The Saturday that I got back from the hospital my host grandma’s dog had puppies, there were 10 of them. And then on that Monday one of my muchacho’s dogs had 5 puppies. I am told that I get one of each…we will see what happens with that because I am now a proud care taker of a plant so that is filling the void of a puppy…
August 8: Angela and Alicia come over for a thank you lunch, because they brought me things from my house while I was sick in the capital. I made them Fajitas and Guacamole. It was amazing.
August 10: Phil, another volunteer, came over to visit my Construye Tus Sueños class to give them a motivational talk about getting it done and how fun the conference is. BUT, it rained in the afternoon like normal so no one showed up. We had a good time talking and I gifted him some chinolas (passion fruit) to take to his doña.
August 13: Angela came over to use the computer so I made us lunch of sloppy joes, French fried, roasted corn and guacamole. Fabulous! After she left I went around visiting some friends, because one of my favorite 4 year old boys was back in town for the day (Liandro, would give me bolas around the batey on the back of his stick horse). I then went around with some of the girls visiting and helps pump water for the Reso (of the guy who died 2 weeks ago). I was then sent a moto to go to Yamasa to dance for the night.
August 14: I got back to Antoncí for the reso the next day and about 20 minutes after I got back there were 2 fights infront of the disco. The first a bottle got broken on someone’s head and the second the police were called. I was safe and far away from it all, sitting with my host grandma and the rest of the family. A little while later we were informed that a man from La Mina passed away. He was a chauffeur for a family in Yamasa and had a heart attack while driving the car, it flipped over, but no one else was hurt.
August 17 - 20: I went into the Capital and we (a group of us volunteers and friends) watched Harry Potter 7. The next morning I got to the office before 8am, so that I could leave with the group to get our green cards, because our visas have expired. We didn’t actually leave the office until 9:40and then had to wait around for the longest time in the immigration office. But finally we got our cards. And the funny thing is that they are literally green…the green card is green…
We got back to the office and it started to rain, I don’t mean just rain, but down pour. After lunch and the passing of the rain I went with Sarayu to her site to visit for a few days. She lives in Carlos Pinto, Najayo in San Cristobal. Her house is a fairy tale cottage; something like Snow Whilte’s; complete with rocking chairs, indoor bathroom, shelves and a refrigerator. We got to her house and went visiting a little bit and made some amazing spaghetti.
The next morning after making breakfast burritos, we went to the MLB San Diego Padres training center, where Sarayu is sponsored out of to work with a Sala de Tarea in her community. When we got there I felt like I was not in the DR anymore – it was little USA. We then went back and saw her Sala de Tarea and had lunch on the Beach. We collected shells, rocks, coral and sea glass before heading to meet some other volunteers at the swimming part of the beach. While us 4 girls were in the water, we were being circled by the young tigueres, who we now call tiburones (sharks). They left us alone after telling them off. That night we made rustic quesadillas and created the Najayo Dessertilla (a tortilla shell with half crunchy peanut butter, half cream cheese, and some Hersey’s kisses.
On Saturday, we went to the MLB complex again to see the final baseball game of the season: Padres vs. Colorado Rockies. The Padres won 14 to 4. I then got on the bus and went home.
Out of my English class 12 of my students passed with the highest grade a 100.5% and half of them in the 90’s. Only 3 of the students failed who took the exam (which I didn’t think that they would pass, because they came for half of the classes and insisted on taking the exam anyway). We will be having a graduation on the 3rd of September, where they will receive certificates.
I started an Art class where at least 26 kids showed up to make friendship bracelets. They can’t get enough of it and so we are going to continue with bracelets for a few more weeks then move on to other projects. I suspect that more will come in the coming weeks, now that the word has spread.
The women in my community came to me and asked if I can give exercise classes. So we get up at 5am to walk/run, then afterwards do exercises in the Panaderia until 7:30ish.
I have 2 of my students finishing the Business Plan (Construye Tus Sueños). We have one week left to turn it in. It is about 14 pages and we still have a little more to add and to finish editing.
Hurricane Irene: Thankfully nothing too bad happened in Antoncí. We got a lot of rain and wind, so I didn’t leave my house for a couple days (because I didn’t want to walk in the mud). We lost power for a few days, but that is nothing out of the normal, so it was just another day.
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