Life Here Is...

Comical. Frustrating. Beautiful. Exhausting. Inspiring. Busy. Captivating. Sweaty. Unpredictable. Crazy. Touching. Loud. Adventurous. High-Energy. Unique. Multilingual. Precious.

Imagine living with 215 children 24/7 in your own ‘mini community’ out in the country but all within 4 cement walls in a 3^rd world country…

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Here's the last couple weeks in a nutshell...

1) Sick. So this fits under the exhausting and frustrating category. I was sick sick sick this past week. I literally was in bed for 48 hours straight. Head, stomach, eyes, throat…it was all bothering me. Comically enough, I was just talking with the other volunteers last week about how I’d not gotten sick yet while they all have. Needless to say, that is not true anymore. Anywho, still not feeling quite up-to-par, so getting tested for parasites tomorrow.  

 

2) Movie theatre. Friday night, we took 15 kids to the movie theatres that had won a reading contest we did a couple weeks back during La Semana del Libro. It was a blast! There were a couple kids who had never been to a movie theatre before. They were fascinated during the movie by the little room where the movie is projected…couldn’t stop looking back. I ended up sitting next to one of our little 7-year old troublemakers, and he behaved so well. I was so proud! On the bus ride home, the kids all fell asleep, a couple right on my lap.

3) Mother’s Day. Today is Mother’s Day in the DR, so we did a celebration in the school on Friday for one group of caregivers and we have another celebration this afternoon for the other group. I still haven’t figured out why we celebrate this here. I think we are removed enough that if we didn’t celebrate it, most kids wouldn’t even realize it was happening. It’s really bittersweet, because the kids put on some fun dances and skits, but underneath it all, most are a little sad as they think about their mom’s that have either passed away or abandoned them.

  

4) Visitor group. Yesterday, we had a group of 50 visitors from North Eastern University in Boston. Mostly college kids and a couple professors. They were a great group and helped out by working in the farm, donating lots of stuff, and spending some quality time with the kids. But add 50 people to the daily ins-and-outs of life here and things get a little crazy. Long, good, exhausting day.

5) Bday party. Amidst our visitor group, we had the birthday party for the birthdays in May. This is something the Sponsorship Department is in charge of, so I took the bull by the horns this weekend and tried to make it a fun event. We celebrated 19 birthdays from 2-year-old Jofran to 16-year-old Franklin.

Jofran!

Jonathon, Sandy, and Luisito

Precious!

Luisito---Best. Smile. Ever.

Some of the birthday boys!

6) Baby picture contest. Starting yesterday, we are doing a contest where the kids see pictures of all of us volunteers as kids and have to guess which is which. It is the TALK OF THE TOWN. Everyone is SO into it! Can you guess which one is me? Everyone tells me I’m ‘igualita’ and ‘linda’ with my ‘dienticos’…

 

Coming soon…Meet Wilson, my godbrother!

Melissa and My Girls

So, this past Wednesday, college roomie and bestie Melissa arrived. We spent Wednesday afternoon through Saturday morning in Juan Dolio at an all-inclusive. We spent about 75% of that time at the beach or pool, which was awesome. Although rainy season is upon us, apparently Melissa brought the sunshine, because it didn’t even rain or get cloudy once. Saturday morning, we changed scenes from the tourist DR to the real DR and we took a public guagua over to NPH. We started off with a tour and approximately 200 introductions. We ate lunch and supper in my house and my girls took an INSTANT liking to her. We told them a story about how in college we make hundreds of paper snowflakes one year before Christmas and currently, paper snowflakes are still being made in the house (all it took was that little story). Saturday night was spent dancing out in the nearby batey after saying good night and getting a quick dancing lesson from the girls. On Sunday morning, Melissa said “Adios” to the girls and off we went to the airport. It was a quick, amazing trip! 

Getting a seafood dinner!

Show at the resort!

Pool + beach + bar!

Roomies!

Pool with a swim-up bar!

Hanging out at NPH and headed out dancing!

In other news, ‘Titanic’ has been a major obsession with my girls for a few months now.  I spent a good hour with Katerin and Maria del Carmen tonight rehearsing two verses and the refrain of “My Heart Will Go On” over and over and over and over. It’s the little things in life… :)

Beach, Birthday Parties, and Beyond...

So honestly, this past week has been hands down the most challenging one for me yet here at NPH. Part of building relationships with the kids and letting them into your heart involves really feeling for them when you know they aren’t acting as good as they can. Anywho, rather than focus on the “crappies” of the week, here are a couple “happies” (yes, these two words are used frequently among volunteers i.e. highs and lows).

1) Movie theatres. Last Friday, Av and I made a day trip to Santo Domingo and we watched “The Vow” (Votos de Amor) on the big screen. Fun day!

2) Beach. Saturday, for the first time, I went on an excursion with my entire house to the beach. I taught most of my girls how to float and some basic swimming strokes. 13 of them and myself also took a little adventure walk down the beach. I came away with the some major memories and some major sunburn (still in pain…ow….), no pictures though since my lovely camera is broken.

3) Nairobi. Nairobi is one of our girls who happens to be deaf and mute. Despite that, she has the biggest, sweetest personality ever. Yesterday, she spent the afternoon as my office helper. It was so fun communicating with her and seeing how happy and pleased with herself she was since she was helping out!

Nairobi's the one in the middle! Such a cutie!

4) Bday party. Ditania turned 13 yesterday! Vern and Mary Sue (both from MN—booyah!) held a little dinner at their place for the entire Santa Ana house and we finished off the night with a birthday cake I made. It was fun to see my girls all dressed up, using their best table manners, and practicing their English.

Dishing up some taco salad...yum!

The cake turned out pretty well I gotta say. Decorating done by Miss Avriel Burlot!

For each of my girls' birthdays, I make them a card and print off a few photos for them. The last birthday of each month gets a cake.

The birthday girl! (And yes, she did learn the phrase "birthday girl" in English!)

Some of my girls and myself. Needless to say, they sure aren't camera shy.

My entire house of girls (all 20), Ditania's 2 brothers, my tia Elena, Vern, Mary Sue and their son, Thomas, Avriel and me.

Carolina, Yudelkis, Ditania, and Erika.

Tia Elena and me!

 

5) Graduation. And finally, I am officially OFFICIALLY graduated now. My ceremony was this past Sunday. Avriel, being just about the most awesome person I know, made me the sweetest graduation poster complete with a picture of me from the beach with a grad. cap, Kernel Cob, the Concordia C, and a diploma. We watched “The Hunger Games” to celebrate.

I’m currently sitting the airport in Santo Domingo (taking full advantage of the free WiFi I might add) waiting for my bestie, Melissa, to arrive. We were roomies for 2 years of college and starting today, we are international traveling buddies too. We plan to hit the beach for the next couple days and spend a little time with my girls! 

This is one of the means of transport I used to get here to the airport (and use to get just about anywhere for that matter!)