First Weekend | rachael

Life is happily rolling along; roosters crow, dogs bark, the rain falls and our own Justin Scott Bieber continues to entertain us. The kids continue to engage and seek out opportunities for interaction.

The Friday scavenger hunt was a party despite the downpour. Some of the chaps (Brian, Don, Olivia and Sarah) went to explore the village on their own and went under a tree when the downpour started. They were hollered at through a window by a family and were invited into their home. There was a 16 year old girl who spoke very good English so between Sarah’s Spanish and her English they had quite the conversation. And this is why we love Dominican culture: it is warm and inviting. People open their homes, give you their fans, serve you cold water and share their really comfortable couches (at least this family did that for the chaps).

The rest of the crew also had their own adventures: some found a store clerk who knew a lot of English and who helped them find a bunch of stuff on their list, others followed two twelve year old boys down a network of streets to find a mysterious basketball court, and still others found some locals to complete a 6 man pyramid. Now they all have a taste of their surroundings.

That evening, Billy, Guido’s son, came and hung out with us for a bit. He is the life of the party! He, Zach, Jordan and Brian serenaded the group again, the highlight being the group rendition of (the whole crowd was singing) Jason Mraz’ “I’m Yours”.

Max also stopped by for about a half an hour. He is currently hosting a team at the other base in Sabana Grande do Boya (1.5 hours away) but we were at least able to touch base on some things, and that was good. He did inform me that Kina continues to make progress. It is “slow”, but that is to be expected when recuperating from a brain injury. I’ll be honest, Kina is missed. The crew doesn’t notice, but Erica and I do!

On Saturday morning we had breakfast at 8. As we sat down at the table someone mentioned hearing the roosters at night to which many others replied, “you heard roosters last night? Weird. I didn’t hear anything”. We are quickly adjusting to our surroundings.

The general rule is that nothing “groupy” happens while people are doing dishes (which usually takes 45 minutes). Well, that rule was broken this morning when Nasson (sp?) came to me at 8:45 to ask a ‘favour’: he runs English classes for about 20 students on Saturday mornings. This morning his teacher did not show up but he also had only 10 students so he asked if the Canadian kids would teach. Clearly I said yes and then, “when?” Nasson: “In 10 minutes?” “Of course!” I replied. I gathered the kids together (other than the dish washers) and told them they had ten minutes to get ready for the day and teach. We quickly grouped them up: 2 or 3 Canadians with a Dominican student (some Dominican students skipped out so we only had 7 Dominicans). The first ten minutes was bound to be awkward so I shepherded the chaperones away so the kids could work through things on their own, without an extra audience. When we came back 10 minutes later we were super-impressed: they were interacting, engaging, acting things out, pointing to things with expressive faces and, overall, rockin’ out the joint. They ended up merging everyone together for a class game of chicos and chicas: what a party!

After tutoring there was time to shoot hoops, throw a disc or play catch using some donated baseball gloves. After lunch the kids organized all of the donations we brought down: what a blessing that was to see all in one room! We now have suitcases full of specialized items that we can distribute and donate throughout our experience here. Thank you all for your support in that way!

One more thing: last night Jea was stoked! She was walking up the stairs when a local Spanish man said to her, in English, “you’re Korean aren’t you?” and promptly started speaking to her in Korean. She was floored and honoured and touched. They spoke for a bit and every time this Dominican said something in Korean, Jea covered her mouth and her eyes widened! (This man is Victor who works for EduDeo. He is a Dominican Compassion kid. He has quite the story!)

On Saturday afternoon there was a chunk of free time. I did not go out with any of the groups but the story that resonated most with me was that of a group that was able to watch some high-end baseball tryouts: Jea, Bethani, Scott, Thomas, Arie, Dylan...and I feel like there was one more. Sorry to that one. I think it’s Zach. Let’s go with it: Zach joined the baseball party. Well they went on a mission to find a baseball diamond so they asked a local or two and then found what the diamond they were looking for. BUT it wasn’t an empty diamond: there were high end tryouts happening. Apparently it was quite the sight, quite the baseball. There were catchers who would just rifle it across the plate right to the second baseman with ridiculous accuracy. Jea fell in love with the best baseball player on the field; he was the driving force behind a triple play and then at this next at bat he hit a triple. He was, apparently, absolutely incredible. And so Jea was happy. Then she found out he was only 13! They got a hardball signed by this 13 year old phenom (and others). Another group (Erin, Sierra, Alex, Megan, Don, Sarah and Olivia) thought that they were lost so they went to some local police for some help and ended up getting a ride back to the base...a literal 20 second drive straight down a road :D In the Dominican: when there is time, there is adventure.

On Saturday Erica and I did a dry run of our Sunday route: you know, to make sure the busses still went in the same direction, the Church was still standing, the mall was still open and the Internet cafe still worked. While at the mall we were chilling in the food court close to the arcade (Funtastico). In the arcade were two Dance Dance Revolution superstars. I've never seen anything like it. They were literally dripping with sweat after moving their feet at a furious pace for a good hour. Wow. Who needs Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod when you've got DDR. I attached a video just for fun.

On Saturday night we had circle time and the resounding theme was “that was still today?” “all of that happened today?” “That was this morning?” The Dominican has a lovely way of having you feel like you aren’t doing anything when really you do a bajillion different things in one day. A pretty common conversation at this point is about how much we do in one 7am-11pm day. When asked why there is such a difference here they are quick to point out that they are not on technology/watching t.v. But they are also quick to say that they don’t miss the t.v.‘s and phones either. Being here makes you realize how much time we spend with our technology back home. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily but we sure do “have” a lot more time here without it...as I tell you this via my computer :D

Sunday morning we were up for a 7:30 breakfast so we could watch the Olympic gold medal game at 8. It was quite a challenge finding a livestream because we are out of the CBC and NBC geographical regions and I could not purchase a VPN that serviced the DR. Thankfully Brian, after much persistence, was able to find one for us. The game experience was very Dominican: there were large stretches that we missed (including the first two goals) as that is when the feed would cut out. As that happened we’d refresh and continue watching what we could. As the play would pause Jordan, Arie and Thomas would predict what the play/player would be/do next. Unfortunately we never knew if they were right :D as when we regained our signal we went to real time again. This freezing also happened at the end of the game; with 30 or so seconds left the feed cut out and by the time we refreshed it so we could see that the game was over and we could officially cheer: the athletes were in their handshake lineup. Having said that it was super fun to be able to see any of it live because four years ago, for the Vancouver Olympics (when we were at the other base), the best I could do was go to an Internet cafe and watch the scores slowly refresh. Back then when the magical score refreshed showing that we had won I ran to the base to tell the kids. We are happy for our Dominican experiences and the kids realize it was a blessing to be able to see any of it at all.

Watching the game.

Canada for the Gold!
After the gold medal game we took some public transit to church. The kids were told on Saturday night that Erica and I would lead them this week but going forward students would be paired up and would each talk to a bus driver and lead the way either to or from church on public transit. They were quite attentive on the journey! We encountered many of the “typical” responses “we’re all going on that one?” Yep - in the Dominican there is always room for one more. Always.

We made it to IBI (Iglesia [church] Bautista [Baptist] Internacional). Yes, Bautista means Baptist. Jose Bautista forever.

IBI is the “fancy” church we go to on Sunday mornings. It is a long service which is a stretch for many students, but they manage. The music is great and it is a window into upper-class Dominican life. New this year: the church had both English and Spanish words up on the screen so it was great in terms of language learning!
After church we walked a half hour or so to the mall, the kids ordered their food on their own, they ate together and then they went on their merry way to the Internet cafe that was...closed...for the first time in five years it was closed on a Sunday afternoon. Erica and I saw that it was open on Saturday but didn't think to ask the employees, "Hey, for the last four years you've been open every Sunday afternoon that we've been here. Will you be open tomorrow?" I talked to a security guard and he said it was open from Monday to Saturday. I told him it was open last year on a Sunday and he looked at me and smiled. AND the wifi at the mall also wasn’t working so, as we sat and enjoyed our YogenFruz we felt bad for parents back home who were likely sitting at their computers waiting...but we had no way to notify them that we were Internetless.
On the way home I decided the kids should have a bonus after their Internet disappointment so we stopped at the Blue Mall. This is the posh-est mall I have ever been in; we looked like bums in there even though many of us were still in our church clothes. There were two guards with guns outside Louis Vuitton. Posh. The kids found free wifi and were happily Instagramming, Facebooking and Skyping home. Brian and I sat outside the mall on the front steps happily enjoying the sea-breeze and the ever-changing activity.


Erica and I were again in charge of leading the public transit escapade. I talked to the driver and told him where we needed to go. He, like a typical Dominican, nodded and smiled. I am used to this reaction because they want our business and I am used to them nodding and smiling even though they don’t actually know where we need to get off. The trick with this adventure: I know where to go as long as the driver stays on the main road. But, on the advice of another passenger, he decided to venture off the main road. I stood up and told the kids NOT to pay attention to where we were going. Although Erica and I didn’t recognize the neighbourhood specifically we knew where we were with respect to the main road and we knew whre home was. Finally, after some aggressiveness on my part, the driver understood where our destination was and promptly dropped us off. The kids then asked, “so, next Sunday you and Erica are going to lead us again, right? So we know where to go?” “Nope. You now know what NOT to do. Don’t get off the main road. You just need to go straight.” But have no fear, if we were to take a bit of a detour again I or Erica or Sarah would promptly step in!

Last night we tried to get the troops in bed on time. We were somewhat successful. Today they were at the breakfast table for 7 and were sent away on rotation. Staying at the shop to clean up/organize the shop and work on the upstairs apartments were: Don, Brian, Zach, Scott, Greg, Sophia, Erin, Sam and Bethani. At Esperanza to teach: Sarah, Monica, Thomas, Sierra and Emily. At Nueva Creacion to teach and volunteer at Compassion (hopefully :D): Erica, Dylan, Jordan, Megan and Rebecca. At the school in Haina: Olivia, Nicole, Alex, Arie and Jea.

Students will be signing up to write their own blog posts shortly. I will likely continue to write. This post will also be added to the blog (same address as last year).