DREAM Camp

We survived! The first week of camp was quite the experience. I don't think either one of us knew what to expect. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work! We ended the week with a bang, parading 300 kids and 100 volunteers through the streets and beachfront of Cabarete. Each day presented a new challenge and new friends. We are grateful to be able to have this little adventure.

After camp was over on Friday, we packed our bags and hit the road to catch a bus down to the capital, Santo Domingo. We were so excited to stay in the air-conditioned hostel on temple square and attend the temple. It was very beautiful. We were surprised by how much they were struggling to have temple workers. We were grateful to be able to attend a session in the afternoon.

Things keep moving along and we are learning so much. We are so thankful to be able to do something so out of the ordinary within our first year of marriage. David's favorite part of the trip so far has been having the experience of interacting with kids and learning to be a leader among children. He says it is something he used to be afraid of and he feels that he is overcoming that fear. He is glad to be able to expose these kids to music they have never heard before.

Denae's favorite part so far has been watching her sweet husband run around making friends and killing bugs and carrying his guitar everywhere he goes. She has really enjoyed the challenge of being pushed to do uncomfortable things and feeling personal growth. Her favorite person to meet so far was six-year-old Luigi who had all the answers to life. She hasn't laughed as much as when she was with this little guy.

My Hero

Summer Camp starts tomorrow! We are excited to see all of the work that we have been doing put to action! The kids come tomorrow and we start actually teaching and training. David has done such a good job preparing his class! It's too bad that being a school teacher in the US wouldn't really cut it financially for the size of family we want to have. He is impressing me everyday with the way he maps out his curriculum and finds creative ways to tie in the weekly themes. I knew I married a creative genius, but I didn't know to what extent. He wrote a cute camp song this week to teach the kids, too. I am excited to see how it goes.

I taught another workshop this week and attended a lot of others. I am really excited to put everything into practice, here and in my 5th grade classroom in the fall. I am especially animated about some new games and drama activities that I have learned about!

David continues to be my hero, killing bugs, providing frequent doses of pineapple and saving me from myself. I am learning to cope with my perfectionism here. I let other teachers hang up the poster I painted for our reading class. Who knew what a strong opinion I had about the right way to tape things to the wall! I sure have a long way to go. David on the other hand has never been so handsome or so much fun! I love the adventures we are having together. :)

Time Flies

I can't believe we are almost to the end of week three here! We have had our moments of desperation fighting cockroaches and enduring sunburns, but for the most part, we have been working hard, enjoying each others company and becoming better for the experience. We have a new found appreciation for our chilly Rexburg home. We think the mosquitos are finally getting bored of our Dominicanized bloodstreams. We have learned many new hobbies with a sudden lack of movies. We now know new two player card games, we are making mission books and a wedding book, and we have learned to walk a lot! We have made many new friends and we love speaking Spanish again! They people here are very friendly and willing to help us out. Last night a big group of us went to a fancy Thai restaurant which was DELICIOUS! We loved the coconut mango rice best of all. Ani's brother arrived yesterday for camp and he and David have been rocking out on their guitars all morning with about two dozen kids surrounding them and singing We are the World. I am very impressed with how much David has been working to improve his guitar skills this month. He's doing a great job. The camp counselors are starting to trickle in and they should all be here by Sunday night when we have our first official camp dinner together. We are excited to meet all of the volunteers when they get here!

Week Two

Our Jungle

More pictures to come! They are taking forever to upload! :)










Today we went to visit one of the employees of DREAM, Felicia at her house. DREAM employs her to clean and she is so kind. We walked up to her house (hut) which was only about 10 minutes up the mountain from the DREAM center and we felt like we had gone to another country. It was so beautiful! There were roosters and all kinds of animals (including naked children) running around, every kind of tropical plant you can imagine, ruins of old stone buildings and whatever else you might picture in the jungle. It was so strange to walk up a road just a few minutes and leave the hustle and bustle of motorcycle taxis zooming by and street vendors selling and enter a tranquil and peaceful piece of nature. We walked around her family's land and looked at their platano (bananas that are more like potatoes that they fry and eat with salt and ketchup) trees, pineapples, avocado trees, orange trees, and some fruit called buenpan. I don't know what it was. They looked like small green pumpkins growing on a REALLY tall tree. Who knows! We bought some mangos out of the back of some guy's truck. We have also tried guava and passion fruit (Chinola). I really like the Chinola juice! David found an empanada stand, which we were excited about. His little piece of Argentine heaven for breakfast. We also found a restaurant like Cafe Rio! An American family from California moved here and opened a FreshMex place and we love it! We have also tried Gelato. We don't see the difference between gelato and ice cream. Maybe the Italians can convince us otherwise, but not the Dominicans.

We had our first DR doctor experience today. David has had an earache for a few days and we was dying a little bit this morning so we took him in. He prescribed three medications which they gave us and we walked out the door without paying anything. They told us that if they needed any money they would call us later. And out of all the people we've met here of every color and ethnicity...our doctor was Indian (actually from India) of all places. :) Random.

In other news...we think we may have killed the nest of cucarachas that have been living behind the cabinet under our sink. We sprayed it two days ago, sprayed it again yesterday and the owners son came today and drew some magical voodoo lines with chalk that he said kills them immediately. We'll see how that goes.

Overall, we are having so much fun! We are starting to greatly appreciate all of the below 30 days off of school that I had and the mornings of scraping the snow off our car. I think I prefer it. None of my shoes or rings fit me here because I swell up in the heat. I can wear flip flops or tennis shoes. No regular sandals. Awesome. We are loving the people and the slow pace of life. We really enjoy the food and the novelty of everything. We are excited for whatever lies ahead.

La Playa

I have a feeling we are going to regret this super sunny day in a few hours. Today was our official first leisure day here in the DR and we played at the beach all afternoon! Along the beach are various restaurants and bars that have lounge chairs you can pay to use. The local secret is that the yellow chairs at Jose Oshay's are free. Because of this little secret, everyone we know ends up in the same spot on the beach. It was fun to hang out with everyone, play soccer, read, swim...BUT...despite the constant application of SPF 50, I think we will be sorry for soaking it up. I can feel the heat trying to burst out from under my skin. Oh well. It was a great day and exciting to see all of the kite surfers. It is such a crazy sport! It looks like a blast, but it costs hundreds of dollars to try. Maybe someday.