Well, we're here.
You already know that because of my mini update last
Thursday, but we've continued to stay here. No one has quit and packed
up. Well, one student packed up to go but luckily Jeremy, and his
stealthy ninja like reflexes, stopped her at the gate. Kidding. Very
few people are thinking about home, let alone packing up to go. Anyhow,
let's start at the beginning...a very good place to start (that's my
ode to Monika and Sound of Music – a pillar of the last two trips).
We met at the airport at 3a.m (ish). On Thursday morning. Those of us
who were actually there at three beat almost every American Airlines
employee to work that day. Eager beavers.
My experience from the last two years has taught me
that it is difficult to bring two suitcases that are only 50lbs or less.
My first instruction to arriving families was to weigh their bags.
The first few bags that we threw on the scale:too heavy.
Mine was the first bag to be weighed. I don't own a scale so
I decided that whenever it got a bit tricky to lift, it was about
50lbs. Apparently I'm a bit stronger than I realized as my bag weighed
in at 68lbs. Luckily DJ was planning on wearing only three outfits for
the next two months: he had plenty of extra weight and room.
Teamwork.
Most of the group was ready to go in good time, we just had to wait
for two members who were slightly late because of a forgotten item.
As a result we were unable to pray as a group as these two were still
checking in when the customs line opened up. And...if I had tried to
pray to the crowd at that point I think the American Airlines agent
might have shot me. Actually. The employees weren't in their happy
place that morning. Alas, we said our good-byes, mopped up the sea of
tears and moved away from the check-in area and on towards the customs
line where we waited for the gates to open up.
Apparently as we were standing there waiting, there was a colleague of mine
(Hint: he loves birds and his name starts with an “F” and ends in reeman)
looking for us. Unfortunately we weren’t able to see each other. The problem was
that our group was extremely efficient that morning and got through
everything relatively quickly AND he ran into some snags at home as he
tried to leave...so we missed each other. But his efforts were
appreciated by the entire group.
To all the others: parents, principals, brothers, sisters, cousins, friends,
classmates,schoolmates, grandparents (we actually didn't have any of those),
boyfriends, girlfriends and fellow employees: thanks for showing up!
We really appreciate your support. It is a swell feeling to leave the
check-in area with a crowd of supporters behind you. Thank you for
getting up early, getting a roll up the rim cup and hanging out with
us. We appreciate you.
The airporting process was smooth. I took the tail with Rachel and Peter
and we passed by “the door” together. We had a moment of silence
in remembrance of days past (the first trip, two years ago) when I lost
two students to that door and, in turn, they missed their flight and
the group was completely split up on its first day in Honduras. This
did not happen to us this year. Rachel, because of family ties (her
older brother was one of the students who missed his flight), did make
sure she got pictures of this door and the infamous Tim Horton's.
Anyhow, our group got where we needed to go in plenty of time. (Un)
fortunately the trip to the D.R. Was quite uneventful.
The drive to the base is always my favourite part of a trip like this
– watching the children's eyes and body language as they take in all
the sights and sounds. They notice things that I no longer notice so it
is fun to vicariously experience the newness of the DR through them.
Often on the drive I'd hear, “Rachael, did you see that? What was
that?” and I would be looking in the same direction as them but I just
wouldn't see what they saw: overloaded delivery/supply trucks, people
being cut off, beat up cars, folks walking in front of vehicles, people
trying to sell stuff at our windows, overcrowded buses...all of this to
me is normal.
It is Dominican.
For the children it is new, different, wild, crazy, out of control
and it doesn’t make sense.
Don't blame them, they haven't been Dominicanized yet.
With time this will come.
As we drove to the base, my vehicle (I had 12 of the children with me)
got to drive on some of the side streets. This was an experience in
itself – beggars and vendors coming up to our window etc...The children
were intrigued.
As you picture this street - don’t picture a north American street
where there is plenty of room for multiple lanes of traffic and people to walk.
I need you to picture a Dominican street: compact, crowded,
no defined lanes for the vehicles, cars facing on-coming traffic,
side mirrors within inches of each other and people finding any space they can to walk.
If my arm was a bit longer I could have touched the store overhangs.
There was a man in a wheelchair on this street.
He was looking for money but didn't get any from our
vehicle so away he went, fully amidst the dense traffic,
wheeling away with a box truck on one side and a car on the other.
His hand-propelled wheelchair got him where he needed to go,
similarly to the motorized vehicles around him.
We arrived at the base. Within this base/compound there is a shop,
a meeting/eating building, a Christian school and our dorm. Once we
arrived we discovered we were going to be on the upstairs floor this
year. This dorm has two floors and each floor has five rooms, but we
only use four. The leaders decided to divide the rooms up in the
fairest way possible: we drew lots. Each leader was assigned to a room
and then names were drawn.
Jillayna's room: Nicole, Stacey, Rachel and Juliet
Rachael's room: Karina, Olivia, Miraya, Kate and Megan
Baker Senior's room: John-Mark, DJ, Jake, Nathan and David
Peter's room: Ian, Mitch, Evan and Josh
Friday and Saturday were spent acclimatizing to culture and our new
life. First order of business: get used to cold, low pressure showers.
No big deal, really. Throughout Friday and Saturday the children were
given plenty of time to journal and do schoolwork. As leaders we know
this isn’t the most invigorating start to such a trip, but it is
actually an ideal balance: they can just be in the Dominican, hang out,
bond as a group, recover from the early morning at the airport, chill,
entertain themselves and also get some work done.
This year’s trip will be a little different schoolwise:
the students will be earning their English and New Testament credits while here.
We are trying to make reintegration in May a bit easier by getting some more work done
while in the Dominican. As a result, the children were encouraged
(read:commanded) to read and journal.
In addition to the aforementioned items, they also had some Spanish
lessons and they were sent on a scavenger hunt. Each leader made up
their own hunt list - some items were the same for all four groups,
some leaders personalized it.
Some basic rules: they had to take water,
wear sunscreen and they could not be in the base from 1-3 in the
afternoon.
Some tasks: get a picture with a dinosaur, find a Peter look-a-like,
find houses for each colour of the rainbow,
figure out what certain Spanish words were
(they weren’t allowed to have their dictionaries),
spend 100 pesos on something that would benefit the group,
play baseball with the locals and find a car without any dents.
It was incredible to see how the groups solved the problems they were
faced with, especially how they learned the spanish words. One group:
Stacey, Kate, John-Mark and Jake asked a lady who owned a small store.
Between charades and pointing things out that she had for sale, they
were able to figure out the words. Other groups asked random locals,
most often children for children are the best tool to use to learn a
new language.
Rachel, Nathan, Ian and Juliet walked practically to China
to find a baseball game, but eventually they found success
and were able to try their hand at the fine game,
all the while being laughed at by the locals.
It was a swell way to become familiar with our surroundings.
It is a much greater start to the trip to have them comfortable to explore
as opposed to wanting to stay insular.
And if they can’t talk to locals to find out what “jugo” means
then we’re in trouble when they step in front of a classroom.
Sunday was an adventure. We left the compound at 8am and walked 15
minutes to a “bus stop”. I was a little nervous since I was the only
one who had any idea where we were going and how to deal with Dominican
public transit. I love this new group but I craved last year’s crew
that morning...it just would have been easier.
Alas we waited for a couple of minutes for a publico to stop for us.
Eventually one did. A publico is a square van-ish type vehicle
with four rows of seats. Maybe, if you squish a bit, such a vehicle
could ‘safely’ hold twenty people.
There were at least fifteen people already on the publico
when it stopped. I asked him if he could take ten.
He asked me how many I had and then he said he could take all of us.
All 20 of us got in this beast of a vehicle.
People literally had 5 people sitting on their laps.
Talk about intimacy, vulnerability and getting comfortable with
each other (and with locals).
The problem with this was that I was so squished that I could not see where we were.
Before I got on I ensured the driver knew where the street: Nunez de Caceres was.
He was confident so I let him be and became content to squish my neck against
the ceiling as my students were close enough to share their sweat with
me. We got out and I looked around and started confidently walking.
After about a minute I turned to Juliet and said, “Just so you know, I
have absolutely no idea where we are. None at all”.
It’s all about appearances. Don’t let them sense vulnerability or they’ll pounce.
I found a local lady to talk to, got my bearings and realized where we
were - a good half an hour walk past where we needed to get off. Yep,
we definitely went too far. I told her we were going to walk to the
street we needed. She smirked, cocked her head and walked away. We
walked. We got there without any issues, other than blisters and
fatigue. Chalk it up to a great learning experience - we’re just
testing attitude and the children’s ability to be flexible.
Church was incroyable! When we got their the pastor’s wife recognized
me from last year which was exciting, especially because we did not
tell them in advance that we would be attending again. A couple of us
had some folks come up to us and chat with us and find out who we were
and why we were here. We go to a higher-class Baptist church on Sunday
mornings where much of the congregation speaks English, which makes us
feel that much more comfortable. This church has three services on
Sunday mornings, and each service easily has a couple of hundred people
attending. Before we even got to singing we were welcomed from the
front by the worship pastor (in Spanish, so many of the children missed
it, but we talked about it later).
The song that started off the service was Chris Tomlin, “Forever”
- we were stoked!
Oh man did we feel at home...and oh man did we feel bilingual.
This church has the words up on the screen so it was great to be able to sing along.
Then near the end of the song the song leader announced that we were going
to sing the chorus in English because of our American friends! The
whole church sang the chorus, in English, because of us! What a
welcome! So the pastor’s wife saw us and within the next fifteen
minutes talked to some people, and got them to add English words to the
screen and got the worship team prepped to sing a bit in English.
What a day!
We took public transportation on the way home - the same type that we
took in the morning. Originally I told the students that next week
they, in pairs, would be responsible for leading the group to and from
church. Their responsibilities would include paying, asking how many
people could go, negotiating a price, and telling the driver where to
stop. As we are walking to the bus stop (a good 20-25 minute walk) I
spent some time thinking. Rachel and Stacey are owning Spanish. They
are extremely interested in it and are going out of their way to learn
as much as they can and to work on their pronunciation. Anyhow, I
appreciated Rachel and Stacey’s eagerness - so I nailed them. Next
week? Kidding. You’re on duty now, in about 4 minutes. You are going to
talk to the driver and get us home. Ready? Great.
They did a fantastic job!
They again got us on a vehicle all together. This one was even
fuller (ode to scott ;)) than the one in the morning - to the point
that when a local wanted to get out, and he was sitting in the back, he
climbed out of the window instead of having us all move. It was
awesome! Evan and Rachel were in their happy places. There was not
enough room to sit down so they had to stand by the door (which doesn’t
close) and endure wind whipping their faces for the entire drive. I
think Rachel will wear shorts underneath her skirt next week - it’s
hard to manage keeping it down when you’re almost hanging out of a
door!
Monday was another “down” day despite the eagerness of the children.
They wanted to “get out there” but unfortunately that was not yet
possible. Max, our host, had been on the go since the beginning of
January with few, if any, days off. He has been hosting work teams and
often they would overlap. He still had a team here until Tuesday and
just didn’t have the time or energy to help us get started. Since some
of the themes of this Dominican trip are flexibility and adaptability,
this plan would work out just fine.
The students needed to work on finding the good in their situation.
They were allowed to be disappointed but they also had to pull up their socks
and make the best of it. While they were reading and journalling
the leaders went on an adventure to try to get some plans in order.
As a result, rotations were able to start on Tuesday - what a blessing!
And that is where we will start next time.
~Update from Rachael~
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