Dominican Republic

My morning greeting! Best way to start off a day.

Kids waiting to sign up for camp.

Delinquent blogger here. Two months ago I started a blog and quickly thereafter abandoned my stab at the ever so popular phenomenon of blogging. Forgive me dear blog readers (all one of you). FYI I don’t even think my mother reads my blog. Whoever you are here is my update.
My summer adventures never consisted of going to the Dominican Republic. I went there last summer to volunteer at a youth camp for the DREAM project (Dominican Republic Education and Mentoring Project http://www.dominicandream.org/) and never thought I’d return. Last minute life change and I was on my way. As I was preparing to go, I still had no idea why I was going but felt that I needed to…and I was right.
I taught math in the adolescent camp (ages 13-18). I taught five classes of 20. The kids come from the local community. They attend camp for four weeks and take classes such as math, reading, writing, English, health, and grassroots soccer. They also get to go on amazing fieldtrips which provide opportunities that they would never be able to have. I loved my students and overcame some difficult hurdles with a few of them. A life changing feeling was seeing the light in their eyes become brighter as they learned and understood something that has been taught time and time again. I really broke down the curriculum and they responded well. One girl wrote on my shirt on the last day, “Por ti puedo multiplicar.” Because of you, I can multiply. Best feeling ever. Math was voted by the students as the best class of the camp!

My classroom...everyone is hard at work. My sweet students Teaching Ronald the Waltz-he loved it and always asked me to dance. Sabrina and he pretend adopted son Yoni! Both are artists.

I absolutely loved living in the Callejon! It’s the main road where the Dominicans live. With dusty roads, motoconchos (motorcycle taxis), street children, garbage, fruit stands, and a myriad of other things, I fell in love with it! I loved walking down every day and saying hi to all of my new friends. I loved heading up to the Loma (the mountain) and hanging out with my favorite family. The dirt in the Loma is red and I usually left with red toes. Fresh fruit was amazing. I regularly bought fresh cut pineapple. I fell in love with the fruit stand baby and would hold him and sing him lullabies. I wanted to bring him home with me! I also enjoyed attending church in a neighboring town and rekindled some dear friendships.

The Callejon The hotel Humingbird where I lived

Fruit stand baby! He was so beautiful! Dinoli - camp girl from the Loma China - My BFF for 2 years in the Loma Loma girls I fell in love with this kid. He'd always talk to me on the street. The most inquisitive 2 year old I've ever met. I wanted to bring him home too! The Salazar family. I met Lizbeth (the little girl) last year at church and became best friends. Her family is absolutely amazing!

The camp is located in Cabarete on the north coast of the DR. It is a tourists’ destination as it boasts opportunities for world class kite boarding/surfing and wind surfing. It was amazing living near the beach. Most mornings I enjoyed water aerobics in the ocean as the sun rose. I highly recommend this as a day starter. For only 75cents I could hop on a local bus, also known as a gua-gua (a minivan crammed with 20-30 people and livestock) and ride down to Sosua. Sosua boasts an amazingly pristine shoreline with crystal clear waters. I frequently went there and became obsessed with collecting sea glass. I now have a huge bag of it…any ideas of what I can do with it? BYU sends a group of student every semester. Great peeps to pal around with.

Santo Domingo Temple is one of my favorites!

I loved roaming the streets in Santo Domingo. Amazing photo opps. The coolest guys on the block...we preformed a pretty amazing step routine for the parents.

After the 27 waterfalls! Amazing! Jumping off the waterfalls was such an adventure. My last day was spent with amazing people on an amazing beach! I heart Sosua!