Dominican Republic Internship 2012: Overview of week 2

Tuesday we went up to the school in the morning and continued working on preparations for school. I spent most of my time working on preparations, but when I wasn't doing that, I was helping the group paint the classrooms. In the afternoon we came back to the house and all of the kids from the ESL class came over to the house and we took a trip to the river with them. When they first came over we went around in a circle and asked and answered basic questions in English, like whats your name? where are you from? how old are you? and it was awesome to see how much the kids have learned. I recognized most of them from previous years and they have already learned so much more English since I have last seen them. Then we all went to down to the river and spent a couple hours playing with them and we brought snacks and drinks for them to have as well. We had such a great time and it was so fun getting to see the kids playing together and playing with the group and the staff. When we were back at the house one of the girls had their friend Ruth over. Ruth goes to school at Makarios and is one of the sweetest, cutest little girl! We were all sitting on the couch playing games and then eventually we started singing Worship songs and playing music. This was definitely one of my highs of the whole week, just getting to see again how no matter where you are, God and Christianity is universal.

1) Me, Nicole, Narolin, Genesis, Kelvin, Marnellia, and Bella preparing for school

2) Dena and Yomo cutting out crafts for the students
3) The first picture is of some of the kids from the neighborhood that came over to play at the school no the play ground and then they were eating a snack

4) The ESL kids at the house doing introductions

5) Sarah and Imani at the school

6) Playing with the kids at the river

7) Tate and Oli "being me"

8) Oli acting like Santa

9) Parlyn and Ruth playing instruments and singing this is the day that the Lord has made

Wednesday I spent the whole day at the school, again for most of the time Narolin and I worked on our lesson plans and when we finished early we helped some of the other teachers with their preparations. When the group arrived to paint, I also got to help paint the second layer of paint in some of the classrooms. It was a long day of work, but at the end of the day it is so great to get to look back and see everything we accomplished. Ashley and Kendall used to be teachers at the school last year and today they came up to the school to visit everyone again. It was great getting to see them again, because I remember talking to them when they were interns here and having conversations about why they came here and how to become an intern and they were the first ones I talked to that made me realize that I wanted to eventually come back here and intern! I sat on the roof this night and had some quiet time to myself and I have never ever seen so many stars in my life as there were in the sky this night, it was absolutely amazing!

1) The front of the Makarios school

2) Josh helping paint the classrooms

3) Two of the kids who live by the school bathing

Thursday was beach day for the older kids!!! They all came to the school bright and early (way before they were supposed to be there) and waited to go to the beach. They were so incredibly excited and one of the boys even asked if he could spend the night in front of the school so he could be the first one there in the morning to go to the beach! Once we all met at the school, the kids had breakfast and then we were off to the local beach in Puerta Plata! Although the beach is so close, the kids never get to go over and play, so this was a real treat for them! All of the kids had so much fun swimming and playing in the sand and then we headed back to the school around lunch time. The staff fed the kids lunch and then after that they all went home and we got to set up our classrooms! It was so awesome having newly painted, bright walls and so we got to move all of our stuff into the rooms and decorate for the rest of the day! Before I left the school for the day I got to play with some of the kids, which included Diore and Eb! These were some of my favorite kids that I had met the first year I came here and it was so great getting to spend time with them! Once I got back to the house I got to spend some time with the Menold kids and the girls and I baked a rainbow cake off of pinterest! We had so much fun baking together, and we even had some extra help when Ruth and Sylvia, some of the neighbor girls, came over to play!

1) The kids praying on the church of the school before we left for the day

2) Johan telling the kids the rules

3) PLAYING AT THE BEACH!

4) Me burying Rebecca in the sand

5) Me with Eb and Diore and some other friends

6) The Menold kids eating our cake!

7) What our cake looked like

8) The picture of the cake we were going off of

Friday I went to Cabarete for the day with the group for their beach day! We went to breakfast at a German Bakery there and then we spent the entire day at the beach. The water was perfect and it wasn't too unbearably hot outside! I really got to spend time talking to some of the group members at the beach and getting to know them, which was really awesome. And it was so neat getting to hear them talk about their week and everything they had experienced here. After we ate dinner we headed home and got to see the amazing sunset as we rode back and did reflections from the week on the roof.

1) The group in the gua gua on the way to Cabarete

2) Fin couldn't get enough ice cream

3) A crab making its home by my chair

4) Looking at all of the sand dollars they found

5) Jen with Par and Fin walking into the water with all of the Kite and Wind Surfers in the back (Cabarete is known as the beach for Kite and Wind Surfing)

This morning the group ate breakfast and then we said our goodbyes as they left to go home today. I had a great time with them and getting to know each of them it was sad to say goodbye, but I know that that like me, most of them are hoping to be returning back here again. It is so quiet without the group here, but it is nice to have some time to relax and prepare for school starting on Monday. I also spent the day hanging out with Nicole at her house. When I got there she was helping teach Sylvia how to write and read, but then Sylvia went home and then she took me to her uncle's house and then her grandparent's house to meet them and visit with them all day!

These pictures are from earlier in the week that one of the girls from the group took: