What a Crazy Week!

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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!