Scott

I can’t believe how fast 12 days have gone by. Scott left this afternoon and it feels like we he just got here. It’s funny how we wait and wait for moments in life and then they are done and over with. My sister and Teliesha have been here for four days already. It’s been so nice having family around.  Even though we are around people all the time it can get lonely when you don’t get to see the familiar faces of your friends and family. It means a lot to us to have them come and share time with us.

I bet you’re all wondering what we have been up to with our visitors?? Hmmm??  The first two days of Scott’s visit were some relaxing and checking out the beach.  We showed Scott around a little and brought him to our favourite beach spot. He and Chris did a little snorkeling and they got some great pictures with our waterproof camera..... Unfortunately, water somehow got into the camera and ruined the memory card. So we lost all the pictures from that day as well as some videos of Abriel. I was sad for a couple days.... so much for waterproof!

At the school in Cangrejo we painted the fence around the shed and got Scott to help us teach some of our Spanish class. He is an excellent painter and was very good at "las vocales"! He was in charge of testing the kids to see if they had learned all the vowels properly. He took his position very seriously and even learned all the Spanish sayings he needed: "Como estas?" (How are you?); "Como te llamas?" (What is your name?); and "Como se dice?" (What is it?).

Scott painting the fence.

Chris painting the fence.

On Friday we went out as a group to Cevere, the spot where the new school will be. We painted and Francois built some walls. It looks so much better. A lot of the community was out to watch and some adults and kids even pitched in and helped. It was nice to see them excited and interested in the new school.  We will be going out again tomorrow (Friday) to complete most of it.

 Saturday was a blast! We hung out with Scott’s sponsor kid, Andrew, and Francois and Olivia’s sponsor kid, Sophia. We were suppose to bring our sponsor girl, Maria, but she had to spend a couple days in the hospital (we will be planning something special for her on another day).  We went go carting. All day go carting, bumper cars and a park for $10 a person! A highlight was when we took them to Burger King for lunch and Andrew drank a very large grape pop. I told him he would be peeing purple. A little while after he returned from the bathroom and announced “my pee was yellow!”.  Haha, so cute.

Scott's stomach and shoulder were not feeling great on Sunday afternoon.... and by Sunday night he was in enough pain to take him to the hospital. He ended up having to spend two nights there and get lots of tests (some of which were obviously necessary and others that seemed way out in left field; but I'm not a doctor). They think it could have been a mild pancreatic inflammation (of the shoulder?!?).  Whatever it was he recovered and got to experience a different side of the Dominican than most tourists get to see.

Tuesday afternoon we took Scott, Teleisha and Shene to the beach and did some more snorkeling.  For dinner we went to one of our favourite restaurants overlooking the ocean. Lots of fun.

Yesterday was amazing. We went zip lining and hung out with some monkey’s. I was so nervous and scared about zip lining but after making the first leap I wasn’t scared. It was awesome to be flying in the sky. We also had to do a free fall jump..... it took us girls about 15 minutes each to  get the courage to do it... but we did it and then we did it again!! SO MUCH FUN!!  The monkeys were kind of a disappointment because they had just ate and were not interested in coming to get the food from us. A few of the monkeys came and got a few pieces of food and climbed on us a bit. They were super cute. 

Last night we stayed home and played some games and got ready for Scott’s last day here. I asked Scott if he wanted to add anything to our blog about his experience here and he said,

“sponsor a kid; it goes to a good cause... I am serious.” 

Scott with his sponsor kid, Andrew, and his mom.

He also hopes everyone is as lucky as he was to meet his sponsor child.

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For more information or to sponsor a child that we work with, click the link below:
Servants Heart Ministries 

And thanks again for following us on this journey and supporting us with prayer or finances or just good wishes. We love you all!

Chris, Keeleah and Abriel

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Veggie Tales

Last week we got to experience the very first Veggie Day at the school in Cangrejo. They are starting to teach the kids about healthy eating so, in an effort to set an example, the teachers decided have a veggie pot-luck lunch. We were invited because we are tutors at the school and, more importantly, we will eat vegetables to show that vegetables are great. I ate a couple of the dishes but didn't get too adventurous. I had broccoli, cauliflower, bean soup, some salad, avocado and cucumber/tomato combo. They also asked us to bring a cake (?) so I stuck with the theme and made a Chocolate Zucchini cake with cream cheese icing (I know, super healthy. haha). The teachers loved it... really loved it.... like, the whole cake was gone is seconds. Chris complained that he only got one piece so I made him a carrot cake with cream cheese icing a couple days later. (Chris: "which was delicious").

Columbus Day at the school was interesting. So, here's the story as far as we understand it: Columbus (yes, that Columbus) landed on Dominican soil. The Taino people were then enslaved by Columbus and his followers and several thousand Taino people (if not many, many more) were killed. We couldn't wrap our heads around why you would celebrate a guy who came in and killed a bunch of your country men (and women) but after a little explaining we discovered it's less about what Columbus did and more about remembering those who were killed. So, in remembrance of the Natives who were killed, the director had us paint the kids faces like the Taino people. I'm not going to say I didn't feel weird about it. I have a feeling it's not something that would go over well in Canada but here, why not eh? We had a good time with the kids and most of them really enjoyed getting their face painted.

We have tweaked our tutoring schedule a little bit to try and help some of the kids who need extra help. We are now doing tutoring in four smaller groups: 2pm-3pm and 3pm-4pm on Mondays;  4pm-5pm on Tuesdays; and then a group recap on Thursdays from 4pm-5pm.  Our class was getting too large to teach effectively so we are hoping this works out better. The difficultly will be getting the right kids to come at the right time. We had a kid show up on Wednesday while Scott and Chris were painting the fence. Wednesday hasn't been nor will be a tutoring day but he was there with his notebook and back pack ready to learn. Some of the kids were disappointed they can't come every day but those are mostly the kids who already know how to read...go figure.


Abriel is learning new things every day. She can now wave good bye and hello (and does it at the correct times); she can clap;  she eats almost anything we put in front of her;  she is crawling everywhere;  she pulls herself up to standing and walks along the edges of tables, her play pen, people, couches or any other sturdy object she can reach; she has stood on her own for a couple seconds; she has eight teeth (and another two are coming in); she says a few more words (not "dada" yet though), and tries to sing. There are so many other things but the list will be too long.  Its fun watching her try and accomplish new things. I am one proud Mama!

Our Teaching Career Begins

Looks like we need to apologize again for the late blog..... It’s been busy!!  We have come to a realization that we both can’t be doing what we want to be doing at the same time because we have a baby; and babies are time consuming; Haha; Especially our baby; who needs to be watched all the time; to make sure she isn’t eating paper, chewing on cords, chasing the dogs or trying to climb anything and everything. We have decided that instead of us passing Abriel back and forth trying to accomplish things that we just need to take turns. It kind of sucks but it’s necessary and it’s working much better.

Juan Julian playing the vowel game!

We started tutoring!! We started last Thursday. We will be tutoring Monday’s from 2-4pm, Tuesday’s 4-5pm, and Thursday’s 4-5pm. Our first class we had two kids.... and now that we have done four classes we are looking at a steady 15 kids. It’s nuts..... but I am loving it. Whenever I see the kids in the school they grab onto my leg and ask in Spanish (“Dos?! A Qui?!”) when the next class is and then yell “YEAH”. When they are actually in the class they seem less excited to learn and more excited to cause trouble. We have been working on the vowels (Las Vocales) so far: A E I O U!!  I have said that a few times this week.  My heart breaks for some of these kids though.... more than half of them (mostly grade 2) have no idea how to spell their name and the ones that can spell their name usually have no idea what the letters are called to make up their name. They learn by copying. Although, in as little as 15 minutes of one on one time with a little boy named “Dairobi” he can now write his name and say each letter. I am soooo proud of him.  On our first day a girl in our class told me (speaking through our translator Jessica) there were problems at home. She explained that her family doesn’t have a bathroom in the house so they have to go in buckets and then throw it outside. She said the people in the community are yelling at them and calling them names because it’s starting to smell. I asked why her family doesn’t use the community washroom area. She told me since her family is Haitian they aren’t allowed to use it. It took all my power not to lose it right there. Afterwards I explained the story to Chris broke down crying. The worse thing is I didn’t know what to say... all I managed to say was “I am sorry your family is going through this right now”. We are looking into a solution.... but (as is the Dominican way) there is a process. I couldn’t imagine being a 10 year old and having to worry about where I could use the bathroom.

On a much different note, we have found a great restaurant to eat at while we are here. Sometimes it’s cheaper to go out then to cook. It’s called Britannia’s Britannia Pub and it is owned by a Canadian couple from Sudbury. They have a special every night of the week for 99 pesos ($2.60). Can’t beat the price and it’s yummy.  Lots of street vendors come by and try and sell you things. We met Miguel, the shoe shine boy, there as mentioned in a previous blog. Chris and I ran into Miguel again last week and he was with his brother and cousin on a Saturday night around 7pm working. We bought them ice cream and chatted. We learned Miguel and his 3 siblings live at home with their grandmother who can’t work. Miguel, 11 years old, said he goes to school from 8am - 12pm and then works every night from 4pm to 9pm as well as Saturday from 8am to 9pm. He told us this with a smile on his face.... proud.... happy.....brave! We told them that we have some family coming soon and we want to hang out at the beach with them. They were really excited and so are we.

Stayed tuned! In the next couple days you will hear of Veggie Columbus Day! 

Genesis

gen·e·sis /ˈjenəsis/

noun: the origin or mode of formation of something.

We are one month into our "Dominican Experience" and we are finally getting into a quickly forthcoming routine. We moved out of the house we were taking care of for a time and moved into our permanent address while we are down here. We have made a few changes to the house to make it more of our own including adding wireless internet - sweet! -, stocking the shelves with food, baby proofing what we can (Abriel is quite the mover now) and learning the sounds of the house settling (and the street rocking!). It's kinda fun to make something your own. It brings me back to buying our house and trying different furniture arrangements to see what would work best.

This morning we went for a family run *ahem* walk. We are hoping to make this part of our routine at least two or three times a week to stay/get in shape. There isn't much in the exercising department right now. I have met with a guy (David) who is going to help me start an ultimate league but, as with everything else down here, it's a slow starting. We have picked a place to play and it is SWEET! We will be playing on the beach right next to the ocean with a big rock cliff on the other side. When we actually get down there to play I'll attach a picture. You will be so jealous. Even if you don't like frisbee you would play just so you could go there.

We are also starting our tutoring classes tomorrow (Thursday) at the Congrejo school. We will be doing an evaluation for the first session and then starting to teach regular classes next Monday. We are teaching grades one, two and three the Spanish alphabet and how to read. Each of us (Keeleah, Myself, Olivia, Francois and Arula) will have 4 kids we will tutor for two hours on Mondays and an hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm pretty excited about it. As with most things I start I have visions of everything going smoothly and the kids loving to learn and hanging on every word and by February all my kids can read any word you give them. Reality might be very different but I'm going to go in with a super positive attitude. We will also be tutoring math starting in a few weeks which is a bit easier to teach than reading so that will be a welcome break.

SHM is setting up an after school program for students in a village called Cevere ("sev-are-eh"). I was up there today with the two teachers seeing what needed to be done to the building they are going to rent before we can start up the program. We need to put up a few walls, fix a few spots on the tin roof, throw some privacy curtains up, make some chalkboards, build a bathroom and create a storage place. It seems like a lot but the teachers are itching to get in there. They have such a love for education. One of them teaches in the mornings at the Congrejo school and has been a huge help to the other teachers there. It was great to see them eager to get their own space where they can teach the basics and be able to offer "social studies" which will teach the kids about other countries including the neighbouring Haiti where the main teacher is from. It's neat for me to be able to be a part of a new school right from the get go.

On a different subject, while we were out for dinner last night a shoe shine boy came by and asked if we needed our shoes shined (we were wearing flip flops and Toms at the time). There is background behind this profession. A lot of the time these boys are taken from their homes and forced to make money for someone else. They are usually between the ages of eight and fifteen. Sometimes they are forced to meet a quota before they are allowed back into the place they call home which means they not only shine shoes but will do "almost anything" to meet their quota so they can go home and eat. It's sad and horrible. We have learned through various trips down here that most of them will speak and understand enough English to have a conversation with so we took the time to get to know Miguel. Now Keeleah and I have seen these kids shine any type of shoe so we knew the quality we would get but Francois was a little more skeptical that Miguel could get his Toms clean ("They are cloth shoes! How will he shine them?"). We assured Francois his shoes would be well cleaned and asked Miguel to shine our flip flops as we struck up a conversation. We asked him where he lived and went to school and he told us he lived in Monteanllo which is an area about a half hour drive from where we were eating. We asked him how old he was and he said he was eleven. We made jokes (in Spanish) about how gross Francois Toms were and he came back with "Ahora feo ("now ugly") but soon beautiful *italian meatball kiss*". He was a confident worker who took pride in his work. He was funny and charming and smart. And he was working alone in the bar district of a city half an hour from his home and he was eleven.When he had finished one of Francois shoes he held it up beside the dirty one and we couldn't help but laugh at Francois and Olivia's reactions. The shoes were completely different. The old one was greyish with stains and dirt all over it and the finished one looked brand stinking new. Miguel had converted another skeptic of "odd shoes to shine". We asked him how much the cleaning was and he humbly said "whatever you want". We paid him $100 pesos (about $3 CAD - which is about a days and a half's wage) for our flip flops and said thanks. He took the time to shake everyone at the tables hands (including Abriel's) and walked down the street into the night with a "God bless you".

There is a good chance we probably won't see Miguel again but we will definitely see many, many boys doing the same thing he does with the same great attitude. I can't fathom the life these kids live. A life of fear; of adventure; of horror; of stories. If you are a praying person and you are looking for something new to pray about pray for the shoe shine boys of the Dominican. Pray for their safety. Pray that what they do after school won't affect their education. Pray that they make enough money that day. If you ever get the chance to talk to a shoe shine boy in the Dominican or somewhere else take it. Listen as they tell you of good times and of unthinkable times. You will learn something about the human spirit. You will learn something about serving others.You will learn something about hard work. You will learn something about sticking together.

And you will definitely walk away with very clean flip flops.

Thanks Miguel!

Survival

 The prostitution rate per capita in the Dominican Republic is considered very high. The Dominican Republic is statistically the 4th largest exporter of prostitutes in the world behind Brazil, Thailand and the Philippines. Sosua, where we are living, is the biggest area in Puerto Plata for prostitution. For those that come here and just stay on the resort, you would never know. If you travel around at night you will soon notice the bars full of women and "single" men (and, unfortunately, Canadian men are now the most plentiful).

I am saying all of this because I have recently been talking with some people down here about it..... and I have been thinking a lot.  Everyone has their own thoughts when you hear the word "prostitution" or the more politically correct words "sex trade" and I do believe everyone is entitled to their own opinions but I have my own strong opinion on this topic. My opinion has been formed through my background in social work, through conversations with clients I have worked with over the years and through women I have spoken with in the Dominican including some sex trade workers themselves. I am not going to list the common thoughts on the subject.... because I think they are pretty obvious. I am also not going to say some of those thoughts aren't true for some women and the "trade" is the same here as it is in Canada but I can tell you through my conversations with some women here the typical thoughts about prostitution aren't true in a lot of situations. For a lot of women here it's a matter of their survival... and (more importantly) the survival of their children. What do you do?:  you kid's dad is not in the picture anymore (as is a common case).... you can't find a job.... because you can't read or write... because you only have the common average 6th or 7th grade Dominican education.... you have no money.... the government doesn't offer help..... you have no family that can help.... and you and your children are hungry... not the kind of hunger that missing a meal creates but a hunger that could literally take your child's life right in front of you?? I look at my sweet little girl and I don't know what I would, or would not, do to provide for her.

I am blessed with endless opportunities and open options for my life. As a woman, that is an amazing feeling but for some women it's not the case. It's the difference of being born in a different geographic area or to the right family it has nothing to do with worth or me being better. How easy it is to judge when we have not been in the shoes (or lack thereof) of someone else.