flanked by our group of 23. Sarah (a chaperone) and I were closest to Max and discussed our day and various other Dominican intricacies. As per usual (for anyone on the trip before this is usual, it is still new to this group), I stood up and read my spreadsheet. 12 students were slated to go to 3 different schools, 4 students were going to begin work at a construction site and one student was sick in bed. Jesse was assigned to the construction site and the other four chaperones chose where to go. Chelsea and Olivia volunteered for dishes. After having 20 minutes to get ready, Max got in the driver’s seat and I told Harry to sit shot-gun. In the rest of the van was Lauren, Sarah, Nadine, Eric, Danielle, Kyanna, Jessica, Juliana, Brittney and Ashley. I decided to hop in for the ride.
We began our drive – something I love in the DR. Sarah similarly commented when we turned onto the main road. Driving is great because, I think, there is always so much to see. Here are some memorable things: the lack of indicators. You watch other vehicles and sense where they want to go. Afterall, with Dominican driving you only pay attention to what’s in front of you so you don’t waste much time by looking behind. Speedbumps: Max hit a big one and apologized to the rest of us who struck our heads on the ceiling. We then decided that Harry (in shotgun) was in charge of alerting Max to speedbumps (Max made some sort of comment like “the blind leading the blind” but we chose to ignore that). Harry did a really good job…until we ran over the biggest one yet that, because it was so large, he assumed Max saw. Max was clearly paying attention to many other important things but, don’t worry, our heads and necks are all fine. In addition to these things there are also a plethora of colours, Spanish words, an abundance of people, animals and unique construction to pay attention to. My personal favourite is the exposure of just plain life facts. Disclaimer – the next part may cause queasiness. One thing we see from the van is that on the right hand side of the road there are little shacks/shops, butcher shops to be precise. They are live, real butcher shops. As in there are goats tied to posts of the shops and other goats hanging from the roofs of the shops. Although it grosses many of us out, it is an example of a direct food story with fewer steps in the journey.
We arrived at the first school, Nueva Creacion, and the students unloaded their water and food coolers and headed to the door. Max talked with the principal of the school and the students were promptly loaded back into the van: there was a school trip today. Okay, no biggie. We headed to the next school, San Pablo, and this time Max and I told the students to stay in the van as we scoped out the situation. Although the principal was excited at the idea of us teaching there she sadly told us the same thing: we couldn’t teach because they also had a school trip (but they were excited for us to come tomorrow). Off we went to our third school, Esperanza. The four students got out and Max and I talked to the principal. We were a little concerned because yesterday, our first day at the school this year, the principal (who is new) was hesitant to have us teach. Max and I wanted to make sure she was okay with us being there so we checked in with her. Not only was she okay with us being there, she invited the other 4 students that could not teach elsewhere to join her at her school! We left 8 students and 3 chaps at Esperanza.
Max and I headed to the van so we could go back to the base and pick up the other half of the students. As we tried to start the van, there was nothing, not a noise at all. The van was dead: there was no electricity. After trying for a bit to start it, Max lifted up the driver’s seat and jimmy-rigged something and got the vehicle to start.
Of the other students, 4 of them were supposed to go start our construction site (Petch, Olivia, Megan and Christine) and 4 were to teach, however, they were supposed to go to a school that we already knew we couldn’t teach at today. As we were driving I suggested Max take the leftover teaching group (Tim, Laura, Maddy and Chelsea) to Renacer – a school we haven’t taught at since 2011 or so. A fabulous idea that was! The principal was excited to host these teachers. When Max asked if we could come back again tomorrow he was met with a resounding ‘Yes!”. Then he asked, “how many teachers can we bring?” to which she replied, “20!”.
As I was writing this blog after lunch Max all of a sudden came in with the Renacer group. They had already been picked up and have been given the challenge of creating their own adventure this afternoon. They have Brian as a chaperone so that shouldn’t be difficult!
After lunch Max and I headed to the local barrio in search of SIM cards and cell phone minutes. We brought his passport because he has always needed a passport to get a phone number here. First we tried to get Max minutes for his phone. We went to a store that had a sign that said you could buy minutes there but someone in the store directed us to a place down the road: we were directed to someone’s front gate. The guy that took us there hollered something and a lady emerged from a back room. The gate was opened, we walked through a bit of an open area and then we found ourselves almost in her living room. Soon there were two other elderly ladies who came out to greet us as well as a young teenage boy. She went back into her living room and came out with an electronic payment machine. Max gave her his telephone number and soon he had his minutes and we were off to a cell phone shop down the road to get SIM cards for my two phones. When I say ‘shop’ I really mean “store the size of a closet”. There was a guy at the front counter (let’s be honest, the whole thing was the front counter) and another mysterious man working in the back. The guy helping us would call out to Orlando, the mystery man in the back, every once in a while and only a hand would appear above the half door: sometimes this hand gave us a SIM card, sometimes it took the phone and worked on it and sometimes it seemed to be waiting for nothing. Somehow after about 20 minutes and $25 CDN we had two SIM cards and minutes on each phone.
Students have taught, done some work around the base and began work at our construction site. We’ve painted the outside of the dorm (Eric’s height and Juliana’s lack of fear of heights was a great benefit here) and did various little things around the base. Everyone has taught and been exposed to the Dominican Christian education system. While teaching/at the schools, Tim was punched in the face by a young student, Eric and Nadine absolutely rocked it with very little children, Christine found a younger girl who was great at volleyball, Eric and Harry played volleyball and had their opponents scared when they went up for a hit (“No! Blancos!”), Kyanna is constantly expected to know Spanish as she fits in as a Dominican and Megan and others taught people their same age. Some of us discovered (or were given) Spanish names. This will make interaction with Dominicans easier for our students and will help Dominicans actually remember some of our names. In a classroom Olivia introduced herself as Olivia and a girl responded, “Sophia?” Olivia politely agreed so that is her Dominican Spanish name. Megan introduced herself and the student’s response was, “Lucy?” That works, too.
Work at the construction site has begun as well. At this site we are going to finish building a house for Magaly, one of the ladies who cooks for us. Magaly has faithfully served the Christian Reformed Church Dominican head office (in fact she celebrated her 30 year anniversary on March 1st so we bought two cakes and celebrated with her!).
 |
| Magaly and Maria |
 |
| Magaly's house before |
 |
| Magaly's house before |
 |
| Magaly's house after |
 |
| Magaly's house after |
OMG I can see you travelling up and down the streets peddling your wares. "Teachers here, we've got teachers here, who needs some teachers!". Also love that the term "jimmy rig" is universal for "get it done:. Halarious. Sounds like you all had a busy week of building cooking and teaching, but also sounds like if was rewarding. Thanks for doing what you do out there you are all making a difference. Looking forward to reading more. xoxo Donna
ReplyDelete