Day 6

Week 2 of camp got off to a great start as today was indeed a good day. I like the days in which everything seems to be in sync and today was one of those days. Today's theme was: Respect. First, Evan introduced an art activity that he learned in school. The night before, he had used a rectangle of 12 pieces of paper to draw the outline of a giant picture of The Lorax. Then each camper got one of the pieces of paper and filled it in with designs using colored pencils. When they finished their designs (or after 20 minutes, whichever came first) the campers put the "puzzle" together to see the picture. None of them had heard of the Lorax before so they thought the picture was of a walrus living in some sort of strange tree. No one could explain why the walrus would be in the tree though so they were a bit confused. Then I explained that the "walrus" was actually a character in a story that we were going to read. So, after a rousing game of dodgeball at recess, Tanya read the story of The Lorax out loud and we talked about how we need to protect our environment--the central theme of the story. Then we gave each camper a small cardboard pot and had them plant a sunflower seed in it before they left for the day. I told the campers that they were actually planting the seed from one of the trees in The Lorax, but I don't think they believed me (Of course, Tanya winking at the campers while I was telling them this didn't help matters. Otherwise I think they would've believed me don't you think?)
On our walk home from school, Tanya asked me if she thought the campers had "got" the story. I told her I wasn't sure. The grand theme of the camp is to show the campers that they have to take care of their community, of their environment, else it become a place that they don't want to live (as in The Lorax), but this idea is somewhat new here in the d.r. and I'm not sure the campers are at a place where they can hear this theme and understand what it means for them. My hope is that we are planting a seed (metaphor intended) in the minds of the campers that will grow as they do.

On a Paris family note... My kids had a great day. Evan designed the whole Lorax art activity and even explained how to do it to the campers(In English with me translating, but nonetheless...) and Camila, for the first time wrote her reflections on the day in Spanish. In fact, she even went back and translated to Spanish the reflections that she wrote last week. I'm extremely proud of them both.

-josh


For more photos goto: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52880198@N04/

First Week Reflections

Well, the first week is over. Here are some thoughts:

- Tio Tomas, Samuel, Tanya and I went to a national plant nursery last thursday to pick out plants. Tomas works for the government's agricultural department and can get them to donate some plants to us. So, Tanya and Tomas picked out a bunch of varieties of plants and we will ask for a total of 100 to be donated to the program. We don't really know what to do with the plants yet but... One step at a time. Maybe I'm finally beginning to think Dominican style. That's Tio Tomas hanging out in a giant carambola(starfruit) tree.


-One curious incident that happened on Thursday that has to do with trash. The "trash" issue is a huge albatross (is that right?) here in the d.r.. Many people throw their trash on ground, trash pickup is irregular at best and the government doesn't know what to do about it. It's really sad when you see beautiful landscapes marred by huge trash heaps. But, I don't mean to be accusatory because the reasons that things have developed this way are way to complex for me to understand... In any event, when we went back inside from recess today I noticed that one of the campers had left his/her empty bag of water on the ground. So, I went inside and said, "someone left their bag of water outside." Everyone denied doing it, so Tanya told all the kids to go outside and find one piece of trash to pick up. They all did so but after a few minutes I noticed that Eduardo Luis and Jeudy hadn't returned yet. So, I went outside to look for them and found them staring at the ground looking for a piece of trash to pick up. I looked down in the exact spot where they were looking and saw candy wrappers, some pieces of torn paper and a plastic bag. They were staring right at these objects yet didn't see them as trash, I think, but rather just as part of their environs. This incident brought home to me how complex the "trash" issue really is. Maybe they should try a "crying Taino" campaign.

- Behind the school there is a cistern filled with water. This water is used in the school bathroom and is usually locked. But the school lost the key to the lock and so they cistern remains open. The neighborhood kids then have been climbing over the school's walls and bathing in the cistern. This is an extremely dangerous undertaking as the cistern is completely filled to the brim. So, Tanya and I bought a new lock for the cistern so that it could be locked again. The principal of the school would have already done this (I think?) but there's no money to be spent on locks. Also, the pump that is used to pump the water from the cistern is broken, so the bathroom is not working. Not such an easy problem to fix. Here's a picture of the cistern:



- There is a flourescent light in our classroom that is constantly flickering on and off. The electrical box has no light switch, just a bunch of wires, so the light can't be turned off. Meanwhile... the town of Madre Vieja gets electricity about 50% of the time, the rest of the time there are no lights (unless people have their own generator). Why doesn't anyone see a connection? Perhaps, after all, there isn't one. The reason why there isn't constant electricity after all has as much to do with the country's political system as it does with energy sources. The whole thing is too complex for me to understand, much like the garbage situation. And, again, I don't mean to be critical nor judgemental, just explanatory.

That's all for now.
-j