Whoa, I’m exhausted. This weekend was busy busy busy! I spent Thursday and Friday in the office translating and prepping all sorts of stuff for the International Meeting. And then Friday night, I played visitor coordinator for a bit when a group of 15 Canadians came in. I went to La Romana airport and picked them all up, then helped them figured out their rooms, get dinner, and that kind of thing. Then Saturday morning, I gave them all a tour of NPH and we went to a nearby batey. That was crazy because 1) I’m giving tours of the place and talking about it to groups when 3 and ½ weeks ago, I hadn’t stepped foot here yet…I’ve come a LONG way…and 2) the bateys are really poor areas and I really felt like we were intruding their living space by taking a group of white people there who were snapping photos the whole time and such. Anyways, the last thing we did was go to a couple training fields. LITERALLY right outside of our gates is the Milkwaukee Brewers field, then a little farther down are the Detroit Tigers and the Toronto Blue Jays. This is just one example of the HUGE contrasts I’m seeing…dirt poor villages with tin shacks next to fancy, huge buildings with beautiful grounds and guards at the gate.

            Then Saturday, I showed a movie (The Little Mermaid) to my casa and another movie to the younger boys later at night. Sunday was Visitor’s Day, which I decided was definitely NOT my favorite day here. I spent the whole day face painting and taking pictures technically, but more than that, just hanging out with some of the kids who were having a tough time, because their family didn’t show up (even though a lot of them promise they will). One of the cutest boys was so down, he wouldn’t even talk to anyone, so I just sat with him for awhile and then later we took a walk and he started talking a bit. Then one of my girls, who is always bouncing off the walls because she has such a bright, loud personality, broke down crying in my arms when it came to be 5:00 and her family still hadn’t shown up. I definitely teared up with her and we had a good chat about how it’s okay to cry sometimes. Of course, there were many happy kids with aunts, dads, siblings, etc. here, but for me, at least, it was hard to enjoy the day, when I saw so many kids, who are normally pretty happy, super down…walking around by themselves, hiding away from all the action, that kind of thing. Also, there were a lot less family members that showed up than normal, because we didn’t send a bus up north to pick some of them up like we occasionally do.

            Other than that, I got a lot of dancing in this weekend! We went to the batey on Friday and Sunday night (today was a holiday, so no school or office work—Duarte Dia). I just LOVE the music here! And both of those nights, as soon as us girls started getting asked to dance, we were out of chairs for hours until we were ready to leave as the guys outnumbered us like 5 to 1. And literally EVERYONE dances here. There was even one guy I danced with wearing a MN Twins hat! But it turned out he didn’t actually know anything about the team…but still kind of exciting. While walking home on Friday night, John and I managed to step right into a HUGE pile of horse manure, so that was…an experience. Anyways, good weekend, but I’m wiped. Here’s a couple photos!

Photo Tour :)

So I've been meaning to go around and take pics of the place, so you can get an idea of where I live. Yesterday, I gave my camera to one of the kids and before I knew it, he had taken photos of pretty much all of the places and all of the people on site...so that was easy. The only photo I took was the first one of my house.

La Casa de Volutarios! We volunteers live on the first floor and the upper level is for visitors. We all share a bedroom and bathroom with one other person and there's a communal kitchen, art room, and laundry room.

The chapel where we have mass lots and lots.

The office, where I live on weekdays :) This is literally right next to our house. Can you say shortest commute ever?

The guaguas and Big Blue--main modes of transportation (besides the motos that is). 

Believe it or not, this is the waste management area i.e. where you take out the trash to.

The park! One of my favorite places on site.

More park...with the kitchen in the background.

 We got paved streets last year I'm told. 

Love love LOVE these two boys...they are my soccer buddies. And really any game that involves a ball. Except that I was so entertained by the fact that as soon as music goes on, I can't even get them to play ball anymore, because they are too busy dancing. And they're GOOD at dancing. That's one thing I love here--music ALL the time. And there's no such thing as too loud or being too embarrassed to show off your singing or dancing skills.

This is the construction site of the new special needs house. Whichever kid took this could have a future as a photographer in my opinion...

 My girls :) I purposely left my eyes red on this, because my girls, when looking at the photo after, were so amazed that red-eye can happen with cameras. With their dark eyes, that doesn't happen to them. On the eye subject, everyone seems to analyze my eye color, from policemen in the street to the smallest of the kids here. So far, I've been told they are green, brown, and purple. 

This weekend is going to be a busy weekend! I'm playing visitor coordinator and communications officer while a couple of the volunteers are in Haiti for a couple days and then Sunday is Family Day. A group of 15 from Canada comes in tomorrow. Woohoo!

Working Weekends...Bring it On!

            So I’ve officially decided I love working weekends here! Weeks in the office and evenings with my casa are nice, but on weekends, I get to hang out with ALL of the kids and just relax and play with a bunch of them. This past week was a little frustrating with my girls—as many people keep telling me, they are at a tough age, which is true, so their tempers can get the best of them sometimes, but today was a blast!

            We started off with misa at 9:00 in honor of La Virgen de Altagracia. And then I played with the kids literally ALL day until 8:00pm. We played a little soccer, made chichiguas (kites) for decorations for the International Meeting coming in February (this is a week-long meeting of ALL NPH with the directors from all 9 countries, big donors, basically anymore important—it’s a BIG deal….more on this some other time), and basically just hung out in the park for hours. Of course, the girls (and a couple boys even) did my hair multiple times and I also spent awhile with Santa Lucía, the baby house reading books and playing at the playground (yes, I was the bruja while we played tag to their great delight!)

            Other than that, I’m really starting to feel like I fit in here….with the kids, in my casa, with the other volunteers, with the language. I’m starting to take more of a role in the casa. Both of my tías said they mainly want help with teaching the girls respect, so I’m working on that.

            This coming Sunday, a week from tomorrow, is Family/Visitors Day. According to some of the volunteers, these days (they happen every 3 months) have been their hardest days here. The kids that get visitors are absolutely thrilled, but it’s really tough on the kids that don’t. My tía mentioned today that there is one of my girls who never gets any visitors, which pretty much breaks my heart…

            Some random photos from today…

 LOVE her :)

 Probs the CUTEST kid here :) Soooooo adorable!

 One of the photos the kids took, which I really like for some reason.

 Another photo taken by the kids while we were reading.

 Doing my hair....AGAIN.

Another one of today's adventures: a volunteer from Canada brought a few bikes here. Literally 50+ kids were all trying to get a chance to ride cause for now, the bikes only come out on weekends. (Feel guilty about that bike that pretty much gathers dust year-round in the garage??)

 Playground time!

A shot I snapped while walking away...

Making chichiguas!

Fotos!!

So get this. Yesterday I'm getting ready to take my camera into town to attempt to get it fixed. I turn it on for the umpteenth time and for some reason, it WORKS!! Yep, so here's some pics of my beautiful girls :)

 

 

Without a doubt, one of my girls' favorite past times is taking pictures, which is pretty cool, because even though the majority are pretty random and often turn out blurry, they take pictures of things I definitely wouldn't and it's like getting even more of a glimpse into their lives. I actually really like this picture for some reason--ever heard of the rule of thirds? I bet she hadn't! 

 I wouldn't really call this my best look, but this is how the girls generally make my hair look. They're getting slightly more creative now, so we'll see what crazy hairdos come next.

 First birthday in the house! Check out the sweet card I made! (Also, you can see one of the houses in the background..that's how they all are.)

Reading some magazines together in their bedroom.