and i've only just begun...

...taking a bite out of the dr!

I tell you there is no end to the gorgeousness around me. The other weekend I went to Jarabacoa, a mountain town, as part of a Young Life retreat. We didn't spend but a day there, and we didn't see much because it was supposed to be a day for planning, but the tiny little bit we did explore was awesome! We climbed to a waterfall and even its small size couldn't diminish how neat it was to see something like that hidden away and untouched by civilization. We walked about 30 minutes, (most of the time during which I was busy wondering if we were actually on a path...) and then lo and behold the trees parted and aha!
A waterfall!

















The other week we had a verrry nice week because right smack dab in the middle of it was a holiday! Thank goodness for being a Catholic country! I have no idea what the occasion was, but I did not question it. Being the kind of person who thinks she can cram waaay more into a day than is technically feasible, I went up to the beach town of Cabarete for the day. The weather held off just long enough for our trip, which was great because I was told a storm was a'brewin... All of the restaurants are right on the sand, there are palm trees everywhere, quaint shops line the 1 main street they have, and the sea breeze blows everywhere. It was just the relaxing kind of day I needed right in the middle of another chaotic disorganized week at school. At least, relaxing when I managed to forget that a hotel manager had been stabbed just down the street the night before...

And on the way there I rode my first motoconcho! I just hopped on the back and I was whisked off into the setting sun. Okay not really. I couldn't quite figure out how to climb on with my bookbag, and once on I was constantly wondering if I would be considered "back heavy", and how tightly that meant I would have to squeeze the strange man in front of me to compensate for gravity. Other than that it was awesome! Until cars passed by within 2 inches of my person and I was reminded once more of how likely mortality was without a helmet and proper safety equipment. So when you come down and visit, I'll take you on one too so you can learn to appreciate your life a little more ;)
















Enough traveling for you?
Not quite. Just one more.
This past weekend I went on a day trip to a city called Rio San Juan, which is just a tiny beachside town but absolutely breathtaking. I felt like I was in a postcard. It was the pristine sand, clear blue skies, and leafy palm trees that you see on the cover of "World's Most Beautiful Places" calendars. W-o-w. We unfortunately didn't get to spend too much time going swimming or anything, so this is the first place on my list of "must come back". I traveled there with a Dominican I met and it was neat to see the inside perspective on family life there. We had lunch at her grandmother's house and afterwards watched the men make cheese outside on the back table. I would call myself lucky to have seen the whole process, except having been obliged to buy some and having seen just how many flies took a little nap on that cheese...I don't know that I would call myself lucky anymore. My stomach will let you know.


And in conclusion- come on down! The DR's great! :D

Que lo que?

My sincerest apologies for not having written sooner. Our Internet took a hiatus for a while because of all the rain from the storms, but we are back on now!

I'll be starting my 4th week of teaching tomorrow, and it's hard to believe that almost a month has gone by under the new persona of "Teacher Lesa". I am really starting to warm up to this job, and I think the kids are really starting to warm up to me. True, the discipline problems are still very much present but it's a problem that all the American teachers are facing. When the kids don't know the language that well it's really tempting to just turn to their neighbor and start yakking away...We're trying every trick in the book (and some that aren't), but nothing seems to be working! Some of the more creative and unconventional techniques involved videotaping the children and threatening to show their parents the tape of their behavior during the school day, taking away a kids desk and making him write his notes standing up since he wasn't able to sit properly, and making a kid stand with his nose in the corner until the lesson was over because he couldn't stop talking. Now none of those were tried out by me, but the desperate search for a well-behaved class has lent itself to some solutions by others that are...unique to say the least.

The school is still missing books for almost all of my kids, so I have pretty much decided to teach what I think they should learn this year! The freedom is liberating and also very daunting, since I'm pretty much building my curriculum from scratch. But we're doing some really cool things-this week is edible maps and next week we're making paper mache globes! And last week we made our own community out of shoe boxes! (Though that idea quickly descended into chaos once the paint was brought out and the kids decided a more fun activity was just to smear paint on the walls. Sorry janitors...) When things get tough and I want to throw in the towel, I just think about my kids and I can't imagine leaving them. They are already so dear to me and I'll get to know them even better as time goes on. They stretch my patience each day, but the look on their faces once they finally understand something is so incredibly rewarding. So even though I've discovered teachers couldn't be paid enough for all the work and time and effort and emotional investment they make in their jobs, there are plenty of priceless moments that make up for it all.

As far as outside the school goes, I am beginning to learn more and more about things here. I've started taking Spanish lessons and I get private tutoring 4 hours every week, so hopefully my life here will become a little less awkward before too long! (Yesterday's encounter: The woman at the cafe asked me if I wanted something to drink with the food she had just served me and I responded "Sure, tomatoes would be fine"). Everyone here goes weekly to the salon to do their hair and nails, and that's a cultural more that I've picked up on and whole-heartedly embraced!
I got to see Aventura (a great Bachata group from the DR) live in concert, and they were fantastic. I got to visit Los Montones, a "town" (if you can even call it that) in the mountains, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I've never seen so many green gently rolling hills in my life. The only thing I could say to my driver during the car ride back was "Wow do you see that?!?". I think he started getting annoyed after 1 hour of that (and he had one more to go!).
I've started going to Young Life and will be helping out as a leader with that. This upcoming weekend we'll be going to Jarabacoa, another mountain town, for a day retreat and I'm excited to get to know everyone better. This week I'm also hoping to start volunteering at a home for physically disabled children, so we'll see how that goes and if they can use me.

I'm going to stop myself before I go on for pages upon pages with details of all the cool things I'm doing and beautiful places I'm seeing. But I promise to be more regular from here on out :)

I miss you all! Please let me know how you're doing; I would love to hear from you.

Pics: Los Montones. Gorgeous, right??