Monte Cristi- Day 4 (Teacher! Teacher!)

We woke up today around 5:50am and got ready to head to El Morro by 6:15am to catch the sun rise. We took a bus to the bottom of the mountain and hiked for about 20 minutes until we reached the top. The hike wasn’t too exhausting and the sun rise was beautiful.

We got back to the 0360 facility for 8:00am, just in time for breakfast. For breakfast, we had cereal, toast, corn meal, and HBE. After breakfast, we headed over to SJPS to begin classes for the day. The first class went well. I was helping Cristopher once again today and wow, it was night and day comparing his behaviour from yesterday to today!! He was attentive and participating and I was super proud of him! We took tons of pictures today with the kids at recess and the kids absolutely LOVE the camera! They love having their pictures taken and posing for pictures! They love making funny faces and their smiles are so contagious! Next, we had Jocelyn and Celeste’s class. Grade two; it went super well. This class is so well behaved and so eager to learn! I worked with a young boy named Angel today and he did great! I spoke slowly with him and had him watch me as I spoke. I had him repeat what I was saying back to me and he did wonderful. It was amazing how much he could understand. After second grade, we headed back to the O360 facility for lunch. Today, we had rice, beans, fried chicken, and HBE. It was delicious. After lunch, we lesson planned for tomorrows class. This afternoon, we had third grade first-John’s class. In this class, I worked with a sweet little girl named Ana. Instead of listening to the lesson, she was writing down the names of all of us volunteers. She wasn’t doing class work but she was doing her own form of learning so I didn’t stop her. Next came the fourth grade. Today, we were much more prepared. The male in our group spoke more and you could tell that the class respected that. They were much more behaved and we had a much better handle on the classroom dynamic. It was super exciting to see the kids becoming more engaged in learning English. It was nice getting a chance today to interact with my class and observe the different behaviours in the children. After the fourth grade was the fifth grade. In this class, I helped Bryan. He is in the after school program so I got to chat with him yesterday. As soon as I walked in the classroom today, he called me over. He was so excited to work with me and I was just as excited to be helping him! I also worked with Maryanna today. She is also in the after school program so I got to help her yesterday as well. After our last class, we headed back to the 0360 facility to lesson plan before dinner.

My goodness it was HOT today! The past few days have been cloudy but the sun was definitely shining today! For dinner, we headed to a local pizza place called Leonardo’s. A few of us got a whole pizza to ourselves and my oh my, I should not have done that! Soooo much left overs! It was interesting what we saw on the walk back though! We passed multiple chickens that were tied to cement blocks. They were being fed and bathed because they participate in cock fights. Very interesting. Once we got back to the 0360 facility, we lesson planned once again for tomorrow. Everyone is exhausted and a lot of people headed to bed but a few volunteers are watching a documentary on the history of the Dominican. A few of us stayed up to write about our day and the rest are playing cards. I’m currently falling asleep so I’m going to wrap it up for the night. The highlight of my day today was Bryan. Hearing him call me over… “Teacher! Teacher!” and pointing my way, made me so excited. He remembered me and was excited to have my help!