DR Projects Blog

  Today for breakfast, we had scrambled eggs and pancakes, which were really yummy. There was also a pineapple-orange juice for us! Today was our last day visiting the school. When we got there, all the kids ran up to us and hugged us. Then we went to the morning assembly, and they sang the national anthems of the Dominican Republic and the United States. All the kids sang (or rather mumbled) along with the US anthem as well. As they went to their first class of the day, they all greeted us by giving high-fives, fist-bumps, or shaking our hands. Our first class of the day was sixth grade and we did a matching game with fruits like we did yesterday with a different sixth-grade class, and they got very excited and enthusiastic about it. After that, we went to fourth grade and we went outside and played a matching game with Uniendo Manos Dominicanas cards. They had different tasks for the students to do on them. The preschoolers were also at recess at that time and they kept coming up...

  We started the day off with a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs instead of the usual fried eggs. Then, we went to the school and as we got off the bus, and a lot of kids greeted us with warm hugs. Since today was not opening ceremonies or the day of the child, there were no special dances in the morning assembly, but they still sang the Dominican national anthem and the United States national anthem. After the assembly, we went to a sixth-grade class where we stood in front of the class while the kids wrote fruits down on the smart board. Then we pronounced the fruits and they repeated them back. We also played a matching game where the students had to match a picture of the fruit to the English word for that fruit. The kids were very shy in the first part, but once we started playing the matching game, they all wanted to participate. After spending time with the sixth-grade class, some of the people in our group went to teach the fourth graders animals in English outside with fla...

Today, we were on the bus to Altagracia School by 7:30. Our schedule called for only one session of English classes today because it was the Day of the Child. The school was celebrating with special activities, much like what we might call a field day. There were games and, we helped to make a special drink, cutting up fruit. There was dancing and fun, and it was all very loud, but the kids loved the opportunity to interact with us. After the drink-making, we all played several games of “thumb war” and everyone enjoyed that very much. While most of us were at the school, Keith (a physician) and Henry (the interpreter) spent another day with Dr. Albert Sanchez at the Hospital de Immaculada Concepción. While there, Keith and Henry were able to experience the different styles of treatment offered at the public health clinic. A completely different experience from the private offices that were visited the day before. They observed Doctor Sanchez treat patients for a variety of issues ran...

Although the time difference is only an hour, we had a pretty groggy breakfast. I’m struggling to remember what we ate, because it was followed by a few necessary cups of coffee that set the precedent we needed; confidence, determination, and creativity. Our hotel is a very short drive to the Altagracia School where our work began. With some quick defensive driving maneuvers by our amazing bus driver, Glen, we somehow avoided all the children when we arrived into the school yard. To everyone else in the world, it was just another Monday, but to the students, it was almost like a holiday. They could not hide their excitement and ran to greet us with high fives, hugs, and gifts. If the coffee hadn’t woken us up already, this definitely did.  We were overjoyed at such a warm welcome, only to find out that Maria Del Carmen, the principal, and the English teacher, Maribel, had arranged an extraordinary welcome ceremony. Starting off with the national Dominican Republic anthem, and then ...

  Today, we started by walking to church for their Mass. They had several people in the choir loft, someone playing the keyboard, and someone playing the guitar. There was a lot of singing. During the service, an infant got baptized, and someone also had Happy Birthday sung to them, and we all sang that. At the end of the service, we all got invited to the front of the church, and he congratulated us and blessed us. We also all got holy water flung on us.  There must have been more than 250 people there - it was packed! After church, Glen drove us to a small village called Las Auyamas. There we visited Ana Maria and her family and their home, and it was a house the DR group had helped build about 7 or 8 years ago. Some of us also took a walk down the road and saw many (for us) exotic plants and animals! There is this very interesting plant called Sensitive Plant, and when touched, the leaves instantly curl up!  They had some fresh avocado, made into a salad with some pick...