Sunday, February 7, 2010

Weekend Review

This past Thursday I headed into Jaibon with Bryson for the day. He was requested to come there to take pictures of the construction that is taking place to document what is being done. They are building a second floor onto the orphanage there as well as new housing for volunteers. I just went along for the ride. Bryson wanted to stop on the way to take some pictures of the rice fields that are along the highway between Monte Cristi and Jaibon. This is a picture of one of the many rice fields, and an old abandoned rice factory in the background. It was cool to stop and get some pictures. I'd love to work out there one day (maybe about 30 minutes) to see how they harvest rice, and just to really appreciate the hard work done in the hot sun all day long! We spent most of the afternoon there and headed back after lunch.
The rest of the day and Friday was spent working and playing with the kids, as usual!
Saturday was a day of preparation for our parents to come. We had to clean up Heather's parents room, my parents' sleeping area, and our room. But, most importantly, we had to get pretty for our parents. One of the kitchen ladies put rolls in Christine's hair on Friday and asked me and Heather if we wanted to straighten our hair for our parents too. OF COURSE! Anytime someone volunteers to fix my hair nice I'll take it. A ponytail gets old sometimes! So, we showered, and went to the laundry room to get rollos put in our hair! After putting rollos in, we were set to the kids side to let Nicol put us under the big salon dryer and straighten our hair more with the straightening iron. Here I am waiting for my hair to dry. Me, Carolina and Heather are all sporting our lovely Domincan rollos.
The dryer wasn't heating up so it took a little longer than normal to dry our hair. But eventually after about 2 hours, we both had our hair straight and rolled up in our tubies to wear until we took it down. They literally twist your hair around your head and bobby pin it down, and then put a net on top to keep it in place. I wore this from about 1:00pm until 8:00pm.

As I was sitting there waiting, several of the kids kept popping in and out checking out what was going on. This little wiggle worm below was in and out of my lap several times, along with Luz Maria. They are so cute, but just can't sit still! Nicole was getting her hair washed by Coral, Jessica was doing laundry and throwing wet clothes over the cord that went to the dryer I was sitting under, and kids kept coming in and out to check on us. It was a fun afternoon!
After setting up Mom and Dad's room, which I'll post pics of later (it is a sheet fort room), I showered with a Wal-Mart bag over my head and ate dinner. Shortly after dinner we headed on the bus to Santiago to pick up our parents! We arrived about 30 minutes before they landed, and enjoyed some milkshakes! YUMMY! Then, our parents arrived! It was exciting to see everyone's parents come down the escalator and then greet them as the came outside. Here was our final product, straight hair! We were anxiously awaiting our parents! They all arrived with no complications and we headed back to the orphanage. We arrived at 12:44am and headed to bed.
This morning was orientation, introductions, and going over the basic principles and guidelines. We also took a short tour around the neighborhood of the orphanage. We stopped and talked to Pastor Ramon and he was very excited to see everyone's parents. Also, the kids were excited, some shy, and some full of questions. I think they have enjoyed getting to see our parents. After lunch, I spent a little bit of time with some of the kids and returned Nicol's tubie to her that I wore yesterday. Bryson's parents brought some cool foam stickers that they kids loved playing with! They were showing off their artwork to me as I headed to my room. This afternoon we had a special trip planned to a little island about 20 minutes by boat off the shore. We went there for a couple of hours this afternoon and enjoyed the beach! We headed back, showered, ate dinner and then spent some time with the kids. The little girls that hadn't gone to church had their dresses on and were holding each other's ties that go around their waist for their dress. They were running in a line, holding on to the person in front of them and pretending to be horses. I held on a little while and pretended to be horses with them also. Mom and Dad had a good time I think just hanging out and getting to meet some of the little girls. Arianni and Joanni were stealing our noses and eating them. Dad tooted on the bench and Arianni started saying, "Gross, It smells bad". It was pretty funny.

This evening was church with the kids. It was enjoyable but long. I had to hit Mom several times to keep her awake! Surprise! It was Odalis' birthday who turned 18 today so we got to sing Happy Birthday to him at the end.

I'll post more pictures as the week goes on. We have a fun week planned with our parents!

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