We just got an email from Carmen (Tanya's sister) earlier this week telling us that she had all the students lined up: Fifteen 7 and 8 year olds. Um... the idea was to work with 7th and 8th graders - not 7 and 8 year olds. The problem is that 7 and 8 year olds in the dominican republic are emerging readers and a lot of the program centers on literacy and requires the students to be developed readers. Two years ago, we worked mostly with 9 to 12 year olds and it worked great. There were a couple of younger siblings that tagged along, however. They weren't solid readers yet and thus couldn't actively participate in a lot of the events. So, this time around we wanted to make sure that the students were of the appropriate age. Best laid plans I guess (I feel like I use that quote a lot -- it describes very well how things work in the d.r., which has always been a struggle for me since I love to make plans).
In any event, last I heard Carmen is working on finding some older kids for us to work with. Stay tuned.