Camp2016: Day 3

You know I give the DR a hard time sometimes describing how things don't always work the way they are supposed to. And sometimes I forget to say that, regardless, things tend to work out in the end and the Dominicans know this which is why they have such a relaxed attitude about things and really I wish I could adopt that attitude more often. In that vein I could talk about an example that happened today at the camp in which a local bakery donated muffins for la merienda (snack time) but they didn't send  enough so not all kids got one but I seemed to mind the inequity of it all much more than they did.  But, I think it much more relevant to talk about our trip to the movies.  

So, we took all the teen leaders - Dominican and Gringo - to the movies today. We hired a bus to take all 33 of us to el capital to this gigantic, super modern mall - four floors of all the typical stores that you would find in a mall in the States including Crocs (that was for you if you're reading this Gregg).  We let all the kids roam the mall for a couple of hours and then took them to see Encontrando Dory - in Spanish of course. While the kids were roaming Tanya, Lilly, and I went to the theatre to get the tickets for the movie. Even though the ticket booth wouldn't open for an hour they let us in to buy the tickets early. They also allowed us to pre-order movie snacks for all the kids and then a couple hours later, as the group entered the theatre they escorted all of us to our seats which they had reserved for us - even though the kids then moved around and found their own preferable seating - and brought us all our snacks. This was striking to me as it was so unexpected. I was really impressed with how well they took care of us and really helped to make the experience so memorable for all the kids. Just wanted to give the DR some props this time around.

By the way, you might be wondering why we took the kids to the movies in the first place. And that would be a good question. Well, for one, the Dominicans in San Cristobal hardly ever get to go the movies. I mean it's an hour drive to the nearest movie theatre - probably even longer on public transportation. And it's just not something that they can spend money on. So, it was a real treat for them. (You could tell, because they all got dressed up real nice - as did our kids because we told them that this was a special treat for their compadres. But, we also wanted to show this side of the DR to our Gringo teen leaders. I mean they see the poverty of the DR, with all the challenges of daily living here, all day long. And, of course, that's part of what makes this such a powerful experience for them - we hope. But we wanted them to see that there are also places in the DR that are just as fancy and first world (to use a term I don't like at all but can't find a better one right now) as anywhere. There are many faces to the DR and we want the teenagers to see as many of them as we can provide. 

 Don't have any pictures of the mall since I didn't have the iPad but maybe some of the Dominicans will upload some of the many selfies they were taking to our Facebook page.