Well, we got here safe!!! It was supposed to take us 3.5-4 hours to get from the airport to the Outreach360 facility in Monte Cristi last night but it only took us a little over two hours! It was great as everyone was falling asleep! We got here (to the Outreach360 facility) around 12:45am and had a quick orientation. We were informed that we needed to take “military showers” which meant that we had to turn off the water while we were putting shampoo/conditioner/soap on ourselves and ONLY turn the water on to rinse it off. We were also informed that we were not allowed to flush the toilet paper. After we used the toilet paper, we were to throw it in the garbage. They had one solid rule: “if it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down”. This took a while to get used to. We finally got introduced to our bedroom and it was a huge room that contained about 30+ bunkbeds. The boys stayed in a separate building across the road and our room was just for girls. I got the top bunk, right beside a huge window and it was absolutely beautiful! However, it poured rain on the first night and since the roofs in the Dominican are made of tin, it was sooooo loud. Also, I may have gotten a little wet from my window being open… Also, wow! I forgot how much the Dominican culture loved their music! Music was played for most of the night and dogs and donkeys got up bright and early to make some noise. Nothing new sheets and ear plugs couldn’t fix!
We woke up this morning around 7:20pm this morning and showered as we were feeling a little grimy from traveling all day yesterday. Once we were all showered, we headed downstairs for breakfast. For breakfast, we had pancakes, bananas, and hard boiled eggs (HBE). After everyone ate, we had a group orientation and played a few icebreaker games to make everyone a little more comfortable with their peers. We learned about Outreach360 as an organization and went into detail about the principles that they follow. This whole day was based on orientation so after this, we took a tour of Monte Cristi. We walked the streets and became familiar with different aspects of the town. Our final stop on our way back to the O360 facility was a small juice bar. This lady makes her own juice and it’s so wonderful!! She has three different types of juices and this time, I tried mango. It was great! Once we got back to O360 facility, I met up with the other team leaders. It turns out that team leaders of the other two groups were staff members from each school. These leaders were so surprised to find out that I was a student and planned this trip myself as their schools were greatly involved in their own planning. Honestly, this trip is something that I wanted to do so bad that the work it took to plan it, didn’t faze me in the least. I have an amazing group and I’m already super proud of every one of them. We found out that we were going to be teaching this week in the same school as the Algonquin group so we needed to decide which volunteers were teaching in which classrooms. My group had the following classes: John is going to be teaching grade three this week along with two other volunteers from the Algonquin group. Jocelyn and Celeste (the other 2 girls in my group) are going to be teaching grade two along with one other volunteer from Algonquin and I am going to be teaching grade four along with 2 other volunteers from Algonquin.
After we decided who was teaching which classroom, we started lesson planning. This is how our days look: In the morning, we have grade one, recess, and then grade two. Once the second grade class is over, we go back to the O360 facility for lunch and rest, and we head back to the school for grades three, four, and five. All the volunteers are in the class, assisting with the children one on one but whoever is teaching that class, is actually at the front of the room, giving the lesson. Tomorrow, the grade four class is learning school objects such as pen, pencil, etc. and also phrases such as “I am walking to school”. Lunch time came after this and to eat, we had white rice, chicken, beans, and sweet potato wedge things. This meal was sooo good. Nothing at all what I expected. After lunch, we all finished lesson planning and had a small break to go tour the town once again. Dinner came quick and we had spaghetti and veggies. Since today was Valentine’s Day, the kitchen staff made brownies for desert!
I’ve already came out of my comfort zone so much and I’m so excited to see what the rest of the week has to offer. After dinner, all of the volunteers, as well as the leaders of Outreach360, walked to the pier to catch the sunset. It was a super cloudy evening but the experience was definitely worth it. It was beautiful. It only took us about a half an hour to walk to the pier so hopefully we can do this again one night this week. OH YA! It is close to Election Day here in the Dominican so everyone is celebrating tonight. Apparently Sunday is their party day/night so tonight; they are holding a huge carnival in the park/street right across from our housing facility. The music is so loud and there are hundreds of people! The most interesting thing to share about this is the bull whips! They were everywhere! Even the children had them and they were walking around, snapping them and hitting other people with them. Totally insane. The whips sounded like gun shots as they were so loud!
Later this evening, once the carnival was ending, 3 of us volunteers walked over to a church to attend service. My goodness. My breath was taken away as soon as I walked in. We sat down near the back and the service began. It was small but wow, was it ever powerful. At one point in the service, we were divided into small groups and were asked to hold hands for prayer. I was in a group with 3 young boys and 3 young girls alone with a fellow O360 volunteer. Everyone began to pray and everyone in my group began speaking in tongues. It was unbelievable. I closed my eyes and took it all in. I was moved. Everyone, even the smaller children, was praying silently to themselves. I can’t understand much Spanish but no matter the language, what I felt in that circle was love. It was passion for something much bigger than any of us will ever understand. I was inspired regardless of which religion these people were practicing. This was my first full day here, and my life has already began to be changed. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.