Weekend Activities

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Saturday is normally a travel day for groups but Queen Margaret's was here until Sunday so instead we had activity day with the kids. One of the girls from the group was celebrating her birthday so we started the morning off with a little Happy Birthday singing and of course, water on her head. She gave me a scour when I poured water on her head but oh well, it was fun!

That morning we had craft/activity time with the kids. They had bracelet making, coloring books, painting, finger paints, and a couple other activities set out. Finger paints looked like a fun idea until the kids went crazy and just started pouring the bottles of paint all over the table. At one point, there was no one manning the station and it became insane so we quickly shut this station down. It is wild how fast something can get out of hand with kids! I worked on making a keychain to attach to my phone so I won't lose my room key. The kids did crafts for about 1 hour and then we had a little break before lunch.

After lunch and siesta, we had an hour of reading with the kids. They really enjoy coming over and either reading to someone or having us read to them. I read with Luz Maria and towards the end Joanni as well. We read about 8-10 books, some only 3-4 pages long ;) I had hoped to read with Indiana because I haven't spent much time with her but she wasn't there. I found her afterwards and mentioned this to her and she said she was washing dishes but wanted to read. So, I went to get some books and we went over to a little table and she read 4 books to me. It was cool hanging out with just her and having her read.

After that we still had 2 hours until dinner and I was kind of bored so I found Vivian and Jennifer and we headed out into town for a walk. The days I don't work out (Sat/Sun) I feel so sluggish so I needed to get out and move a little. We had no real purpose in our walk so we stopped at a clothing store just to browse, and then headed into the center of town hoping to see the Skim Ice (popsicle guy). We didn't so we headed back. A lady sitting with about 6 adult men stopped us and asked if we were American. She lived in Baltimore for 15 years and now lives here and in the capitol. We spoke with her for about 5-10 minutes before heading back for dinner.

On my way back upstairs before dinner, I stopped at the mesita and hung out with Mineli and Paola who were going crazy attacking Bryson. I ended up just hanging out there for about 30 minutes laughing at how wild and crazy they were. After dinner, I got cleaned up, and we headed out for ice cream in town. That evening at dinner we had birthday cake to celebrate the volunteer's birthday so I passed on ice cream. I had a left over cupcake from the night before at lunch and some chocolate so I figured I had reached my treat limit for the day!

There was a church concert going on in park across from the Institute so we headed there after ice cream. They had a big stage set up with a Christmas tree and lights and were passing out Dominican flags. There were a bunch of people from town in the park, several English students, Jazmin who used to live at the orphanage, and the older orphanage kids came. We hung out there for about an hour which was fun. They had a pantomime skit that was performed, and music was played the remainder of the time.

We had to head back around 9pm to do closing with the group. They were a quiet group so it didn't last too long and then I hung out with Heather, Coco and Bryson just chatting and eating more chocolate!

On Sunday, the group was scheduled to leave at 10:30. After breakfast, I watched Bryson work on the hospital video, seeing how he captures and logs different clips to organize the video. We headed down to say goodbye to the group and I sat at the mesita with Luis Alberto. We have a running joke that his name is Elizabeth and my name is Luis Alberto so I kept telling him that and joking with him. As the group was loading up, I ask him if he wanted to go in a suitcase and he said yes. So I carried him over to the bus and Chiro the driver had an empty duffle bag. I said, open the bag, Luis Alberto wants to go, and as he did this, Luis Alberto squirmed out of my arms saying, Yo no voy, I'm not going, and ran away. It was adorable! Apparently he doesn't understand sarcasm at age 5! :)

The group left and we hung out at the mesita with Luis Alberto, Paola, Yanina, Merry and Winston. It was a very peaceful, relaxing time just sitting there chatting and hanging out for a while. Jessica came up later and wanted to play L,R,C so I went and got that and we played until lunchtime.

After lunch, I organized my pictures some and then headed to the baseball game to watch Bebo play. He is Pastor's youngest son who is 20 years old and plays on a local team here in Monte Cristi. The game was supposed to start at 2pm and we got there about 2:40 and it finally started about 3:10. There was no official umpire, just a couple of guys that switched out and no real scoreboard but someone apparently kept score. Bebo played outfield and batted once while we were there.

We didn't stay too long, about an hour, because these boys had homemade fireworks that they kept popping and it got super annoying! It looked like a shoelace with a metal tube on one end and a screw on the other. They would stick a match down inside the tube, then the screw into the tube and then smack that part against a wall or something and it would pop real loud. One boy threatened to do it where I was sitting twice, the first time I asked please don't and he left and the second time he was being a brat and I responded right back telling him I'd push him down the concrete bleachers! :) I'm so nice, I know! But he left!

We headed back to the orphanage and I took some pictures of the kids. Mineli apparently had been covered head to toe in these pretty pink flowers and they were telling me all about this. I headed over to the patio and Nena sat in my lap and chilled for a while. The bell rang for snack and all the kids went to get their red juice and crackers. They all had pretty dresses on that quickly became covered in red juice! I sat with them while they ate their snack and then somehow the girls and one little boy started getting into a juice/water tossing fight. I avoided this and hung out with Luis Alberto, pretending to steal his snack from him like a few nights ago.

He came and sat in my lap and was being all lovey-dovey and cute. I'd squeeze him tight and he would scream, and this continued for a few minutes. Then somehow, Tito came around and Luis Alberto changed and farted on me and starting being bad! He got nice again, and we played a little hand game that Heather taught him earlier in the day. You tap fists and say Pound It, then twist and say Lock It, then put it in your pocket, then put your two pointer fingers together longways and say Break the Pickle, which the other person splits with their fingers, and then you say Tickle Tickle Ticklet. He would do it, then I would do it. I love hearing him speak English!

We headed up for dinner and finally I could share the chocolate with everyone at dinner since the group was gone. I had been sharing it in secret from the kitchen refrigerator but this time we brought out the bag! After dinner, I heard lots of chanting, yelling coming from the kids so I walked over to see what was going on. Nena was standing on the patio wall, and the other little girls were all standing in chairs. She was leading "culto" which had now turned into her doing English chants from summer camp. It was hilarious! She'd chant something and they would all repeat back. This went on for another 3-4 minutes until they all went wild and started jumping on Bryson and I and not wanting us to leave. I took a few self administered pictures of Luz Maria and I and when I had to leave to shower for church, I literally had to run away to get out because they cling to your shirts or legs and won't let you leave!

We headed to church for the evening and there was guest from Santo Domingo who sang 3 songs from his worship CDs. I sat by Little Nicole at church and she ended up laying her head down in my lap and sleeping towards the end. There is a round of gripe (colds) going around here at the orphanage and she is one of the sick ones.

After church Coco treated us to movie night in her apartment. She popped popcorn on her stove and bought soda for us. It was a great treat. We watched Slumdog Millionaire and then called it a night!