Week Dos

So you may wondering if we are alive… YES we are! The fact of the matter is camp kicks our butt every day, yet somehow we can’t stop talking about the kids or volunteering to stay and help, like for tutoring and such!

 

Lets start out with our first DR church service. We have missed Sunday worship so much and decided to go to church with Papito on Saturday night around 5:30pm.

 

Issue 1: Service was completely in Spanish (except for when the random “in name of Jesus” insertions occurred during the prayer)

 

Issue 2:  If you have not been to a Pentecostal service before… we highly recommend you attend an English service first to fully comprehend what is going on around you. (It is a very dynamic service which could involve a light show and/or dramatic renditions) We truly had no idea what was going on, except when we were suppose to stand up… because they said “Ponte en sus pies.” CHECK… levantense por favor!

 

Issue 3: Always eat before a Pentecostal Service. We had dinner around 10pm at Jose O’Shays after sitting on top of each other in a Guagua like taxi for 80 RD. This occurred after we got lost in Papitos village in the pitch black darkness and all we could hear were voices yelling at us. AND Poor Gillian hurt her knee…. AGAIN!

 

Best part of Church: We were not only the “visitors who stood out like a sore thumb” but the 30 children that attended decided they wanted to sit our laps,  kiss us, play with our hair, or ask us to come home with them.

 

Note to self: If you ever need a confidence boost… come to the DR!

 

Week 2 of Camp: Mondays are so exciting due to KARAOKE Monday at Voy Voy! TO pre-game and in an attempt to drown out Akon’s “Beautiful,” we made an annoying music playlist and blared it! Then on to Karoeke night after a quick stop at the Street Sandwich stand for hot dogs? Sarabeth, Gillian, and Hannah busted out a little “Lady Marmalade” after a little “Tearin’ Up My Heart” by some ISV kids and  Fe Fe’s attempt at __________. (so memorable… we can’t remember it!)

 

Tuesday and Wednesday nights we literally were asleep in bed before 10pm! WOW! Those kids must wear us out!

 

Sarabeth had her first “AHA!” moment this week when she tutored Yobani! They read “en el Mercado” and she came home to make him a fruit salad out of construction paper and then searched for a fruit song. She is now becoming an expert at early childhood literacy... Yobani later told her his favorite fruit is an apple… followed closely by an EGG… and then a carrot!  

 

While SB is busy with lesson plans and in order to no be a “gordita”… Bianca goes running nightly on the beach either before or after dinner. Wednesday night Gillian decided to join and BOY was it an adventure! We tried to run until Gillian’s brace almost literally fell off because it was too big. (or maybe we are just  that hardcore and were sweating so much that it was slipping… RIGHT?) We then went to Bozo… the local liquor store that has AC …for Melon flavored Gatorade. “Once you go Melon you don’t go back” said Gillian. After informing some local 16 year olds that we are not on vacation here and that we would not be attending the “Disco” that evening, we walked down the long dark road to Hummingbird. More like ran and almost killed ourselves as we slipped in the mud trying to hold on to each other for dear live. One… Two… Look…. One … Two…. Look! That’s how you should always walk when you are scared and think you are being followed.

 

Highlight of the week thus far: SB got a standing ovation for demonstrating the electric slide in class.