hello jarabacoa

I landed in the DR a month ago and just now have the time to process how much has happened. I began work less than a day after I arrived and have been running ever since! Even though I’ve been here twice before, this time I’m learning how to function long term in a new country. I’m learning how to accept the neighbors leaving their cows in front of our gate. I’m learning to share my bathroom with a small orange salamander that appears at night. I’m discovering that I need to watch where I step getting out of the shower, in order to avoid that dreadful squish of a small frog under my feet. I’m learning that no matter how much I clean, sometimes I will still wake up to hundreds of tiny termites covering my floor. Culture shock is present in other ways as well. With so many new details and procedures entering my brain, I’m finding that it is difficult to remember everything. I spend twice as long at the grocery store looking for the things on my list and almost always get home without something! This past month has been a steep learning curve, but I’m becoming more settled every day!

Some houses at the Ark, the children's home here.

Learning to bleach vegetables!

In school, I was welcomed by many familiar faces. Although it has been almost two years, I was greeted by many hugs and high fives. School here is nothing like I have ever experienced. It is loud and full of chaos, lacking the structure that you would expect. After only two days of classes, I went on a few house visits to see where my students lived. I will continue to do this every week in order to meet families and gain perspective on the lives of my students outside of the classroom. I have seen families with eleven children in a one room house. I met parents who can’t read and families who have no means to provide for themselves. No wonder our seventh graders are struggling with fractions. Their worries are so much larger than school. No wonder only a few students did their homework. It’s hard to do homework without electricity, a pencil or a place to work. I’m learning to build lessons from where the students are at and celebrate the small successes every day in the classroom!

Seventh Grade Math...

Along with another teacher, Hilary, I am in the process of reworking the English curriculum in order to help the students be more successful. They have had a lot of transition in English this year with teachers coming and going. We’re trying to make the curriculum more applicable to the students. For the rest of this school year, I’ll spend most of the week in English, but I’ve also been placed in the music classroom and the middle school math classroom. Although I feel utterly unqualified, the hope is that I can help those teachers on their curriculum and teaching practice. In my spare time, I am tutoring, doing home visits with the school, and helping with sponsorship at the ark, Kids Alive’s children’s home here in Jarabacoa. There’s never a dull moment!

Thanks for your love and prayers as I make this transition! I look forward to sharing some more stories and details soon!