The fourth week here in the Dominican has been one of the
most interesting yet. I have realized
more than ever, that as much as I would like to think that I am in control, I am
definitely not. I think I needed that
reminded that God is in control and there is so much that happens that I have
no control or power over and I just need to accept that. I can just be in control of myself and
nothing else.
Teaching fourth grade in the morning is getting easier as we
now have a routine of sorts, if there is such a thing in the D.R. Mondays are always the most challenging
day, but I guess that is why people everywhere say, “oh it’s just a
Monday!” I had 5 boys in the class
on Monday and not a single one of them was happy with another, but they were
particularly mad at one of the boys.
I still don’t know what the problem was, but before I knew it I had 2
boys one side of the room and 3 on the other. They were all up in each other’s faces and for a moment I
thought we were going to have a brawl in our classroom!!! Finally we just had
to keep them separated and that resolved that issue. By the next morning they were over whatever the problem had
been, and thankfully the rest of the week was a lot more peaceful and calm.
This week in the afternoon program I was teaching a class on
how to make friendship bracelets.
My sister Emily had mailed me embroidery thread and the necessary
supplies to make them. Let me that
first day was possibly the most two chaotic hours of my life. Because the power had been out that
afternoon I did not get to print off instructions, but instead was left to my
own devices to try to explain to everyone how to make them. I thought I would have just a few kids
but I ended up having fairly large groups for both hours. The kids all showed up at once and
started grabbing thread and were asking a million questions at once. Unfortunately there was only one of me
to go around and explain how to make them; I needed about 5 of me to handle the
chaos. As the week went on the
afternoon program got less stressful.
Not as many kids showed up and the ones that kept coming back already
knew how to make the bracelets. In
the end it turned out to be a lot of fun and I really got to know some of the
kids well.
Life in our house has been an interesting one this
week. On Monday night the light
bulb in our bathroom went out. The
next day we went and bought a new one only to realize that it did not fit in
the socket. Turns out the right
size is very hard to come by and almost a week later we still are
lightless. I have become very good
at taking showers by candlelight.
This experience was apparently just preparing us for what would come
later in the week. On Thursday our
power got turned off at both the house I am staying at and the house the rest
of the interns are at across the street because the bill was late. Friday morning the bill got paid and
the power company was supposed to come turn it back on, of course this did not
happen. By this point we were out
of water and all rather grumpy from not having any power. That night Rachel and I were home alone
and decided we were going to investigate the power situation; we had heard that
they just flip something around to turn the power on and off, so thought we
could probably handled that. After
spending some time looking at the meter boxes we found the one that went to the
intern house and it was the only one with an actual switch and it just happened
to be unlocked, so of course we flipped it! Low and behold that worked and the
intern house had power once again.
Unfortunately we could not get it turned on at Katie and Mallory’s
(which is where I live), but thankfully the power company came Saturday morning
and fixed it after much complaining.
The other interns from the rest of the island arrived in
Jarabacoa Friday for a weekend for all of us to catch up. Those of us who live here were in
charge of dinner for 25 people, but it all went surprisingly well. On Saturday
we all headed to the capitol, Santo Domingo. We got a late start on the day and then had a tire blow out,
but eventually made it. While
there we toured the colonial zone and saw the oldest cathedral in the
America’s, Diego Columbus’s palace, and several other historical sites. There was a lot of neat stuff to see,
but my goodness was it hot there.
It made me very thankful that we are living up in the mountains, we all
thought it was hot here in Jarabacoa but it has nothing on Santo Domingo. After we went on the guided tour we had
time to shop or check out other places that weren’t on our tour. The Monte Plata interns left us in
Santo Domingo to head back to their site and the rest of us headed home through
Constanza to drop the interns off their and tour the Ark there, but
unfortunately it was dark by the time we arrived there so we did not get to
tour the facilities there. It was
a long day but was great to catch up with the other interns and was fun to get
to go to the capitol.
I found out when I got down here that the girl I have been
sponsoring for close to 9 years is no longer in the program. She had failed sixth grade and repeated
it but then failed seventh grade and when that happened her father pulled her
out of the program. This made me
sad that I wouldn’t get to see her and that she probably wouldn’t be finishing
her education, and in turn her future is probably not too bright. While all of this was going on my mom
emailed me to let me know I had been assigned a new child, but I had the option
to decline and choose my own since I was down here. Her name is Diovelis, she is 5 years old, and in
Kindergarten, which Mallory teaches.
As soon as I saw which little girl she was, I thought she was possibly
the cutest kid I have ever seen. I
put a lot of thought into whether I wanted to pick a kid I already had a
connection with to sponsor, but have decided to become her sponsor. I am
excited to get to spend some more time with her in the next two weeks and
hopefully get to know her better.
I can’t believe we only have 2 weeks left here, but as sad
as I will be to leave I am also excited and ready to be at home. Being here has really made me
appreciate the people and life I have back at home.
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