Today was our last day at 3MM and to say the least it was bitter sweet. It was great seeing how much we accomplished in such a short period of time, the sound tree looks amazing and we’ve had the pleasure of seeing how much the children enjoy creating their own music and sounds with the natural materials we collected before hand and in La Cienega. This opportunity was an experience of a lifetime and I will always remember how this part of my life has made such a positive effect on me. In the beginning we walked into a group of wonderful people who loved kids so much that they did not let their lack of resources or teaching experience hinder the learning of the 3MM children, but now we walk away from a group of people who love children but now because of hard work and a lot of team work we can leave them with the supplies they need to continue to educate the children in La Cienega. As our project came to a close we added finishing touches to our sound tree for the primary group, and created a sound area for El Nido (the nest). Today was a very special day (well the pass few days for that matter) because I was able to see how well the children learned and enjoyed the songs and finger-plays that we’ve presented to them. Seeing how engaged they were today and how well they followed along with the songs was an awesome experience to witness because it showed that although there was a language barrier amongst the volunteers and the teachers and the students we’ve seen how repetition and catchy songs and finger plays can help break through a language barrier that would probably not happen or if at all take longer time for ELL’s to acquire the information; but today was incredible watching the children try to mouth the words to the songs and sometimes they would say the word correctly and a smile would just appear on my face because this signified a job well done for us and put a great finish to our experience.
Unfortunately, this chapter had to come to a close... We departed by singing a farewell song that we remembered from the show out of the box which we all watched as kids, and honestly I don’t think any other song would have done justice. “So long, farewell to you my friends, goodbye for now until we meet again, it’s been great to play and sing together” The lyrics of this song said what we as a group felt but couldn’t find the words to express. The most surprising part for me was that during this goodbye I began to get teary eyed because I normally am not a cryer but how much these people touched me was incredible and I feel that although we are going our separate ways I have friends for life when I come back to the Dominican Republic, and am so grateful for having met all the wonderful people that I’ve encountered and look forward to our lives crossing paths again in the near future.
Unfortunately, this chapter had to come to a close... We departed by singing a farewell song that we remembered from the show out of the box which we all watched as kids, and honestly I don’t think any other song would have done justice. “So long, farewell to you my friends, goodbye for now until we meet again, it’s been great to play and sing together” The lyrics of this song said what we as a group felt but couldn’t find the words to express. The most surprising part for me was that during this goodbye I began to get teary eyed because I normally am not a cryer but how much these people touched me was incredible and I feel that although we are going our separate ways I have friends for life when I come back to the Dominican Republic, and am so grateful for having met all the wonderful people that I’ve encountered and look forward to our lives crossing paths again in the near future.