Mother's Day is on it's Way!

Today was a long and wonderful day. Saturday’s are always days I look forward to because at some point during the day I get to see all of the kids. They rotate in throughout the day, group by group, all just as happy to be there. Next weekend is Dominican Mother’s Day, so today was centered around that. The kids started making beautiful gifts for their Mother’s. They are so imaginative and creative, I just love it! The kids were also practicing for the Mother’s Day play they are going to put on next Saturday. During the lunch period, two of the teachers stayed at the center to sort out some donations and put together Mother’s Day packages.

Each Mother is getting some sheets or towels and toiletries. Sheets and towels are a huge necessity; often times each household has only one towel to use for everything. By the time we had gotten back from lunch, the teachers had everything sorted out; all that was left to do was wrap and decorate the gifts. So we spent the afternoon doing so. They look so pretty, I can’t wait for Mother’s Day!

As well, at the end of the day I gave away some clothing donations that I received from my company clothing supplier in Canada; South Paw Canada. I gave them to the older boys, and they really loved them; a lot of the clothing was jersey material, and that is VERY popular down here.

One of the boys today I noticed had a very infected toe, with some white cream all over it. I did not really understand what had happened to his toe, but for some reason he decided that deodorant was the best medicine for it. We corrected this by sending him to the washroom to clean it up, and then giving him some anti biotic cream to put on it. I also gave him some Tylenol for the swelling and pain.

Cutie Pies

Today was Girls Club and the older girls were practicing for the play they are doing, and the younger girls were colouring. Sometimes I cannot get over how cute they are! They just want to hug and want so much for recognition of their work. At one point I was standing there amongst the younger girls, and was hearing my name in every which direction. Everywhere I turned the girls were holding up their colourings to show me. I would enthusiastically tell them how beautiful their colouring was, and their faces would light up and an even bigger smile would emerge on their face.

Later on, one of the girls wanted me to read her a book. So she brings me this Doctor Seuss book written in Spanish. I speak enough Spanish to get by here, but it is rare that I have to read anything. I felt like a small child trying to read this book. I know that my pronounciation was off sometimes, and I read very slowly and choppy.

At the end of the class Ernestina decided to give away some of the clothing donations. So it was seperated into bags for each of the girls, and they all lined up to recieve their clothes; they were sooooo happy!
Overall today was a great day with the SUPER CUTE girls.

And the summer kicks off!

Welcome back to my blog! I am down in the beautiful Dominican Republic, once again for three months this time. It is going to be an amazing summer, and I hope that my blog will be of some interest. I am going to dive right in, to my first day here.
Today was my first day back in the Dominican. I woke at 4:30am, to roosters and a very loud bird outside my bedroom window – but no problem, I grabbed my headphones and turned my IPod to my “relaxing music” playlist, and let myself drift back to sleep.
Today just happens to be a Saturday – the perfect day to see all of the kids again. They all came at different times today, depending on which class and group they are in – however even if it’s not the kids time to be there, some come to just hang out first – a fun and safe place to be with their friends.

It was so great to see all of the kids today – as usual some were waiting to get in before we arrived, and they bombarded the car to say hi and give hugs. It is such an amazing feeling to be welcomed back like that. As the kids came in during the day, I could tell that some of them were not themselves. It had poured rained the night before, very hard rain, and it is guaranteed that all of the kids homes were affected somehow. I could hardly sleep due to the noise of the rain, in a proper building, so I cannot even imagine what it must be like for the kids and their families living in shacks with leaky roofs. It was very evident that they had been up most of the night; they were very tired and less energetic than usual. However they were still ready to go for their classes, and excited to be there.
DOVE has hired a new music teacher to extend the existing music program. He is a very talented friend of Liz’s, and I have even been to see him play a few times. He started today, and jumped right into it – he is so great with the kids and had all of them engaged the entire time.
A new program that has been implemented since I was here last is a special program for the older boys. It exists of body building, nutrition, exercise, and will also include other aspects like skills for finding a job, etc. The program started out by the boys learning, and making their own weights out of recycled materials and concrete.
It is a perfect program for teenage boys and they are loving it. They are setting goals, and it is really a great program to keep them engaged and learning at the same time. The teacher’s name is James, and he is really good at connecting with the boys.
After the club, we decided that we needed to do some grocery shopping. So we loaded up, and went home to unpack everything. Tomorrow is election day, which is HUGE here. It is like a holiday; everything shuts down, and everyone has the day off work. Since election day happens to fall on a Sunday, which means everything is shut down anyways, the government made Monday an extra day off. Even the local discos, and anywhere that might serve alcohol is closed down on Saturday night so that nobody is voting under any sort of influence.
I am starting to unwind, and get back into the Dominican flow. I love this Dominican laid back culture but it always takes me a few days to settle into it.