So one last blog before resting for Christmas break. Yesterday we headed out of Monte Cristi around 7:30 am. I finished up some curriculum stuff the night before until 12:15am, then woke up at 5:30am to start packing! We headed to Jaibon, the other orphanage that OO works with. We had to set up for the coming weeks for teams coming in. We arrived in Jaibon around 9am and toured around showing the people that hadn't been there before what it looked like.
The Jaibon orphanage is located on 40 acres of land and is like living in the woods. The buildings are located way back on the property and is surrounded by land everywhere you look. One view from the roof is absolutely gorgeous. Three layers of mountains from afar. We looked around the orphanage, went to visit the school that is on the grounds and has about 400-500 students and we hung out with them a little bit.
The students had their last day so they were there and excited to see Americans. There was one girl with red hair, not something you see very often in the DR. Bryson and I played duck, duck, goose standing up with several of the kids. They didn't quite get the concept. They would tag someone and run about 1/2 way around and then go into a random space that someone had opened up for them to enter. Either way it was fun because they love any attention and games that people will play with them.
We left the school and headed to do work projects. A new dorm like building had been finished to house the girls for this coming week. We thought we were going to have to build bunkbeds for everyone to sleep in but someone had already done it before we arrived which was awesome! So, instead we worked on moving 25 mattresses over to the beds, making the beds, putting up mosquito nets and getting it ready for the groups. We also had 2 other areas that had to be set up and then I played Uno with several people.
After lunch, I took a siesta because of the lack of sleep the night before! We then had a team meeting and I just sat and hung out while they discussed the plans for the upcoming week. After our meeting we headed to see the future home of the Hopkins. They are going to be living on the 2nd floor of the church on the grounds. Their house was pretty neat. It had a front porch area, a big open living room area, a small kitchen, another small room for a kitchen table and three bedrooms, and one small bathroom. I think once they get it painted, cleaned up and set up it will be a great place to live. They were excited to see their new home for the next 10 years!
After this, we had another work project. We had the group clean up the construction debris around the dorm room area and me, Heather and Julie went to chalk the door welcoming one of the families that was coming in today. Well, we chalked the door and then went inside to make the beds. As we entered we realized the room was in no shape for living. There was dust, dirt, and filth on the floors so we decided to sweep and mop it out. We had to knock what looked like mice poop off the mattresses and we had to knock down several dirt nests that are made either by wasps or spiders and seen often. Nothing came out of them luckily but it was a long, hard task of cleaning. The room was dingy and dark so we worked on cleaning it up, making the beds after spraying them down with Lysol and making it look presentable. Tia, the lady in charge at the orphanage, came in and wasn't happy about anyone living in the room. She made 2 of the orphanage kids come and help move stacks of extra mattresses out of the way of the window to at least let more air and light into the room. It looked good once we left, but was rough at the beginning!
This led up to dinner time and then I worked online emailing my 7 completed Units to Tom! Woohoo! After that the boys had a short little culto service where they sang songs and then went around each saying their favorite bible verse. It was amazing that they all knew so many different verses, even little Alex that is about 5 years old. There are about 23 boys living at this orphanage, which runs totally different than the one in Monte Cristi.
We had closing shortly after culto and then got ready for bed and finished organizing my stuff for the morning.
This morning we headed out at 5:45. We got to Santiago about 2 hours early so just hung out until time to leave. I flew with 2 other girls that have been there since I arrived so it was nice to have company. We landed in Miami and I was quickly welcomed to some culture shock. As I went thru customs, I showed my form to the guy but it was inside my passport. He stuck his arm out, stopped me, and said "You didn't show me your form, I need to see your form". WOW! This surprised me a lot because I'm not used to people being so firm or almost rude. Welcome back to the States! :) Well, now I'm just hanging out in the Miami airport and waiting for my flight to leave in another 1.5 hours! I'm excited to be in Lexington, still a little in shock being back in the US.
Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and I'll start blogging again probably mid-January. Maybe right before I head back to the DR!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Last Blog From Monte Cristi for 2009!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/Jaramillo?feat=directlink (pictures from Monday)
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/InstituteParty?feat=directlink (pictures from today)
I know you are all going to have hours of free time now that my blog will take a short break while I'm home but don't cry too hard.
Yesterday I spent most of the day working on revamping some old units to get ready to post for the volunteers to have access to. In the afternoon I spent some time with the kids hanging out after working on the Feliz Navidad picture of the kids that we had taken the previous day. It didn't turn out very well because most of the kids weren't looking and the letters were all mixed up.
In the evening I was going to go to my room and work some before culto but I ended up sitting over on the basketball court with Jenny and Arianni. Jenny was teaching Arianni a song that is on the radio that I'm sure has some pretty dirty, negative meanings. She always was having her dance in some promiscuous ways to the song. It was sad to see a little girl so young following her older "sister's" commands and doing whatever she wanted. However, she was still a 4 year old and not listening. Sometimes she would just sing jarble to annoy Jenny. But it was fun hanging out with them. Arianni was sitting on my belly as I was laying down. I could sit like that and hang out with her all the time!
We had culto with the kids at 8pm. They had a hard time calming down for some reason but finally they got somewhat quiet and we started. They sang several songs and opened the floor up to anyone. Nena came up and sang by herself, all shy which is odd because she is the ring leader and always crazy, and then Bebo and Christine got up and sang Here I am to Worship in English and then in Spanish. Mancho preached about Jonah and the whale and did a great job. It is so funny because the younger boys will get up and preach but they are so shy! They speak so softly and race through their preaching. He did a great job and made it most of the way without help.
After culto, Bebo, Bella (a university girl here visiting), and Nicol were playing a game. One person would hide their face against the wall and the others try to run forward. The person hiding says, uno, dos tres, mariposita and then turns around and if they see you moving you go back to the start. However, here the person counting can come and talk to you and make faces at you, etc. It was hilarious! Bella, Bebo, and Nicol were saying hilarious stuff to each other and making each other laugh. Bebo at one point was squatting down and Bella said, “you aren’t on the toilet, stand up”, so he started laughing and had to go back to the start.
Today was another day of work but some play. We had lunch at Comedor Adela in town and then I headed to the Institute. They had Christmas parties today for each of the English classes. They did crafts, then sang the song the classes had been practicing all week, and then had treat bags and listened to Christmas music. I worked up until the last class and then watched them sing in the park and hung out with them at their little party.
We headed back here afterwards and Heather and I decorated a cake for Vivian. She leaves Saturday with me but won’t return. We had Moni make two cakes, one big one and one small one. The small one we cut a heart out of and put on top of the big one. Now this sounds pretty, but it wasn’t quite as successful as we had imagined. However, the cake turned out pretty well. It said “We’ll Miss YOU!”. I have a picture!
After dinner, I spent time hanging out with the kids. I chased a few around for a little while but then had to stop since my belly was full. I sat on the basketball court and played with multiple different kids, tickling them, catching them, and just talking. Joanni came and sat in my lap and we started singing different songs in English. We called Christine over for some help and there were several kids, me, Christine, and Heather singing songs in English. It was a lot of fun!
I said my goodbyes to everyone as I won’t be seeing these kids for a month since I’ll go to Jaibon (the other orphanage) the first week I’m back in January. It will be weird not seeing them for so long! Tomorrow we are headed to Jaibon to help set up and get ready to host groups there. We’ll be doing all kinds of work projects and we’ll spend the night in Jaibon tomorrow before heading to the airport on Saturday. See some of you very soon! Good night!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/InstituteParty?feat=directlink (pictures from today)
I know you are all going to have hours of free time now that my blog will take a short break while I'm home but don't cry too hard.
Yesterday I spent most of the day working on revamping some old units to get ready to post for the volunteers to have access to. In the afternoon I spent some time with the kids hanging out after working on the Feliz Navidad picture of the kids that we had taken the previous day. It didn't turn out very well because most of the kids weren't looking and the letters were all mixed up.
In the evening I was going to go to my room and work some before culto but I ended up sitting over on the basketball court with Jenny and Arianni. Jenny was teaching Arianni a song that is on the radio that I'm sure has some pretty dirty, negative meanings. She always was having her dance in some promiscuous ways to the song. It was sad to see a little girl so young following her older "sister's" commands and doing whatever she wanted. However, she was still a 4 year old and not listening. Sometimes she would just sing jarble to annoy Jenny. But it was fun hanging out with them. Arianni was sitting on my belly as I was laying down. I could sit like that and hang out with her all the time!
We had culto with the kids at 8pm. They had a hard time calming down for some reason but finally they got somewhat quiet and we started. They sang several songs and opened the floor up to anyone. Nena came up and sang by herself, all shy which is odd because she is the ring leader and always crazy, and then Bebo and Christine got up and sang Here I am to Worship in English and then in Spanish. Mancho preached about Jonah and the whale and did a great job. It is so funny because the younger boys will get up and preach but they are so shy! They speak so softly and race through their preaching. He did a great job and made it most of the way without help.
After culto, Bebo, Bella (a university girl here visiting), and Nicol were playing a game. One person would hide their face against the wall and the others try to run forward. The person hiding says, uno, dos tres, mariposita and then turns around and if they see you moving you go back to the start. However, here the person counting can come and talk to you and make faces at you, etc. It was hilarious! Bella, Bebo, and Nicol were saying hilarious stuff to each other and making each other laugh. Bebo at one point was squatting down and Bella said, “you aren’t on the toilet, stand up”, so he started laughing and had to go back to the start.
Today was another day of work but some play. We had lunch at Comedor Adela in town and then I headed to the Institute. They had Christmas parties today for each of the English classes. They did crafts, then sang the song the classes had been practicing all week, and then had treat bags and listened to Christmas music. I worked up until the last class and then watched them sing in the park and hung out with them at their little party.
We headed back here afterwards and Heather and I decorated a cake for Vivian. She leaves Saturday with me but won’t return. We had Moni make two cakes, one big one and one small one. The small one we cut a heart out of and put on top of the big one. Now this sounds pretty, but it wasn’t quite as successful as we had imagined. However, the cake turned out pretty well. It said “We’ll Miss YOU!”. I have a picture!
After dinner, I spent time hanging out with the kids. I chased a few around for a little while but then had to stop since my belly was full. I sat on the basketball court and played with multiple different kids, tickling them, catching them, and just talking. Joanni came and sat in my lap and we started singing different songs in English. We called Christine over for some help and there were several kids, me, Christine, and Heather singing songs in English. It was a lot of fun!
I said my goodbyes to everyone as I won’t be seeing these kids for a month since I’ll go to Jaibon (the other orphanage) the first week I’m back in January. It will be weird not seeing them for so long! Tomorrow we are headed to Jaibon to help set up and get ready to host groups there. We’ll be doing all kinds of work projects and we’ll spend the night in Jaibon tomorrow before heading to the airport on Saturday. See some of you very soon! Good night!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Keep Your Hands on Your Belongings...
So Sunday night I gave the group a talk about Dajabon, the border town between the DR and Haiti, just reminding them of a few safety tips, etc. Part of this talk is telling people to keep hold of their belongings/valuables because there are pickpocketers in Dajabon. Well, I had never heard of anyone getting stuff stolen, not that I didn't believe them but I just had the "it will never happen to me type of attitude". I learned my lesson!
As we were stopped inside the market which are narrow streets with tons of people, I felt my cell phone being taken out of my pocket. As I realized what had just happened it was too late to identify who had taken it. I turned around ready to run after the person but that was a rule I told the group, don't run after the pickpocketer so I stopped and just went on. Obviously I was quite upset at myself for not having my hand in my front pocket all the time so it wouldn't happen. I felt horrible because the phone belongs to OO, not me and it had my room key on it! As we came out of the market, I went over and told Coco the news and at first she didn't believe me because I'm always joking. Unfortunately, this time I wasn't! Merry Christmas to whoever stole my phone! ;)
When we got back I headed to the phone store with Coco to get a new cheap phone so that I still could communicate with everyone. She had cancelled my SIM card when we left Dajabon so that was taken care of, now we just had to wait about 30 minutes to get a new phone (which of course I bought). Not quite as good as the one I had (which we had just gotten upgrades like 3 weeks ago), but it still serves its purpose.
After lunch, I hung out with the kids a little bit before heading out the batey. Nena had a Gatorade bottle full of ice that she was drinking from and crushing with a spoon. She would shove the spoon handle down into the bottle breaking up small pieces and then turn it upside down and try to shake out some pieces into her hand. Half of them would land on the dirty patio and she'd eat it anyway. Several other kids wanted some chunks of ice too. Their water here is often room temperature so they love ice and cold water!
Luis invited me to play marbles with him and Jose Luis. Let me tell you how awesome I am at this game. I apparently have no hand-eye coordination. So, needless to say I lost big time. It became almost a joke because I couldn't hit a marble only a few inches away!
I headed out with Dr. Garcia in the afternoon to Jaramillo, my favorite batey for sure. Vivian got to come with me because she hasn't seen a batey yet and leaves Saturday. I gave several shots to both kids and adults. Somehow in this small batey where maybe 50-75 people live, there are always more patients than in the bateys where 1000-2000 people live. There are 2-3 other really small bateys that come to Jaramillo on clinic days so that adds some extra people but it is still odd to me. There are a ton of babies/kids here which is probably why it is my favorite. I also feel like since it is so small it is a lot of the same people so they remember me from month to month.
I got to see some of the babies from 2 months ago this time who have grown up and starting cooing, smiling, and laughing. Vivian and I chased the kids in the house that I chased last time. They would peep their heads out and then run back into their house until we went away and then they'd sneak back out again. I got to see the newborn that is now 6 weeks old. And there was a 9 year old girl that walked from one of the other smaller bateyes with her 2 year old brother, and with two other boys 3 and 5 years old. Her parents sent her there with the 2 year old because he had a fever. Could you imagine sending your 9 year old with your 2 year old to see the doctor without an adult!?
There were a few neat medical things. One little baby of about 5 months had blisters on her hands from playing in a fire. Another man had fallen off his moto I believe and had a nasty open infected wound on his hand. And, a little girl who I think I have a picture of from before with scabs all over her face was back with now what looks like scars, or maybe she just has really bad fungus and that is why her face was so hypopigmented. Anyway, always lots of interesting things to see that are easily and normally quickly treated in the States.
I came back and said goodbye to them as I won't see them until I return next year. I hung out with Lisy for a while tickling her, which she loves. Joanni sat on me and colored/drew on my hands and arms with a pen that she found. I had flowers, people, houses, bananas, and just random markings all over me! While I was being decorated, I was also getting my hair brushed by Ari, one of the little twins. I also spoke to Arianni, now known as bluh, bluh, bluh, and she started laughing when I called her that!
We had movie night with the kids after dinner, and we also showed them the birthday video that we made for Coco of them all saying Happy Birthday. They love seeing pictures and videos of themselves because they always have so many taken but never get to see them. Arianni came in sat in my lap for the last half of the movie. And, when she got up I noticed a nice little wet present left on my pants. She didn't fall asleep so I'm not sure why she peed on me but oh well, she is so cute I'll excuse it!
Tuesday was a work day for me. I did a beach workout early in the morning which mainly consisted of swimming because there wasn't much beach. It is strange how the beach here changes because last week there was a lot of sand and beach area and this week the tide was all the way up to the rocks/hillside but we went at the same exact time!
During siesta I had a lot of fun with Lisy and Merry. We all three got inside of a hula hoop and walked around like a train. Lisy was making choo-choo sounds the whole time and Merry was just holding on and walking. We went all the way towards the front gate of the orphanage and sat down by the wall. We had arrived at "la Playa Popa" (the beach the kids go to in the spring/summer). We played in the "sand" (dirt) for a little while, cooking food, making handprints and footprints in the dirt. Merry is about 10 years old but is about the size of the 5-6 year olds and she struggles with speaking so no one really knows what developmental level she is on. She seems to understand a lot but has a hard time communicating. She still is in diaper but she walks, runs (kind of), and can follow commands if she isn't too stubborn.
She always wants to do the same as the other kids and so as we walked with the hoola hoop she wanted to join. I let her join in and Lisy was receptive which is sometimes hard because the other kids don't want to play with her. We sat down at the beach and she kept saying, Elizabeth me, meaning she wanted to do what Lisy was doing too. It is amazing to see how far she has come because in 2006 when I was here she said "agua" and didn't walk and was about the size of a 2-3 year old.
I picked the group up in the afternoon and got some ice cream with them. When I returned we had to try to gather the kids for a group picture of them with signs saying Feliz Navidad. We were supposed to do the last week but I forgot so we attempted yesterday but it was pretty disasterous. Trying to get 10 kids to stand still was hard, not to mention the other 32 that didn't want to participate so we didn't have many in the picture. Oh well, we tried!
After dinner I played with the little girls chasing them around. They like to run away from me and wait just inside the hallway from their eating area to their room, where I'm not allowed to enter. So I sat down on the little step leading into the hallway and would grab at them and tickle them one at a time. They always love this and more and more keep joining in. I started with 1 and ended with about 6 kids.
It's hard to believe I'll be home in a few days. Not sure I want to leave these kids! Wish I could bring them home with me!
As we were stopped inside the market which are narrow streets with tons of people, I felt my cell phone being taken out of my pocket. As I realized what had just happened it was too late to identify who had taken it. I turned around ready to run after the person but that was a rule I told the group, don't run after the pickpocketer so I stopped and just went on. Obviously I was quite upset at myself for not having my hand in my front pocket all the time so it wouldn't happen. I felt horrible because the phone belongs to OO, not me and it had my room key on it! As we came out of the market, I went over and told Coco the news and at first she didn't believe me because I'm always joking. Unfortunately, this time I wasn't! Merry Christmas to whoever stole my phone! ;)
When we got back I headed to the phone store with Coco to get a new cheap phone so that I still could communicate with everyone. She had cancelled my SIM card when we left Dajabon so that was taken care of, now we just had to wait about 30 minutes to get a new phone (which of course I bought). Not quite as good as the one I had (which we had just gotten upgrades like 3 weeks ago), but it still serves its purpose.
After lunch, I hung out with the kids a little bit before heading out the batey. Nena had a Gatorade bottle full of ice that she was drinking from and crushing with a spoon. She would shove the spoon handle down into the bottle breaking up small pieces and then turn it upside down and try to shake out some pieces into her hand. Half of them would land on the dirty patio and she'd eat it anyway. Several other kids wanted some chunks of ice too. Their water here is often room temperature so they love ice and cold water!
Luis invited me to play marbles with him and Jose Luis. Let me tell you how awesome I am at this game. I apparently have no hand-eye coordination. So, needless to say I lost big time. It became almost a joke because I couldn't hit a marble only a few inches away!
I headed out with Dr. Garcia in the afternoon to Jaramillo, my favorite batey for sure. Vivian got to come with me because she hasn't seen a batey yet and leaves Saturday. I gave several shots to both kids and adults. Somehow in this small batey where maybe 50-75 people live, there are always more patients than in the bateys where 1000-2000 people live. There are 2-3 other really small bateys that come to Jaramillo on clinic days so that adds some extra people but it is still odd to me. There are a ton of babies/kids here which is probably why it is my favorite. I also feel like since it is so small it is a lot of the same people so they remember me from month to month.
I got to see some of the babies from 2 months ago this time who have grown up and starting cooing, smiling, and laughing. Vivian and I chased the kids in the house that I chased last time. They would peep their heads out and then run back into their house until we went away and then they'd sneak back out again. I got to see the newborn that is now 6 weeks old. And there was a 9 year old girl that walked from one of the other smaller bateyes with her 2 year old brother, and with two other boys 3 and 5 years old. Her parents sent her there with the 2 year old because he had a fever. Could you imagine sending your 9 year old with your 2 year old to see the doctor without an adult!?
There were a few neat medical things. One little baby of about 5 months had blisters on her hands from playing in a fire. Another man had fallen off his moto I believe and had a nasty open infected wound on his hand. And, a little girl who I think I have a picture of from before with scabs all over her face was back with now what looks like scars, or maybe she just has really bad fungus and that is why her face was so hypopigmented. Anyway, always lots of interesting things to see that are easily and normally quickly treated in the States.
I came back and said goodbye to them as I won't see them until I return next year. I hung out with Lisy for a while tickling her, which she loves. Joanni sat on me and colored/drew on my hands and arms with a pen that she found. I had flowers, people, houses, bananas, and just random markings all over me! While I was being decorated, I was also getting my hair brushed by Ari, one of the little twins. I also spoke to Arianni, now known as bluh, bluh, bluh, and she started laughing when I called her that!
We had movie night with the kids after dinner, and we also showed them the birthday video that we made for Coco of them all saying Happy Birthday. They love seeing pictures and videos of themselves because they always have so many taken but never get to see them. Arianni came in sat in my lap for the last half of the movie. And, when she got up I noticed a nice little wet present left on my pants. She didn't fall asleep so I'm not sure why she peed on me but oh well, she is so cute I'll excuse it!
Tuesday was a work day for me. I did a beach workout early in the morning which mainly consisted of swimming because there wasn't much beach. It is strange how the beach here changes because last week there was a lot of sand and beach area and this week the tide was all the way up to the rocks/hillside but we went at the same exact time!
During siesta I had a lot of fun with Lisy and Merry. We all three got inside of a hula hoop and walked around like a train. Lisy was making choo-choo sounds the whole time and Merry was just holding on and walking. We went all the way towards the front gate of the orphanage and sat down by the wall. We had arrived at "la Playa Popa" (the beach the kids go to in the spring/summer). We played in the "sand" (dirt) for a little while, cooking food, making handprints and footprints in the dirt. Merry is about 10 years old but is about the size of the 5-6 year olds and she struggles with speaking so no one really knows what developmental level she is on. She seems to understand a lot but has a hard time communicating. She still is in diaper but she walks, runs (kind of), and can follow commands if she isn't too stubborn.
She always wants to do the same as the other kids and so as we walked with the hoola hoop she wanted to join. I let her join in and Lisy was receptive which is sometimes hard because the other kids don't want to play with her. We sat down at the beach and she kept saying, Elizabeth me, meaning she wanted to do what Lisy was doing too. It is amazing to see how far she has come because in 2006 when I was here she said "agua" and didn't walk and was about the size of a 2-3 year old.
I picked the group up in the afternoon and got some ice cream with them. When I returned we had to try to gather the kids for a group picture of them with signs saying Feliz Navidad. We were supposed to do the last week but I forgot so we attempted yesterday but it was pretty disasterous. Trying to get 10 kids to stand still was hard, not to mention the other 32 that didn't want to participate so we didn't have many in the picture. Oh well, we tried!
After dinner I played with the little girls chasing them around. They like to run away from me and wait just inside the hallway from their eating area to their room, where I'm not allowed to enter. So I sat down on the little step leading into the hallway and would grab at them and tickle them one at a time. They always love this and more and more keep joining in. I started with 1 and ended with about 6 kids.
It's hard to believe I'll be home in a few days. Not sure I want to leave these kids! Wish I could bring them home with me!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Last Weekend Here for 2009!
So yesterday was a recovering day of sorts. I was exhausted from planning all week for Coco's birthday and then traveling all day on Friday. I spent the morning catching up on my blog and resting in my room.
Before lunch, I worked with Domingo on his math. He has an exam tomorrow for math and had asked me earlier in the week to help him. He is in 5th grade and was learning exponentials, pattern recognition, square roots, division and multiplication. I made up some problems for him to answer and he did really well. He was so proud of himself, and kept saying write 100% on there! We worked for about an hour on math and Ariel, his older brother worked with us for a little while. He is 12 years old and Domingo is 10 years old but they are in the same grade. Ariel struggled a lot understanding pattern recognition such as 42, 44, 46, what follows. However, Domingo caught on so quickly. Ariel got frustrated easily and quit.
After lunch I hung out some with the kids and worked on uploading my pictures as well. At 2pm we met as a group because we got the approval from Pastor Ramon to have Noche Especial with the boys. This is a special night twice a year that they have and they get to play games, eat treats, watch movies, and have a sleepover in the education building. We helped the male volunteers plan for the boys fun night. I worked on wrapping a gift multiple times with layers for a game where they passed the gift until someone could get thru the layers.
After dinner, we started getting everything ready for the evening. We baked sugar cookies and I worked on coloring the icing and separating it into individual cups for the kids. We had the girls over to make bracelets, decorate and eat cookies, and watch a movie. We set mattresses out and laid on the ground watching the movie. They enjoyed eating the icing and cookies and we watched Beauty and the Beast's Christmas Movie. At the end, Nena was fast asleep so I picked her up to take her back to her bed. She told me to wait so I put her down and she was searching for something, however, was so out of it she was confused and looked like a drunk person. I picked her back up after a minute or two of aimless searching and carried her back over while she snored on my shoulder. Joanni was so out of it that she actually peed on Heather and she was carrying her back! :)
We made a fort out of sheets for the boys to play in later in their evening and then headed to bed. On the way up to my room, we had a great excitement. At the top of the stairs awaited a fun friend of nature. It was huge so Heather and I called Coco to come kill it. He crawled up a suitcase, we knocked the suitcase over, trapped it underneath and then lifted the suitcase and killed it with a cinder block. It was so nasty, black, and hairy! I'll leave the guessing up to you! :)
Caela stayed with us last night because her Dad and brother were sleeping over here. She stayed on the top bunk above Heather.
This morning was fun. The boys ended their special evening by having breakfast with us. We had pancakes and hard boiled eggs which they love. Some boys had 4-5 pancakes and a few eggs each. Luis Alberto was stabbing his pancake with his fork because he didn't know how to cut it to eat it! I sat between Domingo and Jaury and enjoyed spending breakfast with them!
We had a short orientation with the group, introducing ourselves and then had free time. I hung out with the kids for a little bit. I spent some time with Liry, one of the university girls, who is in PT school. We had a good conversation discussing what she is learning in school, her work here at the Rehab Center, and just how everything is going.
After lunch, I hung out with the kids and had some great fun! Heather and I went out for just a little bit but ended up staying until dinner. Arianni was jumping rope and was able to jump over it about 3-4 times in a row. It was so cute. She was super proud of herself. The other little girls jumped in and wanted to jump too. I showed them my skills as well! :)
After this, Nena the chief of the little girls came and took the jump rope away. Here is where the fun came in. We got put in jail again. They sat us down in chairs and tied Heather and I together with the jump rope. I started chanting a song in English to try to get them to sing along and that resulted in socks being tied around our mouths. It was hilarious! We broke free finally.
I tried to rock Arianni to sleep in my arms but she kind of came back to life and started playing with broken legos and jacks that she found on the ground. I tried to teach her English. I would say "What is your name?" and then tell her the answer and then ask again and she would answer. Then we worked on "How old are you?" and she would respond with 4. Well this turned into her not wanting to answer so she just made sounds with her tongue. So, I asked her if her name was bluh, bluh, bluh (sounds she made with her tongue) and she said yes. So, for the rest of the day I called her by that and she would respond. It was precious. Also, when I asked her her age she started responding with a loud grunting sound instead of four which was so funny! So now Arianni is bluh, bluh, bluh and she is a "loud grunting sound" years old.
We went to church with the older kids tonight and I rode back on the yellow school bus with them. When we pulled up to the orphanage all the little kids came running out so excited to see the older kids return after 3 hours away. They were surprised to see me and Heather in the bus but excited too. I'm sure going to miss these kids for 3 weeks!
Before lunch, I worked with Domingo on his math. He has an exam tomorrow for math and had asked me earlier in the week to help him. He is in 5th grade and was learning exponentials, pattern recognition, square roots, division and multiplication. I made up some problems for him to answer and he did really well. He was so proud of himself, and kept saying write 100% on there! We worked for about an hour on math and Ariel, his older brother worked with us for a little while. He is 12 years old and Domingo is 10 years old but they are in the same grade. Ariel struggled a lot understanding pattern recognition such as 42, 44, 46, what follows. However, Domingo caught on so quickly. Ariel got frustrated easily and quit.
After lunch I hung out some with the kids and worked on uploading my pictures as well. At 2pm we met as a group because we got the approval from Pastor Ramon to have Noche Especial with the boys. This is a special night twice a year that they have and they get to play games, eat treats, watch movies, and have a sleepover in the education building. We helped the male volunteers plan for the boys fun night. I worked on wrapping a gift multiple times with layers for a game where they passed the gift until someone could get thru the layers.
After dinner, we started getting everything ready for the evening. We baked sugar cookies and I worked on coloring the icing and separating it into individual cups for the kids. We had the girls over to make bracelets, decorate and eat cookies, and watch a movie. We set mattresses out and laid on the ground watching the movie. They enjoyed eating the icing and cookies and we watched Beauty and the Beast's Christmas Movie. At the end, Nena was fast asleep so I picked her up to take her back to her bed. She told me to wait so I put her down and she was searching for something, however, was so out of it she was confused and looked like a drunk person. I picked her back up after a minute or two of aimless searching and carried her back over while she snored on my shoulder. Joanni was so out of it that she actually peed on Heather and she was carrying her back! :)
We made a fort out of sheets for the boys to play in later in their evening and then headed to bed. On the way up to my room, we had a great excitement. At the top of the stairs awaited a fun friend of nature. It was huge so Heather and I called Coco to come kill it. He crawled up a suitcase, we knocked the suitcase over, trapped it underneath and then lifted the suitcase and killed it with a cinder block. It was so nasty, black, and hairy! I'll leave the guessing up to you! :)
Caela stayed with us last night because her Dad and brother were sleeping over here. She stayed on the top bunk above Heather.
This morning was fun. The boys ended their special evening by having breakfast with us. We had pancakes and hard boiled eggs which they love. Some boys had 4-5 pancakes and a few eggs each. Luis Alberto was stabbing his pancake with his fork because he didn't know how to cut it to eat it! I sat between Domingo and Jaury and enjoyed spending breakfast with them!
We had a short orientation with the group, introducing ourselves and then had free time. I hung out with the kids for a little bit. I spent some time with Liry, one of the university girls, who is in PT school. We had a good conversation discussing what she is learning in school, her work here at the Rehab Center, and just how everything is going.
After lunch, I hung out with the kids and had some great fun! Heather and I went out for just a little bit but ended up staying until dinner. Arianni was jumping rope and was able to jump over it about 3-4 times in a row. It was so cute. She was super proud of herself. The other little girls jumped in and wanted to jump too. I showed them my skills as well! :)
After this, Nena the chief of the little girls came and took the jump rope away. Here is where the fun came in. We got put in jail again. They sat us down in chairs and tied Heather and I together with the jump rope. I started chanting a song in English to try to get them to sing along and that resulted in socks being tied around our mouths. It was hilarious! We broke free finally.
I tried to rock Arianni to sleep in my arms but she kind of came back to life and started playing with broken legos and jacks that she found on the ground. I tried to teach her English. I would say "What is your name?" and then tell her the answer and then ask again and she would answer. Then we worked on "How old are you?" and she would respond with 4. Well this turned into her not wanting to answer so she just made sounds with her tongue. So, I asked her if her name was bluh, bluh, bluh (sounds she made with her tongue) and she said yes. So, for the rest of the day I called her by that and she would respond. It was precious. Also, when I asked her her age she started responding with a loud grunting sound instead of four which was so funny! So now Arianni is bluh, bluh, bluh and she is a "loud grunting sound" years old.
We went to church with the older kids tonight and I rode back on the yellow school bus with them. When we pulled up to the orphanage all the little kids came running out so excited to see the older kids return after 3 hours away. They were surprised to see me and Heather in the bus but excited too. I'm sure going to miss these kids for 3 weeks!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
What a Crazy Week!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/CocoSBirthdayWeek?feat=directlink
So, this past week was super busy and very long! Yesterday was Coco's birthday, she is the country director who lives here full time. We wanted to surprise her with a great birthday so we came up with the idea to give her 34 small gifts over the course of the day. So, in short I've been up all week working hard with the other leaders to prepare the gifts for Coco. It was fun! We had the all kids make a card for her, we made a video with clips of all the kids saying Happy Birthday to her, we made a purple elephant pinata, we had the kids spell out with their bodies Happy Bday Coco laying on the basketball court and many more fun surprises.
This may be lengthy but I'll try to just keep it some of the most interesting highlights from the week.
Sunday - We went to Cabarete, a touristy beach town and had an awesome lunch at Jose O'Shea's and then spent time on the beach relaxing. I had a Denison t-shirt on and some guy recognized it because he went to Ohio State and knew someone that had gone to Denison. What a small world! We stopped at a road side fruit stand and got apple bananas. I'm going to have to look for these at home, they look like bananas and have the same texture as bananas but taste like apples! So good!
Monday - This was Christine's birthday, she is my roommate who just returned from home. We got her good, soaking her with water as she walked up the stairs both after class in the morning and in the afternoon. The twins were both scared of me all day and pretty much all week because they knew at one point I'd be taking out Arianni's stitches. In the afternoon I went to Batey Sabalo. A new one for me this trip. I didn't have my camera unfortunately because we were using it for Coco's video but there were some cool sights. I saw a huge turkey walking around! Also, there was a 1 month old little boy with a huge gumball sized abscess on his neck that had gone to town to see the doctor and been given a cream for a fungal type rash that he had on his skin. They had Kola Real bottles (16 oz) filled up with gasoline for sell. Apparently someone goes to town and buys gas and then fills up these bottles with gas to sell.
On the way home Dr. Garcia was telling about a priest he knew that was trying to learn to say Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Spanish I believe, and some kid tried to teach him but taught him Father, Son and Holy Ass because the kid didn't know how to say Spirit and so for 5 years this guy went around telling people and preaching about the Father, Son and Holy Ass until he realized 5 years later what he was saying!
We decorated a cool cake for Christine's birthday and played some Mafia after movie night with the kids.
Tuesday - I worked in my room and worked on the hospital video with Bryson. Also, took a trip into town to get supplies for the pinata!
One highlight of the day was playing with the kids. Heather and I were sitting next to each other and Joanni put our hands together and put her younger sister on guard to make sure we didn't move. She then went to her room and returned several minutes later with a "rope". This rope was the tie that went to one of her dresses. She had ripped one side off (it was a tie that went around her waist to tie a bow in the back). She tied our wrists together and made us walk. Then she went and ripped off the other one to tie both hands together. We headed over to the playground were there were more kids ready to tie us up. Nena, the leader of them all, joined in the fun. We got tied to the benches several times, with some kids on our sides, releasing us! Eventually Nena tied us together, and actually in an unescapable fashion and took us to their kitchen area to "jail". We sat down on the ground while she kept guard. However, a couple of kids tackled her while a couple other kids used their teeth to get the knots out. It was hilarious! We got up to leave and Nena went to get a tree limb to use as a switch to punish us. We actually had to run fast to our side to avoid the torture that was to come! It was great fun!
As we came back up to our room, we could hear Nena yelling our names from across the orphanage grounds. They were all waiting at the little mesita for us to come back down. She called me on Christine's phone and told me that she wouldn't tie me up if I came back. So, I had to take part and went back down, where I recieved a few light wacks with the tree limb. The game shifted and Nena started acting like a crazy old woman. I wish I could even begin to give the image justice because it was so funny! She was limping around like a old gimp person, had a stick as her cane and had this scour on her face. She would pick up rocks and "throw" them at us (purposefully missing us) and then start yelling non-sense. We were safe on the table so we'd all get off, she'd come chase us but running with her limp and cane, and then we'd get on the table and she'd throw rocks. Quite amusing!
Wednesday - Heather took Brittany, our one week volunteer, on an early sunrise hike, so instead of working out here that morning, we went a did a beach workout. We lifted rocks, jumped along the beach, ran, did lunges with driftwood, and swam at the end. It is scary to open your eyes in the ocean with goggles. I kind of freaked out at first, just afraid of what I might see but the workout overall was great!
I worked all day on health stuff and preparing gifts for Coco's birthday surprise. At night I was playing with Nena, chasing her around and tickling her. I love this kid! And just to reiterate what I've said before, she is Sydney's Dominican clone. At one point she jumped on Coco's back and almost knocked her down. Coco scolded her by saying you can't jump on my back, I'll fall and hurt you and myself. Immediately, Nena covered her face with her hands and got embarrassed and started crying. She wouldn't talk or do anything for several minutes until Coco sat down and put her in her lap and then she eventually uncovered her face but still was very chill the rest of the night!
Thursday - I spent all morning finishing Coco's gifts. For lunch we were treated and got to go to the French restaurant. I had a seafood pasta with shrimp, crab, and calamari. It was awesome! For dessert I had bananas foster which was very tasting as well! That afternoon I went out to La Recta. This batey is huge about 2000 people but very few come because they are Haitian and don't like to vaccinate their kids and just don't go to the doctor much. We walked around to one house next to where we were. There were tons of kids, naked, just hanging out. One little baby had infected skin all over her face and neck, and the nurse had to convince the Mom to bring her to consult with the doctors. There was a small creek of water beside this house and a lady was in there bathing when we arrived. As she got out, a boy was walking over with a 5 gallon water jug and filled it up. I'm hoping it was to wash clothes with, but I'm sure they use this for cooking, cleaning, bathing, etc.
I gave shots to several kids and there were 1 month old twins there that were precious. The Mom of the twins had 2 other sets of twins at home. One of the oldest twins died, and the nurse told me that she told the Mom that was a good thing because she had too many kids already! They are a little too blunt here sometimes! Can you imagine having 3 sets of twins, and living in extreme poverty! Wow! And she delivered the twins at her own house! While she was delivering the newest ones, she cactus on the ground and made a playpin to contain her other kids. If they tried to get out, they would touch the spikes of the cactus and stay in the playpin area. Once again, very resourceful! One little 3 year old boy that I gave a shot to was crying huge tears for minutes after his shot. I reached down and picked him up and he laid his tear soaked cheek on mine and after 5-10 seconds stopped crying! It was so precious!
I came back to the orphanage and had to take Arianni's stitches out. We brought her up to the education center so the other kids couldn't watch and as soon as she saw me she said, Are you going to take out my stitches? All week she had been asking me this because the other kids would tease her, and I would say no! Well, this time I had to say yes and she started crying! We sat her down and started taking them out. John was holding her legs and arms, and Heather had her head. She kept screaming "I won't move, I won't move" because she did not like being held down and as soon as we let go of her she was perfect, didn't move, and let me continue working! I was pulling on the stitch at one point and she said, "Elizamen, Ya!" which means enough or stop basically and I had to stop because that broke my heart. But, after a few minutes I got them out and she was tearful for a while but ok.
For dinner, the staff wanted to surprise Coco for her birthday and they prepared goat, which is a delicacy here. She was surprised and we had a good dinner! Afterwards, Coco had ice cream for all the kids. She buys treats for the kids on her birthday but since she was going to be gone Friday, she gave them ice cream Thursday evening instead. We worked til about midnight Thursday evening finishing the pinata and the final touches on her birthday surprises.
Friday - This was a great day. We hung Happy Birthday up outside the doors where Coco lives with a poem labeled #1. This explained that we had 34 surprises waiting for her. We left at 6:30 to head out on a journey to the "Alps". We visited a battle ground where the Tainos (Indians) fought the Spainards and saw the ruins of the first fort built in the DR. We went to a place called Holy Hill, where the Spainards camped at night before the battle and it had the most amazing and beautiful view! We bought some bread here called ojardra that was tasty. It has a sweet ginger flavor. I bought some from a little girl that sold a bag for 40 pesos. I asked for three bags and had 150 pesos, so after she added it up to 120 pesos, she said, I'll give you a fourth bag for 30 pesos. I took it, and she was so excited to have sold the bread!
From there we headed to Jarabacoa where there are lots of mountains. We ate lunch at the confluence of two rivers, and it was beautiful. It looked like being in the states at the Gorge or in Colorado or somewhere. We had a picnic lunch and it was misty and actually started raining a little. It was peaceful and relaxing though so no one cared about the light mist! From there we headed to a waterful a little outside of Jarabacoa. It was deep in a rainforest like jungle area but with a paved path. We spent a little while here observing the waterfall and just enjoying the beauty of the area.
We then headed to Santiago to a street full of shopping and touristy vendors. We stopped at McDonalds for ice cream for some, went to La Sirena which is like WalMart, Sears, Lowes, Hobby Lobby, Macy's all combined, and then hung out at PIzza Hut while some people ate pizza.
We headed back home around 6:30, where another surprise was awaiting Coco. The lady in town that owns the restaurant where we eat most weeks (at least with big groups), prepared trays of food, chicken strips, sandwiches, and two other Dominican dishes, along with a big cake for everyone to enjoy. We then gave Coco the pinata, and showed her the video to wrap up a fun and adventurous day!
So, this past week was super busy and very long! Yesterday was Coco's birthday, she is the country director who lives here full time. We wanted to surprise her with a great birthday so we came up with the idea to give her 34 small gifts over the course of the day. So, in short I've been up all week working hard with the other leaders to prepare the gifts for Coco. It was fun! We had the all kids make a card for her, we made a video with clips of all the kids saying Happy Birthday to her, we made a purple elephant pinata, we had the kids spell out with their bodies Happy Bday Coco laying on the basketball court and many more fun surprises.
This may be lengthy but I'll try to just keep it some of the most interesting highlights from the week.
Sunday - We went to Cabarete, a touristy beach town and had an awesome lunch at Jose O'Shea's and then spent time on the beach relaxing. I had a Denison t-shirt on and some guy recognized it because he went to Ohio State and knew someone that had gone to Denison. What a small world! We stopped at a road side fruit stand and got apple bananas. I'm going to have to look for these at home, they look like bananas and have the same texture as bananas but taste like apples! So good!
Monday - This was Christine's birthday, she is my roommate who just returned from home. We got her good, soaking her with water as she walked up the stairs both after class in the morning and in the afternoon. The twins were both scared of me all day and pretty much all week because they knew at one point I'd be taking out Arianni's stitches. In the afternoon I went to Batey Sabalo. A new one for me this trip. I didn't have my camera unfortunately because we were using it for Coco's video but there were some cool sights. I saw a huge turkey walking around! Also, there was a 1 month old little boy with a huge gumball sized abscess on his neck that had gone to town to see the doctor and been given a cream for a fungal type rash that he had on his skin. They had Kola Real bottles (16 oz) filled up with gasoline for sell. Apparently someone goes to town and buys gas and then fills up these bottles with gas to sell.
On the way home Dr. Garcia was telling about a priest he knew that was trying to learn to say Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Spanish I believe, and some kid tried to teach him but taught him Father, Son and Holy Ass because the kid didn't know how to say Spirit and so for 5 years this guy went around telling people and preaching about the Father, Son and Holy Ass until he realized 5 years later what he was saying!
We decorated a cool cake for Christine's birthday and played some Mafia after movie night with the kids.
Tuesday - I worked in my room and worked on the hospital video with Bryson. Also, took a trip into town to get supplies for the pinata!
One highlight of the day was playing with the kids. Heather and I were sitting next to each other and Joanni put our hands together and put her younger sister on guard to make sure we didn't move. She then went to her room and returned several minutes later with a "rope". This rope was the tie that went to one of her dresses. She had ripped one side off (it was a tie that went around her waist to tie a bow in the back). She tied our wrists together and made us walk. Then she went and ripped off the other one to tie both hands together. We headed over to the playground were there were more kids ready to tie us up. Nena, the leader of them all, joined in the fun. We got tied to the benches several times, with some kids on our sides, releasing us! Eventually Nena tied us together, and actually in an unescapable fashion and took us to their kitchen area to "jail". We sat down on the ground while she kept guard. However, a couple of kids tackled her while a couple other kids used their teeth to get the knots out. It was hilarious! We got up to leave and Nena went to get a tree limb to use as a switch to punish us. We actually had to run fast to our side to avoid the torture that was to come! It was great fun!
As we came back up to our room, we could hear Nena yelling our names from across the orphanage grounds. They were all waiting at the little mesita for us to come back down. She called me on Christine's phone and told me that she wouldn't tie me up if I came back. So, I had to take part and went back down, where I recieved a few light wacks with the tree limb. The game shifted and Nena started acting like a crazy old woman. I wish I could even begin to give the image justice because it was so funny! She was limping around like a old gimp person, had a stick as her cane and had this scour on her face. She would pick up rocks and "throw" them at us (purposefully missing us) and then start yelling non-sense. We were safe on the table so we'd all get off, she'd come chase us but running with her limp and cane, and then we'd get on the table and she'd throw rocks. Quite amusing!
Wednesday - Heather took Brittany, our one week volunteer, on an early sunrise hike, so instead of working out here that morning, we went a did a beach workout. We lifted rocks, jumped along the beach, ran, did lunges with driftwood, and swam at the end. It is scary to open your eyes in the ocean with goggles. I kind of freaked out at first, just afraid of what I might see but the workout overall was great!
I worked all day on health stuff and preparing gifts for Coco's birthday surprise. At night I was playing with Nena, chasing her around and tickling her. I love this kid! And just to reiterate what I've said before, she is Sydney's Dominican clone. At one point she jumped on Coco's back and almost knocked her down. Coco scolded her by saying you can't jump on my back, I'll fall and hurt you and myself. Immediately, Nena covered her face with her hands and got embarrassed and started crying. She wouldn't talk or do anything for several minutes until Coco sat down and put her in her lap and then she eventually uncovered her face but still was very chill the rest of the night!
Thursday - I spent all morning finishing Coco's gifts. For lunch we were treated and got to go to the French restaurant. I had a seafood pasta with shrimp, crab, and calamari. It was awesome! For dessert I had bananas foster which was very tasting as well! That afternoon I went out to La Recta. This batey is huge about 2000 people but very few come because they are Haitian and don't like to vaccinate their kids and just don't go to the doctor much. We walked around to one house next to where we were. There were tons of kids, naked, just hanging out. One little baby had infected skin all over her face and neck, and the nurse had to convince the Mom to bring her to consult with the doctors. There was a small creek of water beside this house and a lady was in there bathing when we arrived. As she got out, a boy was walking over with a 5 gallon water jug and filled it up. I'm hoping it was to wash clothes with, but I'm sure they use this for cooking, cleaning, bathing, etc.
I gave shots to several kids and there were 1 month old twins there that were precious. The Mom of the twins had 2 other sets of twins at home. One of the oldest twins died, and the nurse told me that she told the Mom that was a good thing because she had too many kids already! They are a little too blunt here sometimes! Can you imagine having 3 sets of twins, and living in extreme poverty! Wow! And she delivered the twins at her own house! While she was delivering the newest ones, she cactus on the ground and made a playpin to contain her other kids. If they tried to get out, they would touch the spikes of the cactus and stay in the playpin area. Once again, very resourceful! One little 3 year old boy that I gave a shot to was crying huge tears for minutes after his shot. I reached down and picked him up and he laid his tear soaked cheek on mine and after 5-10 seconds stopped crying! It was so precious!
I came back to the orphanage and had to take Arianni's stitches out. We brought her up to the education center so the other kids couldn't watch and as soon as she saw me she said, Are you going to take out my stitches? All week she had been asking me this because the other kids would tease her, and I would say no! Well, this time I had to say yes and she started crying! We sat her down and started taking them out. John was holding her legs and arms, and Heather had her head. She kept screaming "I won't move, I won't move" because she did not like being held down and as soon as we let go of her she was perfect, didn't move, and let me continue working! I was pulling on the stitch at one point and she said, "Elizamen, Ya!" which means enough or stop basically and I had to stop because that broke my heart. But, after a few minutes I got them out and she was tearful for a while but ok.
For dinner, the staff wanted to surprise Coco for her birthday and they prepared goat, which is a delicacy here. She was surprised and we had a good dinner! Afterwards, Coco had ice cream for all the kids. She buys treats for the kids on her birthday but since she was going to be gone Friday, she gave them ice cream Thursday evening instead. We worked til about midnight Thursday evening finishing the pinata and the final touches on her birthday surprises.
Friday - This was a great day. We hung Happy Birthday up outside the doors where Coco lives with a poem labeled #1. This explained that we had 34 surprises waiting for her. We left at 6:30 to head out on a journey to the "Alps". We visited a battle ground where the Tainos (Indians) fought the Spainards and saw the ruins of the first fort built in the DR. We went to a place called Holy Hill, where the Spainards camped at night before the battle and it had the most amazing and beautiful view! We bought some bread here called ojardra that was tasty. It has a sweet ginger flavor. I bought some from a little girl that sold a bag for 40 pesos. I asked for three bags and had 150 pesos, so after she added it up to 120 pesos, she said, I'll give you a fourth bag for 30 pesos. I took it, and she was so excited to have sold the bread!
From there we headed to Jarabacoa where there are lots of mountains. We ate lunch at the confluence of two rivers, and it was beautiful. It looked like being in the states at the Gorge or in Colorado or somewhere. We had a picnic lunch and it was misty and actually started raining a little. It was peaceful and relaxing though so no one cared about the light mist! From there we headed to a waterful a little outside of Jarabacoa. It was deep in a rainforest like jungle area but with a paved path. We spent a little while here observing the waterfall and just enjoying the beauty of the area.
We then headed to Santiago to a street full of shopping and touristy vendors. We stopped at McDonalds for ice cream for some, went to La Sirena which is like WalMart, Sears, Lowes, Hobby Lobby, Macy's all combined, and then hung out at PIzza Hut while some people ate pizza.
We headed back home around 6:30, where another surprise was awaiting Coco. The lady in town that owns the restaurant where we eat most weeks (at least with big groups), prepared trays of food, chicken strips, sandwiches, and two other Dominican dishes, along with a big cake for everyone to enjoy. We then gave Coco the pinata, and showed her the video to wrap up a fun and adventurous day!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Christmas Joy is In the Air!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/ChristmasParty?feat=directlink
Today was an awesome day! We had a lot of fun with the kids getting to do some special things!
This morning Heather and I cleaned our room up because Christine comes back tonight. We Dominican mopped and cleaned the bathroom and then worked on a few other projects up until lunch.
The afternoon was pretty free. We tried to take a picture with the kids having them spell out Feliz Navidad but it was too difficult to get them organized so we didn't end up doing that.
I then asked Nicol to put rollers in my hair. They use huge plastic rollers to straighten their hair and I wanted to see my hair straight here! So, Nicol put my hair up in rollers, which I didn't get a picture of because it all happened so fast. They have a dryer chair here like at a salon back home that was donated to them several years ago. So they decided to put me under the dryer to make it faster than just waiting for it to air dry.
Well, this chair is pretty old and the plug was missing from the cord. However, they still have the wires that go to it, so Nicol turned off the breaker, plugged the green and white wires into the socket, and then turned the breaker on and it worked! SCARY! We were doing this in the laundry room where Carolina was washing clothes and water was everywhere. I was sure someone was going to get electrocuted, but somehow we all survived. I had to sit under the dryer for 15-20 minutes which was quite warm and the bobby pins were burning my head. However, it was better than sitting in the sun for 2-3 hours waiting for it to dry! I felt like I was really at the beauty salon!
After this she took the rollers out and then with a round brush and blow dryer straightened my hair. Then she used a straightening iron and straightened it even more. Much more of a process than I thought. However, the best part is they put their hair up by basically brushing it in a circle flat around your head and then putting a hairnet on it. So, she did that which I wore until later in the evening. It looked pretty hideous. I have some pictures!
After getting beautified, I came back to my room to finish cleaning up and putting stuff away. We got ready for dinner, and then was time for the Christmas/Birthday party. I took my hair down from the net and it looked great. I didn't get a great picture of it but it was straight like at home but fell into my face from where it has been wrapped around my head. Wish I could fix it like that at home but I'm definitely too lazy to do all of that!
Every 3 months they have a birthday party for the kids that celebrated their birthday in those 3 months. This was the October, November, December party. Also, Cameron bought gifts for all the kids and so we had a Christmas party as well. Zuni, the administrator, worked on putting up the Christmas tree and decorating it, so to start the celebration of Christmas, Cameron plugged in the lights. We sang Feliz Navidad together, Pastor said a prayer that all the kids repeated after him, and then we sang Happy Birthday in Spanish and English.
They have the largest cakes ever that they make for the parties every 3 months! It was crazy insane, but I guess to feed 44 kids plus everyone else it has to be pretty big.
Arianni, who got stitches Wednesday night, has been afraid of me for the past 2 days because she thinks I am going to take out her stitches. So everytime she has seen me she runs to her room crying. Well tonight I sat down next to her twin sister at the party and she actually came over and sat in my lap! I was excited because I didn't think I'd be seeing her for a week! At one point she turned around and asked if I was going to take them out, just to double check!
All the kids got cake, which was yellow cake with pineapple flavor/small pieces. We got some too of course! Yummy! They like to give huge portions here! They also handed out ice cream, and they got little treat bags! What a great night for them. On top of all of this, Cameron gave each kid a gift. They loved them. The girls got little tea sets, beauty salon sets, hula hoops, strollers, and body wash for the older ones. The boys got remote controlled or cars that lighted up and moved around. They loved them! The older boys got basketballs and Odalis got Cameron's boom box he'd been using all week.
After the party ended, we headed to another one. The streets in town have a contest every year for best Christmas decorations. The street that the English Institute is on always decorates big time for the event and they were having a street party tonight. We headed over there with some of the older kids and hung out for about 1 hour. Jazmin, who used to live here, lives on that street so I got to see her for a little while. We just hung out, enjoyed the lights, and played with some of the neighborhood kids. It was a great start to the Christmas season, and really makes me excited for Christmas!
Tomorrow we are headed to Cabarete, a touristy beach town, for a relaxing get away! Should be fun!
Today was an awesome day! We had a lot of fun with the kids getting to do some special things!
This morning Heather and I cleaned our room up because Christine comes back tonight. We Dominican mopped and cleaned the bathroom and then worked on a few other projects up until lunch.
The afternoon was pretty free. We tried to take a picture with the kids having them spell out Feliz Navidad but it was too difficult to get them organized so we didn't end up doing that.
I then asked Nicol to put rollers in my hair. They use huge plastic rollers to straighten their hair and I wanted to see my hair straight here! So, Nicol put my hair up in rollers, which I didn't get a picture of because it all happened so fast. They have a dryer chair here like at a salon back home that was donated to them several years ago. So they decided to put me under the dryer to make it faster than just waiting for it to air dry.
Well, this chair is pretty old and the plug was missing from the cord. However, they still have the wires that go to it, so Nicol turned off the breaker, plugged the green and white wires into the socket, and then turned the breaker on and it worked! SCARY! We were doing this in the laundry room where Carolina was washing clothes and water was everywhere. I was sure someone was going to get electrocuted, but somehow we all survived. I had to sit under the dryer for 15-20 minutes which was quite warm and the bobby pins were burning my head. However, it was better than sitting in the sun for 2-3 hours waiting for it to dry! I felt like I was really at the beauty salon!
After this she took the rollers out and then with a round brush and blow dryer straightened my hair. Then she used a straightening iron and straightened it even more. Much more of a process than I thought. However, the best part is they put their hair up by basically brushing it in a circle flat around your head and then putting a hairnet on it. So, she did that which I wore until later in the evening. It looked pretty hideous. I have some pictures!
After getting beautified, I came back to my room to finish cleaning up and putting stuff away. We got ready for dinner, and then was time for the Christmas/Birthday party. I took my hair down from the net and it looked great. I didn't get a great picture of it but it was straight like at home but fell into my face from where it has been wrapped around my head. Wish I could fix it like that at home but I'm definitely too lazy to do all of that!
Every 3 months they have a birthday party for the kids that celebrated their birthday in those 3 months. This was the October, November, December party. Also, Cameron bought gifts for all the kids and so we had a Christmas party as well. Zuni, the administrator, worked on putting up the Christmas tree and decorating it, so to start the celebration of Christmas, Cameron plugged in the lights. We sang Feliz Navidad together, Pastor said a prayer that all the kids repeated after him, and then we sang Happy Birthday in Spanish and English.
They have the largest cakes ever that they make for the parties every 3 months! It was crazy insane, but I guess to feed 44 kids plus everyone else it has to be pretty big.
Arianni, who got stitches Wednesday night, has been afraid of me for the past 2 days because she thinks I am going to take out her stitches. So everytime she has seen me she runs to her room crying. Well tonight I sat down next to her twin sister at the party and she actually came over and sat in my lap! I was excited because I didn't think I'd be seeing her for a week! At one point she turned around and asked if I was going to take them out, just to double check!
All the kids got cake, which was yellow cake with pineapple flavor/small pieces. We got some too of course! Yummy! They like to give huge portions here! They also handed out ice cream, and they got little treat bags! What a great night for them. On top of all of this, Cameron gave each kid a gift. They loved them. The girls got little tea sets, beauty salon sets, hula hoops, strollers, and body wash for the older ones. The boys got remote controlled or cars that lighted up and moved around. They loved them! The older boys got basketballs and Odalis got Cameron's boom box he'd been using all week.
After the party ended, we headed to another one. The streets in town have a contest every year for best Christmas decorations. The street that the English Institute is on always decorates big time for the event and they were having a street party tonight. We headed over there with some of the older kids and hung out for about 1 hour. Jazmin, who used to live here, lives on that street so I got to see her for a little while. We just hung out, enjoyed the lights, and played with some of the neighborhood kids. It was a great start to the Christmas season, and really makes me excited for Christmas!
Tomorrow we are headed to Cabarete, a touristy beach town, for a relaxing get away! Should be fun!
Friday, December 4, 2009
A Welcomed Weekend!
I'm excited it is the weekend, it means sleeping in, until 8:15 that is, no workout in the morning and enjoying a relaxing day tomorrow.
Today I started a new unit titled Safety. This morning went well and I was pretty productive. I laid out what information I wanted taught, or at least had originally planned. I found some good activity sheets and information on helmet safety and was on roll. I paused for lunch and a little siesta.
During siesta, Julie was working with Jessica on spelling words for the spelling bee that they were going to have in English class later in the afternoon. After Julie headed upstairs, I stayed and spelled with her. It was fun just working with her and seeing how much English she really does know. She is about 11-12 years old and is the youngest in level 4 at the English school. She understands a lot and and speak quite a bit of English which is going to be a great skill for her later in life! We spelled words from air to strawberry to baseball to blanket. She did well with most of the words, although a lot of double letters like diFFicult were hard because she would only say one letter. But I was very impressed and we worked on spelling for about 30-45 minutes!
Before spelling with her some of the little kids were out and wanted tickled of course. Luis Alberto was standing in front of my lap at one point and picked a nasty booger and wiped it on the chair where Jessica was sitting. It was disgusting so I showed her and she called over one of the workers. She made him wipe it with his hand and then basically carried him by his arms over to the sink to wash his hands! Gross little boys! :)
After lunch I tried finding information in English and Spanish on seat belt safety. For 1-2 hours I found nothing and finally gave up and quit working for the afternoon. I've now decided to completely rearrange this unit because teaching Dominicans to wear seat belts and helmets is going to be like teaching Dominicans to not drop their "s"'s when they speak. Dominican Spanish is very sloppy so instead of saying "Esta Bien" they would say "'ta bien" because they drop the s and essentially drop the "e" before it. So, anyway, I've decided after wasting the afternoon to change the unit! Oops!
Heather and I went to hang out with the kids for a little while before dinner time. I saw Arianni's three stitches on her forehead, but she left because she was not interested in talking about this. I played for a little while on the slide with some of the little girls and then sat with Jessica again for a while. She didn't tell me she won her spelling bee, but I found out later from Julie she had won. Guess our practice helped! Oh, side note, as I was coming up with words, she kept trying to add letters to the end. For example, I said beautiful and she would say beautifully, and she tried to say sloppily was a word. Not sure because my English skills are diminishing day by day but don't think those are proper words!
For dinner we ate a the restaurant connected to Hostel San Fernando where Cameron is staying. We had a little buffet style dinner of french fries, tostones (plantains), fried chicken, and crab. It was tasty. The crab was meat stewed with some vegetables and had some small bones in it. A little different than normal crab, but it was good and something different! They have a nice pool at the hostel and we went outside, took some pictures and just chilled by the pool for a bit. On the way home we stopped by the English Institute.
The street that it is on participates in a Christmas decorating contest every year. So, we stopped and got out to look at the lights. It made me really excited for Christmas! They have a huge wall set up at the front of the street that looks like the Catholic Church in town and only has an opening large enough for motos to pass so the street is half shut down, at least to cars or bigger. In the middle of the street they have alternating "candles" that are my height and trees with lights. The house next door to the Institute has an awesome upstairs deck/patio and they have some great looking decorations. We hung out for 5-10 minutes with some of the neighborhood kids that know everyone and then we headed back.
We played some Apples to Apples tonight before calling it a night. This weekend will be fun. We are having a birthday party for the kids tomorrow night, and headed to Cabarete (a beach/touristy town) on Sunday for a "vacation" day!
Today I started a new unit titled Safety. This morning went well and I was pretty productive. I laid out what information I wanted taught, or at least had originally planned. I found some good activity sheets and information on helmet safety and was on roll. I paused for lunch and a little siesta.
During siesta, Julie was working with Jessica on spelling words for the spelling bee that they were going to have in English class later in the afternoon. After Julie headed upstairs, I stayed and spelled with her. It was fun just working with her and seeing how much English she really does know. She is about 11-12 years old and is the youngest in level 4 at the English school. She understands a lot and and speak quite a bit of English which is going to be a great skill for her later in life! We spelled words from air to strawberry to baseball to blanket. She did well with most of the words, although a lot of double letters like diFFicult were hard because she would only say one letter. But I was very impressed and we worked on spelling for about 30-45 minutes!
Before spelling with her some of the little kids were out and wanted tickled of course. Luis Alberto was standing in front of my lap at one point and picked a nasty booger and wiped it on the chair where Jessica was sitting. It was disgusting so I showed her and she called over one of the workers. She made him wipe it with his hand and then basically carried him by his arms over to the sink to wash his hands! Gross little boys! :)
After lunch I tried finding information in English and Spanish on seat belt safety. For 1-2 hours I found nothing and finally gave up and quit working for the afternoon. I've now decided to completely rearrange this unit because teaching Dominicans to wear seat belts and helmets is going to be like teaching Dominicans to not drop their "s"'s when they speak. Dominican Spanish is very sloppy so instead of saying "Esta Bien" they would say "'ta bien" because they drop the s and essentially drop the "e" before it. So, anyway, I've decided after wasting the afternoon to change the unit! Oops!
Heather and I went to hang out with the kids for a little while before dinner time. I saw Arianni's three stitches on her forehead, but she left because she was not interested in talking about this. I played for a little while on the slide with some of the little girls and then sat with Jessica again for a while. She didn't tell me she won her spelling bee, but I found out later from Julie she had won. Guess our practice helped! Oh, side note, as I was coming up with words, she kept trying to add letters to the end. For example, I said beautiful and she would say beautifully, and she tried to say sloppily was a word. Not sure because my English skills are diminishing day by day but don't think those are proper words!
For dinner we ate a the restaurant connected to Hostel San Fernando where Cameron is staying. We had a little buffet style dinner of french fries, tostones (plantains), fried chicken, and crab. It was tasty. The crab was meat stewed with some vegetables and had some small bones in it. A little different than normal crab, but it was good and something different! They have a nice pool at the hostel and we went outside, took some pictures and just chilled by the pool for a bit. On the way home we stopped by the English Institute.
The street that it is on participates in a Christmas decorating contest every year. So, we stopped and got out to look at the lights. It made me really excited for Christmas! They have a huge wall set up at the front of the street that looks like the Catholic Church in town and only has an opening large enough for motos to pass so the street is half shut down, at least to cars or bigger. In the middle of the street they have alternating "candles" that are my height and trees with lights. The house next door to the Institute has an awesome upstairs deck/patio and they have some great looking decorations. We hung out for 5-10 minutes with some of the neighborhood kids that know everyone and then we headed back.
We played some Apples to Apples tonight before calling it a night. This weekend will be fun. We are having a birthday party for the kids tomorrow night, and headed to Cabarete (a beach/touristy town) on Sunday for a "vacation" day!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
PG-13 (Kind of)
Yesterday I spent the morning at the Rehab Center making another video tour. We arrived around 10am and starting taping. Joanni, the administrator of the center was excited to have us and would open the little rooms to let us tape the patients as they were receiving therapy or heat or electrical stim. Not sure the patients were super excited to be filmed but they weren't complaining. We got some good shots and there were several patients so it worked out well. The guy that is always in the kitchen made some homemade lemonade and it was great! He uses fresh squeezed oranges and lemons mixed with sugar and it is awesome!
We interviewed Joanni, and a couple of the therapists and then Dr. Garcia. He is the president of the Rehab Center and is always a wealth of information.
After lunch I spent time working in the afternoon. I didn't go out with Dr. Garcia because I had a lot to get done on my units. I hung out with the kids after working for several hours. For dinner, we had Thanksgiving again! I guess we had so much left over that we had a repeat of last week, PLUS PUMPKIN PIE! I like pumpkin pie, but never have been super crazy about it but it tasted wonderful.
I went and hung out again with the kids. Nena sat in my lap and we chatted for a while. She was telling me about the pig that got slaughtered here on the grounds yesterday. They were saying it is for Christmas dinner but seems a little early. She is so goofy and crazy most of the time but was pretty chill and just being cuddly last night which was fun. The kids had culto which was a little different than normal. Three of the girls got up and led singing and just had random people come up and sing. Julie and Bebo sang a song in Spanish, Heather sang Feliz Navidad with the teenage girls, and other kids came up and sang. Nena was in my lap singing, and Luis Alberto was to my side singing. His speech isn't the best so it was funny listening to him sing and he would start singing the line about 3 seconds before everyone else. But I love that he has learned so many songs in just a few months!
*PG-13 portion* :)
Pastor talked about his Christmases as a child. He was saying that when he was little he was told that baby Jesus delivered gifts to each house on a horse. They would leave water and grass under the bed for the horse to eat so he could keep going from house to house. However, he was poorer than others on his street with 8 brothers and sisters so he never understood why Jesus would leave him a small toy and his neighbors a bicycle. He couldn't understand why Jesus was unfair! So, he then proceeded to say, kids Jesus doesn't bring gifts at Christmas, Moms and Dads do! No chance for them to believe in something like Santa! :( He had Bryson come up and tell the American tradition of Santa Claus and was surprised to hear that we leave cookies and milk for Santa to eat. Julie always chimed in about the good/naughty lists! Maybe it will help their behavior! :) Culto was fun with a little Christmas spirit and some fun songs!
Today was a typical day. I worked this morning finishing up my Adult Medicine Unit. This afternoon, I headed into Batey La Cruz with Dr. Garcia and gang. I gave vaccines out in the batey today. It was the first time I had been to this one since I've been here. I brought my camera today but the battery died after the first picture! Sorry! A dog randomly came up today and sat next to Dr. Garcia while he was doing clinic. Nothing like random animals in your "clinic". As I was vaccinating one of the older women today, she was lifting her sleeve up and had huge arm muscles for a 70ish year old woman. I was impressed!
This afternoon I took a nap after returning because I think I haven't been drinking enough water the past few days. I chugged 64 ounces of water between 3pm-6:30pm so I felt better after dinner. We had Mexican night tonight! Yummy guacamole!
Afterwards I went over and hung out with the kids. At first they were going crazy, jumping everywhere, crying, etc but eventually they calmed down and I sat with Luis Alberto cuddled in my lap. Jenny who is older came over and we were talking along with Jazmin. Pastor went to dinner with Cameron who is here visiting and he returned late for church. They usually leave about 7:45 but he wasn't back until 8:15 tonight. So, we had extra time to hang out with the other kids. Jazmin was screaming/singing Feliz Navidad at the top of her lungs, Jenny was putting "makeup" on Luis Alberto using pink chalk, and Nena would come around every once and a while to tug on my hair.
At one point while we were sitting on the bench, from a distance there was a bright orange color in the horizon. I wasn't sure if it was a brush fire or not, but found out quickly it was the moon rising. I got up to go look at it and it was absolutely gorgeous. It was a full moon that was bright orange with complete darkness around it! Wish I could capture it for you but pictures wouldn't do it justice! I hung out with Jennifer sleeping on my lap and just talking to Jenny.
Then someone came over and told me that one of the twins had cut her head while jumping in one of the cribs. I saw a bunch of kids crowded around on the patio and Nicol was holding Arianni. She had blood on her dress and a pretty deep gash on her forehead. Sure enough, she needs more stitches! This is Round 2 for her, her last ones were in the back of her head! Pastor wasn't back from dinner at this point, so the front gate guy and one of the older caretaker women went to the hospital for stitches. No practicing for me! :)
Coco decided to eat her left over pumpkin pie so I joined her in the kitchen and she shared some of her pie which was tasty. It had been in the freezer and was super cold so was even better!
Tomorrow is a work day here for me and we are going to dinner out at one of the hotels in town. Should be a good treat!
We interviewed Joanni, and a couple of the therapists and then Dr. Garcia. He is the president of the Rehab Center and is always a wealth of information.
After lunch I spent time working in the afternoon. I didn't go out with Dr. Garcia because I had a lot to get done on my units. I hung out with the kids after working for several hours. For dinner, we had Thanksgiving again! I guess we had so much left over that we had a repeat of last week, PLUS PUMPKIN PIE! I like pumpkin pie, but never have been super crazy about it but it tasted wonderful.
I went and hung out again with the kids. Nena sat in my lap and we chatted for a while. She was telling me about the pig that got slaughtered here on the grounds yesterday. They were saying it is for Christmas dinner but seems a little early. She is so goofy and crazy most of the time but was pretty chill and just being cuddly last night which was fun. The kids had culto which was a little different than normal. Three of the girls got up and led singing and just had random people come up and sing. Julie and Bebo sang a song in Spanish, Heather sang Feliz Navidad with the teenage girls, and other kids came up and sang. Nena was in my lap singing, and Luis Alberto was to my side singing. His speech isn't the best so it was funny listening to him sing and he would start singing the line about 3 seconds before everyone else. But I love that he has learned so many songs in just a few months!
*PG-13 portion* :)
Pastor talked about his Christmases as a child. He was saying that when he was little he was told that baby Jesus delivered gifts to each house on a horse. They would leave water and grass under the bed for the horse to eat so he could keep going from house to house. However, he was poorer than others on his street with 8 brothers and sisters so he never understood why Jesus would leave him a small toy and his neighbors a bicycle. He couldn't understand why Jesus was unfair! So, he then proceeded to say, kids Jesus doesn't bring gifts at Christmas, Moms and Dads do! No chance for them to believe in something like Santa! :( He had Bryson come up and tell the American tradition of Santa Claus and was surprised to hear that we leave cookies and milk for Santa to eat. Julie always chimed in about the good/naughty lists! Maybe it will help their behavior! :) Culto was fun with a little Christmas spirit and some fun songs!
Today was a typical day. I worked this morning finishing up my Adult Medicine Unit. This afternoon, I headed into Batey La Cruz with Dr. Garcia and gang. I gave vaccines out in the batey today. It was the first time I had been to this one since I've been here. I brought my camera today but the battery died after the first picture! Sorry! A dog randomly came up today and sat next to Dr. Garcia while he was doing clinic. Nothing like random animals in your "clinic". As I was vaccinating one of the older women today, she was lifting her sleeve up and had huge arm muscles for a 70ish year old woman. I was impressed!
This afternoon I took a nap after returning because I think I haven't been drinking enough water the past few days. I chugged 64 ounces of water between 3pm-6:30pm so I felt better after dinner. We had Mexican night tonight! Yummy guacamole!
Afterwards I went over and hung out with the kids. At first they were going crazy, jumping everywhere, crying, etc but eventually they calmed down and I sat with Luis Alberto cuddled in my lap. Jenny who is older came over and we were talking along with Jazmin. Pastor went to dinner with Cameron who is here visiting and he returned late for church. They usually leave about 7:45 but he wasn't back until 8:15 tonight. So, we had extra time to hang out with the other kids. Jazmin was screaming/singing Feliz Navidad at the top of her lungs, Jenny was putting "makeup" on Luis Alberto using pink chalk, and Nena would come around every once and a while to tug on my hair.
At one point while we were sitting on the bench, from a distance there was a bright orange color in the horizon. I wasn't sure if it was a brush fire or not, but found out quickly it was the moon rising. I got up to go look at it and it was absolutely gorgeous. It was a full moon that was bright orange with complete darkness around it! Wish I could capture it for you but pictures wouldn't do it justice! I hung out with Jennifer sleeping on my lap and just talking to Jenny.
Then someone came over and told me that one of the twins had cut her head while jumping in one of the cribs. I saw a bunch of kids crowded around on the patio and Nicol was holding Arianni. She had blood on her dress and a pretty deep gash on her forehead. Sure enough, she needs more stitches! This is Round 2 for her, her last ones were in the back of her head! Pastor wasn't back from dinner at this point, so the front gate guy and one of the older caretaker women went to the hospital for stitches. No practicing for me! :)
Coco decided to eat her left over pumpkin pie so I joined her in the kitchen and she shared some of her pie which was tasty. It had been in the freezer and was super cold so was even better!
Tomorrow is a work day here for me and we are going to dinner out at one of the hotels in town. Should be a good treat!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Happy December!
It is hard to believe it is already December! The kids here are excited that "winter" is here because it means closer to Christmas time for them!
Yesterday was a normal Monday. In the morning, I worked on some personal stuff online, organizing pictures, blogging, downloading pictures, etc because my free Microsoft Office trial had run out so I couldn't work on my units from my room.
In the afternoon, I headed out to Batey Madre with Dr. Garcia. It was an interesting day but familiar clinic day to one back home. Isabel was a 77 year old woman with high blood pressure, reading 200/100 yesterday taken manually. It was too high for the automatic cuff to take it. When she went to consult with Dr. Garcia, he was asking her about her medications and she wasn't sure what she was taking so he had her go get them.
She returned with a purse full of medicines. Here they don't come in pill bottles, they come in little packages like the gum that you push thru the aluminum to get out. The come in packages of 10 pills and she had tons of them. She had 4 different blood pressure medications, furosemide (lasix) which is used to help with swelling, and digoxin which is used for the heart as well. When he asked how she was taking each of the blood pressure medications she couldn't tell him. She almost looked embarrassed because she was so clueless. She had about 10 packages that were completely empty that she had kept for no known reason, and other packages of the same medicine some with 1-2 pills missing, others with 3-4 missing, and other not opened, showing that she was just taking them randomly and didn't realize they were the same thing. So, after some discussion with Dr. Garcia, he took away 2 of the BP pills and kept her on 2, and then kept her on furosemide and digoxin. He rubber banded them together to help her try to stay organized and will see her back in a month.
It was eye opening to see this. She doesn't understand how harmful it is for her to have such a disorganized arrangement of her medications. However, I'm sure this happens so often even in patients that I see, and even in patients that aren't 77 and are only taking one medication. Often times it is easy for me to forget that I understand my directions easily but for a patient who didn't study medicine and doesn't know the difference between one pill and another, they can easily get confused. It was a great lesson learned to me more diligent about having patients bring in their medications and reviewing them every visit!
After I got back, I spent some time in the "hair salon" of Nena. I sat on a swing while she did my hair. She was trying super hard to do something cute and kept coming up with things in her head. She was going to pull a large piece in the front to the side and clip it with a barrett, like the ones little girls use, but after several tries she realized my hair was too thick to hold it in. So, she put a front ponytail in my hair instead with a red bow that one of the little girls had received from her Mom. From the salon I had to head to dinner but wasn't allowed to take it down because it was a rushed job and I was told to return after eating quickly. So, I showed up to dinner looking marvelous!
After dinner I headed back over for some torture. Nena started working on my hair, then gave the job over to Joanni, then to Coral who is 12 and pulled harder than anyone and then Joanni again who got stopped finally by one of the caretakers because she could see I was in pain! They pull so hard here!!!
We had movie night and watched Alvin and the Chipmunks which the kids loved. Heather and Julie made brownies which were tasty as well! Ari was sitting in my lap for a little while during the movie and she is the one that had her bad front tooth removed. She looked up at me and said, my tooth is clean now! She is so cute because she keeps saying how clean her tooth is, but she has no tooth there anymore. Today she actually asked me when she was going to get a new one! :) I told her when she was 6 years old!
A couple other random sights from the day. On the way to Dr. Garcia's house we were driving by some local neighbor kids and the little boy had his same yellow tighty whities that he always wears. However, this time his little wee wee was hanging out the top of them and they were just covering the rest of his package. It was quite the sight! On the way back from the batey we drove by a house and on the front porch area was an old car seat that came out of a van or something just sitting on the porch as a couch/resting area! So ghetto but resourceful! :)
Today was a little different for me. I had planned on working on units all day because I have 4 to finish and less than 3 weeks left! AHHH! Where has time gone? But, Jennifer, one of the interns has been having wrist pain for the past 4-5 days since one of the older boys squeezed her thumb really hard. So, I went with her to the clinic for an x-ray just to make sure nothing was broken. There is only one guy in town that can take x-rays and he works in the hospital in the morning. So, we arrived around 9:45 and waited until just before 11 for him to arrive from the hospital to take an x-ray. It was not broken so we headed to the pharmacy to get diclofenac (an anti-inflammatory). You can buy prescription drugs here without a prescription.
Before stopping at the pharmacy we stopped by the Rehab Center briefly to set up another video tour for tomorrow. We are going to do a video tour of the Rehab Center tomorrow with some more interviews! So I spoke with Joanni,the administrator,who is excited for us to come tomorrow to video tape.
We headed back for lunch and went to see the kids but very few were out because they were eating. While we were waiting, Cameron arrived. He is from Michigan and has supported Orphanage Outreach for the past 10-12 years by raising several thousands of dollars each year. He is here for a week and will be working on some painting projects and just hanging out with the kids. I spoke with him some and then headed up for a little siesta.
I worked most of the afternoon on one of my units until 5pm which is my normal stopping time and my favorite time to hang out with the kids. I hung out with Carolina and Erikson (an older boy that lives in town but comes to hang out and help out) as they were reading thru some Dominican school notebook. The book had some religion, teaching the books of the Bible, etc. A little different from American public schools, huh? During this time, about 5 little girls were carrying over a bucket of food scraps to feed to the goats and they were all making goats sounds. It was funny! Joanni came out and I played with her some and we went over to see the goats as well.
After dinner, I spent more time over with the kids just hanging out. Jennifer fell asleep in my lap early on and I took her to go to bed, and then had Luz Maria and Mineli hanging out in my lap. We were just sitting watching a hysterical scene. Several of the 8-11 year olds were acting out people fainting in church. One of them would stand up on a cinder block, touch another persons head, and start screaming, Leave, leave them, Heal him, Get rid of the demons and the person would be helped down by the other kids to lay on the ground. This would continue until everyone was lying down and sometimes they would start "convulsing" on the ground. It was funny, while kind of disturbing, to watch this but it is what they see sometimes at church so it was interesting. They starting getting the little girls to come over so they'd have more people to "heal".
After this ended, they started playing more normal childhood games like Duck Duck Goose, etc. I ended up hanging out with Heather and Jessica and we played a clapping game that is hard to explain but was fun.
Tomorrow we are headed to the Rehab Center to film in the morning and then I'll stay back from the bateyes to try to get some more work done since time is running out! Hope everyone enjoyed their first day of December!
Yesterday was a normal Monday. In the morning, I worked on some personal stuff online, organizing pictures, blogging, downloading pictures, etc because my free Microsoft Office trial had run out so I couldn't work on my units from my room.
In the afternoon, I headed out to Batey Madre with Dr. Garcia. It was an interesting day but familiar clinic day to one back home. Isabel was a 77 year old woman with high blood pressure, reading 200/100 yesterday taken manually. It was too high for the automatic cuff to take it. When she went to consult with Dr. Garcia, he was asking her about her medications and she wasn't sure what she was taking so he had her go get them.
She returned with a purse full of medicines. Here they don't come in pill bottles, they come in little packages like the gum that you push thru the aluminum to get out. The come in packages of 10 pills and she had tons of them. She had 4 different blood pressure medications, furosemide (lasix) which is used to help with swelling, and digoxin which is used for the heart as well. When he asked how she was taking each of the blood pressure medications she couldn't tell him. She almost looked embarrassed because she was so clueless. She had about 10 packages that were completely empty that she had kept for no known reason, and other packages of the same medicine some with 1-2 pills missing, others with 3-4 missing, and other not opened, showing that she was just taking them randomly and didn't realize they were the same thing. So, after some discussion with Dr. Garcia, he took away 2 of the BP pills and kept her on 2, and then kept her on furosemide and digoxin. He rubber banded them together to help her try to stay organized and will see her back in a month.
It was eye opening to see this. She doesn't understand how harmful it is for her to have such a disorganized arrangement of her medications. However, I'm sure this happens so often even in patients that I see, and even in patients that aren't 77 and are only taking one medication. Often times it is easy for me to forget that I understand my directions easily but for a patient who didn't study medicine and doesn't know the difference between one pill and another, they can easily get confused. It was a great lesson learned to me more diligent about having patients bring in their medications and reviewing them every visit!
After I got back, I spent some time in the "hair salon" of Nena. I sat on a swing while she did my hair. She was trying super hard to do something cute and kept coming up with things in her head. She was going to pull a large piece in the front to the side and clip it with a barrett, like the ones little girls use, but after several tries she realized my hair was too thick to hold it in. So, she put a front ponytail in my hair instead with a red bow that one of the little girls had received from her Mom. From the salon I had to head to dinner but wasn't allowed to take it down because it was a rushed job and I was told to return after eating quickly. So, I showed up to dinner looking marvelous!
After dinner I headed back over for some torture. Nena started working on my hair, then gave the job over to Joanni, then to Coral who is 12 and pulled harder than anyone and then Joanni again who got stopped finally by one of the caretakers because she could see I was in pain! They pull so hard here!!!
We had movie night and watched Alvin and the Chipmunks which the kids loved. Heather and Julie made brownies which were tasty as well! Ari was sitting in my lap for a little while during the movie and she is the one that had her bad front tooth removed. She looked up at me and said, my tooth is clean now! She is so cute because she keeps saying how clean her tooth is, but she has no tooth there anymore. Today she actually asked me when she was going to get a new one! :) I told her when she was 6 years old!
A couple other random sights from the day. On the way to Dr. Garcia's house we were driving by some local neighbor kids and the little boy had his same yellow tighty whities that he always wears. However, this time his little wee wee was hanging out the top of them and they were just covering the rest of his package. It was quite the sight! On the way back from the batey we drove by a house and on the front porch area was an old car seat that came out of a van or something just sitting on the porch as a couch/resting area! So ghetto but resourceful! :)
Today was a little different for me. I had planned on working on units all day because I have 4 to finish and less than 3 weeks left! AHHH! Where has time gone? But, Jennifer, one of the interns has been having wrist pain for the past 4-5 days since one of the older boys squeezed her thumb really hard. So, I went with her to the clinic for an x-ray just to make sure nothing was broken. There is only one guy in town that can take x-rays and he works in the hospital in the morning. So, we arrived around 9:45 and waited until just before 11 for him to arrive from the hospital to take an x-ray. It was not broken so we headed to the pharmacy to get diclofenac (an anti-inflammatory). You can buy prescription drugs here without a prescription.
Before stopping at the pharmacy we stopped by the Rehab Center briefly to set up another video tour for tomorrow. We are going to do a video tour of the Rehab Center tomorrow with some more interviews! So I spoke with Joanni,the administrator,who is excited for us to come tomorrow to video tape.
We headed back for lunch and went to see the kids but very few were out because they were eating. While we were waiting, Cameron arrived. He is from Michigan and has supported Orphanage Outreach for the past 10-12 years by raising several thousands of dollars each year. He is here for a week and will be working on some painting projects and just hanging out with the kids. I spoke with him some and then headed up for a little siesta.
I worked most of the afternoon on one of my units until 5pm which is my normal stopping time and my favorite time to hang out with the kids. I hung out with Carolina and Erikson (an older boy that lives in town but comes to hang out and help out) as they were reading thru some Dominican school notebook. The book had some religion, teaching the books of the Bible, etc. A little different from American public schools, huh? During this time, about 5 little girls were carrying over a bucket of food scraps to feed to the goats and they were all making goats sounds. It was funny! Joanni came out and I played with her some and we went over to see the goats as well.
After dinner, I spent more time over with the kids just hanging out. Jennifer fell asleep in my lap early on and I took her to go to bed, and then had Luz Maria and Mineli hanging out in my lap. We were just sitting watching a hysterical scene. Several of the 8-11 year olds were acting out people fainting in church. One of them would stand up on a cinder block, touch another persons head, and start screaming, Leave, leave them, Heal him, Get rid of the demons and the person would be helped down by the other kids to lay on the ground. This would continue until everyone was lying down and sometimes they would start "convulsing" on the ground. It was funny, while kind of disturbing, to watch this but it is what they see sometimes at church so it was interesting. They starting getting the little girls to come over so they'd have more people to "heal".
After this ended, they started playing more normal childhood games like Duck Duck Goose, etc. I ended up hanging out with Heather and Jessica and we played a clapping game that is hard to explain but was fun.
Tomorrow we are headed to the Rehab Center to film in the morning and then I'll stay back from the bateyes to try to get some more work done since time is running out! Hope everyone enjoyed their first day of December!
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