The end

Well dear readers (if anyone's out there...), I think it's that time. Time to say goodbye :(

My 2 years in the DR have finished. I'm moving on to my next big life experience (Phoenix, AZ here I cooome!). And I'm slowing down with this blogging thing. How can I find time to sit down and share my adventures when there's so many adventures out there to be had?! And so little time!

Thanks for your continued interest on my journeys abroad. It was a blast, but I'm glad to be home. I grew so much and learned so much, and I feel well prepared for the next big leap. So off I go! Hope to see you around! :)

Pa' Mangar Mi Visa

The song goes like this:

Querido Santo Domingo

O sea, querido Nueba Yol

Yo quiero una americana

(Pa' que?)

Pa' mangar mi visa!

Which translates to:

Dear Santo Domingo

In other words, dear New York

I want an American.

(Why?)

To get my visa!

And it was the song of the weekend!

At the end of the year the school organizes a little day trip for all the teachers at both the campuses in Santiago as well as Santo Domingo. This year they decided to take us to Rancho Don Rey, which is a camp the school owns (and runs during the summer) on the other side of the country in Sabana de la Mar. It's on the far far far east, and is pretty hard to get to because there's only one road and it pretty much loops around the whole east side, with the last stop being Sabana.

For those of us in Santiago we had the luck of getting transported there partially by boat! The funniest part was just seeing all the Dominican teachers screaming for glee as we glided over the waves. It was like a veritable roller coaster!

We arrived and it was tooootally like a birthday party. They actually hired an entertainer to lead us in super silly games and songs. In addition they had a pool, climbing wall, horses, and beer ;) Because it was like 4 1/2 hour drive I had decided to pay the extra just s

o I could stay the night, and it was definitely worth it. It's an absolutely beautiful ranch and it was so great to see all the teachers hanging out and acting like real people! :)

The next day we checked out this hotel called Caño Hondo and it is absolutely gorgeous. Made out of rocks, and built among tons of waterfalls. The owner had diverted a nearby river and built it into lots of little waterfalls and constructed the rooms right alongside them. Each room is named for the little waterfall it's located beside. It definitely has the best view of the whole area. Unfortunately we didn't have lots of time so we couldn't take a dip in the river amongst the waterfalls, but nevertheless it was definitely the most peaceful place I've seen in this country.

And then we had our 5 hr drive ahead of us with our race car driving chofer. I think he thought he was Mario Andretti. There was definitely no sleeping on that ride.

Then when dropping me off at my apartment after it was all over he offered me $10,000 to marry him and give him a visa. I told him I was waiting for love and he told me "I can fall in love with you, if that's what you want".

You know me folks, I told him "Sorry" but that I was going to hold out for the real deal...

A trip out east

Don't you just love 4 day weekends?!

So school ended on Wednesday with many blows into the handkerchief, and it truly was a sad occasion. To say goodbye and not know if that will be the last hug shared is quite a depressing thought. My students and I were all a mess of teary eyes, and it was so touching just to see them understand and feel so moved remembering all the times we've shared together. I had trouble finding the words to express just how much I love them. I've been blessed to have had the best 2nd grade classes ever to exist during my 2 years here!

Luckily I had an exciting weekend to look forward to, so I didn't have too much time to dwell in misery before it was off to Samana! Specifically we were headed to Las Terrenas, a cute little touristy town with a big French influence located right on the water. I went with my frie

nd Katie who borrowed her ex-bf's car for the trip so we wouldn't have to deal with public transportation (riding 26 to a van meant for 10? nooooo thank you). It was a great drive and the views are amazing

from the mountains you cross right before you get to Las Terrenas. There are just palm trees and rolling hills of green grass everywhere. Beautiful countryside.

Now we had 2 goals for this trip-we wanted to go see El Salto de Limón (a gigantic waterfall) and Los Haitises (a national park made up of mangrove forests and cool caves). And we accomplished them both! We were so impressed, because 1/2 of the time when you travel you just have to accept that not everything you want to do is going to become a reality. But we got lucky this time!

To get to El Salto de Limón we had to take a short horse ride with a guide through the forest, and that was probably the worst part for me. The horse I got stuck with was a jerk, plain and simple. He didn't seem to understand that I didn't enjoy riding with my legs scrapping along the barbed wire fence, or that galloping over logs at full speed without a helmet wa

s not my ideal way to go. On the way back I happily switched horses, and I got to ride on one named Mantequilla (Butter). And he was appropriately named-smooooth! Much better experience on the return trip.

So after a 45 minute horse ride we got to the top of the mountain and could see the waterfall gushing down below. We climbe

d down and were just stunned into silence by this waterfall. I've never seen anything like it. It's not really 1 waterfall but more like hundreds of tiny little ones because of all the rocks jutting out that split the river into more and more cascades. Most of the rocks are covered with green moss, so it gives a beautiful color to the whole waterfall.

After an easy horse ride back, the ranch feeds you a delicious (and BIG) Dominican lunch of rice, beans, salad, and chicken. Yum!

We were feeling pretty pumped after that and wanted to check out a nearby beach our guide book had recommended. We asked the cook how to get there and she just stared at us with her mouth open. "You want to go there?!? Just the two of you?!? But that's so dangerous!" She told us that we needed to take a guide to protect us because it's a beach just in the middle of

nowhere. Someone else had told us we needed a guide, but we assumed they were just looking for money and a job. This woman we trusted though, and she recommended her friend who came along with us. It was a little weird thinking back, because essentially we paid a man $6 to be our bodyguard for the afternoon while we bathed in the ocean. I feel like that's something P. Diddy does, not 2 nobodies from the States! But I'm glad we had him along because it literally was in the middle of NOTHING. Of course, that meant it was untouched by tourists and just gorgeous :D

Then the next day we set off early in the morning for Los Haitises. I've been told you can

walk in the park, but we were going mainly through the mangrove forests so it was more or less just a boat ride for us. The boat took us to some different teeny tiny beaches and a bunch of big caves. We got to see some cool Taino (the "Indian" natives to the island) drawings on the walls, though at times I doubted the authenticity of some of them...No placards around, and the guide couldn't really remember much about their discovery. Hmmm...tourist trap?!

But all in all it was just a fantastic trip. Hostel on the beach, some killer shopping deals, plus a couple close calls...

And just when I thought this country couldn't get any more fantastic!

One of those moments

They have a new plaza in Santiago and it is sweeeeet. I remember 2 years ago when it was just pieces of wood and concrete sticking out of the ground, and now finally we have the finished product.

Plaza Bella Terra!

It is beautiful and has a Tony Roma's and a Papa John's. And a Creamoooos yogurt place, wh

ich I don't think they have in the States, but that's just an awesome name to say anyways. Creamoooos

It is also super special about this new plaza is the movie theater. Now Santiago already has 3 movie theaters, so a new movie theater in itself isn't anything exciting. But WAIT. This movie theater has stadium seating! Can you imagine?! That's a pretty big deal here.

And it gets better. Not only does it have stadium seating, but they also built a special VIP section to the theater. That mean

s for RD350 (or the cost of a regular movie in the States) you can go to a special side theater where all the chairs are LA-Z-BOYS. Seriously, the foot rest flips up and everything. It is ridiculous. A waiter comes to take your order and then hunts down whatever you want from the various snack bars in the lobby. It is so comfortable-you could just curl up in your chair and go to sleep! But you don't, because you paid $10.

I went this past Saturday to go see the movie "Remember Me" starring Robert Pattinson (think: Twilight blood-sucking vampire) and VIP sounded just too good to pass up. We didn't know what the movie was about, but the super helpful woman selling tickets said, "I think it's about love. Or something". It's this horribly tragically sad love story, and the most intense heart-wrenching moments are the last 2 minutes. Usually after a movie is over the theater stays dark as everyone recollects themselves/dries their eyes/processes what they think and the credits roll on. Well not here. Just as our sobs reach a crescendo and we're desperately hunting for tissues to blow our nose, BOOM-movie over lights on. They didn't even show the credits! I looked over at my friend and couldn't help but laugh. She looked like a red-eyed deer caught in the headlights. It was such an abrupt crash back to reality, and neither of us were prepared for it.

Before I would've been super annoyed and frustrated, but maybe it just goes to show how much I've come to love the DR. How can I bear to leave those moments behind when I go in June?!

The Race is On!

May 16th is it for political parties. On that Sunday everyone (or 60% of everyone) will head to the polls here to cast their vote for the next diputado and síndico. Let me tell you, they do not do politics the same way here as in the States...

First thing is that not everyone can read, so posting billboards and handing out flyers outlining each candidates' platform ain't gonna work. Instead what they rely on is colors, because everyone (more or less...) can distinguish those. So all the candidates make sure to prominently display their party's political colors wherever they go. Red, purple, white, blue. And there may be a green out there.

The most common and popular self-promotion technique: face signs. These are literally just ENORMOUS pictures of the candidates face. Their tactic for getting someone's vote consists in draping a sign of their smiling face over the side of an entire building. With their party's color as the background of course. It's kind of creepy really. Walking down the street and seeing all of these Godzilla size people staring down at you, smiling eerily and reminding you to vote! :D

The current man in charge is Jose Enrique Sued, and now that elections are coming up there's a whole bunch of (inconvenient) construction projects going on as he tries to make it look like he's actually been doing his job for the past 6 years and improving Santiago. So imagine 6 years of work crammed into the course of 6 months...trying to make up for lost time?? He's always asking for your "pardon" as you try to figure out how to walk around wet cement without also walking into oncoming traffic. Helping to make Santiago more beautiful or less pedestrian friendly? There's the real question!

My favorite part of all though is by far the parades. Oh the parades! Every weekend on Saturdays and Sundays each political party will have parades in the cities to promote their candidates. However, their version of a "parade" is a big long traffic jam of people wearing the same color. And making sure every car is blasting reggaeton or merengue as loud as their stereo system will let them. That is it. There is no discussion of platforms, no chanting of any slogans. Just music and colors. Sometimes people just join onto the parade because there is a chance that their palms will be greased with some dinero if they shake hands with an important person in the party while cheering their hearts out.

And to continue the celebrations throughout the week they just have trucks drive around and blare music from the extra extra large speakers in the truck bed that are covered with (you guessed it!) a big face poster.

Only one more week left of pure ridiculousness...

PICOOOOO DUARTE

Now that I have sufficiently recovered, I'm ready to talk.

Semana Santa is Spring Break down here, for which we had an entire week off of school at the beginning of April. A whole week! Just imagine!

A lot of the other American teachers were going home, but I decided to aprovecharme of my (little) remaining time here and use it to do something I'd been wanting to do for a long time.

CLIMB PICO DUARTE

The highest peak in all of the Caribbean islands. 10, 164 ft. In 4 days? Totally possible.

I went with a company from Santiago called Camping Tours, which put together a group of about 15 people for our little trip. We were a mix of everything-Americans, Dominicans, old, young. Ready!

We met on Thursday morning nice and early (4:30am to be exact!) and we were told repeatedly "American time!". We were told we would be left if we were 5 minutes late. We were told to be there or be square.

Psh. Never trust anything a Dominican company says :P Time is always negotiable.

We were going to be hiking out of the mountain town of Jarabacoa, about 2 hours away. We got there, had a quick breakfast, and off we went!

The first hour was a piece of cake. Eeeeeassssyyyy. We were all thinking, "No sweat, right?!". Then we rounded a bend and looked up. Straight up. Oh geez, here come the hills.

Before long all small talk and pleasant chit chatter had died away. All you could hear was people struggling to breathe. Sweat pouring off our faces, legs burning with fire, water being guzzled like there would be no tomorrow.

After an exhausting 10 hours of hiking, we reached camp. Our guides encouraged us to not be antisocial but to stay up and hang out. And then they told us we were going to be waking up the following day at 4am. That didn't make it sound like the ideal night to be social. We ate our asopao (a meat stew), drank our ginger tea, and then passed out on the cold cement floor of the cabins.

4am couldn't have come fast enough. I was FREEZING. And cement isn't as comfortable as you might like to believe.

Day 2: Our wake-up call was a rousing chorus of "VAMONOSSSSSSSS!!!!" (Let's go!) screamed inside the cabins. What an alarm clock. This was the day we climbed the part appropriately named "Regret". I have already blocked those excruciating 4 hours out of my brain.

But...

We finally arrived! We made it! Victory! :D

After all of that hard work we had reached the top and could see mountains and valleys and green in every direction we looked. What a sight! We were above the clouds so it was pretty chilly, but the feeling of accomplishment warmed us up. Duarte's bust and a tattered Dominican flag were at the top for photo ops, and after drinking in all that we could of the beauty down below, it was time to descend.

Ironically enough, that was the worst part. The mountains were so steep and you really had to watch your footing. There were a bunch of loose rocks and more than a couple times I had a near heart attack thinking I was about to roll down the mountain. It also hadn't rained in a while so the rivers were dry, and there was no extra water to drink. That meant rationing for 13 hours! We had so much walking to do that we had no time to stop for lunch. We arrived at our camp site at around 6:30, and THEN had lunch. The only glitch in the whole trip was this day, because one woman with us was a very slow walker and she was taking a really long time to reach camp. She refused to get on a mule to go down, because they made her nervous. She ended up going down the mountain at 9:00pm in total darkness with just a flashlight. Eek!

Day 3: REST! Our bodies finally had a chance to recuperate. We slept late, went for a quick dip in the ice cold river, sunbathed on the rocks, played cards, and ate good Dominican food. Just what I needed. The best part by far was waking up and seeing an entire pig roasting over the fire. I have no idea where it came from. Were we carrying it with us? Did we find it? It slow cooked all day and made for a filling dinner.

Day 4: Our return. A measly 7 hours walking. Not a problem after those other days. A lot of soreness, but I did it. I felt so proud of myself. I climbed up and down the mountain without a mule, all by myself, for 4 days. I didn't know my body could do it!

That was definitely one of the most physically demanding things I've done in my life, but I don't regret it at all. It was totally worth it. It made me appreciate this beautiful country even more. Gorgeous beaches AND breathtaking (in more ways than one) mountains?!

How lucky I am ;)

What will one day drive me crazy

There is a serious problem with change in this country. Change meaning small bills and coins.

I went to the post office Saturday to mail a letter to the United States. The woman told me it would cost 30 pesos. Perfect! I had 50 pesos, so that shouldn't have been too hard for her to find change for. Riiiiight??

I put the 50 down on the counter and she gawks at me. "But there is no change!"

Then it was my turn to gawk.

"No change? NO change? You mean to tell me that in this ENTIRE POST OFFICE BUILDING nobody has 20 pesos??"

That's when she became the most annoying broken record I've ever encountered. It was a stand-off.

"There's no change."

"Are you sure?"

"There's no change."

"There has to be SOME."

"There's no change."

ARGH!

There are some things about this country I will never be able to get used to.

But my happy conclusion? A stranger walking by had 20 pesos ;)

They call me Sexton

Due to the awesome skills I showcased in the "Beginners" dance class (it's true, I have the diploma to prove it!), I progressed from being a peon in "Principiantes" and stepped it up a notch to...INTERMEDIATE.

Moving on up, what what!

It's really hard to get a spot in a class because the school is so popular and so many people want in. The teacher has been thinking about expanding, but to do so she needs more hands on deck teaching. Our class became the guinea pig class, as she experimented with a teaching assistant (who quickly became head teacher as she found "other things" to do).

His name is Jesus.

I was being taught how to seductively swing my salsa hips by a man named Jesus.

Isn't that just rich???

And he calls me Sexton. Because apparently "Lesa" is too hard to learn :P

I was worried that with him having no experience, it would be a waste of a class. There was definitely a teaching curve for him, since he was new at it all, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. Since he's waaaay younger than the other woman, he had a pretty good hand on what moves would be cool for us to learn.

Fast forward to our graduation

Our class was chosen to perform a salsa dance for the graduation, choreographed by Jesus himself. We were the STARS of the evening. The other classes performed a merengue/son and a bachata, both choreographed by the other teacher. *Yawn* But OURS! OURS was a hot upbeat showy piece with some dips and shimmies. And combined with our purple and white outfits, we were looking gooood

I tell you, I'm really starting to like this Latin dancing stuff

I think I've got one more class left to completely refine my skills, and then- watch out world!

Could the DR have more beautiful beaches??

It seems every corner you turn there's another. I have yet to find an ugly one. (Mind you, this is hardly a complaint. I just don't know how I'll have time to discover them all!)

Next on the list-Playa Ensenada

So I had been hearing amazing things about this beach but it's totally out of the way of basically everything. No buses, no guaguas, no motoconchos. Nada. The only way to get there is through some sort of private transportation.

BUT I had the great suerte of being invited to

tag along with a Study Abroad group of Americans currently enrolled in Santiago's finest private university, PUCMM. They have

various excursions planned for them during their semester here, and I hopped on board this little day trip they were taking. The idea was to leave bright and early in the morning, at 8am, so we could have a full day. Knowing Dominican punctuality, we were lucky to leave by 8:30. After a nice 2 1/2 hour drive, we rolled up to some of the bluest water I have ever seen.

It was FANTASTIC. The water was crystal clear and no matter how far you waded, it only came up to your hips at best. They had all sorts of food shacks along the beach, not necessarily the kind that would pass a health inspection in the States, but those nonetheless with the best and freshest food. You can actually see them catch it while you're laying out!

Those were some of the biggest lobsters, crabs, and fish I have ever seen.

The perfect day. Relaxing and reading on the beach. Water gently lapping at your to

es. Cotorra con batatas fritas y tostones. And getting a back sunburn like a roasted lobster

Could this life be any harder? ;)

Fun Fact

Down here diesel is the gasoline of choice because it's cheaper.

Did you know that you can put diesel into your car without having to turn it off?

That fun fact made me a little bit nervous, especially when someone in the car thought it would be funny to yell "BOOM!" and scare the living daylights out of me.

I'll take my regular, please

Let's go to China!

So last week we had the big "to do" known as CULTURAL FAIR! Cultural Fair entails weeks and weeks of stress, and culminates in a beauuuuutiful presentation for parents and judges and TV news crews all about the topic of your choosing.

The different topics this year were China, Spain, US Presidents, Baseball, Carnaval, Buddhism/Hinduism/Islam, Dominican/US Relations, Peru, Tainos, US music, and horses.

(Yeah, some of those I didn't quite understand either.)

We have been studying China in Social Studies, so Cultural Fair was our chance to show off all our knowledge. Every k

id had lines to memorize, we learned some songs, and we made enough posters to cover the entire classroom. It's really quite a lot of work. The classroom is completely rearranged for these 2 days-all the books are put away, the desks are taken out, and the kids are supposed to touch nothing so everything stays looking perfect for the cameras.

The end result:

Then they sit in the class for 4 hours just waiting for visitors to teach China to. Touching nothing? With no desks? Or books? You can imagine how much hair I pulled out that day. That should've made the Guinness Book for the longest game of Simon Says

And of course, after 1 day of repeating the same thing over and over, instead of getting really good at it, they just got realllly tired :(

It was really neat to see all the other classes, because it's not just the kids who go all out for this-it's the parents! The class that chose Peru literally transformed the room into a part of South America. There was a range of mountains waist-high traversing the middle, a little "restaurant" with different types of Peruvian dishes, and native plants covering every square inch left.

As for the group that did Carnaval?? WOW! It felt like a month of Mardi Gras crammed into one 15x20ft space. I almost had a seizure from the sheer amount of sparkles thrown everywhere

To finish up we had a quiz today to make sure they had been paying attention for the last 3 months. Grading their quizzes made me realize how good I've gotten at deciphering little kid spelling!

List one Chinese invention. omwvelas (umbrellas)

What continent is China on? echa (Asia)

What do they eat their food with? tostips/shop pot/jupstics (chopsticks)

In China they study material/mojor/mayols (martial) arts.

And now that it's over, I'm not sure that any of my students EVER want to hear the word China mentioned again. ZAI JIAN

Loma Quita Espuela

Today we went on a hike. It was not a success.

During Semana Santa a friend and I have signed up with a company called Camping Tours to climb Pico Duarte, the highest mountain in the Caribbean. It will be a grueling 5-day hike, 3 days up and 2 days down. It's supposed to be tough. We've chosen the option "medio mulo" which means that a mule will accompany us. Thus if it ever gets to the point where we think, "I can't go any further! Just leave me here!" our mule will become our knight in shining armor and continue on with us clinging to their backs.

(I mentioned our choice of going "medio mulo" to a friend who's already been, and he gave me his lovely 2 cents saying, "Well you know if your mule falls down they'll have to shoot 'im." Mr. Mule, please don't fall!)

So with only 4 weeks to go before this grueling adventure that awaits us, we decided to practice on a littler hill just to start getting ready. I called ahead of time and since guides are required to accompany visitors inside the park, I made a reservation for the morning. We left Santiago on a completely filled guagua, which is when I realized it can be a bad thing to be skinny. The bus driver pointed at me and said, "Hey you skinny! Here!" which essentially meant I was crammed into the back on a non-existent seat. No one scooted over to make room for me because I guess skinny people are supposed to fit anywhere. I was not comfortable.

We arrived at the park and hopped out of the back of a pick-up truck that had transported us the final leg (you get what you pay for). We were a little late so we start off much later than I had wanted to. But that's just the way things go here :P They mentioned it usually took 5-7 hrs to get to the clouds at the top (the hike was called "Sendero de las Nubes") but we

thought, "2km? Psh we can do it faster for sure".

NO

That was ridiculous. After 2 hrs we had only gone .5 km and had to stop at the rest house. It was almost straight up, and all of us were gasping for breath the whole way. And we're all in decent shape! It was cloudy, which helped with the heat, and so beautiful looking out over the valley. But after 2hrs we stopped and never started again. We were so exhausted and when we reached the bottom absolutely scarfed down the rice, chicken, salad lunch they offered us.

This bodes well for Pico Duarte, right??

PS HAPPY DOMINICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY! :D

Why I love Bilingual Education

In Spanish molestar=to bother

With the lovely Spanglish that my kids like to use, they say things like "But teacher he is molesting me!"

I am working VERY hard to make sure they realize their error in that sentence before they go to the States and try that out!

In Spanish contestar=answer

When I was tutoring one of my students from last year she tried calling a friend to ask for the homework. Hanging up in frustration she told me, "But teacher he no contests!"

In Spanish brujula=compass

I was showing my kids pictures of Chinese inventions and one thing they invented was the compass. I asked someone to raise their hand and tell me what I was showing them a picture of. Someone said brujula so I said "Nope, that's not English". Then a smartie pants raised his hand and said "I know I know! It's a brujer."

It's easy to see the language differences when you hear things like "borrow me a pencil please", "explain me", and "how say you..."

And it makes me laugh all the time ;)

As for the older kids in the school, they're really into saying things are "gay", but they just sound ridiculous because they're not using that slang right. They'll tell my roommate "But teacher that movie is for gays!"

One time she was going to put on some music as a reward for finishing early and one kid raised his hand and said, "Teacher, put on music but not gay music, black people music."

Hey, I never said it was a country concerned about being PC!

I REALLY love 5 day weekends

Yes, the title says it all!

Last weekend we had not 1, not 2, but 3 extra days off! Thursday and Monday were both national holidays, and the school being smart decided to give us Friday off as well, knowing that everyone would be taking it off anyways :)

I had never visited the southern part of the island before because it's just so far away, so I decided to take advantage of this

opportunity and hit the road! To get literally anywhere in the South from Santiago, you have to first go to the capital (2 1/2 hrs) and then taken another bus (4 hrs) until you hit any semblance of civilization.

Which really isn't saying much because the South is mainly a ghost town. It's so much poorer, dustier, sparser, rural, and undeveloped than the rest of the country. Their biggest city in the South, Barahona, doesn't even have a real supermarket. It's also where all the b

ateyes are located, which are where (mainly) Haitian sugar workers live.

Our final destination was Bahoruco, where we were planning on roughing it for a few nights with a Peace Corps Volunteer who kindly offered us his...shack. It was so interesting and eye-opening to see and live a different style of life than I've ever seen before here (even if it was only for a few days). His house had 3 rooms, no sink, no hot water, infrequent bursts of electricity, 2 candles, and plenty of household mice pets. Roof made out of aluminum siding, doors shut with bike locks. A far cry from my Santiago mansion :P

We crammed as much as possible into our time there. We took a day trip to "nearby" Lago Enriquillo, the largest salt water lake and lowest point in the Caribbean. One o

f the few saltwater lakes with crocodiles. When we got there we saw hordes of iguanas just milling about. We were able to get a boat to take us out to the island in the middle of the lake where there is all sorts of desert wildlife- cactus, scorpions, wild donkeys, etc. However this "nearby" lake that was supposed to be only 2 hours away ended up being 4 1/2. What a fun (and bumpy!) bus ride...

Our PCV friend works with the men who mine larimar (a blue stone found only in the DR) and make it into beautiful jewelry. We were able to get a behind the scenes look and actually make our own jewelry! We got to experience the process from start to finish! Choosing our stone, designing a shape, watching them cut it, shaving it down and buffing it up. Now I can truly say I have a one of a kind necklace :)

(A PS: When we went to Lago Enriquillo we didn't realize that we were literally less than 1 hour from the Haitian border. We didn't see much activity, but we did see a rescue ambulance from Puerto Rico driving through one of the small towns we were passing through. )

Yet another trip to reinforce my opinion that this country is beauuuuutifuuuuul! :D

New beginnings

The school year is off!

And surprisingly it's been pretty easy getting back into the swing of things. I think it's because I love my kids a little more each day.

I organized a Reading Day to get the kids excited about books, so they were all allowed to bring in pillows and blankets and stuffed animals and their favorite books (in English!). We spread out all over the floor, took off our shoes, and just enjoyed reading. It made me want to cry hearing some of my lower level students yelling "Now read this one! Read this one!". Mind you these are the students that kick and scream and throw tantrums every time I get out a book for us to discuss. And then all of a sudden they can't get enough of it!

One boy asked me to lay down beside him and read with him, and after I had read maybe 2 pages he stopped me and said, "Teacher teacher, wait wait. After you finish the book, can we do this?". He then snuggled closer, put his head on my chest and his arms around me in a big hug.

(I told him of course we could)

It's those kind of warm stories that make me excited all over again that I'm a teacher :)

El terremoto

It would be impossible to not know this by now, what with all the media coverage blowing up the television right now, but there was an earthquake in Haiti last Tuesday.

GEOGRAPHY LESSON: Haiti and the Dominican Republic are on the same island!

With an earthquake of that magnitude, it was definitely felt over here. I was outside at the time goofing around with one of the neighborhood kids and all of a sudden her parents started screaming at her from across the street and motioning for her to run, so naturally I freaked out. I had no idea what was going on, nothing they were saying was intelligible. Luckily one of the fathers outside calmed down enough to explain to me that it was an earthquake. He asked, "Don't you feel it?" but by that time I was shaking so bad from not knowing what was going on that I couldn't really tell the difference between my knocking knees and the rocking ground.

A few minutes later I saw my roommates leaving the apartment building with boxer shorts hastily thrown on, big huge eyes, and computer cords trailing (at least they saved the important stuff?!). We were all a little shaken up, if only because we had never lived through an earthquake before and none of us knew the protocol-when to go back into the building, where was safe, etc etc. And then the news finally started arriving about what had really happened.

Port au Prince, Haiti- absolutely destroyed.

Nothing here was damaged in the DR, but it's a completely different story for our brothers and sisters on the other side of the island. It's just terrible. And then to think over 1 week later and they're still experiencing aftershocks. A humanitarian disaster, and relief can't come quick enough.

This is from an email I sent out after it all happened:

From my point of view in the Dominican Republic, I am already encouraged by the efforts I have seen taking place. Relations between here and Haiti have historically been strained for years upon years. Haitians face tough racist attitudes from Dominicans but all of a sudden they are no longer seeing each other along such strict racial lines. These are not Dominicans and Haitians, but brothers and sisters. I came to school today and there were piles and piles of dry and canned goods. Sometimes it's hard to think that the little amount you give will make a difference. You may think it doesn't seem like a lot, but to that one person who gets to eat dinner, it does make a difference.

Give, donate, pray, and hope. Haiti needs us. Let us unite for them and show them that together, we will get through this.

Not again!

I got mugged for the second time today. Which makes the 3rd time all my stuff has been stolen. I am just not having much luck in this country! I'm starting to think that the DR doesn't like me...

But I am safe, gracias a Dios :)

The Wrap Up

So obviously I didn't post at all during the month of December. As I'm sure you can imagine things were hectic around school, preparing for our Christmas show, making Christmas cards, watching Christmas movies...and of course preparing myself for my imminent return home! :)

Our school put on a Christmas musical called "Jingle in our Hearts" and my kids practiced their hearts out fo

r weeks leading up to the big day. They had one song to sing ("Shine") and it required a

very specific, tailor-made costume. The boys were dressed as toy soldiers and the girls as little dolls. Half of the girls actually left school early the day of the show to go to the salon and get their hair did! But it all paid off because they looked GORGEOUS! And th

e boys looked so handsome too!

Especially the ones whose hats were too big for their heads (or heads were too small for their hats?). And when they performed I actually teared up I was so proud of them!

Then afterwards we went backstage and had a confetti fight. I guess sometimes you just need some type of stress release?!

The next big thing of the month was my DANCE RECITAL! This was my time to show off my moves and prove once and for all that there is NO gringa in me (at least when it comes to the dance floor). Our teacher never once explained exactly how this was going to

work-there was no talk of spacing, of rehearsals, of routines, of music. I was pretty nervous because this was not shaping up to be like any other dance recital I had ever had in the past. I brought along 2 of my roommates for moral support, wore my best dance outfit, and mentally prepared myself for...something?? But what that something was I couldn't be sure. As things always do, it turned out fine. Wait, that's a lie. It turned out GREAT! It wasn't so much a recital as a chance to showcase all the dance moves that we'd learned over the 2 months together. It was free for all so the guys just came up and asked you to dance-no designated partners or anything. And there were some REALLY good dancers in my class! So yes, I busted a move :) And my diploma proves I can do it legally! ;)

After Angelitos de Navidad (Secret Santa), artisan fair Christmas shopping (for myse-I mean others!), and an office party once again catered by Brugal (rum), it was back home for a real Christmas with sweaters, numb toes, and all.

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays as well! Happy 2010!