carlos alfredo

Last Thursday, one of my preschool students named Carlos Alfredo, otherwise known as Bebe, was really upset whenever his mom Katy came to drop him off. When I asked him what the matter was, he just cowered behind his mom.

Now, I must premise that though he is by far the tallest student in preschool, his name suits him well because of his mannerisms and limited vocabulary. Katy told me that he was upset that he had to walk to school.

This surprised me because that is what he always does. His mom preceded and said that he wanted to ride the donkey to school.

I chuckled to myself at how this child wanted to ride a donkey to school, a donkey!! Man, where am I and what century am I living in?!

The next day I spent about 3 hours in Pancho Mateo, about an hour and a half with Katy and Bebe. I saw her husband Freddy working with a donkey, and then began to understand.

Freddy had borrowed the donkey from a friend to do some work. They want to put a second floor on their home and are slowing collecting the materials in order to build. Freddy is using the donkey to carry sand that he gathers from the river in Pancho Mateo and brings it up to their house. As he guides the donkey, his two sons Ismael and Bebe run along side trying to help out in any way that they can. It was really cute.

Katy told me that they want to build a room above their current house to use as a prayer room. The only thing that is keeping them from finishing this project is money. If anyone is interested in helping them out please let me know. I think that what they are wanting to do is a really cool thing, especially considering that I have never heard anyone else in this country wanting to do something like that.

welcome back

I flew back into Puerto Plata New Year's Day with a new group from the Austin Stone, they have been helping us get the school ready by doing some major cleaning all throughout the property. We finally got shelves put in the storage closet, so we were able to organize all of our school supplies. Some helped Miguel build a storage box that now hangs in the office to store all of the PE equipment, and many helped clear some land where we will eventually start a garden.

Robin, Cara, and I have moved into an apartment near the school which has been so nice being so close to the school and the people we interact with daily. I must say though that it has been weird not seeing the groups as much in the evenings. I am grateful though for more opportunity to spend with my students and their families outside of the classroom.

Friday we had a welcome back party for all of the students. The group brought Christmas gifts for each child from ASCC in Austin and made sandwiches to pass out made with homemade Haitian peanut butter.

The day before the group went to visit the families in Pancho Mateo and Chichigua after their work at the school was done. I started feeling poorly around midday, I ended up going to our apartment to sit for a minute. Good thing I did because I got sick so I spent a few hours resting. Whatever I had passed after vomiting and I soon felt better.

Saturday afternoon Kate and I took a bus to Santiago to meet another group that was flying in. We took them to see the Makarios farm Sunday afternoon, and they headed to the north coast on Monday to help us prepare for school. Classes begin Tuesday, the weather has been poor, but hopefully we will have a good turn out for the first day.

older class

popping the abscess

I finally got the video uploaded!! Beware it is kind of gross.

independent reading

death

I was thinking a few weeks back on things that I have seen over the past 16 months. During that time, I was told that the older brother of three of my students was killed while riding on a motorcycle. Though he was significantly older than his younger siblings, I still saw him quite often in Pancho Mateo.

Many of you who have been down here know the Martinez family, David, Damari (otherwise known as Cindi), Daribelto, and Danilo. It was their brother Kelvin that died, he was 14 years old. Kelvin had gone missing for a few days and so his death wasn’t confirmed for a while because it happened in an area closer to the capital. An 18-wheeler and his moto crashed, instantly killing him and the person he was with. I went to visit his mom, Charito, a few days after I found out, it seemed kind of surreal to see an old picture of him and a few lit candles in the house, but then I got to thinking about it.

I have seen more deaths this year than I have in my entire life in the states. Little boys with tetanus (Salvador), neglected infants, old men and women, young men and women, the dad of Fiordalina, Rosa, and Felix Manuel in Pancho Mateo, Papo the uncle of Delvin and Daniela in Pancho Mateo, the witch doctor in Pancho Mateo grandmother of Marta one of our preschool students, Cristina’s cousin and her baby, Evelyn’s husband and dad to Yunior, Ernesto, Yes Marco, and Ambiolix in Chichigua. People’s husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, moms and dads, cousins, grandparents, all people that I knew or related to people I know. And this is all as of recent.

Two weeks ago there was a young man in Tamarindo that lived two houses down that died. The last pathway to get to our school was filled with people gathered visiting with his wife, people playing dominoes to keep the energy up because that’s what they do, his body in a casket in the house with a glass door so you can see the face. He was young. Last week they had a little ceremony at the house when they took the body away.

There is a woman in Chichigua that has AIDS. All of a sudden last week her health went downhill and was immediately on her death bed, lifeless for days. I went to Chichigua to see for myself, everyone telling me she was just waiting to die. I saw her lying in her house, sleeping, looking dead with the exception of a snore that I heard every once in a while. She died a few days ago. I knew her, and she is now dead, a mother of a little boy that is about a year old, precious as can be.

Why is it that death is so prominent? Why is it that my students who are 3 and 4 and 6 and 8 and 10 years old come up to me and tell me that their brother or father died with a big smile on their face?

And why is it that little Bienvenido always wants double of everything he eats at lunch at preschool? He raises his scrawny little arm asking for more whenever we say there is extra. Why are his arms covered with really bad eczema and just this past summer it was covered with second and third degree burns from a boiling pot that knocked over? Why is his brother Gerald’s head covered with scabies? And why do people not really say anything about it?

It is common. Everyday occurrences that happen to all families. Death. Sickness. Poverty.

I was thinking about all this, as I am thinking about it now. I am so thrilled to go back to the states, and literally count down the days. Why do I do that? I know that it is Christmas, and I am homesick. I wonder though, am I getting away because I miss family and friends or is it to escape the surroundings here that are so harsh. I hope it is the former.

soooo dominican