All Good Things

Pretty much could start and end the post with that statement alone. :) But do not worry this update will most likely end up being a little long and way too wordy. Per usual. Yay. Vamanos!

So since I last wrote here: I’ve been keeping busy at school with the usual things: Montessori trainings, working with the teachers on handmade materials, and working with the kids. Day to day I’m usually hopping around to the different classrooms helping the teachers with things for their students - aiding them with making the didactic materials from the June Training, planning with them re. future projects they’re preparing for their classes...and then some days doing more cutting, gluing, drawing, coloring and decorating than I ever thought I’d be doing whilst volunteering in important-sounding “development work” in Peace Corps. 

Lately I keep wondering if I’m doing all this the right way - if I’m using my time right, doing things that are beneficial for my community and worth my energy. It’s kind of weird to be at this point in my service (less than 8 months left! what the heck, that’s hardly anything!) and questioning what I’m doing. I write a lot on here about how much I like my project and community, and I definitely do, very much so. Those I work with are super organized, driven and in general I love what we’re all working towards and believe our project to be worthwhile. But now that I’m nearing the home stretch of DR living, I find myself thinking of time, and how it has gone quickly and how I need to aprovechar/take advantage of what little of it is left. But when I am sitting alongside the kids in their classes and drawing pictures of doves, and flowers, and nature scenes on posters (for teachers to present during a lesson about peace), I think, “Is this development work? I graduated with an honors degree - granted, two years ago, and definitely not in anything international development-related at all, but still, come on - I must know a couple things! Yet I’m sitting at a child-sized table in a tiny kid chair drawing and coloring pictures with little kids. Shouldn’t I be doing something more important?”

Well let’s be honest - at least in this instance - maybe. But, maybe coloring pictures with students is okay too, sometimes. We [the school an I] are all working toward the same goal, not every step is big, fancy, or terribly exciting, but that is not to say that the small steps don’t matter. It is just one example, but the point is that “development” is more than doing just one important thing, assuming the natural leadership/delegating role because of my USA education, improving something/someone, and calling it a successful day. It would be nice if it went that way, but I don’t think it can - at least not in education, and definitely not in my experience here. I think about this all the time - it would be super easy to avoid these small, “lesser-than” drawing picture-type of activities because they don't seem sustainable - I could just say, “No, I’m not going to do X thing for you, because I think you can do that yourself,” to the teachers. And probably a year ago I would have. Maybe even now I should - I really don’t know if there’s a “right” or “best” way to do this. I do know that I’m too personally invested now to draw that line - I live here, I know everyone, and I know the general frustrations regarding education in my community, because I share the exact same frustrations, too. 


Most of our teachers work the afternoon session at different schools, are overworked/under-supported by the government/too busy and the school day - 3-4 hours - isn’t enough class time for kids, let alone for teachers to plan and get everything accomplished. Not to mention students go home at the end of this to parents who just are not interested, nor invested, and do not reinforce the kids' lessons at home (read: sometimes parents do their own children's homework so it won't look messy). Parents and families see education as just the teacher's job, and something that happens in those few hours a day their kids are literally in a school setting (this is a generalization of course, but its definitely the majority's attitude in my experience). 


So while the teachers and I all want the same outcomes and are discouraged by the same struggles, how am I going to refuse when teachers ask me, "Emma, can you draw me a picture of a bird?" Our goals are the same, our frustrations are the same, so if this small thing gets someone one step closer for today to what we all want, I guess I'll just do it. Working towards our goals, more specifically - students who can lead productive, independent lives, and also read and write their own names - is more intrinsic than one easy fix. It takes more than one teacher training, and a new handmade set of cards with the alphabet printed on them. Maybe I don’t even know enough to know what the solution is, since we’re not there yet. But from what I do know - student progress isn’t marked in a nice neat order that you can check off in your notebook and label a success. It takes a lot of caring people, time, and getting creative with what you have in order to make it work. And then the answer of “what works” is not the same for every student - especially here. At least in this project, progress is literally all over the place. We developed this idea, and trained the teachers who are now carrying out the activities with their students. This is a team effort to be certain, and every day does not bring the big, fancy, exciting work - but still there is work to do, and little steps are nevertheless still steps toward the goal.

And so, yes. Turns out sometimes that means people need me to do a lot of small things like draw pictures of doves for World Peace Day. Not always difficult, exciting "development" work but I can do that ...and make it a little fancy, too. :) Ya sabes. Pictures from our Peace festivities:

Practical Life class

"What does Peace mean to you?"

acrostic poem about peace

the aforementioned birds

Aside from Peace Day and drawing pictures, teachers are implementing the handmade materials in their classrooms, as well as using the Montessori materials that were presented at the two summer trainings. It is really fabulous to go around and see the results of the teacher trainings in action with the students. I am so proud of everyone and love to see them working! Just had to share a few photos from the last few weeks:

Hex Bolt Board

Balance Base

Textured Dominoes

practicing climbing and descending the stairs

Escritura con Moneda / Writing with Coins (aka: pre-writing activity to learn the left to write motion of writing and reading). 

Flags of North and South America

Oh and we also had a back to school dance party with clowns. It was so cute, and everyone had so much fun! High school students from a neighboring school dressed as clowns and came in to sing and dance with our students. Here are a few pics of the back to school party, and also cute pictures of the kids at work and play during this first month of classes:

Welcome back party!

schoolwide dance parties with clowns are always a good way to start the academic year!

jumping rope at recess

how cute are they!

planting plantain trees

all smiles!

* * *

In non-school news, recently I visited the city of Puerta Plata for the first time. I went to help out at an event with other volunteers for a Dominican swimmer Marcos Diaz who did a distance swim form Sosua to Puerta Plata to raise awareness about the environment. It was really fun to be a part of this event on the beach, and there were SO many people there (you’ll see in the picture). I arrived a little early and did a little exploring.

art gallery at the culture museum in Puerta Plata

the park in Puerta Plata

Ambar and Larimar stones at a factory/store. Larimar (the blue stone) is only found in the Dominican Republic. 

jewlery shop at the larimar/ambar factory

Marcos Diaz distance swim event

he's out there..somewhere, swimming into shore!

crazy beachfront mob scene post-Marcus' arrival! 

volunteers and I after the event

* * *

In keeping with the title's theme, I thought I’d share a few more little stories and pics of recent good things. The first of these stories being...I have internet in my house! - well, temporarily! Yay all the same. Last week all of my three internet centers that I frequent crashed and of course I had a bunch of things to do online. After hoping for the best, and things still remaining crashed and broken, I went to a friend's house where I was able to get some things done on the family's internet. They are so sweet, and help me out all the time with Minnie, and gave me this cafe con leche and mini corn arepas while I visited with them that afternoon. 

Even though they are a family I spend time with often, and we have confianza, I still felt bad, so I decided to get a internet card, to you know, be responsible and avoid future situations of being stuck like that. I didn't buy a plan or anything, (way too ambitious of a commitment to technology for me), but it's a pay as you go type of card. So the part I didn't plan on was that buying the card included 30 days of internet in the price...so, surprise! I'll have regular internet for a month! It's a little much to be so connected whenever I want (for instance: currently writing this on my 5 hour bus ride to the capital). I've gotten pretty used to being in the dark about news/current events over the last year and a half, and really don't remember what I used to do with so much online access on a daily basis anymore. Some perspective: Day 1 of being connected to the rest of the world included Skype and listening to Adele songs on youtube. In all honesty, I probably won't get much further than that, but here's to hoping maybe this blog can look forward to getting updated more? Ayyy, vamos a ver - (no promises on that last bit). Here are some more recent pictures of good things/people/Minnie(!)/ and places I wanted to share here:

pictures while running. there has been a lot of rain, and the canals are always brown post-storm.

canal/road panorama

sunset post-storm

walking home across the canal bridge

Minnie!...(& a mop and broom). note: the combo one ear flapped, head tilt pose - so much little street dog charm :) 

Little Min is ready to go.

Love this picture. a couple weeks ago I taught my host dad how to make Ramen! having never made or eaten it before either, the instructions on the side of the cup turned out to be pretty helpful...yup, showing my true culinary colors - this blog is getting real! one of these days maybe i will share my "cooking" projects here in what will surely be the most embarrassing post yet. 

caught snipits of 3 of the Sox games from last week in one of the colmados

watching one of the games in the colmado...big Boston fans here!

i had a fuerte cold for about two weeks, and everyday everyone asked me about it and if i'd had the shot, or taken medicine and exactly which herbal teas I was preparing for myself to combat the dreaded gripe. it is nice of people to be so concerned, and sort of funny to see their faces when i say, "um, just drinking orange juice?" today though the school director gave me this. and yes, it is exactly what it the picture depicts it as - honey, fish oil and onion syrup. and i must say, while that seems like an awful choice, it is in fact delicious - after just one teaspoon of this syrup = sickness completely cured. thank you, Dominican Republic. Flu season is coming up, so friends and fam consider this product highly recommended from me to you.

* * *

Finally - best for last! Two especially good things. I mentioned two new projects at the end of last post, so here’s a little more detail: 

Kids to Kids - Back in July I found out my community and I won a Kids to Kids grant for an art club! Woohoo. We just received funding and I’m looking forward to starting up. Originally I wanted to do a big collaborative, integrated group with kids from my school and kids from the escuela basica across the street. But because of school schedules, and the fact that students at my school live all over Mao, and outside of town that plan isn’t going to pan out. So instead its going to be two groups, an after school art group at the escuela basica, and art classes during school hours at my school.

The International Alliance for Child Literacy - Make sure to click that link and read more because this organization is just wonderful. They started at the beginning of this year, and have completed many literacy projects in Caribbean countries. Andrea, the president of IACL, contacted me (via this blog!) and asked if I’d be interested in collaborating. Yay! And this will be the first project her group does with the DR, so its pretty awesome and such a blessing that people committed to improving literacy in the Caribbean want to reach out to students and teachers at my school and help us toward those goals.

kids at the elementary school on their welcome back day

Life’s good, and I am feeling lucky. More to come soon.

Lots of love and a happy World PEACE Day to you all. ☮

XO