Dona Nena

*Note - There is another blog posted today that I wrote yesterday but couldn't post because we had no internet. Check it out, it has a great picture on it!*

Today I took a break from healthcare stuff and went to Dona Nena, the private school where the high school group of volunteers is teaching this week. This school is also where many of the orphanage children go to school. It was so much fun getting to see them in their uniforms, sitting in their seats (most of the time), and learning English. They all got excited to see me at school and at recess came out to play and hang out.

This little girl does not live at the orphanage but is in the pre-kindergarten class and was matching shapes. She was super cute so I had to get a picture of her working hard on the chalkboard.

Here in the Dominican Republic education is POOR! Children either go to school from 8am-12pm, or from 2pm-6pm. So, 4 hours a day! You can only imagine how much they learn during that period. Not to mention they get 15-20 minutes of recess and a 5-10 minute snack break built in as well. Many of the classrooms are packed full of students, some even without desks and just chairs. In this classroom to the left, there were at least 5 little kids sitting in chairs only without anything to write on. I guess in pre-kindergarten it isn't as crucial but still, at a private school you'd expect a desk for each child! Private schools here are not near as expensive as in the States however.

The kids here do have a uniform. Dona Nena has these brown jumpers with a yellow shirt, and the boys wear brown pants with a yellow top. However, the public schools all wear khaki pants or skirts, and a blue button down shirt.
Here are Luz Maria and I at recess. She came out to play for a little bit and sat with me until her teacher found her and took her back into class. I don't think she wanted to go back in, surprise. Everyday when I ask her how school was she says, MAL, which means bad! But they all say that! Once I got back from school today I laid down for just a bit. We got up early because the group went on a sunrise hike and I was going to do a beach workout, but the bus wouldn't start and by the time we got down to the beach, we only had 10 minutes to workout so we just sat and enjoyed the view instead. It was a pleasant morning at the beach watching the waves crash! Rough, I know!

After lunch, I spent some time with the kids and went to the bus station to pick up a site visitor that is in country for a couple of weeks. She wants to bring a college team down possibly to work with Orphanage Outreach, and ironically enough I actually met her in the Miami airport and gave her Coco's number to call about coming to see the orphanage. She saw our t-shirts that we wear in the airport and came over to ask questions, and now here she is.

This picture is of Nena and Nicol in their classroom. The classes are sometimes interesting because you'll see someone like Nena who is 7 years old in the 3rd grade, but also there are other children in her classroom ages 9,10, and even 14! They don't place you by age here, they place you by ability so it isn't unusual to see 12,13,14 year olds still in elementary grade levels!

This afternoon I had planned to go to Cuidad de Luz, another private school we are teaching at this week but plans changed. I got asked to go to a local pharmacy and get prices on the medications for possible purchase for our spring clinics. It was fun to go inside the pharmacy and just see the dynamics. One lady was helping me for a good 20 minutes, to find the prices, etc. She seemed slightly annoyed for a while, until I told her I would talk to Coco, who has lived here for 5 years and everyone knows, and then she smiled and gave me the phone number to call to order! :)

On the walk home today I saw this interesting sight outside of a pretty decent house. The house just recently got painted and seems to be owned by someone with a least a little money. Well, outside in her yard were several fans, a couple of toasters, and a few other random items. I assume they were for sale. Nothing like a good old fashioned yard sale, with about 15 items to sell! Hope she made some money today!

The rest of the day I spent with the kids just hanging out. They had sidewalk chalk and were drawing each other as well as other things. Indiana made a hopscotch board so she, Jessica, and I played. I was not so good!

Wednesday nights is culto night so we had a little worship service with the kids. Arianni sat in my lap and was playing with my thumbs and singing along to the music. Pastor wasn't there until the very end so Jose Luis, who is 13, lead the service asking different kids to come up and sing. It was a little more crazy than normal but he did a good job.

After culto I played with Arianni a little bit longer before coming up for the night. We kissed again, and then I pretended to eat her ears, eyes, nose, mouth, etc. for a good amount of time. Apparently this game hasn't gotten old yet for her! I love her so much! When I hear, "Elizamen" come out of her mouth I can't help but smile and be thankful for having her in my life!

Pictures from today - http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/DonaNena?feat=directlink