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.

Back to School Supply Drive

So, like I said, thanks to the generosity of many people including Samuel and Nelly Montas, Jimmy and Yolanda Depalo, Kenneth Montas, Natalie Montas, Kelly Barrett, Steven and Marisol Williams, Curtis Larsen, Laura Dee, and Brandon Diaz, we have been able to collect almost $900 to use to support the San Cristobal community.  We decided to use the funds for the children of the community, and, continuing the ideals of the camp, we wanted to connect the funds to the school somehow.  At first we thought about buying backpacks for the students (remind me someday to tell you about my brilliant idea to use returned LL Bean backpacks).  But, then we heard that the government wasn't going to be able to help the children buy school supplies this year (http://www.noticiassin.com/2014/08/algunos-ninos-no-podran-asistir-a-clases-por-falta-de-utiles-escolares/) so we decided to focus on school supplies instead.  

We sent the money down to Carmen and Doña Yolanda and they were able to buy a bunch of school supplies – in bulk, mind you.  That way we were able to buy notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers and pencil sharpeners for over 200 students in San Cristobal.  La Doña decided to split the donations between the local school where the camp was housed and another school closer to the river where there is even greater need (If you go back a few entries, you can see us giving out books to children in that area a couple of years ago).

So, that’s where we stand.  We were all pretty sad that we couldn’t get down to run the camp this summer. But, we already have plans to go down next summer and once this “Back to School Drive” campaign wraps up we’ll begin gearing up for that.

That’s all for now. I’ll keep you posted as to our doings this winter. Or, at least that's my intent.

What's Going On?

So, for the sixteen 'Campamento Las Margaritas' followers (Margaritaheads?) I don't need to tell you that it’s been over two years since my last entry. Fear not, though, there’s been lots going on with El Campament. So, let’s get right to it.

First of all, I had hoped to do lots of blogging this summer because we had BIG plans to run Summer Camp III at the school in San Cristobal. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.  Early in the Spring Chikungunya Fever broke out in the D.R http://www.bbc.com/news/health-28678164 .  Lots of people, including many of Tanya’s family members got quite sick (thank goodness they have all recovered).  We waited and watched the news and talked with lots of people in the DR (actually, Tanya did all of this. I just sat around watching the Red Sox – but let’s not get into that right now), hoping that the fever would run its course before August. But, it never did. In fact, it got worse over the summer.  Considering we were bringing lots of people down with us (including three Paris cousins and the granddaughter of a friend of my parents – don’t ask – whom we had met only once) we ultimately decided not to go.  Sad day for the Campamento…

But, I’m really getting ahead of myself because well before all the drama I just described, when we were all beginning to think about the camp, Tanya, Samuel, Nelly, and I decided to expand the work we were doing with the Campamento. So, we formed “La Fundación Las Margaritas”, have set up a website (lasmargaritasfoundation.org), and are now an official non-profit organization.  Wahoo!  This idea has helped us to raise funds that we originally had planned to use for the camp. But, if you recall, the camp is not running this summer so we are directing the funds to the local San Cristobal school where the camp was held.

You know, I think another entry is warranted to describe what happened next, so read on McDuff… But, before you do, here's a teaser: