Campamento 3.0: Day 2

Gary, I hope you're reading this. The theme for today was "community". As I do often in my math classes, I decided to divide the class into groups of 3 to talk about their community, it's leaders, the responsibilities of the members of the community, how to improve the community etc. So I had the students count off by sixes and I then pointed out where each group would meet and told the students to move to those areas...no one moved. Silence. And then the students just started talking to their neighbors about the community. So I asked a student what was his number and he had no idea. I asked another student and she had no idea.  

It was then that it dawned on me that they had never worked in groups like I wanted them to. Or at least they hadn't been divided into groups like that. You know I've been doing this long enough you would think that I could've anticipated this development -- especially after claiming yesterday that I have been dominicanized -- but I guess not. These little differences in the educational experiences of gringos and Dominicanos keep on popping up when I least expect them to. The teachers just don't put kids in groups here to learn. It's as simple as that. On the other hand maybe I just don't speak Spanish all that well.

In any event, I'm not easily deterred from my plans so we counted off again and I worked harder to explain what I wanted the kids to do and it all worked out. We even did some pair shares and some wait time work; pretty advanced stuff but manageable once I learned that I needed to be precise and explicit in explaining what I wanted to happen. Again, after teaching for 22 years you would think that I would already know this.

Here's what one group wrote about community:

Students working on their journals:

Doña Yolanda talking with the campers about community organizing:

Campamento 3.0: Day One

Day one is in the books and was a great success. We arrived more or less at 9:00 (well some of us did.   Our teen helpers were hanging out upstairs unbeknownst to us as we thought that they had already headed over to the school.) and there they were ... A lhorde of campers waiting for us -- which was a relief because we're never quite sure if they will show up. The problem was that there was only one room ready for us so we had to squeeze into that one room while the others were being.cleaned. Here they all are:

No worries. Yini -- one of the teen leaders, and a future teacher if I ever saw one -- took over, taking roll and organizing the distribution of the camp t-shirts with Carmen . By then the rooms were ready so we divided up the kids and got to work:

For me the hi light of the day was recreo(recreation). One group of younger boys got together and played baseball using their palm as a bat and a pair of rolled up socks as the ball. But I truly realized we had done something good when I saw that Camila, Eric, and Jacob had joined the giant game of banderita that was being organized:

I feel like in the past I have shared my gringo observations of a Dominican camp but today my observations are more directed at myself. Basically, after 17 years married to una Dominicana I think I have at long last become Domicanized. In the past I would've become a tad flustered when our plans didn't go off as expected. But today, it was like water off a duck's back (I was going to use the expression "cool as a cucumber so I could contrast that with the oppressive heat but decided that that expression didn't fit as well) I just laid back and waited for things to work out as they always tend to do ... eventually. We'll see if my cool, calm, collected new self (don't laugh tanya) lasts the two weeks. I'll keep you posted.

Hemos llegado!

I'm always amazed by plane travel. As I was skyping with tanya last night from my air conditioned house in Brookline the DR seemed so far away. And now we are here with an occasional breeze to cool us down and Brookline is a distant memory. Or something like that. Today's travels went very smoothly by the way. The only incident occurred at security in Boston. I went through first without incident, grabbed my bag and then looked around to make sure the kids were all set. But I noticed a TSA agent going through their bags. I wasn't sure exactly what was going on until one after another giant bottles of sunblock, bug spray, shampoo, and toothpaste was pulled out and then sacrificed to the travel gods.  Oops!  After that smooth sailing. I put the kids in charge of getting us to our various departure gates and filling out their own immigration forms and they did great (once we figured out the difference between port of embarkation and port of disembarkation of course)

And here we are... Tanya and I just planned out the details for tomorrow's opening day of camp. What I mean to say is that we reviewed the plan that we wrote out months ago. (Ahem). Here's the plan:

  This is pretty much how I plan out all my lessons

T minus Two...

T minus two days until Campamento 3.0.  Got my alarms (yes, I have two alarms set; one on my clock and one on my phone. You got a problem with that?) set for 4:00 am. Flight leaves at 7:00.  OK. I admit it I have compulsive tendencies but the one time I was laid back about getting to the airport early --- for my trip to Park City this winter --- we got stuck in traffic on Storrow Drive and I nearly missed my plane. I know what you were thinking ... that I was going to say that I actually missed my plane right? Nope. The travel gods were with me and there was no one in line at security.  Still, it was very tense.

In any event, let's go back to talking about the camp shall we?  Looks like we've got 75 campers (oh my gosh, what are we going to do with them all?) and eleven Dominican teen leaders to go with the 10 gringo teen leaders that I mentioned in the last post. Not that I've had anything to do with the planning this week but a little birdie (that would be my wife) told me that the camp schedule, meal plan and cultural enrichment activities are all set.  So, we're ready for lift off.  I don't think this much planning went into the first moon landing.  See you in the DR!!!

Getting ready

T minus 12 days until campamento las margaritas3.0. Tanya bought all these snacks for the camp and is under the impression that they are going to fit in that red suitcase. But I have travelled to many places with my lovely bride and her packing prowess never ceases to amaze me so I have no doubt that she will be successful in this particular challenge.

In any event... In about a week and a half we will be running a camp for 60 Dominican kids led by tanya, myself, luli, 10 American teen volunteers and 10 Dominican teen volunteers. Sshouldn't be a problem. 

2 weeks To Go

That's right. Camp starts two weeks from Monday. Making the final details now. Coordinating travel plans etc. this is my first post from my phone (wahoo) as tanya and I are working on streamlining the way we create posts from the camp.

This is really just a test to see if this will work better. So here goes: testing one, two, three. Let's see if I can post a photo:

This is the coffee shop in Stowe in which we are hanging out. Free advertising for them I guess

Getting ready to go

Hello there CLM followers,
Been awhile since my last post but now that the school year is over (Wahoo!!!) our minds are turning towards summer and the D.R. and the camp (only 38 days, 20 hours, 28 minutes away). The big news is that all of the camp materials have been sent (see photo).

Yes siree. We sent down 15 boxes full of books, art supplies, writing supplies, sporting goods, more books, more writing supplies... you get the picture right?  So, how did we get all of these goods shipped you ask?  Well, Tanya contacted a company that Yasi has used to ship goods to the D.R. in the past and the owner guaranteed that he would give her a good deal since we were sending soooooooo many boxes. Now, here's where the exciting part comes in. Usually, when we're negotiating any sort of contract or agreement having to do with the D.R. Tanya makes sure I'm out of the way because the "gringo" price is always far greater than the "dominicano" price. For those of you who don't know me I am distinctly gringo (at least on the outside). As an example, whenever we're in the D.R. and need to take a taxi anywhere Tanya makes me hide behind a bush or something so that the taxista doesn't realize that one of his customers is a gringo. Then Tanya negotiates the fare, usually getting an excellent price (my wife is a master negotiator - in the D.R. she's known as La Rubia Regateadora (The Blonde Negotiator). Then, poof! out I pop and the taxista realizes he has been fooled into letting a gringo travel at the dominican fare. Ha!

But, back to our story. This time around Tanya wanted me around for my extraordinary math skills. Even though Tanya still did most of the negotiating I was able to use my math skills to help out on occasion. For example, at one point we had negotiated $40 for a big box and the owner wanted us to pay $30 for a much smaller box. I said, and I quote, "Well, the smaller box is half the size of the bigger box so the price should be half, $20."  And he went for it. (That's math practice standard #2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively for you Common Core fans). In any event, Tanya took over from there and we did end up getting a good deal ...  assuming all of the boxes arrive of course. 

Lot's more news about exit visas, travel plans, water kits, and the reading club. But, that will have to wait for another time.

                                                                                           

No turning back now.

So, I remember when Tanya and I started this camp 5 years ago. I told her, "We need to think big honey." I wanted to provide a camp experience that would change the lives of our Dominican campers forever. I wanted to take them on field trips all around the country showing them its beauty, teaching them how to take care of it. I wanted to show them how to be creative and inspire them to think about the future; about what they could do for themselves, for the community, for the country. Tanya said, "Slow down Josh. Let's just get these kids together for a couple of weeks and get the program going. Then we can expand on it later."  (I hope that those of you who know Tanya and I appreciate the role reversal in this situation as I, channeling my New England protestant ethic roots, am usually the one urging caution while Tanya, with her Caribbean roots, is most often pushing us to abandon all caution.)

So, we did proceed cautiously for the first two iterations of the camp and, even though we were planning on increasing the footprint of the camp this year all of a sudden it has blossomed into a full blown service learning experience for a whole bunch of teenagers. At first, some of the Paris cousins were going to come for a week, then when our neighbors heard about what we were doing they wanted to send their two kids for two weeks. And so, the Paris cousins decided also to come for two weeks. And then a Runkle family heard about all this excitement and will, most likely, send their kids down with us.  So, looks like we've got about 10 teenagers coming down with us to help out at the camp. Not really sure how this all happened but it is, after all, what I wanted when Tanya first told me of this crazy idea 5 years ago.

Of course, we can't just have all these teenagers hanging around in the afternoon so Tanya has been busy organizing other experiences for them after the camp ends at noon. We've got them going to another school to do some volunteer work and then we'll take them on a variety of cultural and/or "fun" excursions:  To La Zona Colonial in Santo Domingo, to a coffee plantation maybe, away for a weekend trip to the mountains. I hope the kids have an amazing time.

And, by golly, that's not all. Tanya figured that this shouldn't really be all about these gringo teenagers swooping into San Cristobal so we're going to hire on a group of former campers to work as teen leaders as well. She's pretty smart that wife of mine.

So, last week we had a big orientation meeting for many of the teen leaders. We explained what the camp is all about, gave a quick orientation of the DR and then had a tasty Dominican meal that the students helped to cook.  And today in the mail we got our first teen leader application.  I guess this is the real deal.

Launching Club de Lectura Las Margaritas (Las Margaritas Reading Club)

          My apologies to Josh’s faithful readers for sneaking in this post. Well, as many of you know, the foundation has been busy organizing a reading club in Madre Vieja, the town where our summer camp takes place. This February vacation I flew down to the D.R. on my own.  The morning after my arrival, my Mom presented me with a 5 day detailed agenda of what needed to be done in order to launch the Reading Club.  We soon got to work.  I contacted Maria Victoria, the teacher (Dominican poet), who will lead the group.  The goal is for her to model and gradually release the responsibility to the students themselves so that they will eventually run their own reading club with the supervision of Carmen and my Mom. 

            Our next step was to visit schools to talk to 6-8^th grade students. We visited two schools and a church youth program.  We handed out over 100 applications expecting a 30 to 40% return.  The idea of a reading club is quite a novelty in the DR, and more so in this rural/ low income community of Madre Vieja. The optimistic part of me expected the students to be super excited about this project and eager to be part of it.  What I found was something a bit different.  At the first school (the church group), there were a group of about 30 students cramped together in a small room.  I should add here that this is the church my family belonged to and helped build from the ground up. A story for another day! The students here listened absent-mindly and only a few students took the application form home.  The teacher chimed in, commenting at the lack of interest, and told the students how lucky they were and how she wished there was something like this when she was their age and just what a great opportunity this was. After her hopeful encouragements, a few other students took applications with them. I walked outside with tears in my eyes feeling discouraged.  My Mom (the driving force of this organization!) hooked her arm in mine and said, “no te preocupes que hay mas” (don’t worry, there are more).  In the afternoon, we went back to the church program to talk to that group of students. In the DR, students go to school for half the day; there is a morning session and an afternoon session.  We got the same response as in the morning.  My mom and I walked out of there.  Once outside we looked at each other and said… you guess it!  When I faced timed with Josh that night he commented how, these students are teenagers and that’s how teenagers respond in any language. 

          That afternoon we went over to visit La Escuela Doña Chucha, a former orphanage who’s principal is a good childhood friend of mine. There is a beautiful and powerful story behind the creation of this school and my Mom played a big role in it, but again, another story for another day! We walked through the gates of the school and the students were having recess. I was overtaken with joy at what I witnessed.  Please click here for a taste of what I experienced! The principal Belquis Porte, gave me a tour of the school.  I met with many students and teachers. I talked to several students and teachers about the reading club and encouraged some of the students to attend the meeting scheduled for that coming Saturday.  My concern here was the location.  The meetings are to take place at my parent’s house, which is a bit of a distance away from this school, but I thought that maybe the 8^th graders could manage it.

          The next day, we visited Escuela Madre Vieja Sur.  This is the school we Montás kids attended as children and also the school where the Campamento Las Margaritas takes place.  My mom had mentioned that there was a new principal and she made arrangements so that we could meet with her.  The principal was very welcoming.  She was already aware of our summer program and offered us her full support.  She was also excited about the idea of the reading club.  She mentioned how this was something that the students needed, but that the school could not offer due to the lack of resources.  She directed us to the 8^th grade classrooms where we proceeded to explain the logistics of the reading club.  Soon after I started to speak, a student raised his hand and asked me if I was one of the teachers from El Campamento.  It took me a few seconds to recognize him.  It was EL Mello, one of our students from the 2010 camp!  After my little spiel, several students raised their hands to ask questions about the reading club. We handed out the 30 applications we had brought with us!

          Saturday quickly arrived. The opening event of the reading club was to take place at 5:00 P.M. We decorated the patio and prepared the sweet and savory snacks I brought down from the states.  Cailyn and Frandy worked on organizing and labeling the books. At around 3:00 P.M. a crazy heavy rain began to fall. I grew weary because Maria Victoria had called me the night before to tell me that she has been fighting a terrible head cold, but that she was still planning to be there.  Now, with all this rain, I feared that neither Maria Victoria nor the students were going to show. Well, at 4:45 Maria Victoria walks in soaking wet. And soon after that the students began to arrive. Some wearing their best Sunday clothes, other wearing mixed-match sandals, but all with an inquisitive smile and a sparkle of curiosity in their eyes.  The Margaritas Reading Club has begun…

Happy Thanksgiving...

An appropriate title for the happenings at El Campamento I think. Tanya's family is in town for the holiday and Samuel and I chatted last night about all the progress that's been made in the last few months. We recovered nicely from having to cancel the summer camp, replacing it with the school supply drive and, continuing with the recent focus on literacy, have begun work on organizing a book club in Madre Vieja.  Tanya was able to find a bunch of copies of Tuck Everlasting in Spanish (Tuck, Para Siempre) and we've recruited Montás cousin Anin (a.k.a. renowned poet Maria Victoria Carreño) to hold a number of sessions to discuss the text with a group of local students.

And in the biggest news of all thanks to the perseverance of Nelly and Samuel we were able to get our 501-C3 non-profit status, meaning that all donations to our foundation are tax deductable.
What started out five years ago as Campamento Las Margaritas, a small summer camp for fifteen or so students,  has transformed to Fundación Las Margarits, a burgeoning non-profit organization.

Hard to believe really. When we ran El Campamento for the first time I really wanted to affect great change. I had all these big ideas like making the entire Domincan Republic a hotbed for environmental activism, like changing the lives of all of the students of Madre Vieja forever.  Tanya, ever the pragmatist (what?!?), urged caution and said that we needed to start small.  And then we did and, I wasn't ever convinced that we were making any difference in anything. Tanya said that we were, that just by seeing these Gringos (and I use that term with great self-respect) show interest in them, the students would be transformed, would begin to believe that they could do big things, that they could affect great change.  But, I wasn't convinced.  And I'm still not convinced that two weeks of work every couple of years makes such a difference.

But now, all that has changed. Yes, we'll still run the summer camp, but with increased funding we can begin to work with the students throughout the year as well. And to work with more of them. We can begin to provide some of the things that the children need, that the entire community lacks - a vague statement because we haven't yet figure out how to do that. But, as Samuel said last night, that's a good problem to have.