The Capital

A couple of weekends ago we all went to Santo Domingo. Most people don’t actually refer to it as Santo Domingo however, preferring to call it 'The Capital' which does somewhat make you feel like an extra in the Hunger Games. On Friday afternoon we embarked on the three hour bus journey to 'The Capital'. 

The hotel that we stayed in is located right in the centre of the colonial district which has a slightly strange atmosphere: it feels very European, with big grand buildings, cafes dotted around tree-lined plazas and winding cobbled streets. 

However you soon realise that this isn’t Paris or Barcelona when you look along the street and see hundreds of electrical wires strung haphazardly on spindly wooden poles, or when you are almost run over by a motorbike which is carrying about 5 people plus a few crates of bananas. We did a lot of exploring in the colonial district, drank coffee opposite the oldest church in the Americas, wandered down winding streets, stumbled across the odd 15th century monastery and watched  life in the city.

 

On Saturday night we went to a shopping centre to watch a film. I found this a very strange experience, after living in a rural Dominican village for just over a month it was bizarre to wander into a place that was so incredibly Western. The centre was very plush: white shiny floors, expensive bakeries, air conditioning and potted palm trees. However, as soon as you step outside you are back to sticky reality where there are people selling goods on the side of the road, children sleeping under bridges between carriageways, people pushing shopping trolleys or tattered prams piled with cardboard boxes. You are back in the real Dominican Republic. On one side of the wall there are people following the path that capitalism has laid out for us: buying fast food, shopping for nothing in particular, killing people on bleeping screens. On the other side of the glass there are people on the opposite end of the scale, who can’t afford to buy their next meal let alone go to the cinema or buy new clothes. Opposite lives, side by side, separated by the smooth, impenetrable glass wall of a shopping centre.  

By the end of the trip it really did feel like an extract from The Hunger Games. Leaving behind the wealth of the capital, we traveled home through slums (‘bateys’), sun-baked dusty villages and sprawling towns. We passed lorries piled high with green bananas, sacks of sugar cane and buses full of people. We arrived in Barahona district in the late afternoon and wandered home through the village, past brightly painted houses with skinny dogs basking outside them in the dust and along the path by the drainage ditch where children splashed in the afternoon heat.

         

School

So, we have been teaching at COPA, La Hoya for three weeks. So far it has been a little... challenging but very interesting and rewarding. We are called by our first names in class and so my Spanish name is Alex or Ali and the variations on Ruth include Rue, Rud, Brue and Grue which is highly amusing. When they have forgotten our names its 'teeeacher', alternatively just a clicking of the fingers.

I teach grade 1-8 once a week, most classes have between 20 and 30 pupils but they all have one common denominator, they all like to talk! I teach Monday through to Thursday, and Friday is reserved for lesson planning, doing the school mural and watching the fairly lively school assemblies. At the moment we have about 3-4 classes per day but once we are a little more settled we will be helping students with reading and writing skills, translating letters sent by their sponsors and helping out in classes during our free hours.

 It is a fairly daunting task, being thrown in front of a class of fairly loco Dominican children with just a few days of teacher training under my belt and not a huge amount of Spanish. There are few slightly mental classes (6th grade for example prefer to eat the glue and tissue paper rather than do their work) but at the end of the day most of them do what they were supposed to do and the classroom isn't usually a total bomb site. It is difficult keeping everyone quiet, especially when you don't speak amazing Spanish but so far I have kept the lessons fairly simple so there isn't much explaining to do.
 My classroom is nice. In the first week we had an interesting battle with mural paper and attracted the attention of a few well meaning but a little confused small boys who... assisted us in stapling up the brightly coloured mural paper and there is now some work up on the display boards.

 Boats by 7th and 8th grades

 

At break time, when we are not being force-fed empanadas and fizzy juice by children who wander into my classroom, we sometimes head out to the school gates where people sell food. You can buy oranges and various strange fruits that we haven't yet learned the names of, empanadas (not enchilada... that is something different) and weird sweeties which cost one peso (one peso!) which I add to the sweetie stash in my classroom which is reserved for when a sugar boost is needed.

 

We had an assembly on Monday the other week. The lady who washes our clothes lives right next to the school and from the assembly area you can see her house very easily. As we give her our washing on a Monday, on this particular afternoon you could also see all of our clothes gently swaying in the breeze. We were the only ones who knew they were ours but it was still very amusing to see our freshly cleaned bras drying as children sang religious songs and talked about the coming school year.

After fairly exhausting days of teaching we definitely have learned the value of relaxation. In the evening we cook, talk with friends in the village or walk to the river along roads which are surrounded on either side by banana fields.

First impressions

First things first, a quick note to anyone who has a place at university: get your ass over to that phone, defer your entry and get out here into the real world, because its pretty freaking awesome! Ill try and give you a quick snapshot of my first mental, amazing week in the Dominican Republic.

I appologise that it is so long, I do relise that probably the only people to reach the end of this particular marathon will be my mum and dad but do your best. If you would like a more... Succinct version of our first impressions then visit my partners blog: ruthelizabethwebster.wordpress.com

Apologies for the terrible picture arranging but with the current internet connection its the best I can do. There are also more pictures on my Facebook page 'Alice's Year in the Dominican Republic with Project Trust'.

 Ok, so. On Tuesday I left Edinburgh behind and headed south. After a night in London we hopped on a 9hr flight to Miami where we stopped off for 2hrs before getting onto a shorter flight heading straight for Santo Domingo wooop wooop Dom Rep here we come! By the time we arrived it was 9ish local time but about 3am uk time so we had all been up for roughly 22hrs... We were pretty tired. However, exhaustion was replaced with alarm as we stepped out of the airport into the heat! Sheesh! Santo Domingo hot and humid! At this point we were all wondering what we had let ourselves in for. However we battled on and got in a taxi. As we drove through the city listening to meringue and watching life, our nerves calmed well, that is until we hit traffic when it turned into a bit of a a white knuckle ride. As Amilia explained later that evening 'Dominicans don't follow any highway code'. Anyway, we made it to the hotel to drop our bags, in one piece and were met by Amilia who took us straight out for pizza and talked us through some basic Dominican customs, she also warned us girls about cat calling... More of that later! After a delicious meal we headed to bed where we all slept very soundly. The next morning Amilia met us at the bus station where we said farewell to the boys as they headed to Santiago and we boarded a bus to Barahona. So. That's one adventure kicked off the list. Now. Onto part two.

These are a few notes about my impressions and experiences in the first week:

 House

 our house is small but we reckon it has a big heart. With in about 50 meters of the front door there are 5 banana trees, 2 mango trees, an orange, guava and coconut tree. Also in close proximity are next doors chickens who are very noisy especially at around 6am. Im not going to lie,we have number of invertebrate friends of varying sizes, the other day I opened the lid of the coffee pot and inside was a huge cockroach, fairly terrifying! There are lots of lizards which are better, we like the lizards (although not when you find them in your bed at 11pm!). So far the best thing about the house is the roof. On the second night we climbed up onto the roof and listened to meringue while watching the sunset over banana fields and palm trees and looked at the amazing sky which cheered us both up quite a bit.

     Motor bikes
 So mental! There are people on motorbikes everywhere. We regularly see 4 people on the same bike, in fact its rare to see a single rider. Many people cant afford cars and so transport what they can on their motor bikes, we have seen people riding with mattresses, huge baskets of bananas, children on the handle bars, bricks, chickens, gas canisters and water containers. Some of the bikes are fairly run down but people tend to improvise for example the bombita girls saw a guy without a seat on his motorbike so had just put a coconut.

Cat calling
There is lots and lots of cat calling and declarations of love from the guys which is soooooo funny and a little bit unnerving! When we were driving to Barahona a guy came up on his motorbike while we were in the back of the copa truck and was like 'I love you, you are beautiful' (we looked minging) whilst blowing kisses he drove alongside for a good five minutes, it was fairly hilarious. I think they do it, unfortunately not because we look beautiful because, unless they find sweat attractive, we invariably don't look good. They do it because we are white and they associate white people with money, also young men want to marry girls from america and the uk to obtain a visa which they think would allow them to escape poverty here. However, I have received my first proposal of marriage, unfortunately I had to decline.

                                          School

School started on Monday. Within the day there are 2 tenders, half of the children come in the morning and half in the afternoon. Monday began with a parade through the village which was designed to remind children that school had started and to persuade the ones that hadn't turned up to attend. Kids here tend to stretch the holiday as far as it will go which usually means skiving the first week. For the first week I have just been clearing out my classroom which has been empty all summer. We discovered a number of random items like half a tambourine, lots of lolly sticks, a bag of tiny pieces of felt, a fair number of cockroaches both alive and dead and even a gecko who had been camping out in the cupboard for the summer.
Most of the kids seem great and they are all very interested in us, I guess it would help if I understood what they were saying but I guess that will come.



People
Everyone here is very welcoming. Its hard for me to tell considering I have have only been here a week but there seems to be a huge sense of community, in the evenings people sit outside their houses and just talk, everyone is outside: talking, laughing, eating, drinking coffee. There is invariably no power in the evenings so as it gets darker fires are lit in the street and electric torches come out. Music is always playing (often on repeat) from someones house or car radio. There is sometimes lightning in the evening so the street is sporadically lit with bight light which adds to the already crazy atmosphere. You cant walk down a street without someone shouting you over (or whistling at you, but that's a different story) giving you food and sweet coffee, pushing you into a chair, introducing you to their friends, family and neighbors. Ok, well I could go on and on but I will force myself to stop for now.

To conclude, the first week has been overwhelming, scary, mental but totally amazing. However, teaching starts on Monday... I have a feeling that the honeymoon period is about to come to an abrupt end.

Last post in the UK!

So. Here I am in London, ready to catch a flight from Heathrow tomorrow morning. I am staying over with a friend tonight and meeting the rest of the Dom Rep team at the airport tomorrow.

Its been a pretty busy few weeks but it has been lovely to catch up with friends and family, go to favorite scottish haunts, do some cycling, swimming in the sea and climb my first Munro! I've been driving around the Perthshire countryside putting my new driving skillz to the test by dodging sheep and red squirrels.

It was my 18th birthday two days ago. It was lovely to spend it at home being thourghly well treated!

So the plan is, we fly to Miami tomorrow and from there on to Santo Domingo where we will stay on Wednesday night before taking the bus to our projects on Thursday morning.

I hope to do some more posting in the next few weeks. Internet is limited but I hope to be able to keep you all suitably updated!

Hello again!

Quick update on gap year journey. Since my first post I have: passed my driving test, had all my jags, finished exams, finished school forever, been doing as much spanish as possible and writing endless lists of teaching and packing ideas.

I also have just returned from a very intense four days of training on the Isle of Coll on the West coast of Scotland. On training we were given more information about our projects and country as well as info on general issues such as insurance, health, travel, teaching and lesson planning, drugs and alcohol etc. I was also able to meet the rest of team Dom Rep including our desk officer and my partner! The group seems really lovely and I think we will make a good team!

From left to right: Fiona and Bryony who will be working in a project identical to the one which I am going to about 20 minutes from La Hoya (the village where I will be based). Fiona is the art teacher and Bryony is the English teacher
In the center is Felicity (our desk officer, based on Coll)
I am on the right with my partner, Ruth. We will be living in la Hoya where I will teach art and Ruth will teach English at the primary school which is run by the charity COPA.
Kneeling at the front are the two boys Dylan and Ben. They will be living and working in an outreach programme in Santiago in the North of the country.

Because it is such a small country (slightly smaller than Scotland) we will all be able to meet up regularly and travel together at weekends and holidays.

It will be really good having the other two girls very close by and as our projects are so similar we can share ideas and lesson plans when we meet up at the weekends as well as giving each other a bit extra support and security in the first few difficult months.

So between now and leaving (on the 14th of Aug, four days after my 18th birthday!) I will be gathering all my things together, saying final farewells and just generally panicking! However, in all seriousness though I do still feel totally terrified and have the odd (fairly frequent) wobbly moment I really can't wait to get stuck in! I can't wait to experience a new culture, meet and get to know a new community and way of life, smell new smells, taste new things, speak a new language and get to know a new country. It will be the experience of a lifetime and I fully intend to make the most of every minute!

First post on my blog! Exciting!

Right well news bulletin numero uno: I have finished fundraising! Yup, my target of £5,400 has been reached, a HUGE thank you to you lovely people who helped me get there. I obviously couldn't have done it without you guys! I received invaluable support in lots of different ways, both economic and emotional, but maybe most important it has been great knowing how many people are rooting for me! That will feel good in the scary months to come! 

Breakdown of fundraising

Wax resist cards

Bake sale at school

Christmas dress up day at school

Fimo birds in constriction

Finished Fimo birds

Second item of news! 
As some of you observant people may have noticed this blog is called 'A year in the Dominican Republic' instead of 'A year in Chile'! What has happened you might ask!? Well people I shall explain: last week I received a call from Project Trust who wanted to discuss country allocation, they said that there was a project in the Dominican Republic which they think would really suit me. Little bit scary but I was not perturbed! The project is in a little village called La Hoya in the South-West of the country. I will be teaching Art (and maybe some English) to primary school children in a school run by a charity called COPA. I will be teaching in Spanish from word go! It is quite a deprived area but the school is well resourced. Me and my partner (who will be a full time English teacher at the school) will be living in a small house at the school.
So I will be packing sandals and shorts instead of boots and jumpers! Its quite a change to get my head around but it does look like an amazing project and a really interesting, beautiful country.

        

So. Right now, life continues with highers and advanced higher exams coming up very soon (mmmm, first one is next week!), finishing school forever which is quite scary, learning to drive (also quite scary!). Also a big part of what is in my head is getting ready to go away. So to prepare (if you can ever really prepare) I have signed up for Spanish lessons at a local Spanish school. I go every Tuesday night for a two hour lesson which is both very helpful and extremely draining! I have also been helping at a local primary school which has been really good for learning about classroom management and activities. 

I will be going on training on Coll near the end of July and will get to meet my partner and the other Dominican Republic volunteers then.

I will be sure to keep everybody updated. In the meantime feel free to send me your top tips on primary school art lesson ideas and favourite Spanish phrases!