Friday, Paradise island, and the Sabbath

The end of the week seemed so far away, but Friday came so soon. We all were grateful to have the weekend. Friday night we decided we wanted pizza so we hoped in the guay guay(public bus system) and made our way into town. Our friend Mario took us to a pizzeria. It was so worth it! Even though the pizza was clearly different, it was delicious. A refreshing change from the rice and meat we have everyday. After dinner we walked down the road past long beach. Mario wouldn't let us walk on the beach because at night they become very dangerous. I'm really glad he came with us.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to head to Paradise island. We piled in this big bus with the AC blasting and traveled about two hours. We passed beautiful feilds of animals and crops, some of which were going to be shipped to the US. When the ocean came into view again it was so blue. We walked down to the crystal clear water where three little boats were there waiting. These boats looked super sketchy... Like a big fiberglass boat with a huge 70 horse power motor strapped on the back. At first I was a little freaked out but once we got going I remembered how much I love boats. It was so fun!! After about ten minutes the boats stopped and underneath us was a big sand bar. We al jumped out and played in the shoulder deep water. It's weird to be able to stand in the middle of the ocean. When we decided to continue on I was so grateful for my guide strength that allowed me to get myself in the boat. We continued another ten minutes out toward the middle of the ocean. Then out of nowhere a little sand bar with six tiny huts appeared. A little piece of paradise. All around the sand bar was a coral reef with tons of fish. We snorkeled and played for a couple hours on this tiny island. On the way back the boats took the long way and took us through a mangrove forest. It reminded me a lot of Florida. I kept waiting for an alligator to appear. ;) We had lunch at a little buffet by the sea. It was amazing! I don't know if it was really that good or if we were all just starving, but nonetheless it was a delicious meal. After the two hour ride back we were all exhausted.

Now on to the Sabbath day! I love Sundays, even when we don't understand most of what is being said. Just being at the church, taking the sacrament, and feeling the spirit is what I find important. It's about a mile and a half walk up to church. And when I say up I mean it.. It's uphill just about the whole way, but it's worth it. On the way home we were dying of heat walking in the sun when all the sudden we were startled by a load horn. Now it's not uncommon for people to honk at us but it was seriously frightening. When then heard a person bark and immediately knew who it was. Amarillis's son in law was the one who drove us out to paradise island in the big bus and he he was again! It seems like such a menial thing, but three minutes in a very air conditioned bus helped us find the stamina to make it the rest of the way home. Tender mercies are all around us.

Adventures of the weekend: getting a flat tire with papi at la Sirena, having no power for hours and hours, taking a boat to the middle of the ocean, and trying to drink the ocean while snorkeling...

Day 7,8, & 9. Teaching has begun!

Monday morning rolls around and it's time to start teaching. I teach at isabelita school which is a little school of about 40 children. We got there and found that many of the kids were two years old. We split off into groups and started teaching our rotations. Let me tell you, it was chaos.. There were at least two children crying at all times. I found that my lessons actually went rather well considering the circumstances. The other teachers taught later in the day at another school and by the time they returned more than half of them wanted to go home. It's true what they say about the kids in the Dominican Republic. They are adorable, but little devils when they want to be. They are crazy!!

The Dominican People are extremely laid back which is awesome and leads to happy people, but it's very hard to organize teaching times. I was really lucky to get the school I have. It's a tiny two room school with one mud floor, but the kids are not as crazy as the others.

My second day of teaching was not as successful for me. I was put with two year olds to start and then moved right up to the older kids. The older kids were crazy! They were much harder to keep under control, but we made it! I was hit a few times and they called me names in Spanish I couldn't understand but I got them to say a few words in English so I would say that's a win. After teaching we went out and explored the town with our friend Mario. He showed us all around where he used to live. We stopped by a museum and a few other cool attractions. Oh! And we got to feed pigeons in there Central Park. It was so cool!! Feed the birds ten pesos a bag. Haha We also stopped by an amazing frozen yogurt place. You choice the fruits and then they make it right there. It was the best treat yet! We walked a total of about six miles which made for a long day, but it was worth it!

Today was the third day of teaching. I feel like it was my worst so far... My throat hurt from trying to talk over everyone the past two days. When we got there many of the kids were crying and it just got worse. Luckily the time went by fairly quickly and I made it through without a complete mental breakdown. Tomorrow the kids are coming to the classroom that is below our apartment so it should be much better. There will be enough space to spread out and actually have our own lessons. I'm so excited!!

Adventures of the days: dealing with many screaming children, being followed by creepy men yelling how much they love us, witnessing a moto accident, and feeding pigeons.

Day #6 My first Sunday!

We are going to jump over the number five because my day one post was technically day one and two.. So here we are at day six! Almost a full week down. Today we got to go to stake conference. Only 14 of us wanted to go so we left an hour before church to walk with our neighbor Nicole to the bus stop. We didn't have to wait very long until a van stopped. These vans are little 12 passenger stick shift vans. We filled it up with our group, but we stopped many times and picked up more people. At one point in time we had 24 people crammed in that little van. It struggled to get up hills and I'm positive if we took a corner the wrong way the entire van would tip on its side. It was quite the adventure!
What a wonderful sight it was to behold when we pulled up to the chapel. I immediately felt safe and at peace, a feeling scarsly found walking the streets. The people were really nice and fairly welcoming. I imagine they will be more so when we go to our home ward next week as opposed to stake conference. Their whole stake is about the size of one of our wards, maybe two put together. From what I understood of the talks they were really good. It surprises me how much I actually got out of them. We sat in front of the missionaries. They are from Idaho and Utah so they seemed familiar faces. Pretty much the first Americans we have seen in days. It was refreshing to hear a little English, but also weird.. I'm proud I held myself together rather well emotionally today. Culture shock will not get the best of me! I will admit I almost cried out of happiness being at the church today.

Adventures of the day: Broken washing machine, fitting 24 people in a 12 passenger van, lighting the stove burner.. Yes it was an adventure.

Day #4 Culture shock

Alright, let's talk for a minute about culture shock. Let me just tell you, it's real! Many people experience it in different ways. For some it involves not wanting to be where they are and trying to find any reason or way to get home. For others it involves random involuntary tears. Then there are those who physically get sick. In any case, It is ridiculous and no one really knows how to explain it. I was told over and over how normal it is to have culture shock. The Dominican Republic is hot, we lack power, our water situation is sketchy, the shower barely works, and many other things, but I love it. We talked about all these things in training and many things I found similar to that of a river trip so I didn't feel the need to worry, nor did I expect culture shock to set in so fast..

I imagined saying my goodbyes and leaving would be the hardest part, but it turns out the fourth day is the hardest for me. Maybe my mind and heart finally caught up to the fact that I'm living In a 3rd world country for the next 4 months. My culture shock came in the way of random involuntary tears. I would be talking to someone about nothing in particular and I would just break down. It's not that I don't want to be here or find it hard to live in these conditions, I think my mind is just overwhelmed. I also think I have too much free time.

If any of you know me well at all you know I like to stay busy, I always like to have something to do. Well so far being here I have had more hours of free time than anything else and it is driving me crazy. The head teachers keep saying that once we start teaching we will have even more free time. I don't know what to do with myself.. Any Ideas?

Adventures of the day: spontaneous tears during phone conversation, wandering the streets with 15+ children and having a dance party. Lesson Planning.

Day #3

         We visited the schools today! The first little school was just like a house. As I walked through the door I was stopped by two little girls who ran to give me a hug. It melted my heart. It was love at first sight in a sense. Then we walked down the road to the Javillar school, which is much bigger. They have kindergarten through third grade. The kindergarten kids were having a water day since it was the end of the first week. It was so fun to watch the play. Children are children no matter where they live and what circumstances they come from. We moved on to see the older kids classrooms. We got there right as the bell rang for recess. And let me tell you, I have never felt so popular in my life. We had kids swarming us, wanting to take pictures and play with our hair or give us hugs. It was amazing. I have only been here for a couple days, but I'm already in love with the kids.

            After a our school exploration we came back for lunch and decided to go to the beach. It was fun. I am not a huge fan salt water, but it felt really good to cool off. On the way back it was four of us girls. I have never heard so many cat calls in my life.. The men here are very friendly and I'm pretty sure the only English they know is "You are beautiful" and "come with me". Most of the time they rambled things in Spanish at us. I am very grateful for the three years of Spanish I took in high school. When I can understand most of what they say and shut them down it makes it a lot less stressful to walk the streets. Luckily the neighborhood where we are is pretty good. The people around all know who we are and have been blessed by the program so they welcome us and even protect us. I am extrremely grateful for that. We made it back safe and sound, it is also remarkable we didn't get lost. We had another teacher meeting to go over lesson planning and get our school assignments and stuff. I was assigned to the Isabelita school which is one of the smaller ones. I'm so excited!! By some lucky chance the first subject I get to teach is Drama. How perfect is that? We start teaching on Monday and I'm sure it's going to be chaos, but it will be great. 

Adventures of the day: breaking my chacos while walking down the street. The bottom floor flooding...(we are still working on this one) 

Day #2

We got up and had peanut butter and jelly for breakfast. (Food is an important detail to add right?) Then we were shown around the town. We walked down to a little store that also has an ATM where we exchanged money and such. Then we headed down to the beach. It seemed to be ten degrees cooler down by the water, and that view was amazing. We stayed there for a little while before heading home for lunch. It is about a 30 minute walk from the beach to the house. After lunch we had a meeting to talk about teaching stuff. 

Then our next adventure, going to la seira. It's a big store, kinda like our city market. We had to get a bus and taxi to fit all 21 of us. Did you know you can fit six people in a taxi? It is the size of my little car that should hold four people. When they take off the emergency break they jut put a little pillow on top of it. Funny, huh? Well anyways, we got all the things we needed at the store and then came home in time for dinner. (Because everything revolves around food) The rest of the evening we just got to know each other a little better. As a whole the group seems to be getting along rather well. I'm hoping it stays that way. 

One adventure of the day: running out of water. Apparently with 30 girls we go through a lot of water and we used all of it byuh lunchtime. We had to wait a few hours before the water truck came. We also had the power go out on us for a few hours.They say it is only on for 12 hours a day, but not one person knows when those 12 hours are going to be. 

My ILP Adventure DAY #1

I'm only 2 full days into this adventure and it's already been so amazing. The first day was a little stressful and very nerve-racking at times. Let me tell you though, that was the smoothest Airport experience I have ever had, customs and all. We traveled as a group from salt lake to New York and then finally down to Puerto plata. As we began our decent to the island the runway and most of the island were hidden from view. It looked as though we were heading straight for the ocean. All of the sudden the plane landed on one of the smallest landing strips I have seen. Everyone clapped once we landed thanking the pilots for getting us here in safety. As we walked off the plane we were welcomed by a musical group who played brilliantly every time a person came by. Next we had to go through customs and immigration, something I have heard horror stories about. The people helping us were so nice though and it took no time at all. Right outside the Airport we found Amaryllis, our local coordinator. She had busses ready for us. The busses are really just glorified fifteen passenger vans. We had to load our stuff in a hurry because the moment we got outside it started to rain. Now I'm not talking about a little bit drizzle, it was really raining. By the time we all climbed in the bus we were soaked. 

Our house is a pretty good drive from the Airport which meant we got a tour through the the city. One thing we noticed right off the bat is that Dominicans are crazy drivers.. Who knew you could fit three or four vehicles across a one lane roadway. Then there are the motorbikes. They go where ever they want, swerving in and out between the other vehicles. It's crazy! I am extremely greatful I don't have to drive. The drive to the house was awesome. It is crazy to go past all the big really his resorts and then see the shack houses not even a mile away. The people are all out on the streets all the time. As we got closer to our apartment the streets and the houses became smaller and smaller. The children were out by the street watching us. Our big bus seemed to stand out more and more as we kept driving. Our apartment is the biggest and nicest building around. To the people it is considered a mansion. We have running water (most of the time) and power for about 12 hours a day. We still haven't figured out when those 12 hours are because it seems to change everyday. Anyways, we moved in and then just about everyone took a nap. Traveling wiped us out! 

Once the rest of the group arrived we decided to explore the neighborhood a little bit. Just about everyone and their chickens came out to greet us. 31 American girls walking down a Dominican street draws quite the crowd. Nevertheless, we made friends and met some adorable children. We had dinner back at our apartment, which Tamara cooked for us. It was amazing! The rest of the evening we spent going over some rules and stuff and then we finally went to bed, or tried to. With the humidity and heat combined it was really had to get to sleep. There is day one!! Phew..