Updates:)

Hey everyone!!! I’m sorry for not updating my blog as frequently as I said I would, but before we head to Bacumí for our next campo immersion, I wanted to let you all know what I’ve been up to! There are a few pictures, too, from the school I work at, and from one of our side-trips to the waterfall.

 

The highlight of every week is definitely going to the school in Cien Fuegos. I’m getting to know all the kids there very well, and I’m finding my niche in the classroom. My Spanish is also improving a lot, so my communication with the kids is getting a lot better. My favorite part of the day is recess, because I get to go outside and play with the kids. There are fewer rules, and we can just play tag and run around. They like to play tag with me, which consists of me tagging one person, and then all the kids running after me to try to tag me. But it’s fun to watch them all run around, laughing and smiling.

 

The classroom is sometimes more of a challenge. There are 36 kids in my class, and it is very hectic. My teacher does a great job of trying to keep control, but there are times when there just is no hope, and also times when she leaves the classroom and I am left to fend for myself. The kids respect me at times, but there are also times when I just can’t get my point across, and I struggle with the language. But I still love going there, and I learn more every day about the school system and the life in Cien Fuegos. It is a difficult one, and this is not the best school, but the kids are sweet and they all do what they can with the system being the way it is. There is a lot of room for improvement at the school, but I like to think that I am helping take a step in the right direction in helping at least the kids in my classroom learn just a little better, and show them that someone loves them.

 

Aside from the school, I am learning so much about Dominican culture and history through life here and from our class. We are learning about history, theology, and economics, and how it all ties together. This is really turning into a life changing experience for me, and I am loving every minute of it.

Gajo de la Yuca

Sorry it has taken me so long to post!!! The semester is going by so fast, and I can hardly keep up with life...but then again I also took a week out to go to the beach and not worry about homework or school, just enjoyed life.

So now that I am back to reality, and things have slowed down, I want to tell you about my immersion experience in the campo. Campos are little rural communities that are often very poor, and usually pretty contained. The campo we went to "Gajo de la Yuca" was in the mountains and extremely isolated from other campos and from the city. There were about thirty families living in the community, and about 40 kids. The kids attended school at the church, where instead of mass, there is usually what the locals call a Celebracion, or a prayer service, because there is hardly ever a priest around to say mass. Many of the families there are involved in agriculture, growing their produce in the fincas, or fields, and driving into the city a few days a week to try to sell what they produced. It's a tough life for the Dominicans living here, but it is what they know.

We were in the campo for ten days, staying with families and helping to build an aqueduct from the outskirts of the campo into the center so that the community could have a more reliable source of water. While we were there, I stayed with a young family of three. My campo dad, Felix, was 32, and my mom, Yecenia, was 16. I also had a little brother, Luis, who was two years old, and rather than calling me Rebecca, which is the name I went by in the campo, he called me Tia, Spanish for Aunt. I loved that this little two year old boy, who hardly knew me at all, almost immediately saw me as part of his family. He knew that I wasn't his real sister, but yet he started calling me Tia without anyone telling him to. That was one of the best feelings in the world. I felt so loved by this family, and I truly felt like they were my own.

Living in the campo was definitely a new experience for me, and offered some challenges, the most daunting of which was speaking Spanish. I did not have that much confidence in my language abilities, and I was worried that the Dominican Campo Spanish would just be too fast and accented for me to understand. But it turns out I did not have to be so concerned. My dad in the campo was very patient with my ability. He spoke slowly, and only used words that he thought I could understand. He took his time speaking to me, as difficult as it must have been to take the time to speak slowly and clearly so I, an American girl living in their house for a week, could understand him. As time went on, it became easier and easier to understand him, and others in the campo. I got more and more accustomed to hearing the accents, and listening for the specific words that I know. By the end of the week I was much more confident in my ability, and I had acquired a few more vocabulary words as well!!

One thing I really enjoyed in the campo is the relaxed atmosphere. In the campo, things happen you are ready...they are on Dominican time. Wake up when the roosters start crowing and the sun comes up. Go to bed at night when the sun goes down, because there is an apagon (blackout), and there is no light or electricity. Take breaks from the workday when you get tired, and talk and enjoy your time working with the people around you. Time was not an issue, they had all the time in the world to get to where they needed to be. On a daily basis, I woke up in the morning when the light began to come into my room (often before my alarm went off) and I went to the latrine, got dressed, and then when I was ready, my mom brought me the strong Dominican coffee that we had about four times a day. I sat on the front porch to enjoy my coffee, looking out over the banana and plantain trees in the valley below, while the chickens roamed around my feet waiting for their breakfast. Then I put on the rubber boots that my campo dad lent me because it was so muddy, and headed to breakfast at Juana's house with the rest of my group. We had all our meals together at the house where our teachers were staying. After breakfast we headed out to work.

The workday consisted of digging the hole for the tanque (tank) that would hold 60,000 gallons of water when it was finished. While some of us worked on the tank, the rest of us worked on the zanjas, the trenches that would bring the tubes from the tank at the top of the mountain to the center of the campo so that it was accessible to everyone in the community. We worked alongside of all the Dominicans in the community, using the picks to break up the ground, and the shovels to dig into the trench to make sure that it gets deep enough. We worked about 7 days, and in that seven days, we finished building the tank, took the trenches the whole 2.5 Km into the center of the community, and put the tubes in place and got water flowing to the community. I can't begin to describe the feeling of accomplishment I had when we completed the project, and on my way back to my house Sunday night, I was able to stop by the spraying water and rinse my feet. We brought water to this community so that they do not have to walk all the way down to the river to get it during their drought seasons. It was such a great achievement that I loved sharing with the Dominicans we were working with.

Although the end result was amazing, the work was not always easy. I was glad to jump in and do what I could, and I definitely showed the Dominicans that I could work very hard, it was really hard work!! And it was so nice to come home to a bucket shower. My mom always had the bucket already filled, ready to go. Bucket showers are one of the most relaxing things ever, especially when it was raining outside! Sometimes it was cold if it had been raining all day, and the water was not warm either, but it was so nice to just pour a bucket of water over yourself after a long and sweaty day of work. Then on those cold days, my mom would have a cup of coffee waiting for me when I was dressed. I would sit and spend time talking with my mom and dad, and playing with my little brother, who sometimes had clothes on, but sometimes didn't! He was a free spirit:)

Dinner at Juana's was something I always looked forward to. A lot of the women in the community came to her house to help get ready for the meals, and were so excited for us to come enjoy what they made for us. They would go through so much trouble to make the little food they had to prepare for us as nice as they could. Although there weren't a whole lot of options, they did what they could to make sure that we enjoyed our meals. Dinner was also wonderful because the whole community always seemed to be there. All our families would walk us to dinner, and then wait outside for us, socializing and enjoying each others company, eating the leftovers that Juana made for them. It was then usually dark by the time we headed for home. When we got home, if there were lights, we would sit and talk and watch a movie or telenovela (soap opera) if it was on. When the lights were out, my dad lit an oil lamp, and we sat and talked. Sometimes visitors would come over, and sometimes it would just be me and my family sitting around the oil lamp talking. And then usually, after talking for a while it would be time for bed. It was a long days work, and we would be headed out to work again tomorrow so we all needed to get a good nights sleep.

One of my favorite nights in the campo, we didn't go right home after dinner. It was Hannah, one of my friends, birthday, so her campo family had a party at her house after dinner. It was Sunday night, and we would be leaving on Tuesday. We had lived and worked in the campo for eight days already, and had become a part of the community. All the workers that we had been spending time with, and all our families came to the party, and we were all crammed into this little living room dancing Bachata and Merengue until the truck battery that housed the radio died. It was the best goodbye any of us could have asked for, and it was wonderful to be a part of such a great community. 

Walking back in the mud that night after dancing for about three hours straight, I knew that this would be an experience I would never forget, and I would never forget the people that I met there. I would never forget my mom and dad, that gave their home to me, even though they did not have much to give. I would never forget my brother, who really saw me as part of his family, and before he went to bed every night, asked for his father's blessing, then his mother's, and then mine. I would never forget the old man that I saw working every day, who was working before everyone got there, and continued working, even when everyone else took a break. I would never forget the hospitality that everyone showed us, and how they literally gave us everything they had, although they will never know how much they truly gave me, and how much I have to thank them for. I felt so much love and kindness in that week, and I knew what we were doing there was a good thing, and that it would forever change me for the better.

Una dia en la Vida...

Just thought I'd give you a taste of how I am living...so get ready to be jealous!!! Hahaha, just kidding. It is gorgeous here, and I love it, but I still have school and service and everything!

First, ILAC. That is where we live while we are here. It is a Jesuit Mission in the Dominican Republic that caters to the entire country, dealing a lot with health issues in the communities up in the mountains and in the campos. By increasing health care and making the lives of the people living in the campos easier, they are decreasing the population in the big cities. People can stay up in their own villages because many now have running water and better health care thanks to the efforts that the mission puts forward. We help with this, too. Next week will be our first immersion into the campos. Our group goes to a campo that needs help, and we each stay with a family, and do service during the day. This time around, we are going to build an aqueduct so the community can have running water. It's pretty amazing the effect ILAC has, and the amount of people it reaches and all these different communities. They have people in charge of healthcare in something like 150 different campos across the country.

We are guests of ILAC while we are here, but it is also our home, so we talk to the people that work here, and they talk with us. We work on our Spanish and form some really great relationships with the people that do all this work. All our meals are made by the kitchen staff, so at 8 am they ring the bell and we all file in for breakfast. It's a similar process at 12:30 for lunch, and at 6 for dinner. The food here is pretty good, but it is taking a little getting used to. We have a lot of beans and rice, which I LOVE, but we also have a lot of plantains and yucca, which are both starches and are cooks like potatoes, but just have different textures to them. Like I said, just taking some getting used to.

Every Monday and Wednesday, we go to our service sites. There are four of us that take the guaguas and then the F car to Cien Fuegos for the morning, and return by lunchtime. After lunch its studying/laying out/napping until Spanish at 3:45. We have Spanish every day of the week, and there are only four people in our class, so it is really easy to learn and understand. Tuesday's and Thursday's we have our class in the morning, and in it we talk about history, culture, and theology in the Dominican Republic. We talk about our service sites, and learn about why the DR is the way it is, and how our service is effecting it.

Friday's are open, but are sometimes filled with other activities. This past weekend we traveled to Santo Domingo, rich in history and culture, and stayed the night in a hostile. It was fun to get to see a different side of the country, but also very different because of the clear Spanish influence and a more tourist oriented part of down. But it did make all the history we were learning come alive, and it was great to walk in the footsteps of all the great and not-so-great leaders.

Saturday's are also free for the most part, and are used for homework, trips to La Sirena, the department store, or to the Colmado on the corner to buy a soda or candy bar. Then Saturday night, we go out!!!! The dancing here is so much fun. The traditional dances are the Bachata and Merengue, and it is so fun to dance them with the Dominican's. I wish that I knew more of the music so I could sing along, but I am getting familiar with some of the songs, and our group has our favorites!

Sunday is then reserved for more homework. We also have church at 11 in the chapel, which is gorgeous. Mass is in Spanish, but I am really starting to understand more. People from the community come to the mission for mass, and we all pray together. It is a great feeling of solidarity with the people, even though I cannot communicate with them the way I would like to.

Overall, I am having so much fun. It doesn't feel like a vacation anymore, but it still doesn't feel like school. The things we are learning are so easy to apply, and we are learning directly from the people here. It is a great way to learn, and I am so glad I took advantage of this program that Creighton has offered. I can't wait for this coming week in the Campos, and I will be sure to update you when I can! No computers, no cell phones, no electricity...only the company of my campo family whom I am doing service with. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

Cien Fuegos

I just wanted to tell you a little bit about the school that I am working at for two hours twice a week. Every Monday and Wednesday, we take the guagua to downtown Santiago to walk a block and take the F car, which is like a taxi,but operates like a bus in that it just makes a loop to one part of town and back. The F car takes us about ten minutes out of downtown to a little suburb called Cien Fuegos. The community started off in the 70's when one hundred (cien) families were displaced from their homes to this community that surrounds a garbage dump due to the fact that the houses they lived in, that were small and all connected, had burned down in a fire (fuego). A new community was born that lived on the outskirts of town and were never really considered a part of the community. They were treated poorly, never hired for jobs, adn consequently turned to crime to support themselves. They were not given the time of day, so many turned to robbing people in order to pay for the small amounts a food that they could not afford by themselves.

The community quickly grew, and it is now home to more than 150,00 people, on less land than makes up the City of Burlington. There is a hospital, four schools, and still many are unemployed and struggle to make ends meet. Many adults and children work at the city dump that remains right outside the community, sorting through the garbage for metal that can be salvaged and sold, materials that could be used to make a kite to fly, and throwing the rest in a pile to be burned. It is a community that is growing exponentially, but is not being developed at all. The people there have little hope of getting out of the rut they find themselves in. 

My job here is at the school. I work in one of the smaller schools for two hours in the morning. In the Dominican Republic, all the public schools have a uniform of khaki bottoms and a light blue top, and everywhere in the country, the younger kids go to school in the morning, and the older kids in the afternoon. As I work in the morning, I am with the second grade class of 40 students with one teacher, and far less than 40 desks. The teacher has maintained the room away from chaos, but when she leaves, I am left telling the students to sit down and do their homework as they all get up to roam around the room, leaving their notebooks on the table, and the writing on the board that they were supposed to copy goes ignored. The teacher comes back into the room, and they all sit back down, but then she moves on with the lesson, although many students have not finished copying what was on the board previously. Some can learn this way, and do, but there are also some who copy what is on the board letter for letter, having no idea what the word is that they are spelling, or what the whole sentence means. There is just no way for one teacher to manage 40 students who already do not listen, and make sure they are all learning what they need to be to move onto the next level. 

Halfway through the morning, a few older students bring in a few bags of bread, and on a good day a case of lukewarm milk in juice boxes. The hungry children scarf it down, and for many they will not get a whole lot more than that, before heading outside for recess. Some play tag as other climb on top of the roof of a shed and jump off, bringing old broken school desks with them to push around the basketball court. Other kids climb over the barbed wire to go retrieve some things that have fallen down the hill. After running around for fifteen minutes we go back into the classroom. At that point 5 of the children come up to me and ask for a sip of my water. They are thirsty after running around, and there is no running water at the school. I gave them each a sip and resolve to not bring my water bottle back to the school. It is not fair that I can drink water whenever I am thirsty right in front of these kids when they have no running water available to them for the majority of the day. I can wait until I get back to ILAC to quench my thirst if they have to wait all day just for a sip. 

As hard as it is to imagine, these kids grow up this way and don't know anything different. They are happy. It is not my job to show them what they are missing, or to make them feel bad about their lives here, but to show them that I care, to offer them that sip of water when they are thirsty, and to play with them like they are the children that they are, not treat them like they are nothing, which is how they are treated by most of society. I look forward to working here, and I can't wait to build my relationships with the kids and the teacher. I know that although I may not be able to change the world, if I can make just one child's day a little brighter, I will have done my job and this trip will have been worthwhile.

Gracias A Dios

This has been a truly amazing week. We visited our service sites, learned more about getting around the city, and learned lots of Spanish!! (Courtesy of Edwin) This week has been an adventure of learning about the culture, the way of life, and about the people I am living with, all things I will need this semester to get the most out of this program. Highlights of the week include going to get ice cream on Tuesday night, taking the guaguas and taxis, and going to the mall Thursday night, getting more ice cream, and listening to some live music! And we can't forget about our first night out on the town Friday night!! I got to practice my Bachata and Merengue, and get a taste for modern Dominican culture (and Presidente)!!! Then there was also the beach on Saturday...my first time in the Atlantic Ocean. It was so salty!!! But gorgeous, warm, and blue. It was so relaxing rolling around with the waves and letting them carry you through the ocean. It was definitely a great day!

In addition to the fun stuff, there was also some pretty tough experiences in their too. We visited our potential service sites, Cien Fuegos, Hogar Luby, Hospicio, and the Caritas. Cien Fuegos is a community outside of Santiago that is right next to a garbage dump. The community is very poor and when we visited the school, the kids were obviously excited for the attention that they were getting. They climbed all over us, holding our hands, giving us hugs, just begging for attention. We caused so much havoc in the school!! The teachers had to spend a lot of time corralling the kids back into the classrooms when we were leaving and it was time for school. This is the site that I will be at primarily. I am excited to get experience working in a school, and to have the benefit of experience in a different kind of school than in the United States.

Another place I hope to visit a lot is Hogar Luby, an orphanage for kids with developmental disorders. This was the hardest thing I saw all week, with kids running around with full diapers, diapers that didn't fit, and wet pants that needed to be changed. This was also hard because nothing is being done to help these kids. They do not receive any kind of therapy, and are hardly cared for at all by the few workers that are there. There are just not enough funds to support what is necessary for these kids to have. It is heartbreaking, especially considering that many of the kids will not make it to adulthood because they are not receiving the help they need. If you want to hear more about this site, email me. There is a lot to share, but it is truly depressing.

Hospicio was a nursing home and the Caritas are a feeding center for kids who can't get a decent meal at home. The feeding program provides a meal for kids, homework help, and a social worker that comes once a week to help out the kids that need it. Many come from broken homes and need someone to care for them and take an interest in their lives. At the hospicio, the people just needed someone to talk to and share their stories with.

Overall it was a great week. I learned a lot and I thank the Lord that I was given the opportunity to experience these things and put these lessons to use in my life. This is shaping up to be the best semester I've had yet, and I know it will turn out that way.

Day 1

It's my first full day in the Dominican Republic, and I am having a blast!!! The weather is gorgeous and ILAC is beautiful! We rode the guaguas into Santiago, and I SURVIVED!!!!! 25 people stuffed in a van with the door open and the operator hanging out...quite the adventure! The transportation around here will take some getting used to. Santiago was definitely different from the cities I am used to. It wasn't too busy since its Sunday, but I'm glad because I needed to get my bearings. It will take a few more trips to the city to get comfortable, but I think I will get there. I exchanged all my dollars to pesos, and now I am ready to go! This week is orientation so there will be a lot more to come, but let me just give you a taste of where I am living. ILAC is paradise, and I feel like I am living in a fancy resort and am going to leave in a week. NOT TRUE!! I get to stay here for four months!! Here are a few pics of ILAC, and some of the surrounding neighborhood and Santiago.

Two Days Left!

Just testing out the blog...I leave for the Dominican Republic in a couple days, so I'll share what I'm up to on my blog:) Exciting, huh!! I can't wait to leave!!! I'm really nervous by also very excited and I know it will be a great experience. I'll keep you posted on how it goes and all the different things I will do there! Enjoy:)