Our Second Week

Three things right off the bat:  I am sure that eventually my titles will not have to do with the amount of time we have been here, and I have a second blog!  This one is more for COPA use, it is much shorter, and each post includes one picture.  It is much less personal, really just for increasing the amount of information available to the public about what we do here, and what life here looks like.  The address is copa365.blogspot.com .  Also, since I update these at random times, you can become followers and you will receive an email letting you know there is a new post (so you don't have to check back every day, which I know you all are doing!)

I thought I would start off with a picture of one of the kids from the Bombita school.  He was quite the flirt!

Ok, on with the show!

THis week we have settled in to a bit of a routine.  Work starts at 8, and we usually walk there together which is just a really nice way to start the day.  We work, sometimes together sometimes separate, until noon when we have a two hour, count em, two hour siesta.  During this time we eat lunch, take a little nap, play a little guitar, play with the dogs, and do a lot of reading!  At two we go back to work, and work til four.  Work for me so far has been teacher evaluations.  This has been a great way to get to know the teachers better than just a "hi howarya" and a handshake.  More on this later...After work we walk home together, walk the dogs in a plantain farm or on the baseball/horse field behind our house, and then make dinner.  We haven't been too social at night so far, there have been some board games with other volunteers and such, we pretty much stay in and watch a movie, talk, or read.   I think that once we get used to the heat we will not be so drained at the end of the day and will begin to spend more time with people we have met.  So far, interest in the dogs has not cooled down, we still have kids climbing the walls to see them, and in art class student are drawing the dogs with our names in hearts, or drawing all four of us together.  When we walk through town, new people come up to us to ask if we are the Americans with the dogs.  I was also asked by a farm owner if we would be willing to breed Tosh if he found the male dog and paid us. I explained to him that she doesn't have to appropriate organs for that purpose, but he continued to ask that if he could find a way, would we be willing to do it. At some point I just said sure, if you can find a way to impregnate a dog with no uterus, feel free.  He said he would be working on it. 

More on the teacher evaluations-These are pretty well set up, and i have really enjoyed the process.  I always loved being evaluated in the classroom, and I actually like it from this side better.  I have already been asked to meet with a new teach to discuss her plans for her eval, and it made me feel like I knew what I was doing when she liked my ideas, was stumped by some of my questions, and ended up tweaking her plans on account of those questions.  i have been able to contribute a good bit to the discussion after the evaluation, and I have learned a lot as well.   The  people in the evaluation group are myslef and the other education advisor Olivia, and the principals from each school.  We watch a class for 45 minutes, then we discuss for about 3 hours and meet back with the teacher 30 minutes.  The three hour meeting in the middle gets to me a bit, because about half that time is spent talking about completely unrelated subjects and we could be spending that time in the classroom, I mean, sometime we don't even get t o see the entire lesson, and yet we still evaluate them on it!  So I think that will be something I will work to adjust in the future.  Also, almost all the teachers give repeat lessons for their evals.  Meaning we are not seeing how a teacher teaches, how she handles the situation if the kids are not getting it, etc...We flip throught he teacher's planning book every time, and many times see that they taught this particular lesson, with these some activities and questions just yesterday, two weeks ago, or last month.  And nothing gets said to them.   I will say there have been some excellent lessons taught that were not repeats, and some of them that were repeats were so good, I am sure the teacher was just very nervous and didn't want to mess up.  OH!  The teachers' bonuses are based of these evaluations, so it is pretty stressful.  So to keep that particular gaff from continuing, I suggested doing pre evaluation meetings with just one of us and the teacher, to review their plans for the day and tweak it a bit if necessary, in hopes that they will learn more, and be more confident.  The suggestion was well received and hopefully we can put it in to place next year.

Ruber, Maribele, and Olivia during the evaluation meeting

Last weekend we were in a bit of a strange and stressful situation.  We always go into Barahona, which is the closest city, do do grocery shopping and eat lunch as a group.  That particular morning, right as we were leaving La Hoya, A Haitian woman and her two small boys were walking towards us.  Olivia stopped them and asked where they were going and did they need a ride.  The woman was pretty out of it didn't answer at all.  So Olivia asked again, where are you going.  This time the woman replied "Where are YOU going?"  Eventually she got into the truck with us.  All three were lethargic, dirty, and the boys did not have shoes, and one did not have pants or underwear on.  They did not talk the entire way there.  Once we arrived we all got out of the car, Olivia gave her 50 pesos, and we went to do our shopping.  When we came back tot he truck to drop off the groceries before lunch, they were sitting outside the truck, or so Patrick told me, I didn't actually see them there. So After lunch we brought them our leftovers and a fork (portions are massive here!).  But when we got in the truck, so did they!  We didn't really know what to do, but we found out she was homeless, Her house had been robbed and she said her husband and two older kids had been lost and she had been walking for the last two weeks.  So we called some of the locals we know, and they suggested we take them to the fire station.  When we did, they said they could stay there one night only, and did not have any information on any shelters or resources.    So we came back the next day, and the kids and their mom were significantly more alert and talkative.  Patrick and I bought the boys some shoes and clothes, the woman had nothing but he clothes on her back and her boys.  We also brought them some breakfast, a towel, some fruit and some water. We took them to the other town we work in, Bombita, which is a Haitian village. A human rights worker met us there and let us know that there was a house that had an extra room they could stay in.  The mother showed no emotion at this news, I am sure in her mind there were still so many unknowns remaining such as food, water, being accepted into the community, etc...The boys were sad to leave us as they were led away, and the way they kept looking back at me just broke my heart.   We have been back to see them a few time this past week, and every day the mom, Cito, has been more alert and more talkative.  She is obviously traumatized, but the community, which is already hard off for basic needs, has welcomed her and her boys, and have brought them food, a mosquito net, and more.  We feel confident that this will e a good long term solution for the little family, and she may even be able to get a part time job cleaning at the school.

This is the beach we went to last weekend, Playa Azul

Thats pretty much all for now folks, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this little update!

Our first few days and our first few lessons

 FYI/ I wrote this a few days ago, and hav only just now gotten internet!

We have arrived!!!  We flew out from Atlanta on Friday morning with about 300 pounds of luggage, not including our two dogs.  The emotions during that flight ranged from child like jittery excitement to full on, adult like apprehension of all that lies ahead.  It sometimes felt like another trip, just another vacation, until I looked around the plane and saw the actual tourists near us.  They were excited and carefree, with light bags and sun tan lotion, looking forward to a week of relaxation, some interesting food, and pretty beaches.  After making this comparison, I no longer felt like this was just another trip, and that’s probably when my emotions evened out and I accepted that I had little idea of what to expect,, and there was nothing I could do about it at that time.

Anyway, we got the dogs through customs alarmingly easily, we didn’t even have to use the bribe money we had tucked away just in case.  We found our taxi driver with just as much ease and all our things fit well into the cab of his truck. 

The drive from Santo Domingo to our little village, La Hoya took about four hours.  To say there are no traffic law is an understatement.  Its almost as if there are in fact plenty of laws, and people try their darndest to break every single one of them. It didn’t help that everyone was so interested in our dogs that as they passed us, they would see the dogs and slam on their brakes to get a better look, try to ask their breeds, names and ages.  Others would try to flick their noses!  Luckily, our normally sweet puppies snapped right back.  There has been an increase of dog-napping recently as dog fighting has become a lucrative job, so I was worried that the dogs would be too nice for their own good, but they have been just aggressive enough to put off any bad intentions.

When we arrived in La Hoya it seemed that no one new where we were supposed to go at first, but we got it figured out eventually.  A few guys were still working in our house building a new kitchen cabinet and a small parade of children had formed, not to welcome us, but to inquire about the dogs.  The taxi driver unloaded the bags, and the guys finished up their work and we were left on our own for the remained of the night, with no dishes, no food, and no electricity.  Awesome.  We were feeling a little bit down but we rallied and went in search of food.  You have to understand that there are no stores here.  People have “colmados” or little shops run out of the front room of their homes.  These are not clearly marked, the hours are random at best, and they sell out of anything fresh in the morning.  We really wanted some fruit or vegetables or something not fried, but there was nothing.  We met our first friend at that point, Marilin.  She called out to us and introduced herself.  She is friends with some of the other volunteers, and when we asked here were to find some oranges or mangos, she invited us in her house and gave us each a mango.  We met her kids and the neighborhood baby(yes, the neighborhood baby.  He gets passed around from one house to another, I still do not know who his mother actually is.) Then we got some bread and some juice from a colomado, and with lifted spirits, returned home to find the electricity back on.  Lesson one: welcome new volunteers better than we were welcomed.

On day two we woke up to about 10 boys sitting on top of our fence, waiting for the dogs to come out.  Eventually we got up and went out with the dogs and put on a little show, McKinley impressed them all with her Frisbee skills, and Tosh impressed when one of the boys jumped into the yard and she growled her meanest growl and started advancing on him.  Nobody else tried to do that again.  After 20 minutes or so we had to make up some excuse to go inside because these kids, and a few adults by this time, were just not going to leave!  We also had to tell them that when we are here with the dogs they are nice, but if we are not here, they will protect the house so please, do not ever climb the fence again. Later, we went with a few of the other volunteers to the city, Barahona.  We did some grocery shopping in a store and a little in the market and then had lunch with the whole group.  The trip wasn’t to remarkable, but it was good to see what sort of resources a bigger city would provide us.  When we got back we had some down time and then two of the girls showed us around town a little more.  The showed us their favorite colmado, the church,  a few short cuts, and the little park in the middle of town.  And that’s pretty much all there is to La Hoya.  Later the some two girls came over with some crepes, and we sat and talked a while.  Some of the students also came over and played with the dogs, played with Patrick’s Ukulele, and we played pass the pigs.  They stayed for quite a while, and we had no idea how to tell them it was time to go home, until, thankfully, they said they had to go to youth group.  Lesson two: Always have an excuse ready to give guests when we want them to leave, i.e., I have to wash my hair….

Yesterday we went to church.  It is a pretty good sized church, but people only sit on one side because so few people come.  I was wondering why this was, until the music started.  The musicians are pretty talented, but the singing! Oh the horrors!  No tune, no rhythm, everybody singing as loud as they can, even the folks with microphones, I mean, their joy was apparent and wonderful, but it was seriously painful.  After church five of the little girls from the school came over and showed me how to make tostones, which are cut up plantains, fried, smashed, fried again, and salted. They were delicious.  They girls were a little crazy over everyting in the house.  They were fighting over the ukulele, my camera, the ipod, the ipod stereo, the dogs’ toys, the dogs, the cooking responsibilities, the cleaning up(they washed the dishes!) the rules of tag, the rules of pass the pigs, it was about 4 hours of them fighting, and nothing I could do about it.  They were fun, and helpful, but I will have to set some guideline for the next time they are in our house.  Later, two volunteer cooked us dinner, we played Cranium, and finally, after a long day of socializing, bed time! However, we are so covered in bug bites of all sorts, we seriously have no room left on our bodies for more bites, that we could barely sleep.  That combined with the heat, the emotional and physical exhaustion, and the motor bikes roaring by, last night there was not nearly enough sleep happening. Lesson three: Know when enough is enough, and when to say no, or it will get the best of me.

Anyway, tomorrow we are going to the beach with a few other volunteers and a bunch of Dominicans from the village.  This should provide for some interesting tid bits!