Our fate has been determined. The decision has been made. We, the Youth Trainees, know where we will be placed for the next 2 years. I am headed to Antonci, a Batey near Don Juan and Yamasa. Feel free to google map it...good luck finding it. There are also a couple volunteers nearby in Batey Cana, Gusamita and El Triple. Here is some information about Bateys. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batey_(sugar_workers'_town). My Batey doesn't do a whole lot with sugar cane anymore and i have a really strong women's groups who already like to make jewelry. So i am pretty excited about it. I also get to learn some Creole!
The week in recap:
The 24th was Patronales (Celebration of the Patron of the city = La Virgin de la Merced) so there was a festival all weekend long. Friday, I finally met my elusive ‘brother’ Luifer. Both Friday and Saturday, groups of us went down to the Park where they had live music and danced all night long…I was out way past my bed time. Sunday was another family/extended family day.
Saturday we had a teambuilding activity to Ebano Verde, an ecological reserve nearby. It was very beautiful – picture mountains covered in pine and palm trees peaking out through the clouds with a few small waterfalls and rivers to play in. We hiked about 10 Kilometers and were all sore the next day. The most eventful story from that trip occurred in the morning on our way up the mountain in the bus. I found myself in the very back seat of the bus once again with Kristy, Phoebe and Dan. Everything was going great; we were laughing, telling stories, the three were talking about being married (I was the odd man out there). The driver was whipping around the corners of the switchback as fast as he could, and by 3/4th of the way to our destination the four of us were feeling a bit nauseous. So Phoebe whips out a plastic bag just in case we would need it. Fast forward a few minutes and Kristy and I are sharing a plastic grocery bag, in perfect harmony, taking turns vomiting. We felt great after…and arrived 2 minutes after our sickness. It was truly a bonding moment and pretty hilarious. We made sure to get seats in the front of the Bus on the way back home. (And it was a good thing that I only had corn flakes and milk for breakfast)
(Side Note: This is the first time that I have gotten motion sickness since the Sprinkled Donut Incident in the 90’s when I was 8ish…I still can’t eat sprinkled donuts to this day.)
This week I visited a primary school and it was an interesting experience, because the Dominican education system is one of the worst in the world and is the worst in all of South, Central America and the Caribbean. The students attend school for about 4 hours a day with an average of 2.6 hours ‘learning.’ One classroom that we visited had about 42 students (1st graders) with one teacher. She said this was manageable in comparison to the 60 students she had last year. Grade levels don’t correspond with age here either – there can be students who are 18 years old in 5th grade. This is usually caused by an Act that enforces pushing students through early grades until they reach 3rd or 4th. It is kind of like and as useless as ‘No Child Left Behind’ – it allows for students who don’t know how to read or write advance grade levels until usually 3rd or 4th grade, although there are high schoolers who have trouble writing their names.
In a response to this issue, many Youth volunteers work with Salas de Tarea, after school tutoring programs to help the students who most need it. In fact, our 3rd presentation will be at a Sala de Tarea using didactic materials that we created to help children ages 7-13 learn to read or do basic math.
Speaking of presentations, we just had our 2nd on Wednesday and the community was invited. My group’s topic was La Violencia (Violence) so we discussed the different types, the cycle, the consequences, what we can do to combat it. It was a lot of fun because it was very interactive and we had skits (one where I got ‘beat up’ to show physical violence). All of the other presentations went well too. Everyone’s spanish has improved as well as everyone’s confidence.
Here is Quiero una Americana http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ozfHaiZ0o I haven't watched the video so i don't know if it is racy at all.
This is another song that is very popular here (it is Italian) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWlrQDUjL9Q
P.S. If you want to see pictures check them out of Facebook. It is easier for me to upload them there.
No comments:
Post a Comment