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Craft for the day is the “Prodigal Son Story Board.” As
usual, I woke to the sounds of pre-dawn roosters (clearly at least one of them
has some kind of dawn-recognition impairment because he gets started way too
early) … Roosters were followed by the Alleluia chorus at 6. OK – scramble!
The usual chaos of trying to get everyone out the door. Glanced out the third
floor window above my sleeping area and cringed a bit as I saw the children
sitting on the bright yellow chairs (I sure hope they are dry!). Made sure that
we had plenty of time to get everything set up next door. We don’t want to miss
the singing again (won’t make
that mistake twice!).
Quickly taped up the memory phrases and distributed the books and nametags to each of the classes. Morning songs are hilarious, as the littlest ones try to keep up with the others. They are all fairly good listeners. Ana, “el jefe” (the chief), was leading the songs. Without too much instruction, the children formed lines and marched off to their classrooms. The Prodigal Son craft was a big hit, lots to color. Some of the teachers (Ana’s class) put the plates together first, and then glued the pictures in, then colored them. Not quite the process we had developed, but whatever … Finished without too many problems. I explained the four pictures to a small group in one of the classes (think it was the youngest one) and, much to my surprise, I later heard them repeat what I had told them, almost word for word, complete with facial expressions and arm waving. Seems like I have been doing a lot of that this week. When my Spanish fails me, I try and act it out. Kind of a combination between Spanglish and charades. Andi’s been joking that we are all speaking Spanglish – perhaps I have taken it one step further. Regardless, the children think it is hilarious, and clearly enjoy playing this game with me. Anyway, I was completely amazed at their ability to “replay” what I told them!
We finished up for the day (cutting and prepping the paper plates and other items for tomorrow) and waited for the others to return to have lunch. We will definitely be short on plates, since we took the extras that we had and gave them to the Mao group. Not to mention that little snafu about leaving a bunch of the plates behind at the Cathedral. As usual, Sheree and Smith had a funny story to tell about Sergia (Sheree continues to call her Sergio).
The Mao group also had several stories (but their chronicles tend to involve farm animals of some type). In a way, I wish that I was on the Mao team – but at the same time realize that the setting may have been too overwhelming for my first experience (especially the part about no bathroom – they have a chamber pot!) and am grateful that Kathy and I are at La Anunciacion, under the loving supervision of Olga, who instantaneously resolves any problem that might occur.
Meals here are always interesting, because you are never quite sure who is going to be there. People, especially children, seem to appear out of nowhere. I am surprised by the “sobrinos” (nephews/nieces) that flow in and out of our living area every day. I am conscious of our visitors’ tradition of sitting in the chairs along the wall. They will not fill their plates until every member of “the team” has piled their plates high. The children are also very curious about the “goodies” that we so casually toss in the center of the table – things like granola bars, breakfast bars and the like. They carefully eye them, but clearly wouldn’t dream of taking one, unless we gave it to them. I wonder what they do when we are not up here? Perhaps they are more intrigued by our abundance, and the casualness with which we react to it. Or actually don’t react to it. Clearly, it is not commonplace for them. This afternoon, as I was sitting at the table “journaling,” I enjoyed one of my secret stashes of Oreos. Father’s daughters were both finishing their lunches at the table and I asked if they would like one (silly question, right?). Without hesitation, each girl popped it immediately into their mouth. I had thought they would probably finish their lunches first, putting the Oreo aside until they were done. Nope, it was consumed pronto. I giggled slightly as I thought “life is uncertain – eat dessert first!”
After lunch, I was sitting at the table trying to work up a “Sudoku” puzzle that Smith and Sheree have given me (they are completely hooked on them and each has a little book), I noticed Lucrecia, Ada (one of my teachers) and one of Olga’s sisters (Bernie’s mom) sitting in the chairs along the wall. Yep – they were three potential candidates for the “unmentionables.” I asked the three of them to come with me, and they eagerly followed me into the sleeping room. I quickly dug in my suitcase, and emerged with the stack of bras (which was really quite impressive, as there were more than 20!). Their eyes widened considerably as I explained that they were for them to share. They thanked me and quickly got down to the business of divvying them up. Frankly, I wasn’t sure if this was going to go over – perhaps the “unmentionables” were too personal of an item and they would be insulted by the mere suggestion that they should take my underwear. Clearly, they were all quite pleased! I am very glad that I brought them and will consider expanding the selection to “other sizes” next year. When I had pulled them out of my suitcase a few days earlier to show the team, there were peels of laughter as we considered what might have happened if my suitcase had been opened by a Customs officer. “Uh, excuse me, Miss. Can you please explain why you have an excess of 30 bras for a 9-day trip?” Anyway, back to the matter at hand. To give them some time to work this out among the three of them, I excuse myself and head into the supply room to the stash of green grocery bags. I return with a bag for each of them to put their new bras in. The funny thing is that they didn’t seem to want the bag and would have been perfectly happy carrying them around “as is” for the world to see. Karen got in on the action, selecting one for a 14 year old girl, her Goddaughter, who only has one bra. I later found another in my suitcase that had fallen of off the stack and gave it to Karen for the girl. Good, now she has gone from 1 bra to 3 – a banner day …
OK - onto our painting – day 2. I have been banished from
painting the yellow chairs (since my allergic reaction yesterday). So, I have
inside (latex) duty. William, the painter, set me up with a scraper, as there
were no more brushes. Karin resumed her work, “cutting in” for William. After
scraping two classrooms (which involved removing everything taped to the walls
and moving all of the desks into the center), Karin came over to ask if I wanted
to switch. Sure! It wasn’t too long after I had started
painting when William
came by, surveyed the situation, left, and then returned with a roller. He
announced that I would be rolling. Wow – clearly a promotion (wait until the
yellow-chair people outside hear about this!). So, I rolled the salmon-colored
part of the classroom. Surely William had noticed my spectacular scraping job
and surmised that I had done this before. He should see what I can do with a
sponge and feather duster …
Dinner was delicious, as always, even though the foods were unfamiliar – except for the bananas that were making what seemed to be their 26th appearance. Apparently, we are still working on the giant stalk of green bananas that we pulled out of the back of Olga’s car on Monday before we went shopping.
During dinner, I shared a story from my day. I was in the classroom with the youngest children, helping with the craft project, when one of the little guys sneezed a couple of times. He was trying to wipe his nose on his shirt, but because he was wearing a tank top, it wasn’t working out very well. I asked if he needed some paper for his nose. He said, “Si.” I went next door into the school’s office where there was a bathroom. Forget tracking down a tissue, I haven’t seen one all week. Instead I tore off a length of toilet paper. The toilet paper here is barely single-ply. So, I tore off a good piece so that I could double it over. I returned to the classroom and handed it to the little guy – who is probably 5 or 6. He took the paper, looked at it, looked up at me, and then carefully folded it over and put it in his pocket. That’s odd, I thought. Guess he solved his runny nose issue. When I as telling this story at dinner, I was informed that some of the families are so poor that they don’t have tp at home. Thus, the little guy was probably just saving it for later. I have to admit that it took a minute for this to sink in. No tp at home? How is that possible? As we continued our discussion, I learned that we are the only mission team that comes to this church during the year. Guess that I had just assumed that they had visits from other teams. I know that there are several Episcopal churches at home that send teams to the DR. Turns out that it is us, or nothing. That news made our work here this week even more important.
After dinner, we headed out with Olga and Ada to see the monument. Apparently, it was built by a previous government official, who wasn’t very popular, but the Dominican’s seem to like the monument, as it is definitely a gathering area. It was built up on a hill, where the views of Santiago and the neighboring areas are spectacular. Hard to believe that it is a Wednesday night! There are tons of people at the monument. Several cars are parked up on the sidewalk. There is a road that circles the monument which contains several cars with the hoods, trunks, and doors wide open – clearly this is done to let all of the music out! People are doing the salsa (flashback to the other day when Yvonne and Olga were teaching us the salsa) … It didn’t take long before Yvonne was dancing with someone and Karen taking her picture. So much for trying to keep a low profile… As we circled the monument, I was surprised by how cool it was and how nice the breezes were on each side of the monument. After that, we made a quick stop and then headed home.
Later that evening, I was sitting at the dining room table,
working a Sudoku puzzle (Sheree has given me an “easy” one, since I wasn’t
making much progress on the one that Smith gave me earlier in the week which was
categorized as “difficult”). Anyway, Andi emerged from the bathroom and asked
me if I would turn out the lights when I was done. “Sure,” I answered. “What
is everyone else doing?” Andi’s response, “Uhh …
sleeping!” Unbelievable. I
have been so engrossed in working this Sudoku puzzle that I was completely
oblivious to the fact that all of the other team members had already retired.
There I was, sitting at the table, under the single-naked light bulb emergency
light, trying to solve this puzzle. Guess I am now officially hooked, too …
