my adventures

Thursday, September 18, 2008

graduates

Here are some fun pictures of the recent graduates. They were used in the slide show for the graduation ceremony.

The Chichigua boys stayed during the day and helped out around the school during the last week of class. Pictured above are Guivenson, Ronal, Ernesto, Yunior, and Ronni. Yunior is Evelyn's eldest son and a former student from the year before. Guivenson will be the only returning student this year.

One of the things that they did while at the school was help clean up the property in the back. They cut down the coconut that were ready and picked up all the loose parts of the coconut trees. Each day Yunior saved a large coconut for me, very sweet. Somehow they can cut open a coconut so easily. It just takes one whack with the machete and voula! it is done.

Here is Yunior cutting open the coconut. He makes it look so easy!

Here I am with the coconut Yunior gave me the following day. First a hole is poked on the top so the coconut milk can be drinked (it's really more like water actually). This is Franchesca drinking some of the milk. Afterwards, the coconut is cut in two and the actual coconut flesh is scooped out. The kids really liked that part too.

I decided to give cutting the coconut a try. I mean, these are just kids cutting them open, surely I could do it, right? Well, it wasn't so easy. I probably took me 20-30 swings of the machete to finally get it to split in two. You can see how butchered the coconut looks in the picture! So, yes, it was harder than I thought, but still a lot of fun.

layne and caitlin

Monte Llano girls Rachel, Candace, and Jessi

Weston

Layne

me and Caitlin

group shot taken by Robin

Layne and Caitlin were dear friends of ours that lived in Monte Llano and worked in a village past Pancho Mateo called Caraballo with an organization called Kids Alive. (Candace and Jessi also work for Kids Alive). Layne and Caitlin were given an opportunity to continue working with the organization, but in a different, more established area in Jarabacoa (a mountainous city in central Dominican Republic). We had a going away party for them at Rachel's house and talked about how much we like them! It was really sad that they left, but I knew that I would get a visit in to Jarabacoa before leaving the island.