Camp2016: Day 5

Sorry for the delay in reporting about day 5. It's just that as soon as camp ended on Friday we hustled back to the Montas compound, wolfed down la comida, boarded the bus and headed to the beach for the weekend. Five hours later we arrived at the house we had rented for the weekend. As soon as we arrived we got changed and headed to Playita, a small beach about a 15 minute walk from the house. Here is a picture of Evan and Frandy at the beach:

We had wonderful adventures all weekend as the kids got to see what a local beach community looks like in the DR. I can't really give more details of the town we were in because it is one of the few unspoiled and really undiscovered places in the DR and I don't want that ever to change. Every year we go there are new restaurants and other signs of modernization and I'm doing my best to slow down progress so that when Tanya and I retire here it will still be as pristine as it is today. You may think I'm joking, which would be a logical conclusion given the general tone of my blog entries, but I'm definitely almost being serious. We have it all worked out. Three months in Stowe for ski season and then nine months here. If only our kids didn't want to go to college we could probably make the move right now. Here's a peak of the beach just so that you get a sense of what I'm talking about:

Camp2016: Day 4

Today was a pretty cool day at Campamento Las Margaritas. "Chevere" as they say here. Have I mentioned how long it took me to find a word in Spanish for "cool"? We take that little word for granted. Yet, it truly conveys a very specific meaning that is hard to translate. Then, a few years ago I heard the word chevere used a lot here and I asked Tanya what it meant and when she told me I was overjoyed. You think I exaggerate but you try to have a significant conversation without using 'cool'. It's not so easy.  In any event today was bien chevere.

Samuel's father in law, who is a businessman and politico here in the DR put him in contact with a woman who is un "disputado" - a representative in the Federal government from Santo Domingo. When she was a teenager her family was persecuted by Trujillo and was forced to flee to Mexico. About 10 years ago she returned to the DR to try to help the country.  Samuel spoke to her about the camp and she was very interested in what we're doing so she came to the camp today to see for herself and to speak to the children. So, we got the three older groups together (have I mentioned that we have five classes this year with a total of 80 students?) and she spoke to them for about 45 minutes. For the first part of her talked about the Constitution to the kids and explained how the government works. I found it very interesting. Did you know, for example, that seven of the 190 member of Congress represent Dominicans living outside of the DR (2 for those living in Europe, 2 for those living in other countries in the Latin world and 3 for the Dominicans living in the U.S.?) I'm not sure what expat Dominicans have to do with the governing of the country but, knowing the DR, it sort of makes sense.  In any event, then, towards the end of her talk she asked the students what they thought of when she said the word "disputado". An uncomfortable silence ensued. She pushed forward saying, "You know, when you hear the word 'sun' you think of heat, or life or light. But what comes to mind when you hear the word 'disputado'? It's alright you can be honest." Then one boy, rather shyly raised his hand and quietly said, "Ladrón". Now a ladrón is a thief so the the class burst out with lots of oohs and ahs. But the woman continued unpurturbed asking Felix, "why do you say that?" And he replied, "Because the disputados take the money which is supposed to be used to help the pueblo and instead use it for themselves."  At this point I thought she was going to dispute that (being a disputado and all.  Ja! Ja! ) but she just took it all in stride and said that Felix was right and that there is a lot of corruption in the government. She went on to explain that disputados are allowed three tax exemptions, items they can buy for which they don't have to pay taxes. One of these is supposed to be used to buy a car but many of the disputados sell their exemption to rich Dominican businessmen or baseball players who use it to buy a luxury car from the U.S. And have it shipped here tax free. 

She ended her talk by telling the students that they are the present and the future and it's on them to make changes in the way the government works; that some of them have to grow up and run for office so that they can make the changes from within and end corruption once and for all (those weren't her exact words as I'm paraphrasing here). This idea that our students can become change agents is one of the main themes of the camp and it was fantastic that that message was conveyed by a person of power in the federal government.  As a footnote, this woman lost the election this past Spring and will be ending her term in August.

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.

Camp2016: Day 2

This photo doesn't have so much to do with camp but we thought we should memorialize this moment of Camila and Cailin, las dos primos, washing the lunch time dishes. We can't seem to get our kids to do any chores at home but here the kids aren't in any position to argue about it so Tanya gave them all chores to do - feed the dogs, feed the chickens, sweep the patio , etc. We figure once they see how rewarding it is to help out they'll just volunteer to do so when they're back home right? As they say in the DR: Ja Ja Ja. 

In any event... I need not have worried yesterday because camp was back to its good old self today with a well planned lesson along with some nice surprises. A balance of organization and spontaneity and it felt just right. We got to the camp and the door to one of the rooms was locked. I went to find the assistant to the principal of the school where the camp takes place and he told me that someone locked the door by accident and no one had the key. Just that one little event let me know that it was going to be a good day. The assistant added that he already set up in a different room for us so we were good to go. 

Also, the lesson we planned last night at about 10 pm went really well. The theme we are working with this year is renewable energy - a very relevant topic for a country in which, as I've reported in the past, the electricity isn't so consistently and universally available. So today we began our explorations talking about movement and what force or energy makes different things move. To start the day we had the kids do a drawing about anything that moved and then explain what force or energy caused their object to move. I thought this might be a stretch for them but with some pulling on my part I got them to state that wind, gravity, and gasoline were the energy sources behind the movements of a flower, a skateboard going downhill, and a car respectively. Then we did a 20 question type game in which we wrote down various objects that moved and the students had to guess the objects by asking yes/no questions. It went amazingly well and we even threw in some hard ones like waves, a leaf, a swing, and the Earth itself.

So, it was all good. One quick note about this afternoon's ever-changing plans. We were going to work on cleaning up the local community center, this summer's service learning project, but they recently had elections here and now Doña Yolanda, Tanya's mother, has to get permission from the new government to fix the community center even though she already had that from the old government. Beaurocracy everywhere. More about that later.

Camp2016: Day 1

Ok. First day is in the books. All went very smoothly. Almost too smoothly. But I will get to that later. We arrived at camp a little before 9 this morning and the school was ready for us and we were all organized and all the teen leaders showed up and most of the campers showed up(about 75 of them). We had signs in front of each aula(room) and all the kids found their rooms (aside for a couple of kids who wanted to go to the room of their choosing so that they could be with their friends - but we were all over that). And we did a nice responsive classroom activity (Where the Wind Blows) that the kids really liked. And we set up the rules of the classroom and had a nice organized recess with kids playing volleyball and board games and then the teen leaders led the talleres (workshops) in art, music, dance, and sports and that went pretty smoothly. So, everything went off without a hitch. So why don't I feel so great about it?  I am trying to figure that out now. Here's what I got so far. I spoke a lot last year about becoming Dominicanized - ready for anything - knowing that plans always change and one has to be flexible and I was so proud of myself. And the camp felt all spontaneous and vibrant. And today it felt too scripted. Yes, it is nice to be more organized than we have been in the past and it does ensure that the kids have a positive experience but there has to be a balance between preparedness and spontaneity (I feel that way about my own teaching by the way) and it seemed out of balance today. 

I won't go on too much about this because it really was a great first day of camp.  Then, in the afternoon we took all the teen leaders - Dominican and Gringo - to the beach and it was fun. There wasn't as much interaction between the Dominicans and Gringos as I would've liked and I'm trying to figure out why that was because last year the kids really bonded at the beach. I think basically I have really high expectations about how the teen leaders are going to interact because of how it all developed last year and I need to sit back a bit and let things develop naturally.  OK. That's all for now (TAFN in text speak - or maybe I just made that up). 

Camp 2016: Day Zero

I'm always amazed with air travel. We left our house in Brookline at 6:15 this morning and 12 hours, two flights, a quick layover, a couple of hours at immigration and an hour bus ride later and, poof, we're in a different world. As you may surmise I'm a bit tired so this will be a short entry(thank goodness right?)

We're trying to be a bit more organized this year (a request from the teen leaders) so we had a meeting with all the teen leaders tonite to talk about the plans for the camp in general and specifically about the plans for tomorrow. And now they're all just hanging out which doesn't do justice describing what is actually happening. There are 40 teenagers here in small groups chatting or playing soccer or basketball. And we didn't engineer any of it. The kids just picked up where they left off last year as if they just saw each other last week. And all the new kids are joining in seamlessly.

And now before I sign off my diatribe about technology. As soon as we arrived today we took all the kids cellphones. You could make the argument that one reason they're so willing and open to participate in all these fun and games is because they don't have their technology to fall back on. On the other hand one reason that all the teen leaders hang out together so easily is that they've been communicating via Facebook and/or snapchat all year. Hmm. This technology thing is complex ain't it?

One week to go

Campamento 2016 begins in one week. Actually, if we speak in specific terms, exactly one week from this moment our first day of campamento 2016 will be in the books. And, if we follow our intended plans (which if you've been following this blog is not guaranteed) we will be at the beach with all the Dominican and North American teen leaders. Last year the trip to the beach is what cemented the relationships among the teen leaders and we are hoping that that happens again. though part of me worries that we are trying to recreate exactly what happened last year, ar least with the teen leaders, which is impossible since some of the players have changed and thus the dynamic will be different. We will see.

But that's not really what I wanted to write about. I just wanted to share our to do list in this final week of preparations. Here goes:
1.  Send email to parents with last minute reminders( we were supposed to do that yesterday but plans change even here in USA )
2.  Contact credit card companies that we will be out of country for 2 weeks. Considering how long you have to wait on hold when you call, this could take all day )
3. Make sure all our passports are up to date. JK. Did that months ago. I really wish all our passports expired in the same year so we could take care of them all at once.
4.  Buy travel size contact lens solution.
5.  Make sure the blog is all set up on the ipad(as you may surmise I'm doing that now)
6. Make sure Facebook is set up with our foundation group
7. Buy khakis for Evan that fit him. Seems like we do that once a year and he wears them exactly one time.
8. Did I mention calling the credit card companies?  Add the bank to that list.
9.  Call the airport or go online to figure out how long the security lines are at Logan these days.
10.  Pack

That's about it. See you in a week.

Solar Cars

And the countdown continues: 42 days, 12 hours, 29 minutes

Camila and Leon doing some soldering

to go until Campamento IV.  We had a little event last weekend to begin the summer activities. Kelli did some research (online of course) and found some plans to build solar powered cars out of household goods. So we got to talking and decided this would be a great project to do with the campers. And then we got to talking some more and thought about how electricity, or the constinsten lack thereof, is such an issue in the D.R..  Last summer the electricity (locally known as Juanita) would not be working pretty much all day. It then came on at night when lights and, even more importantly for this over-heated gringo, fans were needed. "Se fue Juanita" (there goes Juanita) was a constant refrain. So, as we were talking, we came up with the idea of using renewable energy as this summer's environmental theme. Seems like a good fit right?

But ... before we built these solar cars with the campers we thought it might be a good idea to see if we could actually get them to work. So, Kelli dug up the needed household items: a juice carton, some rubber bands, plastic bottle caps, straws and glue sticks, bought little motors, solar panels, and wires and brought everything over to our house last weekend along with her friend and co-worker Leon and his soldering iron. We invited all the teen leaders over to see what we could come up with. Leon showed the kids how to solder the wires to the solar panels and while some of them worked on that the rest worked on building the cars. Meanwhile Evan took notes on design decisions that were made as well the vocabulary needed to explain to the campers the steps for building the cars (always a good idea to work in a little Spanish when we can right?)

After some tinkering we got the car to work so I think we're in business. 

Here's what the prototype looks like:

Pretty cool huh?

2016 Teen Leader Orientation

So, it's been awhile... No blog entries since the end of the camp last summer. But, that certainly doesn't mean that there hasn't been a lot going on. It just means that once school started blogging fell down towards the bottom of my 'things to do' list just above 'recaulking our shower' (which I still haven't done).  In any event, here's a quick update to get all twenty of you followers up to speed.

•  Many of the teen leaders (both Dominican and Gringo) expressed interest in working at the camp again so we decided to break with the tradition of running the camp every other summer and run it again this summer. At first I didn't love this idea since we like to use our non-DR summers to take our kids on other adventures and as Evan approaches his college years, those opportunities seem to be dwindling rapidly. But, when the teenagers spoke so passionately about returning I figured I should get on board (Then of course we ended up using the kids' February break to go skiing out west and then their April break to go even further out west, thus using up all of our vacation resources anyways.)

•  We weren't sure we had enough funds to run the camp so in the Fall we held a fundraising/ information event at a friends house and were awed at the number of people who showed up and contributed to the foundation, thus giving us enough money to be able to run the camp.  Wahoo!!!

• We then set about choosing the teen leaders for the camp. Last year we just gathered the teens by word of mouth basically and let everyone go who showed interest. But this year we wanted to make the process more formal - especially because we knew of at least 15 teenagers that wanted to go with us and we only had space for 10 (it always comes down to math am I right?)  So Tanya did a lot of research (she's the best, aint she?) about similar programs and created an application that the teenagers needed to fill out -- even including a statement of interest and a letter of recommendation. All told we got about applications and ended up accepting eleven of them. Seven return from last year with four newbies.

•  So, we had our Spring orientation meeting with the teen leaders and their families yesterday. The  Ribatt's were kind enough to host the event and it went off beautifully (at least in my humble opinion).  We wanted to explain the goals of the camp to the teenagers (especially the new ones), have the returning leaders share a bit about their experiences last summer, and, I think most importantly, provide an opportunity for the teen leaders to get to know one another.  Funny story ... there are two new teen leaders from Cambridge Rindge and Latin, who are in the same homeroom and didn't realize until Friday that they were both going to the camp.  In any event, turns out it didn't take the kids long to bond:


So, that's where we are.  (I just realized that I use the word 'so' a lot when I write. I'll have to work on that). Tanya and I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to make the camp better (mostly just listening to the suggestions of the teen leaders) and there will be some changes. But, this post is getting too long so I'll save those ideas for another day. Hasta pronto!

Teen Leader Reflection

On August 23rd at 7:00 am (almost a month ago already...yikes) our plane touched down at Logan Airport. Yes, that's right, 7:00 am. So, if you do the math (which I always love doing) you would realize that we left the D.R. at around 3:00 am. We had decided that it wasn't worth it to get a couple hours of sleep before leaving San Cristobal for the airport so we had Carmen and Frank just drive us there around 11:30. But, we were so early for the flight that the Jetblue check-in area wasn't even open... but let me stop there because that surreal night wasn't really the point of this entry.

So, let me start again. On August 23rd at 7:00 am our plane touched down at Logan Airport. On the drive from the airport back to our house, as we all went through a little culture shock --augmented by our sleep deprived state -- Tanya and I realized that we hadn't really come to any closure about the camp. We felt a need to talk about the experience to make sense of it all and we also felt a real need to get all the teen leaders together again to hear what they took away from the whole experience.

So, yesterday, we had all the teen leaders and their parents over to our house for a debriefing session.  We had them sit on the floor in a circle, asked the parents to sit around them and then led (you hearing this Ms. Burchenal) them in a socratic seminar.  We asked questions like:
         -  In what ways were the campers' lives impacted by the camp?
         -  What different views of Dominican society did you see?
         -  What were your greatest challenges and your greatest successes?
         -  In what ways will your experience in the D.R. impact the way you interact with people from different cultural/racial backgrounds in the United States?
         -  How did your experience in the D.R. affect the way     you view your own culture/country?
Yet again the students amazed us as they gave thoughtful, articulate responses to all of the questions.
I learned that the teenagers had a newfound appreciation for the amenities that we take for granted here; that they realized that technology is not the be all and end all of personal entertainment and that often dependence on technology stifles creativity; that they had newfound respect, patience and understanding for immigrants to the U.S. who struggle to communicate in English; that the idea of "personal space", an unambiguous aspect of U.S. culture, is not universal; that there are many commonalities between the Dominican and U.S. cultures and that the Dominican teenagers are exposed to many of the same cultural references as are the gringo teens.

Wow! It seemed like the teenagers actually learned what we set out for them to learn. At least, in words if not actions.  We'll see what happens the next time I tell my children to put down their cell phones and go outside and play.