Monday, July 26, 2010
what day is it?
Thursday we got put in a random taxi and were sent to a little school in Hato del Yaque, where we were put into a class and taught an impromtu geography lesson. After we went outside and played "I love my neighbor" along with some other games that the children taught us.
Thursday night we went with a friend and staff member to play dominos with some of his friends and then met his family and cute little dog.
Friday we had a most productive day. There is a basketball court in a little neighborhood called Fracatan (spelling?) that a potential politician promised to "fix up" before he was elected, but he ended up losing and left the court in disarray, covered in rocks, a telephone pole, glass, you name it. Accion has an outreach program in Fracatan and uses the court for activities with the community, however no one has been able to use the court since the construction was abandoned. Long story short, us Americans (and a Scot) decided to clean the court with some shovels and brooms. It was the most laborous thing we´ve done so far, and felt amazing to have accomplished something tangible. The children of the neighborhood even came to help us out, taking shovels from our hands and giving us a break. There must have been 20 of the little ones running around helping in various ways, trowing rocks off the court, picking up glass, etc.
Even before the court was completely finished the kids started coming out of nowhere with bikes and toys, ecstatic to finally have a place to play.
At night we had a fiesta on our roof with a few volunteers and staff, which was a lot of fun. We introduced some American games, and learned some cool new games.
Saturday we took a bus with Marta and Joche to see the Mirabal sister´s house/museum where we met Dede, the only surviving sister of the revolution against Trujillo. The entire town was decorated with murals and statues of the sisters who lived in there. Beautiful gardens surrounded the house with faces of the sisters, and mosquitoes.
Sunday we went to the park next to Accion and hung out with some of the kids while we read and such. Later that night we celebrated Wandi´s birthday by going out to a bar with some other volunteers and friends. After the bar we walked to the monument and admired the scenery.
TODAY... We spent our morning hanging out with the kids, doing capoeira and computer courses. In the afternoon, after lunch, we had some kids come and make their own shoe boxes with some beautifully cut wood and awesomely donated hammers and nails. It was amazing to see the kids make their own boxes and be proud of their work, we took plenty of pictures with the kids posing with their new boxes. A lot of the children either have a box that´s falling apart or don´t have one at all. It was a good day.
Thursday night we went with a friend and staff member to play dominos with some of his friends and then met his family and cute little dog.
Friday we had a most productive day. There is a basketball court in a little neighborhood called Fracatan (spelling?) that a potential politician promised to "fix up" before he was elected, but he ended up losing and left the court in disarray, covered in rocks, a telephone pole, glass, you name it. Accion has an outreach program in Fracatan and uses the court for activities with the community, however no one has been able to use the court since the construction was abandoned. Long story short, us Americans (and a Scot) decided to clean the court with some shovels and brooms. It was the most laborous thing we´ve done so far, and felt amazing to have accomplished something tangible. The children of the neighborhood even came to help us out, taking shovels from our hands and giving us a break. There must have been 20 of the little ones running around helping in various ways, trowing rocks off the court, picking up glass, etc.
Even before the court was completely finished the kids started coming out of nowhere with bikes and toys, ecstatic to finally have a place to play.
At night we had a fiesta on our roof with a few volunteers and staff, which was a lot of fun. We introduced some American games, and learned some cool new games.
Saturday we took a bus with Marta and Joche to see the Mirabal sister´s house/museum where we met Dede, the only surviving sister of the revolution against Trujillo. The entire town was decorated with murals and statues of the sisters who lived in there. Beautiful gardens surrounded the house with faces of the sisters, and mosquitoes.
Sunday we went to the park next to Accion and hung out with some of the kids while we read and such. Later that night we celebrated Wandi´s birthday by going out to a bar with some other volunteers and friends. After the bar we walked to the monument and admired the scenery.
TODAY... We spent our morning hanging out with the kids, doing capoeira and computer courses. In the afternoon, after lunch, we had some kids come and make their own shoe boxes with some beautifully cut wood and awesomely donated hammers and nails. It was amazing to see the kids make their own boxes and be proud of their work, we took plenty of pictures with the kids posing with their new boxes. A lot of the children either have a box that´s falling apart or don´t have one at all. It was a good day.
Friday, July 23, 2010
So much to tell and not enough time ahora!
Hello amigos!!!! I am sorry that we have not been posting alot lately..... we have been working long hours at Accion and by the time we get home we are all tired and sometimes it is late! I feel like there is so much to say I don´t know where to begin.. Finally I feel like we are doing some work that needed to be done! Yesterday we went Hato del yaque to a little school and the four of us got to teach a class.. We started off with geography which I enjoyed chiming in when I could, with the little spanish that I had... but Ana Maria and Thomas lead the teaching with their spanish skills.... Then Vanessa and I went to Pechula with Mark, part of the staff, and got to interact with all the wonderful children and watch Avatar with them projected on a chalk board (a very green version of the blue movie). Then we returned and got in touch with are artistic side making banners with Marsel. We are having a party at our house on the roof tonight!!! So I gotta go because our friends from accion will be arriving soon!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOO Bailando!!!
Much Love,
Jenna
Monday, July 19, 2010
Aye Chicos!
Hola mi familia en Ft. Myers y Orlando!
I hope you all haven´t been holding your breath waiting for my post, as some of you know I´ve come to enjoy being more reflective and introspective here as opposed to my ´´normal´´ self... Anyway, in an effort not to repeat all of our activities I´ll just let you know some of my emotional rollercoaster that is our D.R. trip...
Wednesday, our classy Spirit Airlines almost marooned me in Ft. Lauderdale because they overbooked our flight...........A few choice words (anger), quite a few tears (sadness) and three nice volunteers later there were open seats for the 2 other flightless friends and me (relief and happiness). When we got to R.D. finally (because our flight was so delayed) Bento surprised us at the airport at 5 am to make sure we got to our little casita con cariño(amor).
Thursday we woke up at 8 and hustled to get to accion so we could reunite with our familia de R.D. (extreme happiness y amor). After being on the WINNING team of soccer (pride!) I was a little (shocked) because I was talking with an older boy at Accion who I´d never met before and, for the first time, I experienced hatred here. Exactly what he said isn´t all that important but whatis important is that it was a huge reality check for me. Until then, I had only witnessed the love and friendship that exists between everyone in Accion and he exhibited a dislike and mistrust of his Haitian verinos (neighbors). Between that and hearing/witnessing the way Accion can change these points of views has got me (contemplative) about different projects to instate and about the immense and underappreciatted work that Accion has done thus far in the communities and barrios.
On Friday I realized that all those days my mom taught me to swim in our duckshaped swimming pool served a purpose (adrenaline). Not only did I swim with the boys in the pool for fun, I swam for survival! Between niños on our shoulders and learning to play the Spanish version of tag (se llama ´Topa´) with Korlins and Cristofer all seemed pretty right in the world. The only ´downer´of the day was that the bus ride was too short (only ten minutes) and those are some of my most FAVORITE times in the D.R.
Sabado subimos el Monumentore por el primero tiempo! We´ve been there many times but this was the first time we went during the day and it was still open. It was beautiful. Not only did we get to see some ´reenactments´of D.R. history (you can imagine what these look like) but we took some funny and unintentional Marilyn Monroe reenactments at the top too (we all wore skirts- except Tomas- and this is not only the rainy but windy season too...) We also saw some boys from Accion and, as always, it was refreshing and comforting to see them. I suppose I should also mention the man we met there too (anger and annoyance). As my stereotypical Dominican-American, he proceeded to ´´enlighten´´ us about ´´his people´´ and tell us that they can´t be trusted and that, against my argument, there was plenty wrong about his country and that we didn´t know what we were talking about loving it and the boys so much...
We also got to go to Wandy´s Saturday night which I was beyond excited for. It ´started at 7´but in Dominican time I don´t think people arrived or started cooking until sometime after 9:30 and we didn´t even eat until about 11. I went downstairs from Wandy´s roof and met some chicas from the barrio and pretty much ended up hanging with them the rest of the night. In my opinion, the party didn´t even really start until they showed up. They were my dance partners and kept trying to protect us from their boracho tio (gracias a dios). Anyway, much to say but no hay mas tiempo for this.
Yesterday, since there aren´t really activities to do with the niños on the weekends we took a little ´´us´´ time and went to the waterfalls called 27 Charcos´(fear). I am terrified of heights.... So you may think you can imagine how this went however, I jumped (wooooo!). Our guide was wonderful, as all D.R. guides I´ve ever encountered are, and spoke enough English to entertain and inform us about ¨his montaña.´´ He also picked up these rocks in the river that turned out to be clay and taught us how to turn them into clay masks to ´make us look ten years younger.´ Needless to say you can also imagine how all the natives stared at us when we got back to the information center wearing blue and gray facemasks and being Gringos at that... When we got home I fell asleep at like 7 and didn´t wake up until the Rooster called to me at abouttttttt 6:30 this morning.
Sadly, we didn´t get to go to the barrios as planned today because of rain and because of a big leadership transition that´s ensuing right now but, ideally, we´ll be going tomorrow. Jenna and I flashed soe capoeira skills today en el segundo piso and also got to be a part of the Geography class a little bit too. It´s great to see that Accion is instituting a school-like agenda for the boys where they sign up to take ¨classes¨and then they even get their attendance taken at each class. Some of the other classes offered, today, were flauta (recorder), Geography, Capoeira, Pin Pon (Ping-Pong), Some sort of class Louisa was teaching that I didn´t understand and a computer class. Things are constantly progressing here and it leaves me not only feeling (hopeful) but like I need to catch up! I´m (afraid) to leave again not only because I´ll miss it here but because I feel like every time I come back my beginning time is spent catching up! (but I think that´s a better thing as opposed to the opposite possibility).
I don´t know that there´s much else to tell you all except that ALL of the niños keep asking where the other Americanos are and when you all are coming back. They remember all of your names and little things about you that I know would make me smile to hear, so I´ll have to tell you all when it wouldn´t be obscene to type so much more.
Te extraño y quiero mucho,
AnaMaria
I hope you all haven´t been holding your breath waiting for my post, as some of you know I´ve come to enjoy being more reflective and introspective here as opposed to my ´´normal´´ self... Anyway, in an effort not to repeat all of our activities I´ll just let you know some of my emotional rollercoaster that is our D.R. trip...
Wednesday, our classy Spirit Airlines almost marooned me in Ft. Lauderdale because they overbooked our flight...........A few choice words (anger), quite a few tears (sadness) and three nice volunteers later there were open seats for the 2 other flightless friends and me (relief and happiness). When we got to R.D. finally (because our flight was so delayed) Bento surprised us at the airport at 5 am to make sure we got to our little casita con cariño(amor).
Thursday we woke up at 8 and hustled to get to accion so we could reunite with our familia de R.D. (extreme happiness y amor). After being on the WINNING team of soccer (pride!) I was a little (shocked) because I was talking with an older boy at Accion who I´d never met before and, for the first time, I experienced hatred here. Exactly what he said isn´t all that important but whatis important is that it was a huge reality check for me. Until then, I had only witnessed the love and friendship that exists between everyone in Accion and he exhibited a dislike and mistrust of his Haitian verinos (neighbors). Between that and hearing/witnessing the way Accion can change these points of views has got me (contemplative) about different projects to instate and about the immense and underappreciatted work that Accion has done thus far in the communities and barrios.
On Friday I realized that all those days my mom taught me to swim in our duckshaped swimming pool served a purpose (adrenaline). Not only did I swim with the boys in the pool for fun, I swam for survival! Between niños on our shoulders and learning to play the Spanish version of tag (se llama ´Topa´) with Korlins and Cristofer all seemed pretty right in the world. The only ´downer´of the day was that the bus ride was too short (only ten minutes) and those are some of my most FAVORITE times in the D.R.
Sabado subimos el Monumentore por el primero tiempo! We´ve been there many times but this was the first time we went during the day and it was still open. It was beautiful. Not only did we get to see some ´reenactments´of D.R. history (you can imagine what these look like) but we took some funny and unintentional Marilyn Monroe reenactments at the top too (we all wore skirts- except Tomas- and this is not only the rainy but windy season too...) We also saw some boys from Accion and, as always, it was refreshing and comforting to see them. I suppose I should also mention the man we met there too (anger and annoyance). As my stereotypical Dominican-American, he proceeded to ´´enlighten´´ us about ´´his people´´ and tell us that they can´t be trusted and that, against my argument, there was plenty wrong about his country and that we didn´t know what we were talking about loving it and the boys so much...
We also got to go to Wandy´s Saturday night which I was beyond excited for. It ´started at 7´but in Dominican time I don´t think people arrived or started cooking until sometime after 9:30 and we didn´t even eat until about 11. I went downstairs from Wandy´s roof and met some chicas from the barrio and pretty much ended up hanging with them the rest of the night. In my opinion, the party didn´t even really start until they showed up. They were my dance partners and kept trying to protect us from their boracho tio (gracias a dios). Anyway, much to say but no hay mas tiempo for this.
Yesterday, since there aren´t really activities to do with the niños on the weekends we took a little ´´us´´ time and went to the waterfalls called 27 Charcos´(fear). I am terrified of heights.... So you may think you can imagine how this went however, I jumped (wooooo!). Our guide was wonderful, as all D.R. guides I´ve ever encountered are, and spoke enough English to entertain and inform us about ¨his montaña.´´ He also picked up these rocks in the river that turned out to be clay and taught us how to turn them into clay masks to ´make us look ten years younger.´ Needless to say you can also imagine how all the natives stared at us when we got back to the information center wearing blue and gray facemasks and being Gringos at that... When we got home I fell asleep at like 7 and didn´t wake up until the Rooster called to me at abouttttttt 6:30 this morning.
Sadly, we didn´t get to go to the barrios as planned today because of rain and because of a big leadership transition that´s ensuing right now but, ideally, we´ll be going tomorrow. Jenna and I flashed soe capoeira skills today en el segundo piso and also got to be a part of the Geography class a little bit too. It´s great to see that Accion is instituting a school-like agenda for the boys where they sign up to take ¨classes¨and then they even get their attendance taken at each class. Some of the other classes offered, today, were flauta (recorder), Geography, Capoeira, Pin Pon (Ping-Pong), Some sort of class Louisa was teaching that I didn´t understand and a computer class. Things are constantly progressing here and it leaves me not only feeling (hopeful) but like I need to catch up! I´m (afraid) to leave again not only because I´ll miss it here but because I feel like every time I come back my beginning time is spent catching up! (but I think that´s a better thing as opposed to the opposite possibility).
I don´t know that there´s much else to tell you all except that ALL of the niños keep asking where the other Americanos are and when you all are coming back. They remember all of your names and little things about you that I know would make me smile to hear, so I´ll have to tell you all when it wouldn´t be obscene to type so much more.
Te extraño y quiero mucho,
AnaMaria
Fun in the DR
On Saturday we went to the monument and then to Wandy´s house for a BBQ. It was a lot of fun. Sunday we took a bus to 27 Charcos (Waterfalls) where we jumped off of rock formations and slides.
Today we got to sit in on a geography class taught by Charli and Ella. The kids learned about the world´s different climates, locations and people. It was really great to see how curious and interested they all were in learning about the world. To me, education is so important and being able to see them learning was quite an experience!
It is really great to be back here in the DR where we feel at home. Everything about this place is special, especially the kids we get to work with.
Love,
Vanessa
Today we got to sit in on a geography class taught by Charli and Ella. The kids learned about the world´s different climates, locations and people. It was really great to see how curious and interested they all were in learning about the world. To me, education is so important and being able to see them learning was quite an experience!
It is really great to be back here in the DR where we feel at home. Everything about this place is special, especially the kids we get to work with.
Love,
Vanessa
Friday, July 16, 2010
Day 2
Wow! We had such a great day today. Being at Accion is so refreshing and our experince is a little bit different this trip because it feels as though we are a part of the Accion staff of volunteers rather than just visitors. In the mornings we take a transit car to a street that is close to accion for 15 pesos. Today we went to the pool with the boys and it was such a great time. Boys just hanging from all limbs and wanting to be thrown in the air. I feel like I have been learning alot of spanish in the past two todays. Me amigo Meiki has been my teacher, a very patient one at that, just pointing to differnent objects and asking me to name them and repeating words over and over again. The neighborhood that we live in is a local area and not as close to the heart of Santiago. It is a little surf green building with only 3 units ours is on the second floor. It is just a one bedroom apartment but is a perfect space for the four of us. The best part is there is a huge roof to enjoy and porches to sit and talk on at night.
We have been learning alot of interesting news about some of the boys that we have grown so fond of in the past two visits, some good news and some bad.
We attempted to make screens over our always open windows by taping mosquito nets over them (we don´t want to catch that Dengue), but it failed miserably. It was one of the hottest nights of our life... but we got over the unavoidable. Ended up opening our shutters and sleeping with scraps of the nets over our body.... still got bit. A new roommate spent the night with us due to the open shutters, but we didn´t mind the sight of a huge moth on our blank walls.. we have to decorate somehow. So today Bento helped us buy some cheap fans which will keep us cool and blow the little mosquitos away.
We got invited to a BBQ at Wandi´s (a member of accion´s staff) tomorrow, which we are all looking forward too. We toured his neighborhood in the spring when his house was just being built, so it will be cool to see it in it´s entirety.
Hugs for Obi and Marley, and the parents as well,
Tom and Jenna
We have been learning alot of interesting news about some of the boys that we have grown so fond of in the past two visits, some good news and some bad.
We attempted to make screens over our always open windows by taping mosquito nets over them (we don´t want to catch that Dengue), but it failed miserably. It was one of the hottest nights of our life... but we got over the unavoidable. Ended up opening our shutters and sleeping with scraps of the nets over our body.... still got bit. A new roommate spent the night with us due to the open shutters, but we didn´t mind the sight of a huge moth on our blank walls.. we have to decorate somehow. So today Bento helped us buy some cheap fans which will keep us cool and blow the little mosquitos away.
We got invited to a BBQ at Wandi´s (a member of accion´s staff) tomorrow, which we are all looking forward too. We toured his neighborhood in the spring when his house was just being built, so it will be cool to see it in it´s entirety.
Hugs for Obi and Marley, and the parents as well,
Tom and Jenna
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Day 1
We made it! We arrived at our cute little apartment at 5am last night. Our place has so much character, we are really happy with our accomadations. We live right next door to ella and charli, they have been really helpful........ We had a littl ebit of a scare, when Ana Maria almost didn´t get on the plane last night because the airline overbookded!!! But luckily se got on board. Today we went to Accion, even though Bento expected us to be sleeping all day. We were happy to reunite with many of our favorite chicos such as Frank Junior, Korlins, Mikei, Peter, Wenston, Alberto, Robinson, Antoni, Jeffery and many new faces! Everyone is asking about D.R.O.P members and when they are coming back. We are going to do some swimming at the local pool tomorrow with all the boys- so excited! It is refreshing to be back and nice although after returning so soon, it almost feel like we never left!!! We miss all our D.R.O.P crew and telling the ninos how much you all miss them!
Te amo
Jenna
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