Goodbye Constanza

Our 5 week stay in Constanza has come to an end - we leave Saturday for the capital.  It is fair to say that we have all bitter-sweet feelings about leaving, because CBT has been an overall positive experience for everyone here.  We have made and strengthened our friendships with the other trainees, formed bonds with our families, neighbors and youth, and learned about about the Dominican culture and skills that we will need for our future projects.

Highlights from the past 2 weeks:

• Created and presented didactic material to 7-13 year olds in a Sala de Tarea.  My group made large domino cards to help students with their math skills.
• Kristi, Merry and I made a pumpkin pie and toasted pumpkin seeds for our host families.  There was a struggle with making the crust but in the end it turned out fabulous and everyone loved it.
• Family photos/photo shoot
• Last Fri. Movie night- As a fundraiser my youth decided that we should put on a movie night.  It was organized pretty last minute, and there were many loud and rude children/youth.  But overall it went well - meaning we raised money and watched the Karate Kid (the newest one, which is pretty much just the same as the old).
• Last Sat. there was another limpieza and painting of trashcans (with oil based paint and children = not a good mix).  After lunch my group went to the Fire station to hang out with our boys before wen went to buy paint (water based) and other supplies for our mural.  Then dancing at night with Sonia (my host mom/sister), Wendy (Merry's host mom), Ingrid (my neighbor and Sara's host mom), other trainees and our youth.
• Last Sun. I got up at the crack of dawn...and woke up the other members of my group to be at the fire station at 8:30.  We waited around for a while and then headed over to El Chorro to wait around for our youth, the artist and the paint to arrive.  Then we finally got started cleaning the wall and painting the world with a saying around it: Our world is your world, take care of it. There is only one.  It was going well until all of the children in the barrio decided to watch, we let them get their hands painted and place them around the world.  After that it was chaos -with little girls fighting, children screaming and running around.  We eventually had to kick all of them out and barricade ourselves in the community center.  It was like a zombie attack and we were the only survivors.  The children were pounding on the windows denting the metal, trying to push the door open even with someone sitting on the desk that was up against the door, yelling, throwing rocks...Eventually many of them got tired, left or went home for lunch.  The mural was finished and looks really good.  We then walked back to eat pizza and beer.
• Tuesday we had a final meeting with our boys and they made up grilled bbq chicken ---SOOO good!
• Yesterday, Wednesday we donated clothes in the morning, which was a weird experience because we had no buy-in to the community at all.  Learned how to properly use a machete.  Then Merry, Kristi, Sarayu, Caitlin and I made brownies.
• Tonight we are going to make an apple crisp.
• Tomorrow we will have class in the morning and then in the afternoon there will be a Despedida - a goodbye party at the Pre-Escolar.  Tomorrow is also the birthday of about 5 people so there will be a Lot of celebrating before we leave at 8:00am on Sat.
• Also, I seem to be collecting Dominican males. I haven't felt this popular since getting contacts and a rockstar hair cut in the summer before sophomore year of college.  Weird.

It is going to be great but interesting going back to Santo Domingo then visiting our sites by ourselves for a week...Bring on the adventures!