November 7th, 2009: I think I might be insane---Another trip!

As you will remember if you have been reading my blog, about a month ago we hosted a group of Escojo health promotors in our community to have an over night event. Well this weekend, it was our turn to go visit them in their community! Since we have limited funding for these events, the kids each had to come up with 150 pesos (about four dollars) to be able to come on the trip. I didn’t think a lot of kids would be able to find that much money, and by the time the deadline (Monday) rolled around, only about ten kids out of 19 had turned in their money. However, after that several other kids came and gave me the money for the trip. I couldn’t say no because I knew they had worked hard to come up with that money, but the problem was that by Thursday night, the night before the trip, I had a group of 16 kids—yes that’s right, sixteen teenagers between the ages of thirteen and nineteen—that were ready to get up at 545 in the morning to travel. Now let me just say that usually when we do trips or camps there is a 1:3 or 1:4 ratio of volunteers to kids—at this event it was going to be about 1:15. Needless to say, I was a little bit nervous about how the kids would behave and whether they would take advantage of the lack of adult supervision!
Because transportation is so expensive here, I began looking for ways to reduce the travel costs of a group that large, and luckily a friend of mine was able to help us out a bit. At 545 in the morning all seventeen of us piled in the back of a pickup truck and slowly made our bumpy way to the nearest town. There, I left five kids to pile in the car of a friend of my friend who works in the capital and offered to take the kids to the capital and drop them off at the bus stop of the next bus that we would be taking. Then I put another five kids in the back of a group of nuns' truck that was also on its way to the capital (I had to have a discussion with my kids before they got in about respecting nuns), and the other seven of us got on a public bus. Amazingly, we all ended up in the same spot and from there took another bus to a stop where the volunteer of the other group was waiting for us with another pick up truck to haul us all up the mountain to her community.
We arrived at the conference center where we were going to stay and were greeted by the other Escojo group. We had lunch, did some ice breakers, and headed to the beach. My kids, if they’re lucky, usually get to go to the beach once a year with the Canadians who bring them during one of their trips, so for them going to the beach was a huge treat! After that we got back and, to my surprise, the kids still wanted to swim in the pool. They swam and then bathed and set up the tents that they were going to sleep in (also the first time they had ever slept in tents)
That night we did workshops on leadership and discrimination, and then spent the rest of the night playing music and dominoes and just sitting around doing the typical Dominican “Compartir” (sharing). The kids were so excited to be somewhere other than their houses for the night that they couldn’t fall asleep early, despite the fact that they had been up since four and five am. It had begun to rain, and some of us had moved our mattresses into an outdoor meeting space that was more waterproof than the tents. All of my girls decided that they wanted to sleep there, and so I slept outside with my girls, which was great because it gave us a chance to have a mini sleepover and plenty of girl talk. Before going to sleep, however, I had to do several checks of the tents and other sleeping areas to make sure there was no “boy-girl” mixing. As far as I could tell, the kids were pretty respectful of the rules (I had to explain to my boys earlier that no, they could not just give a couple girls they had met kisses because we all knew that kisses led to other things that could have negative consequences).
We all woke up around 6 am with the sun; I personally woke up to the voices of my kids talking, and one even beating a drum (I promptly went over there and told him to be quiet, since others were still trying to sleep). The kids hosting the event did a great job; they had to cook and wash the dishes and clean the entire center that had been lent to them for the event—I was so impressed that they were being so responsible. I was especially impressed when they got up earlier than their volunteer to prepare breakfast for all thirty of us!
Before departing, my kids presented a great drama on the consequences of alcohol—I had not seen them rehearse it, but they got up there and performed wonderfully and gave out a great message! We then did an activity to practice making presentation materials, and then reflected on the last twenty-four hours. As my kids loaded into the pickup truck to go back down the mountain, they took out their instruments and began playing the merengues they have composed about Escojo. They played all the way down to the highway, and as soon as we got on the next bus they began to play again, getting a little more wild (our harmonica player and dancer claimed he was too hot, and before I knew it he was dancing around on the bus without his shirt!) While we were on that bus, one of the men who worked on the bus began hitting on me, calling me “mami” and harassing me a bit, which is pretty normal in this country. But to my surprise, my kids began to protest, saying that we were all going to get off the bus if he continued being disrespectful. I was touched that they were protecting me like that, I guess they have learned that I hate that kind of behavior and felt like it was their job to put a stop to it!
We arrived in the capital and all piled onto another bus that would take us to our nearest town. When we arrived, it was raining, and we had to wait quite some time until the pick-up that was supposed to come and get us showed up. We finally piled into that vehicle (which I was afraid would break every time we went over any big bump) and began to make our way back to Las Pajas. It rained on us the entire way there, and we were all getting very damp in the back of the pickup. Despite the fact that Dominicans hate getting wet and claim that if you get wet you will get a cold afterwards, the kids didn’t seem to mind the rain at all; all they could do was talk about what had happened at the “intercambio”(exchange) and who was “enamorado” (in love) with who. All throughout the trip, my kids hardly complained at all about whatever little problem arose (be it having to wait for a bus, walking to the beach because the truck broke down, or being hungry because they had left too early to eat breakfast, and on the last day we left late and didn’t eat lunch). They were troopers, and it was obvious that they were just happy to be traveling and knowing other places.
After being in my community for a year, it was fun to do this event because I saw some changes in myself and my kids. For example, I am now able to control a group of 16 teenagers on a five hour trip involving four different vehicles! During the drama and the workshops my kids were able to make significant contributions to the conversation thanks to the topics we have discussed in the classes I teach them. They also took me seriously when I asked them not to hook up with any other kids during the two days we were doing the event. I hope that this also reflects the fact that my kids have learned to be respectful and follow rules when need be. I think I have grown just as much as they have during this year; I have learned a lot from them and hopefully gained their respect, which is important when working in communities
It was also fun to see the group that hosted us working; they have been a group for longer than we have (the volunteer in that site is about to leave country) and they were able to lead a lot of activities and do a lot of tasks without the help of the volunteer, which is something I aspire to for my group. Despite the fact that being in charge of such a large group of youth was a bit stressful, and I arrived at my home exhausted, it was a great experience for both me and my youth, and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again if the opportunity arose.

Sirve Con Fuerza! (Serve with Force)

Well it seems anywhere I go I am able to involve myself in something that has to do with volleyball. Here, as I have mentioned before, I have a team that I coach in my site, and I have also been working on organizing several volleyball tournaments for teams that volunteers have been coaching.
This past weekend we had an overnight tournament near my site that went great. My girls were so excited to travel (even though it wasn't very far) and to spend the night somewhere else. The schedule went like this: We arrived, ate, introduced ourselves and talked about the rules of the tournament and good sportsmanship, then headed to a nearby school that had a court and played a round robin between all four teams. The teams were not exactly equal in size or skill (my team, for example had mainly 13 and 14 year olds, whereas another team had a twenty-year old), and several teams got absolutely creamed, but thanks to all our chats about good sportsmanship, the teams all supported each other and cheered each other on.
The first day my girls ended up winning two games and losing one (to the team that had the twenty-year old on it) and were happy when we left the court and went back to the center where we were staying. After shower time all the girls came down to the main room and one team gave a presentation on the consequences of teen pregnancy. After dinner and cake the girls did some activities to get to know each other better, and then they were supposed to go to bed. My girls at 9 pm had told me they were exhausted and wanted to go to bed, but at midnight they were still up giggling and running around.
Despite the late night, the girls woke up before 6 am to begin to get ready for the tournament. After breakfast we did several activities to get the girls thinking about self-esteem and how they affect their teammates' self-esteem, and then I taught them some volleyball cheers that we had in the States--they all loved the Ace cheers!
After that we headed to the court for the semi-finals and finals. My girls won their semi finals game easily, and then it was time for the finals, against the team with the 20 year old and several girls who actually knew how to jump and hit a ball really hard. My girls got super pumped up at first, but were a little scared in the first game and lost. The second game they came back from 3-10 to win 16-14 thanks to some good defense from my said and infighting on the other side. Unfortunately, the girls couldn't pull through and win the third game, but they fought hard and were proud of themselves for getting second in the tournament, and of course winning a trophy!
We finished the tournament by handing out trophies to the two first place teams, and volleyballs to the teams with best sportsmanship and the team who raised the most money for the tournament. The girls all had a great time and were excited to go back to their towns and keep practicing for the next tournament!
As you'll see in these photos, my team was "sponsored" by the Macalester volleyball team, who sent us uniforms, a net and balls, which came in handy for the tournament, thanks Mac!