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.  

Watching a man in the street training a chicken to cock fight has inspired me to write.  I am impressed when I can do figure 8’s with a basketball…try it out with a chicken.  That takes some skill.  Sometimes I have to ask myself….where in the world am I??  Yesterday while walking home there was just a heard of horses chillin’ outside our hotel entrance. 

We truly have no idea where to begin.  First of all, we have never been this tired in our lives.  I come back from camp and just want to lay down, talk to no one, and want to hear no Spanish!  We were so tired after this first week that we both went to sleep at 9 last night.  It was the best way I could think of to start off the weekend which says a lot since I have a love of dancing and that is where the rest of the group went!  Although we are exhausted after week 1, we absolutely LOVE our kids.  Yafresi is one of my favorites along with Jairo.    

We had the “Desfile” (Parade) yesterday.  This is when all of the kids parade down the street with a chant.  We went all the way down the Callejon, down the main road, to the beach.  There the kids played tug of war.  They had so much fun!!  Kids talking smack in Spanish is just great!  If you want to pump kids up in espanol, you will need to know the phrase “Vamos a ganar!” (we are going to win). 

I’m not sure why I never buy Nutella in the US.  It is definitely a staple for us while we’re here.  It is also a great way to change things up.  Lunch = rice, beans, chicken  Dinner = rice, beans, chicken.  Sometimes they change things up with pasta or maybe a salad.  I missed dinner one night and ended up eating Captn Crunch and Nutella…which may be my new favorite meal. 

Every Sunday we can sign up to take a cooking/Spanish class.  This pas week we made Pollo Guisado and several salads.  I have never smashed so much garlic and cut so many tomatoes and cucumbers.  I think my kitchen skills improved more than my Spanish.  I’m determined to learn how to make a Mofongo.  Our teacher said she would give me a private lesson!  This week we are learning how to make Sancocho.  Additionally on Sundays we have surfing lessons.  Bianca is a freaking champ, but I can also officially say that I have stood up while surfing!  Our next lesson is tomorrow, and I am pretty dang excited. 

We have Spanish class every Tuesday.  They always have really fun ways of teaching us.  We learned opposites, commands (VERY important for class), and DR phrases while playing Bingo this week.  Next week we are going to play Jeopardy.  The local volunteers like playing too except they have a huge advantage.  We also made a pact with the volunteers from grassroots soccer that we will only speak Spanish. 

 Voy a regresar a mi cuarto porque hace mucho calor afuerra, pero vamos a escribir mas este noche despues iglesia. (I need to learn how to add accents using this computer, since half of that sentence is actually mispelled!)

  

 

 

What up homes?!

Why exactly do people in the Dominican Republic water the dirt road?  Apparently this is a popular pastime.  As you walk down the street, you can observe the street waterers who sit in lawn chairs and talk to each other.

Yesterday we went hiking.  Yes, I know what you are thinking… “Bianca and SaraBeth went on a nature hike and walked a trail. Cute.”  No…you are wrong.  The trail lasted about 5 minutes of the 2 hour hike.  The first sign that you know your hike is not normal is when the guide shimmies up a mango tree to get you some fruit.  This was no small tree.  From the ground we were unsure of where the top was exactly.  Suddenly it was raining mangos.  Had someone been hit it would have been bad news bears.  They were falling hard as Papone (our guide) shook the tree.  We continued up the hill to find Katy mounting the burro.  This is a burro we randomly stumbled upon in someone’s front yard.  Others during this time turned blossoms from a tree into warpaint.  (You looked good Taylor….the rest of the day and maybe even a little this morning).  I’m sure you have all experienced this in your weekly hikes.  Our adventure course changed quickly.  We found ourselves wandering through the wilderness…no path…following 7 year old Dominican boys running barefoot.  They led us to their personal swimming hole…which happens to be located inside a cave (and you thought you had a sweet set up in your backyard).  As you continue straight up the mountain we reached another cave.  Locals kept telling us Muy Peligroso! (very dangerous), but if Katy was doing it in flip flops and little kids were going barefoot, we were going.  Actually, it took a brief pep talk in combination with the previous two things for SaraBeth to go.  Now imagine an exhilarating rock climbing experience at your local rock wall.  This was nothing like that.  Instead of a harness, the children were helping us up onto the rock in front of us.  Keep in mind that there were numerous places the drop offs were 30-50 feet.

We enjoyed our first ladies night on the beach last night and became experts in the regatone dancing.  Taylor had a life changing experience as she got a nose bleed for the first time ever, and Bianca bought her first pineapple from the pina lady.

What do you do in the DR when you are bored?  Well, that is just a great question.  We really aren’t ever bored, but we do enjoy people watching in the down time at lunch.  The sighting of the day was a father and son enjoying a donkey ride while holding a machete.  Things like this remind you quickly that you are not in the US.  Also at lunch, Gillian and I ended up in the store room of a local store trying to find Oreos.  Apparently we bought a bulk pack because the cashier had no idea how much to charge us!   

Okay – estamos muy cansadas!

Living the Dream Project

SB and B  

COW DOWN! (Beef. It's what's for dinner.)

This sign is what we made to remind ourselves...

Current Playlist: “Goodbye”

Current Kitchen: We bought frozen strawberries today! 

New Spanish Words: ampolla (blister), funcir el ceno (to furrow your brow), almohada (pillow), arena (sand)

There was one incident yesterday we somehow forgot to mention.  Yesterday we attempted to checkout some childhood favorites like Madeline, Curious George, and the random Where Are You Baby Bear from the Dream Center Library.  We were unsuccessful.  Deeply saddened by this experience we began the journey home.  After nearly being hit by a motoconcho, there was a gun shot and boom…Cow down!  Watching this unfold will completely make you side with the Chick-fil-A cows and eat more chicken.  I can fully tell you that there is nothing “up with us and burgerz” now.

Today we had a first.  We braved the shower without our flip flops.  It was quite liberating.  Spanish nights have been unsuccessful; however, we have done at least 2 lessons in Rosetta Stone each night.  Nicco joined SaraBeth in her nightly lesson.  He was impressed by her skills!

Camp was great.  We had 2 workshops (completely in Spanish).  Each of us got to work with our local Dominican volunteer.  I am working with Wilner.  He is so great.  He has only had 2 months of English.  Deciding on curriculum was a little difficult with the language barrier, but we understood each other much better by the time we left this afternoon.  He speaks Creole too.  I learned to say what is your name… “Coma ou wele?”  For those of you who don’t know, the Dominican Republic shares an island with Haiti.  There is a very strong racial discrimination here between Dominicans and Haitians.  We’ll go much more in depth on that on another day. We also decorated our Cuarto de Musica!! (Music Room) Maddy has some great construction skills!

While SB sat through “maestra” training, B learned some awesome “Break” games and how to read Spanish books to our campers! Hannah and I are so excited to meet our “detectives” tomorrow. We decorated our homeroom with the alphabet which we made from construction paper!  ps… and just in case you forgot… the Spanish alphabet has 30 letters.

If you were concerned that we are not getting our daily exercise… have no fear! We get up and run/walk the beach early in the morning. But guys don’t get the wrong idea.. it’s not like a Baywatch scene. Although, Fe Fe decided to have a brief conversation with SB about “play boy.” Utterly confused, SB chose to respond by saying she has season 5 of the “Girls Next Door” on her computer. Fe Fe’s eyes grew three times and Nico joined the conversation. We think the guys then inferred that Fe Fe was a “play boy.”

While showing Nicco pictures of our Thanksgiving feast and trying to explain that we eat turkey and not chicken,  she kept saying we had pelotas (Spanish for balls).  In this situation Pavo is the correct term.

This one is completely random...But after a stimulating Sham-WOW conversation, I got a marriage proposal from Gillian last night.  However, if anyone has the answer to this, please enlighten us.  It was a topic of debate in our nightly bonding convo.  In the advertisement the Sham wow is said to be super absorbent.  If you were to throw numerous sham wows in the washing machine, wouldn’t they absorb all the water?

Finally…Note to self…If you’re ever doing laundry in the DR, Suavitel, although it looks like detergent, is actually a fabric sofenter.  Your clothes will be soft, but not necessarily clean afterwards.  Jabon (soap) is the word to look for on the bottle.  

                        Xoxo – Dominican Girls    (Taylor….that ones for you)