It’s July and June FLEW by!

Nina, me, Esperanza, Valentina, Lucy, Carmencita, and Yocattia!

Where to even begin? (These are reasons I shouldn’t go weeks without blogging!) These last couple weeks have FLOWN…where did June go? I can’t believe it’s July already, but I like July so it’s all good :) So to start off, we had 5 ex-volunteers visiting around graduation time. Nina, who was the volunteer of my house for a year-and-a-half was here, and it was really fun getting to know her and have her around. We got to do lots of fun stuff including a movie night and day trip to the beach…it was sad to see her go at the end of the week, but I’m sure she’ll be back!

The boys' house of Santo Domingo got to go to the beach with us too!

We spent the ENTIRE day in the water...from 10:00am to 6:00pm!

Teaching the girls how to swim and how to float!

Awesome pic that Nina took of Yocattia, Eridania, and Cristela!

Sebastiancito!

Siblings! This is one of the beach balls I grew up on!

Yocattia and Esteban...gotta love how clear the water is in the ocean!

Eating some lunch (rice and beans: shocking!)

This dog and her pup kept the kids pretty entertained...and the kids kept the dog pretty well-fed...

There were about 8 puppies hanging out with us all day. Again, this is one of the inner tubes we always played with growing up...fun to see the kids using them!

Carolina was the birthday girl...she thought a day at the beach was a pretty great gift!

Erika and me!

The whole crew...Tia Santa, Nina, me, and the girls!

Kendy was entertained for HOURS by watching a little cangreo make a home in the sand!

Seba is SO photogenic! Love this boy!

So at the end of the day, we were waiting for the guagua to come pick us up...

...And I got artsy. This pic sums up Dominican culture is some ways...

...As does this pic of Josi.

The following week (last week) marked the arrival of the 11 new volunteers as well as the departure of 80+ kids to go spend some time with remaining family members, so dynamics changed quite a bit! We spent Tuesday to Friday doing orientation with all the new volunteers…this included lots of talks including one about where our kids come from, the movie “Sugar Babies”, a sugar cane hunt and trip to the batey, a trip to San Pedro, a grand tour of NPH and lots of getting-to-know the school. Today, summer classes started for the kids that are here…six of the new volunteers are here for the month to teach a class. We have all sorts of sweet classes…circus, dance, art, sports, geography, First Aid, environment, cooking, etc. The 60ish kids that live in the nearby batey and go to our school also participate in summer classes, so that adds to the numbers a bit. I’m also very excited about another one of the new volunteers…Toos from Holland! She is our new volunteer/visitor coordinator and she’s awesome! This means that Avriel and I get to hand over a lot of the responsibilities we’ve been taking care of for the last couple months in the absence of someone in that position. That should make life a little easier!

Getting the sugar cane juice!

Me and my buddy, Barriga (can you guess why he has that name!?!?)

This past weekend we had free! We went out for pizza on Friday and visited the pulga which is essentially a huge open-air market with tables and tables of used clothes, all located under tarps (shade=must have). You can get all sorts of stuff for dirt-cheap prices there. I found a swimming suit for less than $2. Then on Saturday morning, we took off (11 of us!) for Bayahibe where we spent a night. Bayahibe has one of the best beaches in the DR (literally, it looks like paradise)…it’s just a little fisherman village along the ocean that has turned into a little bit of a tourist hot spot. It was great to relax a bit, hit up the beach, eat some good food, and bond as a group. Only sad part: it was our last weekend with Wes, the volunteer who is the English teacher. Our weekend-off group has really gotten to be good friends with him so it’s going to be hard to see him go this Friday.

In Las Terrenas with Wes...yep, we're strong.

Wes has been our resident cacata and mouse remover (better known as cacata whisperer).

Wes has also starred in our English Day posters on Wednesday...

Now 'Wes from the US' takes his travels back to where his name originates...

 

Other than that, all is good. I’m really missing my 7 girls that are off with their families…it’s hard to believe they’ve only been gone 2 weeks and that I still won’t see them for another month. However, we have been kept busy with birthdays…there were 4 in my house in the month of June (Josi, Carolina, Eridania, and Lucy).  I’ve also now realized that I fit under the category of an ‘old volunteer,’ which is a quite the switch, because up until now, I’ve always been considered part of the new group. It’s really incredible to think how much I’ve learned the last 6 months…in regard to NPH, Dominican Spanish and culture, kids, being a mom (haha, it’s true), working with people from other cultures, sponsorship and things like that. Six months in. One year to go! 

Got my hair done by my girls...Dominican-style!

Daily life at NPH...coffee and chats with my tia in the kitchen.

Yaqueline and Eridania...so pretty!

Making paper tissue hearts...thanks mom for the supplies!

Margarita got in on the action too!

Carolina!

Daniela!

Leonela had her own plans for the pipe cleaners!

Katerin wanted to make the flowers my mom had taught them to make back in February!

Yocattia took a baby picture of herself and put it in the middle...it was cool to see how each made this project their own!

Carmencita added a picture of her godmother!

...And Margarita got ahold of my sunglasses!