week 54/55: last stop: mexico (june 25-30)

where it all started: over 50 years ago, a man named father wasson, a newly ordained, native-arizonan priest living in mexico, caught a little boy stealing from the poor box in his church. the little boy had been orphaned and when questioned said that he stole the money because he was hungry. when the little boy was given a harsh sentence by a local judge, father wasson asked the permission of the judge to take home the child so he could feed, clothe and take care of him. over the next year, the judge passed along 32 more boys to father wasson and so began nuestros pequeños hermanos. there are now 9 orphanages throughout latin american and the carribean and since 1954, over 16,000 orphaned and abandoned children have been assisted by nph. so, when i found out that the st. pats group would be taking their annual trip down to mexico just around the time i would be leaving the dr, i figured that there couldn't be a better way to end my year than to see where it all started.

i met up with st. pats at the airport on thursday afternoon on basically no sleep after a crazy last couple days in the dr. despite being pretty out of it, it was great to see some familiar faces. nph in mexico has two main parts... one is the main home in miacatlan and the other is the high school about an hour away in cuernavaca. we drove about 3 hours to the home in miacatlan, where we stayed for the next 5 days. it was great to see the home and see how different it was from where i had been the past year. first of all, they have over 3 times as many kids as we do, so that part was really overwhelming. they also have been functioning for so long that they have the benefit of having older kids, who have graduated high-school, called "year of service pequeños", helping out around the home. in fact, they basically run the place. after graduating, all the kids have to give back a year or two to their younger brothers and sisters by working as caregivers or other positions around the home. at our home our oldest kid just graduated high school, so we don't really have this whole dimension yet... but it was cool to see the potential to have that in the future. oh... and i also learned that dominican spanish and mexican spanish are super different! i got a lot of blank stares as i sputtered off what i didn't know, but quickly learned, where dominican words.

i loved the home in mexico, it was really beautiful, but at the end of the day i'm still glad that i was in the dominican. i'm sure i would have had a great experience anywhere i went, but i really loved the smaller atmosphere of the home in the dr and being with all the kids in mexico really made me miss my boys. oh, but p.s.... one difference that i definitely preferred in mexico was the food... oh my gosh i missed mexican food. the dominicans do not do spicy and at practically every meal in mexico there was salsa... it was just glorious! the food was very simple in mexico too, but the kitchen makes homemade tortillas every single day (about 6,000 each day... i think is what they told us)... oh my gosh, they were so good. i'm sure after a year, those too, like the rice, would have gotten old... but it was a nice change of pace!

el rollo: we spent most of friday and saturday hanging out with the kids at the orphanage, but on sunday we spent all day at a local water park. now when i first heard "water park in mexico" i'm not gonna lie, i was a little scared... i pictured scary, shady state fair style stuff. but it ended up being really, really nice. it was one of the coolest and nicest water parks i have ever been to. (drew you would have gone crazy!) however, there still was reason to be scared... i'm not sure that many of the rides would pass many of the safety standards of the united states (not because they were poorly constructed... just because they were really intense!) for example, these slide to the left were sooo tall. i would say take splash mountain and disneyland and double it... oh ya, and ditch the boat. they were so high and so steep. women are not allowed to ride them unless they sign a waiver form saying that they know there is a risk of injury. it's pretty crazy... tyler went (and scratched up his back and busted open his elbow...although he said it was worth it) but i didn't feel like risking my chance of ever having children to go on a water slide, so i passed. we did however have fun doing some cliff jumping and also going down the craziest "lazy river" i've ever seen. basically it's your normal lazy river that goes around in a big circle, but then there is this part that we called the "angry river"... off to the side there is an area where people stand and then there is this huge pump that pumps out massive amounts of water into basically a huge tidal wave that topples over you. so you stand there and try to hold your ground, but eventually everyone gets sucked in and pulled out into the lazy river. it was really fun... but actually really scary... you literally get pulled away by this current and and sucked under the water and are banging into people... it's really out of control. overall, it was a great day and although we couldn't take all the kids with us, for the 50 or so that could come, it was an awesome experience.

cuernavaca: one of my favorite days in mexico was monday, when we headed out to a nearby city called cuernavaca. it's about an hour away from miacatlan and is where the kids live and go to school when they get to the high school age. we took a little tour of the school which was cool because not only is it a normal school, but then they have all this vocational training for the kids. like kids learn how to do computer stuff or sewing and carpentry... they even have a sample hotel room and bar and kitchen set up so they can learn everything about the hotel/restaurant business. it was really quite impressive. we got there during a break so we got to witness a really intense soccer game between the girls and eat some amazing enchiladas from the snack bar.

next we headed out to a very poor village in cuernavaca, called la estacion. there we gathered with some people from the local community center and another group (i can't remember the name) that does a lot of work in the area. with them we broke up into groups and each went out to visit one of the houses in this community. it was very humbling to sit with these families as they welcomed us into their homes. we just sat with them for about 30 minutes and talked about their lives. after being in the dominican republic for a year, seeing how these people lived wasn't quite as shocking to me as it should have been, but it did show me once again that poverty is everywhere, that there is need everywhere and it really makes you think about all the stuff we have in our lives that we really could live without. afterward, we all talked about our experiences and then headed back to the house of the group that had showed us around, where they made us an awesome lunch.... pastel azteca - a casserole with chicken, tortillas, cheese, corn, salsa and cream cheese and nopales - a salad made with cactus... yum.

after that we headed into the city of cuernavaca, which i loved. it was just such a cute little city. my favorite part was the cathedral, which was gorgeous. on the outside it was just this big old, but still cool, looking building, but on the inside it was beautiful. it was so modern-looking... so unexpected... oh and this really cool font everywhere... i know that's a weird thing to comment on... but i love cool fonts (look at the beatitudes below). after touring the cathedral and a couple surrounding churches, we headed over to this marketplace to do some souvenir shopping. it was a cool marketplace, with some really cool things... but just so overwhelming. i'm so excited to come home and shop in a store where no one is yelling at you! after that, we ended the day with a nice relaxing dinner at a nearby restaurant.

perfect ending: i was kind of sad because i had booked my ticket home without knowing the schedule of the st. pats group and their flight actually was leaving about 4 hours later than mine and they had plans to stop off and see the site of our lady of guadalupe before heading to the airport. i was really bummed because i had always wanted to see that and i couldn't believe that i would finally be in mexico and i would miss it. so i made this whole plan to leave the group a day early and make my way up to mexico city on my own and then stay in a hostel for the night and go to the airport in the morning. but, when i got to mexico, people started telling me that my plan was a lot more complicated than i thought and actually a little dangerous to just be taking buses and subways all around mexico city when i didn't know what i was doing. so, i kinda just accepted that i'd have to visit our lady another time... but then on tuesday, the day before i was supposed to leave, i ran into an old friend from nph-dr who was in town visiting for graduation. i was telling her all about my trip and she had a taxi that was driving her and her friend around and she offered to let me use it to go up to mexico city! i can't imagine what that cost her, but she told me not to worry about it and to consider it a thank you for all my work in the dr. it was so great! so that afternoon i headed out with my new friend, paco, the taxi driver, and we made the 2 hour drive to mexico city. he was so nice and we spent the car ride working on our second languages... he would practice his english with me and me, my spanish with him. he took me up to the site of our lady of guadalupe, which was huge, btw... i thought it would just be this little mountain with like a chapel... but it's this huge massive thing. there are all these churches and chapels and shrines, dedicated to all different things. there were actually three different places where juan diego had visions and then you can climb all the way to the top of mount tepeyac, where juan diego gathered the roses that would eventually create the image on his tilma (if you don't know the story... head here http://www.franciscanfriars.com/RMH/OLGtext.htm). paco showed me all around and gave me all sorts of fun facts about the area... it was like having my own little tour guide.

at the bottom of the mountain is the basilica, where the original image of our lady of guadalupe is displayed. it's really cool, but the manner in which you can view this image is really quite interesting. there was a mass going on when we got there, so i kinda thought that i'd just be able to see it from a distance, but no... just wait... you can go down under and behind the altar where there are 4 conveyor belt/people mover thingys that go back and forth and you ride on them and can look up at and take pictures of the image. it was quite entertaining. but in all seriousness, it was really cool to see this and a great end to the trip.

well, that's it for me. it's been a crazy year, but one i'll never forget. going back home will probably be a little weird at first and take some getting used to... but there are some things that i am definitely ready to get back to... certainly all my family and friends (and mountain dew!). thanks for all your prayers and support this year and for following along. hopefully i will see you all soon... in person... yay!

God bless.

http://dominicanrepubliccitypics.shutterfly.com

week 54: saying goodbye (june 22-24)

my last week… or last 3 days i guess, were jam-packed, crazy busy. i had so many things i wanted to get done as far as handing over my jobs to the next volunteers and then just trying to say goodbye to all the kids and get all my own stuff in order… i am so tired at this moment!

goodbye san pascual: there were a lot of different kids that i had to say goodbye to and am going to miss a lot, but there were 2 houses in particular that i was the closest to. the first was obviously casa san pascual, the special needs kids house. most of my days were spent with these kids and these tías. when i look back on my year with them it was really hard at times, there were some very frustrating days, some days when i thought “where am and what am i doing here?!”… but i also have some of my best memories there. those kids are really special, each one of them unique and when i think of them i will always smile. the hardest goodbye was probably with paola. she has been kind of a roller coaster over the past couple weeks with knowing that i am leaving and adjusting to having the new volunteer in her house… plus we changed locations of the house (because it was the last one in the corner, so we switched them with one more in the middle so they could be more a part of the community), we’ve had two new kids come into the house in the past 3 months and with school over everything’s kinda been crazy and she’s lost the routine we had had in our schedule. so it’s been a little rough for her… she’s had good days, days where she’s really sad and other days where she just won’t talk to me because she’s mad that i'm leaving. i am worried about her... not that someone else can't come in and probably work a lot better with her than i did... but just because it took me soo long to earn her trust and respect... and even with that we have a tough time... so i just know it's going to be a long road.

but, i did the best i could to say goodbye in a way that would be good for her. i decided to make a dinner for the house on tuesday night as a sort of little going away party. paola told me that she would not be coming, but i knew that when i walked in with the sandwiches, chips and guacamole (her favorite food) and cake, that she would change her mind… and she did (did i mention that she might possibly love food more than i do?) anyway, we had a nice dinner and afterward i gave her a card and a little present. she cried a lot and that was hard. you never want to feel like something you are doing is hurting someone else. but, i tried to explain to her that just because i'm leaving doesn't mean i'll never be a part of her life and that i will be back to visit and no matter what we will be in each other's hearts. she promised me that her going away present to me would be her good behavior... i convinced her that i have a secret camera watching her wherever she goes... so hopefully that'll keep her in line!

goodbye santa rosa: when i picked up a picture of my god-son salomón off of a table after mass three years ago, i thought, “hey this kid is really cute. i can give him $30/month”… but i never imagined that it would lead me to the year i just had with this group of 14 boys. because i was the madrina of salomón, i was able to be assigned to his house to eat in for the year… and while most of my job was with the special needs kids this group of 14 little boys really made my year. all the volunteers here have their normal “job” and then a house that they are in charge of. so for example, our physical therapist is a physical therapist during the day and then in the afternoon and at night she is with her house, playing, helping with homework, reading, etc... seeing as my job was also in a house, i technically had 2 houses, so i always felt a little bad for my boys because my attention was always shared between the 2 houses. anyway, i wanted to give them a fun last week, so here’s what we did…

one night we had a movie night. they love movie nights! we invited over another house of boys around the same age and brought over the big speakers and projector and set up a movie on the back porch. i made tons of popcorn and some juice. i bought three new movies (and yes, they are all bootlegged, and i'm not supporting that, but i honestly have no idea where you would buy a normal movie in this country. i don’t think our kids even understand that there are “real” movies. it's just so much a normal part of this culture.) anyway, one movie had all three batmans, the other was the new disney movie “up”, and the third i threw in there because i had bought it to watch with paola, “the little mermaid”. the decision was unanimous… 30-0… middle school aged boys in favor of the little mermaid. i thought it was funny but they loved it and told me how they had read the book but were so excited because they have never seen the movie. kylie, you would have been proud.

then one morning i had told them that i would make them an american breakfast… since their breakfasts always look so gross to me! i was going to do pancakes, but they are so expensive here, so i decided on french toast… so i'm not sure if that’s technically french or american, but i figured it would work. i also cut up little orange slices, soccer snack style, since they don’t get much fruit. they looked a little confused and worried as i dipped the bread in the eggs and milk, and they could see that it didn't look like anything they were used to, but when it was all said and done, i think they really enjoyed it. i think they most especially enjoyed the syrup... which to kids who have never seen that before, liquid sugar is pretty much the best thing in the whole wide world. some of their plates were just drenched in syrup... to the point that the toast was almost floating in it! yummy...

we also had one final baseball game which was so much fun. i loved playing baseball with these kids all year. it was so fun and cool because i didn't realize how much i missed playing baseball... and the kids are so good... it was so much fun. who knows... maybe i was playing with future major leaguers?? we also took a little walk to the nearby batey. we were on a mission to find some sugar cane, but sadly it had all been cut down for the year. we did have fun though chasing around stray cows and searching for fruit in the trees. when we got to the batey, i gave the boys five pesos each which was spent mostly on gum and lollipops. we also walked down to where one of my boys used to live. we saw the tiny little tin shack that he lived in with his older brother and sister before coming to nph (his dad died and his mom abandoned them). it's so interesting when you get to see into the lives of these kids beyond nph. some of the things they've gone through and the places they've come from are downright unimaginable to most of us. we also made a stop over to the elderly people's house that's in the center of town to visit with the people that live there. it was interesting to see these normally loud and hyper boys completely silenced by what they saw. we did our best to walk around and visit with the people, but for the most part i think my boys felt really uncomfortable and didn't really know what to say. although they have come from rough backgrounds, for the most part, living in nph makes most of our kids the more "privileged" kids in the country. it's good for them to see how most people live and hopefully challenge them to take advantage of the fact that they have been almost given a second chance in life and hopefully motivate them to reach out and help others in need when they are older. it was a cool experience to have with them.

my last day i spent pretty much packing and running around, but i also tried to spend a lot of it with my boys. we took funny pictures with my sweet $3 aviators and just kinda goofed around most of the afternoon. i also gave them some edge shirts that st. pats donated to me when i went home in february. we had mass in the afternoon, which was a cool way to end my time with everyone because we were all gathered together in the school. afterward, i ran home and started cooking dinner for my boys. i cooked up a bunch of hot dogs and hamburgers and we all had a great dinner, with doritos and cheetos and apples (all things that they never get... so they were super excited). after dinner we headed into the therapy room in the clinic, where they had prepared a surprise for me with the help of our physical therapist. it was really sweet... they all recorded a little thank you/goodbye message on her camera and then put it together into a video which they projected on the wall. it was really, really sweet. then somehow they convinced our driver that they all need to come with me to the airport the next morning at 4:30 am... so the tías said it was straight to bed because the alarm clock would be going off at 3:30. i only got about an hour of sleep that night and half expected that it was all talk and they wouldn't all be able to get up that early, but sure enough as the bus pulled off they all came marching out of the house in their nice shoes and jeans and matching edge shirts... ready for the hour long ride to the airport. it was a really great way to end my time there... i had salomón on my left and jose and josecito on my lap and all the rest of the boys close by as we drove through the dark to the airport. once we got there we had our final goodbye hugs and one last picture and i promised that i would be back soon to visit. i'm gonna miss those little guys :(

good luck nico: i think my favorite part of the week was a walk i took with nicolas and his brother, nelio, on tuesday afternoon. i think i mentioned a few weeks back that nico and i had made a deal that if he could behave himself for one full week we would take a walk to the batey. well for about the past 6 weeks we have been unsuccessful, but i think after the whole ordeal where he thought he was being sent home and after me constantly telling him that we were running out of time... he had a really, really great week and a half, so i told him that we could finally take that walk. i also invited his older brother nelio. nelio is one of the sweetest kids at our home. he's really quiet and super shy and i honestly haven't spent that much time with him or even talked to him very much, but i really think that he could be a good influence on his brother. a volunteer that had left about a month ago had left me all of her extra change to do something with the kids, so i gave each one of them 30 single pesos (about $1) and told them they could buy whatever they wanted at the colmado in the batey we walked to. it was so fitting because nicolas took his money and bought 30 lollipops and then nelio quietly asked me if it was ok if he saved his pesos because one day he wants to buy a remote control car. i told him of course. just as we started to walk home it started to rain. i asked them if they wanted to wait it out in the little village, but they said it was no problem, so we just started the 30 minute walk home. it ended up being so much fun because it started raining so hard and we got absolutely soaked. we could barely even walk because our sandals were all getting stuck in the mud... we just all started cracking up and laughed for most of the walk home. it was good though because it stopped just before we got back and i had a little opportunity to talk with them more seriously, which was the main reason i took them in the first place. we just talked about how important it was for nico to continue behaving well like he had been for the past week or so and i told him how i really want him to be here when i come back to visit one day and even though nelio is really quiet and didn't say a whole lot, i think nico knew that he was in agreement with me. i think they had a nice brotherly bonding experience.


i think that my experiences with nicolas the past couple weeks really helped me to be at peace with my time here. first of all, i think it helped me realize that God puts us all in certain places and with certain people at certain times... and whether we see it or not, it's all for a reason. i can look at my experience here and tell myself that i accomplished some good things in the special needs house.... which is what i came here to do. from day one i have been the closest with paola and made it my goal to never give up on working with her. as difficult as it was, and as difficult as she was at times, i know that i was able to give her the love and support that she needed and i know that working with her has taught me things that i would have never learned otherwise. but then there are things that i didn't expect... up until a couple months ago i wasn't close to nicolas at all and now i can say that he's probably made one of the biggest impacts on my experience here. i never expected to go through some of the things that happened in my last couple months here... but now looking back, i'm so happy that i was where i was... and i can say for sure that my time here was not without meaning.

the other thing i learned is what i wrote about a few weeks ago in my blog and that is that we have to be ok with not always being able to see the big picture. sometimes life isn't about things that we accomplish, but more about the journey and the individual experiences along the way. i don't know what's going to happen when they re-evaluate nicolas and decide whether or not he can stay at the home. i do know that i did the best i could while i was with him to challenge him to get on the right track. i don't know if paola can keep her promise to me and really work on her behavior. but i do know that i worked as hard as i could with her and will continue to pray for her. i really don't know, nor can i control, what will happen to any of these kids when i leave. but, i also know that they have touched my life in ways that i never imagined... and i can only hope that somehow my presence in their life did a little of the same. i think sometimes in life we get these big ideas, well at least i did, and we want to change the world... and then we get in the midst of it and realize that it's a little more complicated than that. and for me, i started to get frustrated and feel defeated because i realized that i could stay in the dominican for a year or for 50 years and there would still be problems (looking back it's a little naive to think otherwise... but live and learn i guess...). but working with nicolas helped me let go of that and realize that it's not about that. our lives aren't about accomplishing these huge, awesome things... but they are about the small experiences we have each and everyday. there is no need to worry about the end outcome because only God has control over that. we just have to do our best everyday to do what God is asking us to do... to be present and loving to the people in our lives... to make the best of what we've got. and if that leads us to mission work in a foreign country for a year or two years or the rest of our lives, then that's great... but if not, then all that can be done right in our own backyards. there are nicolas's and paola's everywhere... we just have to find them and love them.

"in the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable we eventually learn that here, in this life, all symphonies remain unfinished." - karl rahner

week 53: a very sad week (june 15-21)

r.i.p. magalis: something happened this week that i hoped i would never have to write about or experience in my time here, but we lost one of our little pequeñas... magalis. magalis was a newer kid... she has only been here for about 3 months, but nonetheless was a part of our family. she was 8 years old and hiv positive. early this week, she developed the chicken pox... a very bad case... completely covering her body. on tuesday night she was placed in our clinic because she was having trouble breathing and in general just not feeling well. she slept in our clinic, but at about 5:00 am on wednesday morning the nurses decided to send her to the hospital in san pedro. the doctors were wanting to transfer her to the capital, but unfortunately she didn't make it that long. she passed away at about 9:00 am. it was extremely unexpected and a first for our nph home in its six years of existence here in the dr. it was a very hard and sad day. the word started to spread in the midst of our kindergarten graduation and for those of us who knew, it was hard to continue to sit through the show. by lunch time, the word had spread to most of the children, who didn't quite know how to react. we tried our best to talk to the kids, but honestly we were all in shock too. they were able to transfer her body back and contact some members of her family, including her father. we had a period of silent prayer and then a funeral mass. it was the hardest to see her father. he lives in a town just about 30 minutes away and had brought magalis to nph about 3 months ago. being hiv positive himself, he is also very sick and unable to work and after her mother died he brought her to us, hoping that we could provide her with a more stable life. it was his only daughter and as he stood weeping over her coffin, we all felt his pain.

after the funeral, we piled in all the buses and cars we have and took as many kids from the orphanage as possible to the cemetery. it was quite an experience. in a dominican cemetery there are above ground graves and basically it’s just a hollowed out rectangle of concrete with one open side to slide the coffin in. then on the side there are more concrete bricks and extra water and cement powder to create the mortar. so the family members slid the coffin in and then a few guys worked to mix the cement and water... then they basically closed up the grave brick by brick. there were probably over 200 of us standing around watching, crying and singing songs while they laid her to rest.

it all happened so fast. from the time we heard about her death, to the funeral and then she was in the grave… all within a span of less than 9 hours… so there wasn’t a whole lot of time to process everything. i do know that it put everything in perspective, though. with my last week approaching, i know that i was starting to get stressed wanting to get everything done. i have been having a lot of problems with paola who has been starting to get upset that i am leaving soon, i was at my wit’s end with the stupid flies that are everywhere, and then someone stole a big chunk of my money out of my office, so i was upset about that. basically i was just irritable and ready to come home, but after all this, i realized how small and petty most of the things are that we worry or stress about are. during the funeral our director told the kids that we can all learn from magalis that we never know when God will call us home and it’s why we have to make the most of everyday. you never know if that person next to you is going to be there tomorrow or when we ourselves will have our last day. life's too short to sweat the small stuff.

it doesn't seem fair or right that she had to be taken so young, but and now we know that we have a little angel up in heaven, always watching over us and our home.

rest in peace magalis.


"somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. do it! i say, whatever you want to do, do it now! there are only so many tomorrows." - pope paul IV

week 52: plastic chairs & presidentes (june 8-14)

as i enter into my last two weeks here, i have been thinking about more and more about the little "dominicanisms" that will no longer be part of my life. some of them i will be happy to never see again, while others i might miss, and some i'll probably carry with me unconsciously…

the wonderful world of transportation: i wouldn't say the public transportation system in the dominican republic is safe nor comfortable nor very enjoyable, but it certainly is convenient and affordable. there are 2 basic forms of public transportation in the dominican republic. the first is the motoconcho, basically a motorcycle taxi. they are all over san pedro and pretty much everywhere you go in the country. anywhere you walk there are herds of men sitting around with their motorcycles, waiting to take you where you need to go. there are some who actually have official "motoconcho driver" vests, but for the most part you can pay anyone with a motorcycle to take you where you need to go. and dominicans do not like to walk, so they will be seen taking them for just 2 or 3 blocks. they are certainly not safe... they drive crazy, weave in and out of traffic and there are definitely no helmets. it was a scary experience the first couple times, but now it just seems normal... which probably isn't a good thing! i try to not take them a lot, but sometimes you have to... sorry dad!

the other main way to get around is called the "guagua" or bus. there are 2 basic types of guaguas. the first is the small guagua or "guaguita"... these drive within the cities. they are mostly 12-15 passenger vans that just drive a certain route around the town all day. once you get to know the routes, you just stand on the side of the road where ever you are and hail one down. then when you want to get out you just say "déjame" (leave me) and they let you out. they cost 15 pesos (less than 50 cents) no matter how far you go. then there are big guaguas that take you from city to city. for example in san pedro there are different guagua “stations” depending on what city you are going to. however, there are no schedules, so you just go and get on the guagua, wait til it’s full, and then it leaves. even if you don’t make it to the stop, you can basically stand anywhere on the road between where you are going and where the guagua comes from and when one passes by you just hail it down and get on. and they’re only a couple dollars, even if you’re going all the way across the country.

everything about the guagua system fascinates me… especially the 2-men teams that run the guaguas. every guagua has a chofer (driver) and a cobrador (money collector). the chofer drives and controls the music, which i have learned is a very important part of the guagua experience. depending on your chofer you might get merengue or bachata or reggeaton. he also controls the volume… there are two options… loud and really loud. the cobrador has a more active and dangerous job. he stands and is basically hanging out the door the whole time. on the little guaguitas, there usually is no side door, or it’s just always left open. so he basically hangs halfway in and halfway out, always looking out for potential clients. he’s usally always yelling at people, letting them know where he’s going and trying to get them to come along. if he finds someone that wants to come onboard, he bangs the side of the bus really hard and the driver will know to stop and pull over. then when you are on the guagua, you tell him when you want to get off and he again bangs the side of the guagua a few times and the driver stops to let you out. and most of the guaguas are completely falling apart... broken windows, doors, no seatbelts, ripped up seats... but it all just adds to the adventure. when you don’t know what you are doing, it can be quite stressful and overwhelming because it’s so loud and everyone is yelling and it all happens so quickly (people driving vehicles are the only people in the dr that move with any sort of urgency)… but once you get used to it, it’s kind of fun. don’t get me wrong, nothing beats the convenience of going wherever you want, whenever you want in your own car, but as far as public transportation goes, the dominicans have got quite a system figured out.

the hiss: the hiss is the most prominent, yet my least favorite, part of dominican culture. it's basically like a whistle, but not... because they are actually hissing... like a snake. and everyone does it... and it's super annoying. my first couple weeks i noticed it as i would walk around the streets… all the men are hissing. and they hiss and hiss and hiss until you look at them, and then it’s followed by some sort of “i lobe you baby” comment. so, at first i thought it was just their version of a cat call… because for some reason white woman are very fascinating to dominican men. but, over time, i have come to learn that not only is it really annoying way to get women's attention, but everyone in the country hisses. the hiss is mostly used to get someone’s attention and although it seems really rude, i don’t think they consider it rude at all. people will do it to get someone’s attention if they want to buy something or to ask a question in stores or out on the streets. it’s even sometimes used by the teachers in the classroom to get kids to be quiet. even the kids hiss! we laugh because dominicans are known for never saying the "s" (like "buen dia" instead of "buenos dias" or "adio" instead of "adios"), so we joke that they use up all their s's hissing at us and each other that there are none left for the words!

sign language: i have learned that, as in most cultures, there are some things you can say without using any words at all. there are two things here that i can say just about every dominican does and that i have definitely started doing myself. the first is the finger wiggle. (imagine baboo from seinfeld... "you very bad man, very bad man.") this, obviously, means no… but everyone does it all the time. like the hiss, it seems rude to me, but it’s just what they do. adults do it, the kids do it to the adults and to each other and it’s a very popular form of communication out on the streets. it's funny because sometimes it’s the only thing that works. sometimes the guagua or motoconcho drivers are quite relentless and they keep persisting that you take a ride and no matter how many times i shake my head or scream “no!”… they just won’t let go… but (usually) one wiggle of the finger, and they back off. it’s really funny.

the other thing i do now is what i call the nose scrunch. basically if a dominican doesn’t understand or hear something, instead of saying “what?” or “excuse me?” they scrunch up their nose. sometimes it’s just one big scrunch or other times it’s a couple scrunches up and down really quick. either way, when i see it, i know i have not been understood. and since there are so many times that i myself don’t understand what people are saying or what they want… now i have started doing the nose scrunch. when i came home to visit in february, everyone was like, “what is wrong with your nose?” and i'm sure now after 4 more months, i’ll be doing it even more!

whatever you want, whenever you want, in whatever quantity you want: there are two good sized super markets in san pedro... one comparable to a frys and the other is more like a walmart. we do most of our shopping there, but your average dominican would do their shopping at a "colmado", which is basically a little corner store.... they're like dominican style circle k's (without the fountain soda!!) they have your basic soda, beer and snacks, but you can also do your grocery shopping there. the average dominican can’t afford to stock up costco-style, they usually only have enough for today, so at most colmados you can buy anything in whatever quantity you want. for example, if you want a ½ pound of rice, they pour some from the big bag into a smaller bag and there you go. you can do the same with sugar, laundry soap, and basically anything you need. you can buy 1 egg or 1 piece of gum or even 1 diaper. the other interesting thing is that you can buy stuff everywhere. there are always venders lining the streets, selling fruit, meat (usually the cow or pig head is hanging there too to show you where the meat came from), cell phones, popsicles, and all sorts of snacks. if venders don’t have a spot on the side of the street, they are usually walking down the middle of the street in traffic, selling their products through the windows of cars and guaguas. you could probably get everything you needed without ever leaving the car. and if you happen to need something at a colmado, just hand a few pesos to the cobrador and he’ll jump out at the next corner, grab it, and jump back in the guagua. i thought drive-thru’s were convenient!

the dominican bandera: ah... good old rice and beans... or the "dominican bandera" (literally, "the dominican flag") as they call the national dish here. it is basically rice, beans and any type of meat... and sometimes a little salad, which is some cabbage and maybe a cucumber or tomato. and it’s not just one of those things that the country is famous for, but people literally eat it every single day (and it’s not just in the orphanage, it’s all over). now of course there are variations, the rice can be cooked differently or the type of beans can vary, but i think a day without it would seem quite incomplete for a dominican. i don’t know why, maybe it was the speaking spanish, but i was thinking/hoping that dominican food would be a little like mexican food, but unfortunately, it’s nothing like mexican food. there are no tortillas and the dominicans are afraid of anything spicy, so jalepeños and salsa or definitely out. basically they cook with garlic, salt, oil and these little chicken bouillon cubes and that’s it. it was a little bland at first, but i've come to like it quite a bit. it's almost like a comfort food… everyday you know the beans and rice will be waiting for you at lunch.

pica pollo: when dominicans are not eating rice and beans, they are eating "pica pollo". it looks and tastes like normal fried chicken, but the dominicans assure you that it is more than just your typical fried chicken (i still can't figure out why). but they are crazy about their pica pollo. “pica” is what they say when something is spicy, but as i mentioned above, they do not like spicy food, so it means more like that it has flavor… or a different flavor than the majority of the food. i still haven’t learned the history of pica pollo, but somewhere along the way the creole and chinese food came together and created what is now called pica pollo. the main food is the pollo, or the fried chicken (basically just kfc style chicken) and then you get a side. you can get chinese stuff like lo mein noodles or fried rice, which i guess is where the chinese part comes in, but the dominicans favorites are either french fries or tostones (fried plantains). and of course, everything is smothered in ketchup. it's the strangest mix of things to me, but the dominicans love it, evident by the fact that there are more pica pollo shops lining the streets of the dr than probably starbucks and mcdonalds combined in the us. and for most people, especially in the orphange, it’s like a delicacy because they don’t get it that often, so their eyes just light up when you talk about it. i personally, wasn’t too impressed… it’s really greasy and i think they just make big batches of everything in the morning and then it sits behind the glass window under the florescent lights the rest of the day, so if you don’t get there early, it gets pretty shady. i will be sticking to the rice and beans until i get home.

baseball & dominoes: baseball is definitely the sport of this country. i think something like 15% of all major league baseball players are from this little island... so needless to say there is baseball being played everywhere. in every little town or village or batey there is at least some sort of baseball field… even if it’s just lines drawn out in the dirt with rocks for bases… there are always young boys playing. i think over 20 baseball teams also have training camps in the dr and all year long they are filled with mostly dominicans, but also other young ball players, coming to get in shape and hopefully make their way up to the big leagues. within the dr there is also a league that plays when the mlb is in the off season. there are 6 teams from 6 different cities throughout the country and most of the dominican players that play in the mlb will come home and play for their teams. here are some dominican players you might recognize...

Felipe Alou
Alex Rodriguez
Sammy Sosa
Vladamir Guerrero
Manny Ramirez
Pedro Martinez
Alfonzo Soriano
(and the list goes on and on and on...)

but for those who don't quite have the skills... dominoes is the game of choice in the dr. for every baseball field, there are probably 3-4 dominoes tables. they love their dominoes! all along the streets you see little tables with four men sitting in their plastic chairs playing and then usually a crowd standing behind watching. i have learned that you prove how good you are by how hard you slam the domino down on the table. the louder the noise it makes, the better. a couple weeks ago, a few volunteers and i were walking down the street in santo domingo and some guys asked us to play with them. we decided it would be a nice cultural experience and it ended up being really fun. i guess i still don’t really understand dominoes because it seems kinda basic... like they’re not much to it besides luck… but they all play like there’s some big strategy, so maybe i'm missing out on something. i won though… so beginners luck, i guess!

omega: when i first got here, the kids called me "mega". for some reason they couldn't quite pronounce the "n" at the end. but i didn't mind... i thought it was cute. then after a few months, everyone started putting an "o" in front of it and calling me "omega"... which was fine with me as well, but i couldn't figure out why! then everyone started telling me that it was part of a song, but i had still never heard it. finally i heard the song and found out that not only does the song say "omega" but the singer's name is omega too. he's a dominican reggeaton (latin/hip-hop) singer/rapper... everyone is all about him right now and his songs are being played everywhere... and he's pretty ghetto-fab so it's pretty awesome.

plastic chairs and presidentes: i think if they ever made a movie about the dr, it should most certainly be called "plastic chairs and presidentes" because i can not think of a better way to summarize this country. if you watch the office, possibly you remember the following conversation where michael is telling pam about his jamaican vacation:

micheal: got to see how jamaicans live. it's great, you know. they just relax, they party all the time.
pam: it's kind of an impovershed country.
micheal: yeah. it's great.

that basically sums it up for me, and i’m always thinking of that quote while i'm here... because the people are just so relaxed, hanging out and having a good time.... and sitting in plastic chairs. the dominicans love their plastic chairs. it i could buy stock in dominican plastic chairs, i would. they are everywhere... and everyone has them... and they sit in them... all day. most of the dominican adults i know would be content staying in that plastic chair all day. i don't want to be rude or judgemental... i know that i grew up much differently, in a completely different world... but i do know that dominican life would not be the safe without the wonderful plastic chair.

and of course, the only thing a dominican likes better than sitting in a plastic chair, is sitting in a plastic chair with a presidente in their hands (presidente is the beer that everyone drinks here). people love their presidente and there is no wrong time to drink a presidente. 9 am... no problem. there is also no wrong place to drink a presidente... while the plastic chair is ideal, i've seen people with them on the guaguas and even people riding a motoconcho around town, steering with one hand, sipping the presidente with the other hand. i tried one and i don't really like beer to begin with, and it tastes pretty much just like beer to me, but it is a hot item here.

another random thing, but just kinda goes along with the crazy, yet super laid back and relaxed culture here... all the car washes turn into "discotecas" or dance clubs at night. so basically once all the cars are gone and the soap and hoses are put away, the loud music and presidentes come out. people just dance and party all night at the car wash... and of course if you get tired of dancing there are plenty of plastic chairs sitting around for you to take a rest in.

all in all the dominican culture is pretty one of a kind. i've seen and experienced some things here that i don't know i would experience anywhere else in the world. it's a unique little place and probably will always be a part of me in some way or another.

update: victory

2 weeks: just a little update on the situation i explained last week... i guess i wasn't the only one upset that 3 kids were being kicked out of the home... apparently a lot of different people had approached our national director expressing their concerns. so, they called a big meeting on friday with everyone involved. this was the day that the kids were supposed to go home, but instead everyone was given one last chance to speak their peace (or is it piece... i never know.) it was mainly myself, another volunteer, the school psychologist and a couple tías on the side that the kids should stay... but something really cool happened that i didn't expect. apparently 2 of our oldest kids, deborah and junior, had approached our director with their concerns about the kids being asked to leave. they were very upset about the decision and had come up with a plan to help the kids, so they were also invited to the meeting. everyone that was there got a chance to speak and voice their opinion, but it was mainly led by deborah and junior... which was so awesome to see. they're both such great kids and i was so proud of them. deborah is a strong confident girl and she stood right up in front of all these adults and explained how she believed that it was father wasson's philosophy not to ever force a kid to leave the home and how everyone here is a family and they have to stand up and help each other. junior is a great kid too, but much more quiet and soft-spoken. he read his notes from his notebook as he explained to everyone the plan he had to work closely with the boys, doing work and activities with them, to hopefully help improve their behavior. i think all the higher-ups were very impressed with the two of them, and so was i. it was so great to watch them care about something really important and try to do something to help. it was also great to see these kids act like one big family. i think that was part of fr. wasson's vision as well. it was definitely one of those situations where you see how something really great can came out of a not so great situation. in the end, a decision was made to give the boys 2 more weeks... a sort of probation period... a chance to prove that they want to change and that they want to live here in nph. so we'll see what happens. the two weeks is up the day after i leave, but until i leave i'll be working with nicolas every day and hopefully he'll figure out a way to shape up! i'm happy that at least they have been given a second chance. :)

week 51: (much needed) north coast get-away (june 1-7)

ready to go: i'm not sure why i thought the last month would be easy, but it certainly hasn't been so far! i have been lucky and barely been sick my whole time here, but i developed this weird fungus on my legs... which is really gross to even have to say... but it was bound to happen sooner or later since so many of the kids come in with all these different fungi... thankfully, though, i got a special soap and cream and it is going away. and then after that i developed this weird rash all over my arms and face and i had to face my biggest fears and see a dominican doctor! i was not excited about that at all, but it ended up being ok and he told me i have this thing called "prickly heat", which happens when people are in the sun too much or sweating more than normal... which makes sense because it has been soooo hot and humid here! so now i have more soaps and creams and hopefully it will all be gone soon. but it was so itchy that i didn't sleep for like 3 days!

to top off all that, i got news early this week that 3 boys from the orphanage are going to be sent home because of bad behavior (not one event in particular, just a series of things over time). one of the boys is nicolas... the boy i wrote about a few weeks ago... from my house. this news absolutely broke my heart, especially after how close we have gotten the past couple months. not only am i sad, but i am really, really angry. i'm angry because i think the people here are giving up on him too soon and i think that there are other options that we haven't tried. i know that his behavior is bad and he is causing problems almost every other day, and i'm not condoning them, nor suggesting that he should be excused for them, but i do think there are still things that can be done to help him. i think he could be moved into a house with older kids and stricter tias. i also think he can be taken out of the school and put out in the fields to work all day until he decides that he wants to behave. i spent 2 hours one night crying and arguing with two of the staff members. i didn't, and still don't, understand why we are giving up on this child. it was a hard couple days, with sleepless nights, wondering what i could have done more to help him and wondering where we failed him. needless to say, i was ready for the break i had coming…

cabarete: a couple weeks ago i realized that i only had 2 free weekends left and still some areas of the country that i wanted to see. so, i decided to put my last 2 free weekends together into one six-day trip (which ended up coming at a perfect time!), so i could head up and see some areas in the northern part of the country. (although this country isn't that big, it actually takes about 4-5 hours to get from the south to the north coast, so it's really too hard to do in 3 days). so, one of the new volunteers, nici, and i headed out. our first stop was a town called cabarete. it is on the north coast, about in the middle of the country (east/west-wise), and is supposedly very famous for its water sports, especially wind-surfing and kite-surfing. it's a cute little town with a very beautiful beach, but its very touristy. we didn’t have to speak spanish at all and people were trying to sell us stuff every other second. it was nice but i could only handle it for a few days. but nici and i decided to go with the flow and act like tourists, so we spent friday morning taking wind-surfing lessons! it was pretty fun, although i fell a lot. we took a 2-hour lesson with 1-hour of free riding, so by the end of all that i finally got the hang of it a little... but with my weak stomach i was getting so sea sick! i was glad i did it, but i think i definitely prefer snow sports to water sports... i will be so excited to get back on my snowboard next winter!


puerta plata: next stop was a town just about an hour west of cabarete, still on the north coast, called puerta plata ("silver port"). it is a much bigger town than cabarete, and not so touristy. it was founded by christopher columbus in 1493 and has a couple interesting attractions. the first day we walked around all the coast where there is an old 16th century fort that was built to protect the island from pirates and a pretty cool lighthouse that we climbed up to get a better view of the city. we also found some good food (fajitas…yay for mexican!), which was exciting, because that doesn't happen much here. the next day was my favorite part. we headed over to this flat-topped mountain called pico isabella de tours, where there is a cable car that takes you up to the top. once you reach the top, you are greeted by a huge statue of Christ the redeemer. other than that it is very green and tropical up top... i felt like i was walking around the jungle on lost! it was really cool because it gave a great view of the city and the north coast. we went up early in the morning and there were a bunch of clouds, so it kind of restricted our view for most of the time, but by the time we took the cable car back down, some of the clouds had cleared and we got a great view.

santiago: last stop was santiago, the second largest city in the dominican republic, about an hour south of puerta plata. it was very similar to the capital without all the historical sites. we walked around for a little, climbed up a tall monument dedicated to the heroes of the country, which provided a nice view of the entire city. it was originally built by the brutal dictator trujilo, who dedicated the statue to himself, but after his death it was re-dedicated. after that we shopped around a little at the outdoor markets. but after a while all the dominican souveniors start to look the same and the pesky salesmen start to get on your nerves a little, so we headed back to the hotel for a rest. which was good because it started to absolutely pour and did so for the rest of the evening, kind of limiting any more site seeing we wanted to do in the city. the next morning we hopped on the guagua (bus) and made our way back home.

reflecting back: getting away for 6 days was a good way for me to get some space and think more about the situation that i described above with the boys that are going to be leaving. obviously spending a year anywhere will have it's good points and bad points... even a year in so called "normal life" will have it's ups and downs... and for me this year has been no different. the experience has been great, but it's trying at times. i think for the most part i write about the fun and cute stories and experiences i have had and i want to keep the blog positive, but i felt that it would be mis-representative of my experience here to not write about this story. the first couple days i was so angry that i questioned what i have been doing here and what we are doing here in general as an organization. but, as i was able to get away, i'm starting to realize more that it’s just part of life. there are always going to be disagreements and differences of opinions, no matter where you work or what you do. and while i really, really disagree with this decision, i don’t want it to taint the experience i’ve had here or the good things that have been done through nph over the years. i support his organization and believe in the philosophy and principles of fr. wasson (the founder), but i do have to say that i disagree and do not understand the decisions that have been made in this situation. it just breaks my heart to know that this kid who i have worked so hard with will have to go back to a family that obviously wasn’t taking care of him before. and i do know that i have to keep in mind that i am a year long volunteer and there are people here who have dedicated their lives to this organization and it’s not my place to tell them how to do things (however i have spent hours defending my point in this particular situation!). part of me says that i should just stay and be the one to start some sort of disciplinary house here for all the kids that have discipline problems… if no one else wants to/knows how to deal with them. i think that all these kids have already experienced so much pain and have already felt abandoned by their families that we can give up them too. but the other part of me knows that its time to come home. i don’t know, it’s been tough. but i think the other thing i realized is how much i have come to love and care about these kids, even after only one year. it's kinda surprising that such a short period of time can have such an effect on you. and when i arrived home from my mini vacation the first kid i was greeted by was nicolas... and i think i hugged him harder than i ever have! (when i left i wasn't sure if he'd still be here when i got back). right now i'm happy that i am here and i have the opportunity to defend him (not his actions, but the fact that he deserves that we keep trying to help him). i haven’t heard yet when the official date is that he is leaving, but i know that as long as he’s here, i'll keep pleading my case to the powers that be! please pray for him and the other 2 (miguel and eduardo) if you can!


"our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." -mlk jr.