Motorcycle Rides, Earplugs, and Other Adjustments

I am now about halfway through my fourth week in the Dominican.  While I do not feel like I have been here very long, a week from now I will have been here for an entire month. In other words, I have been here for a little under one third of the time I will spend in the Dominican this semester.  Like most people, I prefer for time to feel like it is going quickly; that means you are enjoying your time much more than if it was dragging on.   On the other hand, it is a little surprising how fast it is going, particularly because February will be my busiest month with teaching. However, I am looking forward to teaching three of the four high school classes at Doulos, and it will be good for me to experience what it is like to prepare and teach that many classes a day. 

Aside from teaching, my time in the Dominican so far has been filled with a lot of new experiences.  Because I had been in San Juan in 2009, I thought I had a pretty good idea of the culture of the Dominican, however, I have found this area of the Dominican to be somewhat different.

One thing I knew coming here was that the Dominican is much louder than what I am used to in the States.  Throughout the day and night, dogs bark loudly, roosters crow, music plays from neighbor’s houses, and motorcycles (or motos as we call them) speed by on the Avenida.  Even though I knew this before I came, noise has been one of the most difficult adjustments for me.  Most nights I wake up two or three times because the neighborhood dogs are barking.  There have been several sleepless nights where I tried every possible way to drown out the sound of the barking, but in vain.  There is also constant noise as you walk about town. People sit outside and talk while listening to music, and the cars and motorcycles announce their presence quite clearly as they speed down the road.   Thankfully, a teacher at Doulos gave me a package of earplugs on Friday. I have now enjoyed two nights of uninterrupted sleep.  I was expressing my excitement to Nick because I was finally remembering my dreams again…yay REM sleep! 

Walking around here is very different, too.  First of all, I have a thirty-minute walk from school each day. I get a ride in the mornings from our neighbor, Pedro, but in the afternoon I walk home.  I really do enjoy walking, so it is not a problem.  The only part I hated about walking home was the fact that everyone stares at me.  This is not one of those “imaginary audience” type of things that you learn about in Psychology class.  Really, almost everyone stares at me.  Unlike in the States, there is not much ethnic diversity here, so if there is a white person walking around, especially a white female, people just will not stop staring.  As you can imagine, this is terrible for me.  One thing I miss the most is walking down the street without anyone really paying attention to me, whistling at me, or trying to get me to ride on their motorcycles.  My host sister enjoys counting how many people stare at me as they drive past on motorcycles when we go out on walks. She thinks it is quite hilarious. 

There are also animals everywhere.  Mostly street dogs that wander around looking for food or other dogs to fight with. Sometimes they just choose to follow you to school.  That happened on the first day I went to Doulos. I walked, and a tiny dog followed me the entire way.  He was harmless, so I did not mind at all.  However, I did learn a trick with how to deal with scary dogs here. Basically, if a dog is ever bothering me, all I have to do is touch the ground and they will run away. Why, you ask?  Well, as sad as it is, these dogs are used to having rocks thrown at them if they are threatening or bothering people.   You do not even have to actually throw a rock. Simply touch the ground.  (This is good, because I think I would have a hard time actually throwing a rock at a dog, but maybe I could if it was truly menacing).  I tested out the ground-touching theory and it surprisingly is very effective. Another thing I noticed about the dogs here is that I have never seen so many pregnant dogs in my life.  It is sad how all of these street dogs keep being born and they end up living off of trash people leave outside.  But, there is no such thing as animal control here, so it is an ongoing problem.

There are also horses, cows, and goats around this area. We have some neighbor goats that are always laying around when I come home from school. There were some babies born right before I came, and there are some pretty adorable goats. I have a favorite one, I won’t lie. Nick finds that hilarious, but I just cannot help it.  If  you saw this goat, you would understand.  I also see people riding horses all the time, and I can’t really decide if it is just for fun, or not. There are kids riding them a lot, which makes me think they are just trying to have fun. I am a tiny bit jealous. After riding horses in Brazil with Nick’s family, I want to ride them whenever I have the chance.  As for the cows, well, I had an interesting run-in with one the first week I was here.  As I was walking home from school, I saw a large cow lying on the sidewalk.  That’s right.  This cow was all tied up, and I honestly thought it was dead.  However, I slowly walked closer to it, and it’s eyes opened really wide and it looked absolutely terrified.  I walked in a large circle around it, but I still wonder why it was just laying there. 

I also have taken several moto rides myself, which at first sounded a little scary, but now I realize how much more convenient it is to a 45 minute walk to the grocery store just to take another 45 minute walk to return.  There is a motorcycle taxi service, known as moto-concho.  I got the number of a moto-concho a friend here uses, and I just call him when I need a ride.  He comes quickly, picks me up, and takes me to my house for less than one American dollar. Not too shabby if you ask me.  However, he insists on talking to me the entire time we drive to my house. I have a hard enough time hearing him, let alone understanding him ask me a lot of questions in Spanish. However, I am glad to have that service available when I need it. 

Oh! And the food has been pretty great considering that Nelly (my host mom) is such an excellent cook.  However, it was nice to make pizza last week and have a little break from rice and beans, as much as I love it.

So there you have it.  A much-longer-than-I-anticipated look at my life in the DR.  I really have no idea what I will be blogging about next week, but feel free to check again for some other stories of my time here. 

Doulos Discovery School

Hello friends and family!  I have now been in the DR for more than two weeks, and I think it keeps getting better.  This week was much more comfortable for me. I have had a lot of fun getting to know my host family, as well as their extended family, and I am finally getting into the flow of everything at school.

          For now, I will tell you a little bit about the school I am teaching at this semester, Doulos Discovery School.  This school is unique not only because it is in a town surrounded by beautiful mountains, but because they use Expeditionary Learning, which helps students explore information by actually participating in projects that help the community.  For example, last year, the students went to a beach for several days where they studied coral reefs and the danger they face.  They were able to work with field experts in order to understand exactly what is happening, and what can be done to help.  Students also had the opportunity to research different forms of renewable energy, to discover which was the most effective.  They did this not simply for research sake, but to help an orphanage choose the best form of renewable energy to use to help them lower their bills each month.  Each semester there is a different expedition that students participate in, and the classes will al work together to help students work on their expedition.  This semester, I will be helping my cooperating teacher lead an expedition with the 9^th graders about poetry.  From what I understand, our students will be creating their own poems that will be published in a book.  This book will be available in businesses around Jarabacoa free of charge.  Next week I will learn more of the details of this project, but I am excited that I get to be a part of this unique learning environment. 

       The students at Doulos are 95% ESL students, meaning that for nearly every student at the school, Spanish is their first language.  Students speak Spanish to one another in the classrooms and on the playground, but all instruction is in English, and students are expected to complete all schoolwork in English.  I am working with 9^th-11^th grade English classes here, which means I am teaching classes about literature, persuasive writing, poetry, etc. to classes of students who speak Spanish at home and English at school.  Also, many of the students come here on scholarships paid by sponsors, many of who live in the States.  I can definitely tell this will be a challenge, but I am already starting to get to know the students, and I believe this will be a great experience for me both professionally and personally.

         Please pray for me as I am here. Pray that I will have wisdom in assessing students based on their current performance, that I will keep my mind focused on being here while still keeping in touch with friends and family, and that I will stay healthy while I am here. (Dengue Fever is in this area, and that would be very bad with my student teaching schedule).

Next week I will write more about Dominican culture and the many adjustments I have had to make!

If you are interested in learning more about Doulos, or if you are interested in making a donation to this school (such as being a class sponsor, providing scholarships for individual students, or supporting any of the teachers who work here by raising full missionary support) please click this link:

http://doulosdiscovery.org/

¡Estoy Aquí!

Well, I have now been in the DR for one week.  Before I begin to tell everyone about the school I am at, my students, etc, let me go back and tell you about my first few days here. 

As most of you reading this probably know, I was in Brazil for two weeks before leaving for the DR.  I had a great time being with Nick’s family.  We had time to relax, but we also had a lot of fun (horseback riding was my favorite!). However, with all of that fun, it was a quick (not even) two days at home before I had to leave again.

Nick and I got some time to talk and hang out at the airport before I went through the security gates. We enjoyed our last cup of hot chocolate together for quite some time, said our goodbyes, and I was off on my own. It was pretty difficult saying goodbye, but I know time will go quickly and I will return. 

My first flight was fine.  However, afterward I spent a lovely five or so hours in the Miami airport. I made a few phone calls, caved in and paid for internet access, and spent plenty of time people watching. (Airports are quite good for that kind of thing).  A Cedarville friend, Alex Gonzales, was also flying to Santiago, so we met for dinner and boarded our plane together. 

That flight started out interestingly, because the power went out on the plane just as we were getting ready to pull out onto the runway.  I don’t know about you, but I cannot think of a much a reassuring way to start a flight across the ocean. Ha.  Even will all of that, we made it safely to the Dominican Republic. I was greeted by some other Doulos teachers at my arrival who were coming back from Christmas break.  After at first worrying that my luggage at not arrived, Alex helped me find it and we made our way to our individual schools.

The first two nights I was here, I stayed with the school director and his wife.  I had a very relaxing start with them, because they allowed me to spend my time at their house sleeping and using the vonage phone to call Nick and my parents.  I was thankful for that because I was definitely suffering from jet lag (something I always thought was a fake condition).

My host family is wonderful.  They are a family of four, and are not Dominicans, but Colombians.  They moved here about 5 years ago.  There are two daughters in the family who I have really loved getting to know.  Priscilla is in 7^th grade, and Aileen is in 1^st grade.  We have had many opportunities so far to talk , play games, and even watch Winnie the Pooh (in Spanish, of course).  Priscilla also acts as my personal translator when I have a hard time understanding her mom, and Aileen and I like to spend time where she teaches me Spanish and I teach her English. I am very thankful to be living with such a nice family!

I started school this week, and everything went very well, although for now I am simply observing.  In my next post I will explain more about the school and my experience here so far.