Well Merry Christmas everyone! The Christmas celebration I had here was certainly different from what most of you might have done for the holiday, but it was fun and interesting nonetheless. Here in the DR people celebrate Christmas Eve moreso than Christmas day. The day was spent preparing food and cleaning the house for the dinner that would take place that night. At five I went to the Catholic mass (surprisingly, none of the other churches were having events on Christmas Eve). There weren't a whole lot of people who attended—many people were busy catching up with family members who had come back to the community to visit for the holidays, but the mass was nice nonetheless; we prayed, sang, and sang some more.
Upon returning I stopped by the "community oven" which is located in a community leader's backyard and was the spot where everyone was baking their chickens (most people here do not have ovens, so they paid a small fee to pay for gas to use the community oven on Christmas). We picked up our chicken and went back home. The electricity hadn't come on yet so we decided to wait until it came on to eat, however by 730 it still hadn't come on so we decided to eat anyways. We had baked chicken, bread, a salad of beets, eggs, potatoes and carrots, and spaghetti. That night was pretty mellow; once the electricity came back on my host family put on a movie and I went to visit the Canadian nuns and a few family members who were visiting them. We ended up going back into the church to look at the small Christmas tree that was lit up and we sang a few Christmas Carols (in French and Spanish) to make it feel a little more like Christmas.
Christmas day was a day of rest—all night people had been playing loud music and partying, and at 430 am the Catholic church had a service that mainly consisted of singing. Since I couldn't sleep with all the music anyway, a few of my host family members and I went up there to sing. We sang, drank ginger tea and had some Christmas candies. I returned home to sleep some more and spend the day visiting with people. The rest of the day was pretty mellow—Christmas day isn't really a day when people get presents (the kids got presents for the “Dia del nino”--day of the child, that were donated by a Canadian organization) but they do get new clothes—all the children that are enrolled in what I call the “church school” and have foreign sponsors get a check to go to a certain store and buy a new set of clothes. In the afternoon everyone dressed up in their new clothes and paraded around, and when the kids got tired and went back home, the adults went out to celebrate in the discos.
Christmas night I went and sat with some of the “jovenes” (teens) that were not out in their new clothes because many of them could not afford them, or they did not want to go to the bars with the other jovenes. Instead, they were sitting in a circle with a drum, an empty paint can and a couple other makeshift instruments and they were singing, rapping and joking around. They sang their Evangelical songs, but also made up raps about the “Americana”(that would be me), and invited me to sing (I sang “Jingle Bells” for them). At times half the circle was laughing hysterically because of some rap one of the kids was singing or the way they were dancing. That might have been the best part of my day; seeing that these kids, though they have very little, can be incredibly creative and enjoy themselves as much, if not more, than anyone else.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
December 12th, 2008--Just workin
My life lately has been a mixture of formal work in the school and after school programs as well as lots of informal work, such as getting to know people and identifying areas in the community that need to be strengthened. I continue teaching PE classes which exhausts me every time (these kids have a lot of energy and little discipline) and I have also taught some English classes to 7th and 6th graders. The government says that starting in 6th grade the kids must learn English, however the teachers at the school right now were trained to teach a specific subject in the high school and so they never learned English and cannot teach it very well. I am trying my best to teach the kids the basics, but there is very little time in the day to teach them.
I have also filled in every once in a while at the after school program and continue meeting with youth twice a week to plan events and organize “charlas” or “talks”. I had discussed with the boys organizing a baseball tournament, because in past years the older boys always played a tournament that lasted several weekends in December and January, but in the past couple years no one has taken the leadership of it and last year the tournament didn't happen at all. With a little guidance from me, the boys planned what they needed to do in order to begin the tournament (the most work was cutting all the grass that had grown on the baseball field—the boys probably put in 15 hours cutting the grass with machetes) and by the time I had returned from Thanksgiving the tournament had been planned and they played that Saturday for the first time. I was so happy to see them organizing it almost completely by themselves, all they needed was a little help from me to begin with, but then they took off! They have three teams that play two games every weekend, and they are keeping some stats and at the end the winning team with receive a trophy and the most valuable player will receive a medal.
The after school program funded by foreign donors also organized a volleyball team for the girls in the community, and I am serving as referee when the girls play. The games, though there are no lines and a very low net, get very heated, yesterday I had 4 girls screaming at the top of their lungs at me and each other about a call I made. Luckily they forget about it quickly and move on to the next point where they are cheering because they won.
Informally I have spent time getting to know more people and learning a little bit of Kreyol. Also, because it is the end of the semester a lot of the high schoolers are studying for exams or filling out take home exams that I have been helping with. I am beginning to understand why people put their kids in private schools if they can here, because there is very little support and instruction in the public schools. For example, the kids are supposed to learn English in school, but the professor gives them very little instruction and then a difficult take home exam. A lot of these kids have come to me to have me fill out the take home exam because they have absolutely no idea how to do it. Another thing; the kids have to pay for the take home exam (30 pesos each, about a dollar) which they can basically have anybody (such as a native English speaker) fill out, while the kids who do not pay have to take a monitored exam during the school day. This kind of system makes me very greatful for how demanding and dedicated my teachers were in the US!
The next couple weeks involve a trip to the beach to relax a little, and then lots and lots of Christmas activities (the public school, after school program and the church school are all making food and giving gifts to the kids)!
I have also filled in every once in a while at the after school program and continue meeting with youth twice a week to plan events and organize “charlas” or “talks”. I had discussed with the boys organizing a baseball tournament, because in past years the older boys always played a tournament that lasted several weekends in December and January, but in the past couple years no one has taken the leadership of it and last year the tournament didn't happen at all. With a little guidance from me, the boys planned what they needed to do in order to begin the tournament (the most work was cutting all the grass that had grown on the baseball field—the boys probably put in 15 hours cutting the grass with machetes) and by the time I had returned from Thanksgiving the tournament had been planned and they played that Saturday for the first time. I was so happy to see them organizing it almost completely by themselves, all they needed was a little help from me to begin with, but then they took off! They have three teams that play two games every weekend, and they are keeping some stats and at the end the winning team with receive a trophy and the most valuable player will receive a medal.
The after school program funded by foreign donors also organized a volleyball team for the girls in the community, and I am serving as referee when the girls play. The games, though there are no lines and a very low net, get very heated, yesterday I had 4 girls screaming at the top of their lungs at me and each other about a call I made. Luckily they forget about it quickly and move on to the next point where they are cheering because they won.
Informally I have spent time getting to know more people and learning a little bit of Kreyol. Also, because it is the end of the semester a lot of the high schoolers are studying for exams or filling out take home exams that I have been helping with. I am beginning to understand why people put their kids in private schools if they can here, because there is very little support and instruction in the public schools. For example, the kids are supposed to learn English in school, but the professor gives them very little instruction and then a difficult take home exam. A lot of these kids have come to me to have me fill out the take home exam because they have absolutely no idea how to do it. Another thing; the kids have to pay for the take home exam (30 pesos each, about a dollar) which they can basically have anybody (such as a native English speaker) fill out, while the kids who do not pay have to take a monitored exam during the school day. This kind of system makes me very greatful for how demanding and dedicated my teachers were in the US!
The next couple weeks involve a trip to the beach to relax a little, and then lots and lots of Christmas activities (the public school, after school program and the church school are all making food and giving gifts to the kids)!
December 3rd, 2008--My Friends
Well here in town I have made many friends; little children, old ladies, middle aged women, old men, teenagers, etc... I have also made some not so common friends:
My latrine—I'll spare you all the details, but beginning the first night that I arrived I have had some stomach problems, and so me and my latrine have become very good friends, I am happy going to it for help at all hours of the day and night, and it accepts me kindly.
My cell phone—this is obvious, it keeps me mildly in touch with the rest of the world, and whenever I need a break from my host family I tell them I'm going to make a call and go into the countryside where I get better signal, and a break!
Recently I have had several friends that would not go away when I wanted to sleep: I had mice in my bedspring. For about a week now I could hear them scurrying around somewhere under my bed. My host mom put some poison in my room and we found one dead next to the poison the next day, but I still heard the noises. Last night my host brother saw a rat scurrying towards my room, and so my host mom put a rat trap in my room. At about midnight I heard “snap!” and then rodent shrieks, then the sound of the metal scratching around on the concrete floor, and then nothing. I knew the mouse was dead, but I didn't want to see it. I tried to sleep and I woke up again early in the morning to the sound of more scuffling under my bed. In the morning I went outside to listen to the radio (where it gets better signal) and told my host mom that a rat had been killed in my room. I am trying to be independent and prove to my family that I can do normal Dominican things such as cook and clean, but I decided to leave this chore to one of my family members—I'm not that brave yet!
As I was sitting outside she came out with the rat trap—the rat was pretty large and pretty dead, which was a relief. Unfortunately, I still knew that there were more wandering around down there. This afternoon my host sister informed me that she had seen a dead mouse in my box spring, and finally we got the courage up to try to get it out. My host sister and I moved the mattress out into the hall and with our neighbor we tipped the box spring up, and there was not one but three mice scurrying around and one rotted mouse head sitting there on the floor. I never thought I would be one to scream when seeing a mice, but me and my neighbor and my sister shrieked a little, and the children came running to see what all the fuss was about. My neighbor yelled for a stick to kill them and my host sister came back with a machete, but my neighbor wanted something large and blunt. A boy ran in with the handle of a broom and my neighbor batted around a little, but in the end the mice ran into the next room free. At the very least they are not in my box spring anymore....
A couple minutes later the pastor of a church came by to inform me that they also have a mice problem, and that mice seem to be infesting a lot of the houses in the area. Great...I'm gonna keep looking around for a cat, it seems the only way to keep these mice away!
My latrine—I'll spare you all the details, but beginning the first night that I arrived I have had some stomach problems, and so me and my latrine have become very good friends, I am happy going to it for help at all hours of the day and night, and it accepts me kindly.
My cell phone—this is obvious, it keeps me mildly in touch with the rest of the world, and whenever I need a break from my host family I tell them I'm going to make a call and go into the countryside where I get better signal, and a break!
Recently I have had several friends that would not go away when I wanted to sleep: I had mice in my bedspring. For about a week now I could hear them scurrying around somewhere under my bed. My host mom put some poison in my room and we found one dead next to the poison the next day, but I still heard the noises. Last night my host brother saw a rat scurrying towards my room, and so my host mom put a rat trap in my room. At about midnight I heard “snap!” and then rodent shrieks, then the sound of the metal scratching around on the concrete floor, and then nothing. I knew the mouse was dead, but I didn't want to see it. I tried to sleep and I woke up again early in the morning to the sound of more scuffling under my bed. In the morning I went outside to listen to the radio (where it gets better signal) and told my host mom that a rat had been killed in my room. I am trying to be independent and prove to my family that I can do normal Dominican things such as cook and clean, but I decided to leave this chore to one of my family members—I'm not that brave yet!
As I was sitting outside she came out with the rat trap—the rat was pretty large and pretty dead, which was a relief. Unfortunately, I still knew that there were more wandering around down there. This afternoon my host sister informed me that she had seen a dead mouse in my box spring, and finally we got the courage up to try to get it out. My host sister and I moved the mattress out into the hall and with our neighbor we tipped the box spring up, and there was not one but three mice scurrying around and one rotted mouse head sitting there on the floor. I never thought I would be one to scream when seeing a mice, but me and my neighbor and my sister shrieked a little, and the children came running to see what all the fuss was about. My neighbor yelled for a stick to kill them and my host sister came back with a machete, but my neighbor wanted something large and blunt. A boy ran in with the handle of a broom and my neighbor batted around a little, but in the end the mice ran into the next room free. At the very least they are not in my box spring anymore....
A couple minutes later the pastor of a church came by to inform me that they also have a mice problem, and that mice seem to be infesting a lot of the houses in the area. Great...I'm gonna keep looking around for a cat, it seems the only way to keep these mice away!
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