¡Mes Uno en Fotos!

Since pictures are apparently worth a thousand words, here are some pictures of our first month here. Enjoy!

La Sala de Infancia

 

La Sala de Infancia or the Infant Room is a daycare for children ages zero to two years old. The children are fed breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day and are the cutest babies on the planet. Larissa works here in the afternoons. In between our classes in the mornings, we try to sneak up here for our daily doses of baby time and therefore happy time. 

Baby selfies because why not?

 

 

So many babies, so little time....

La Marcha de Paz

Last Friday, we all participated in la Marcha de Paz or the Peace March which was held to raise awareness for peace worldwide. Most students in the Nivel Inicial, or the preschool, and their teachers and assistants took part in a walk around the block of the school. All the students and participants chanted "¡Queremos Paz!" which means "We want peace!" All the classes made signs and posters, and students wore visors and carried doves. Everyone wore white to symbolize peace, and so did we! It was a great experience to see and take part in, and it reiterated the purpose of service and why we are all here serving at the Hogar.

 

Hogar student drummers!

 

  To conclude our first picture blog, I think we can all agree that we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves in the Dominican Republic. We're embracing the culture, learning the language, and loving the children more and more each day. It's hard to believe we have been here for only a month because we are already seeing such  progress with our students, individual projects, and within ourselves. We are learning to face our challenges with an open-mind and to understand situations from different points of view. Here's our first month in pictures!

 

Virginia and us at our first Cafe de la Leche of the year, an event the PBO holds every first Friday of the month where Hogar supporters donate milk and baby formula for the Sala Infancia.

  

Ain't nothin' like them gorgeous Dominican beaches!

  

"Hi,we're the cutest siblings in the world. Nice to meet you."

Teaching English to our preschoolers.

  

Poco a Poco

We are now almost a month into our year in the Dominican Republic! This is so strange to think about, since it feels like we've been here for so much longer. We are all poco a poco, slowly but surely, settling into a rhythm here, especially at work.

Airport Selfie!

            At the school, we all teach English in the mornings. I teach Pre-Kinder (2-3 years old), Melissa teaches Kinder (3-4 years old), and Larissa teaches Pre-Primario (4-5 years old). Carola and Nina each have their own projects that they work on in the mornings. Carola is working on enacting a much needed discipline plan that will be used throughout the school, and Nina is developing a curriculum for the school's English program.

            In a nutshell, our mornings consist of singing lots of songs; I personally have dredged up lots of nursery rhymes from the backs of my memory that I did not even know I remembered. We sing about the morning, about the weather, about the day, and simply try to ingrain English into all that we do to get our kids learning English in a fun way. For example, this past week our goal was to teach all our students the vocabulary words: teacher, boy, girl, the number one, and the color red. On Mondays, we plan out a slew of different activities that we think are fun and our kids will enjoy for the week.

            For my three classes (each of us have three classes that we teach per grade, so for me there is Pre-Kinder A, B, and C) my children are all around 2 and 3 years old and are just learning how to sit in a chair and at a table for extended periods of time. So while it certainly is cute when I see one of my kids crawl onto the table, they should not be doing that, and I have to grab them and place them back into their chair. However, poco a poco I hope to infiltrate all of my students' minds with the English words and activities I teach them. So far, it truly is the best feeling when I hear my students singing along with me and when they say random snippets of songs to me even when we are not singing. On Friday, when I was working with one of the tables in a class a girl pointed to me and said in a sing-song voice "maestra, teacher!!" from one of the songs we sing. Needless to say I gave her lots of high fives and encouragement.

            In the afternoons, we all have various projects throughout the school that we work on. Melissa works in the Zona Verde where she teaches yoga and about the importance of good health, nutrition, hygiene, etc. Larissa works in the Sala Infancia (Infant Room) which is a daycare for children from years 0 to 2 years old where she is developing an early stimulation program. I work in the Escuela de Sordos (the School of the Deaf) where I am helping the students there develop their reading and writing skills. Nina spends her time working with the older grades, middle and high school students, in a program directed toward educating students about life, development, respect, responsibility, etc. Finally, Carola is working closely with our supervisor Virginia Brown who is the director of the English program throughout the school, on a special education program aimed at helping students with both academic and behavioral difficulties.

Our bags are packed and we are ready to go!!!

            Poco a poco I am learning Spanish and Dominican Sign Language, maybe not at the speed I want to be, but slowly but surely nevertheless. Whenever I get frustrated at myself for not knowing the two languages I need to know, I remind myself that I have only be here for about four weeks, and I have a whole year to learn it.

            Outside of the school, life here in La Republica Dominicana runs on a time of its own. Even if we have a meeting at 10 a.m., this could mean 10 a.m. or it could mean 10:30 or 10:45 a.m. This is just one aspect of the Dominican culture that is very different from the one we are used to back home where one is supposed to arrive 10 minutes early to any meeting, and one is considered late if one arrives on time.

            Another thing that I know all of the newbie girls (Melissa, Larissa, and I) and the veteran girls (Nina and Carola) still have a hard time with are the varying degrees of disrespect that we see all around and also in the stark dichotomy of very poor and very wealthy here on this island. It is difficult to see people who have so, so much live right next to other people who have so, incredibly little. Seeing this unjust unbalance always brings me back to the reasons I wanted to do service in the first place, to witnessing the same poverty and immense wealth I saw as a child in the Philippines and feeling helpless to changing it.

            In addition, the idea of respect that we as Americans have and the notion of respect that some Dominicans have is also very different. For instance, catcalling exists in the U.S., but not to the extent that is present here. The five of us could just be walking out of the school to grab a snack during our break and the men here treat us like objects, not as humans. Being in this country has also brought out the feminist in me, since many men do not believe that women should be doing anything considered "strenuous" such as lifting a box. Excuse me, but I know I and the four other women here with me are extremely capable of lifting a box, thank you very much.

We love our new uniforms!

            Now, here in the DR, I know it is impossible to single handedly (or 10 handedly since there is now five of us) to change the entire social system and culture, but what is possible is teaching our kids at school what respect truly is and to simply be good role models and sources of support and encouragement whenever they need it. We offer our love freely and indiscriminately; I could not even count the number of kisses I plant on my students each day. Seeing their joyous, innocent smiles and their unconditional yearning for love and attention replants my mission each day for being here and reminds me why I am here.

            Lastly, I am so incredibly excited for this coming year due to the five other amazing people I am here with. Nina, Carola, Larissa, Melissa, and Angie are incredible women and we are all so similar in how hard we work and how much good we want to do here. It makes our jobs here so much more enjoyable and swifter with the number of hands and the laughter that comes along with everything that we do. I am very eager to how the rest of this year unfolds, and I hope to keep you all updated on what happens next in our adventures! Until then!

Love,

Connielyn

Visitors.

The month of March was crazy for us at the Hogar. We had tons of visitors, from the H.O.P.E. group, to friends, to even the Ambassador of the United States. Having visitors, especially friendly faces, is always wonderful. It's always interesting to see the change in the school when a visitor comes, especially a big one. The teachers are always in better moods, they are suddenly on their best behavior, and the lazy ones aren't so lazy anymore. Everyone's hoping their class will be the one walked into, the one that gets to show off (but I can't lie, sometimes I really like to show my kids off too), the one that gets acknowledged for doing a great job. However, there's always one thing that never changes, and that is the children. They continue to be their adorable, hyper, misbehaved, silly little selves no matter who is watching. The president of the Republica Dominican could be there and they still would stay themselves. It's these moments that remind me why I love this place, why I love what I do, and why I love each and every one of the children at the Hogar.

Having the H.O.P.E. group here was amazing, but it definitely came with a flood of emotions. I couldn't help but look at them and see myself when I had come to the Hogar on H.O.P.E. in the past. Their eyes were filled with excitement, energy and passion, their red faces not used to the heat just yet. It was such a pleasure to have them with us for a week, especially in our classes. Watching them with my kids almost brought me to tears. These kids that I truly love with all of my heart, that every day make me proud, no matter how small their accomplishments, were finding places in the hearts of these H.O.P.E. volunteers. This group was special. They were hard working, diligent and somehow never seemed to get tired. They gave their whole hearts out for the week that they were here and I hope they know that the kids will never ever forget them. And neither will we. Their presence reminded me of how I felt when I first got here. Before waking up early, the stress of lesson planning, teacher gossip, misbehaved children, and seeing children that were being poorly taken care of made me tired. As much as I don't want to admit it, sometimes a I need a little pick me up to put the fuel back in my engine, and that's exactly what this group did. Their praise and kind words for all of us reminded me once again why  I am here. I really can't thank them enough.

The next visitor was one of my best friends from Stonehill, which to be honest I was kind of nervous about. You know when you mix two groups of people? Like college friends and home town friends, and you just hope everyone gets along? I guess that's what made me nervous. Thinking back on it now it was so silly for me to have been worried. Joey came on a Thursday afternoon and was staying until the next Tuesday. I figured just Friday and Monday I would bring him to school. Little did I know that that boy was not going to want to leave. He absolutely loved the school, and the school loved him. All my kids loved having him in class, my favorite little 2 year old even learned his named and would scream for him every time he saw him, and he even got to spend some time with the older kids playing volleyball (or should I say surprising them with his skills). He meshed instantly. I was so happy to see someone so close to me share my same passion. He recently just told me he already has a plan for a way he wants to donate to the school for next year. I can't thank him enough, and I know the kids would be incredibly grateful. That is the beautiful thing about the Hogar del Nino and it's students. It does not matter your color, shape, size, age, or language, the children not only take you as you are, but they love you. You could come into their lives for one day, you could spend 10 minutes talking to them, you could even just sit with them for a little while and know that they will absolutely never forget you. And I know once you have been blessed enough to set foot in the Hogar, when one of those children melts your heart, you will never forget them either.

Visitors. They come in with a plan to do something for the school, to do something for the kids. Whenever we hear the word visita, we think 'more work'. Who would have thought they could have done so much for us. Each and every visitor brings us back, reminds us why we wake up every morning to go to the Hogar del Nino and why we will continue waking up each morning. They're a healthy reminder, some extra fuel in our engines to keep us going, to teach the children that we love so much.

Changes.

"All great changes are preceded by chaos."

I found this quote the other night and realized just how perfectly it applies to everything that is going on here in the DR. After a nice two week break at home with my family (as wonderful as it was) I could not wait to get back here. I missed my kids, I missed the school, I missed working and after all the snow and cold dios mio did I miss the sun and Domincan heat. Even so, the break was just what I needed, it gave me some new energy and fuel to start the New Year off kicking. Little did I know how much I was really going to need that extra fuel and energy. That chaos that precedes the change, well Nina and I felt it the second we stepped off the plane. We were waiting for our friends to pick us up when they called to say that a tire popped and they wouldn't be able to come get us. That meant we had to take a taxi, which from Santo Domingo to La Romana could be anywhere from $100-$200. Which is crazy. As we're waiting for our luggage (of course mine is pretty much the last bag) our friends call to say that if we pay the tow truck driver $40 they'd all come get us at the airport. Well if we'd forgotten where we just landed, we were quickly reminded. It couldn't get more Dominican then that! Not more then 20 minutes later did our ride show up; the tow truck. Luckily we made it home safely and not broke, but we really should have realized that was just a taste of the chaos that was going to continue.
Most of us went to school for, what was it, a 7 hour day? Well at the Hogar due to lack of space for the hundreds of students who attend, there are two sessions, a morning and afternoon. Well, there WERE two sessions. New starting this year, after months of construction, the school will have what we know as a normal extended day. All students will be at school from 8am-2:50pm. We knew this was a big change, but I don't think we were ready for the chaos that came before it. Our first week back before classes start this Monday, was filled with meetings and planning. There are 8 or 9 new teachers, two of which are English teachers. Our first meeting was one lead by the Director with all of the teachers intended to motivate us to give it our all this new year. We then silently watched as all of the teacher's classes (grades and subjects) were switched around and and changed, feeling pretty relieved that it wasn't us. We had no idea that we had spoken too soon.  In the fall, Nina and I taught 1st-4th grade English in the afternoons, now due to the extended day we figured now we would just be teaching both sections of those grades. However, we had an English teachers meeting where we learned that one of the new teachers would be teaching 4th, another teacher 2nd and 3rd and Nina and I teaching 1st grade together. I then understood the other teacher's frustrations at having their nice and neat schedule completely tossed and thrown around to be changed to something different. Nina and I were frustrated, even felt defeated. We thought; we're here to teach these kids English as fluent English speakers and now they're not even putting us to good use. However we figured well if there isn't anything we can do lets make these 1st grade classes the absolute best they can be. An experience like this year of service really teaches you a lot of things, one being patience and another flexibility. Especially in a country such as this where 8:00 really means 9:00 and honestly nothing is really certain or stable (ex: the Friday before classes started on Monday, there was no set class schedule). The next day we're getting ready to start planning when we find out Ramses will be now teaching in the Hearing Impaired school due to lack of staff and that Diane was going to be there to support him and needed us to help her out with the planning of her English classes. And then began the chaos. Instead of just planning for two 1st grade classes we now had to plan for two 2nd grade and two 3rd classes as well. This is where that whole thing about flexibility comes in handy. Honestly, as much as we were a little stressed we were very happy to have more classes and more work. We've found we feel a lot better when were busier instead of when we're looking for something to do.
As the week came to a close, we reflected on this whole topic of change. Its frustrating, its chaotic, but a lot of times it is for the better. We're so excited for this new year and all of the changes because as much as it is a lot, we can already tell that these are all positive things. The kids will now have full days, which doubles their time in school. How can that not be beneficial. This past week has just really reminded me to be patient and flexible, to appreciate change, and amiss the chaos, to find the calm in the storm and remember that everything happens for a reason.