Karen: a women who works at tres Mariposas, is an immigrant from Haiti. She shared with us some experiences from her time in the Dominican Republic and also her travels from Hati. Her husband came to the DR first, to find a job. She came a year later with her children. She shared with us one story of a day she was in her home when immigration came in and took her and her children back to Haiti. There had been a rumor that a domincan was killed by a Haitian person so Karen ands her children were pulled from their home, while her husband Johnny was at work. Once they crossed the border into hati, she bought a phone card and called her husband to tell her what had happened. She had to stay Haiti for six months before she was able to come back into the DR. I could not imagine being pulled from my home and taken away, back to a country that I ran from. She mentioned that if they had enough money that she would want to move back to Haiti, because of the racism she faces here. Hearing and watching here tell us this story first hand made me so sad for the situation that she and her family is in. I was so sad to be leaving my childhood home and moving a town over this year, I couldn't imagine going through what Karen went through. As a future teacher we may have children of immigrants or refugees in our classroom. This experienced help me realize that every child and family has a different story and have had have encountered different experiences.
Mariposas DR Foundation On Friday we visited the Mariposas DR foundation who educates girls from the ages 8-18. We got a tour of the beautiful grounds and were able to see what type of work they were doing with these girls. The girls who would attend were girls from the local neighborhoods and from some of the neighborhoods that we went to. The public schools, in the Dominican Republic, are only half days. Some children go in the morning and some children go in the afternoon. The girls go to Mariposas foundation, either in the morning or afternoon, whenever they are not in school. The foundation provided transportation for the girls to get to and from the school. One of the major things that the foundation is trying to do is to educate the girls in sex education. It is common for girls here to become sexual active as early as 18. Teenage pregnancy and prostitution are common and they are trying to provide the girls and young adults with other options. By teaching them english and teaching them about sex and some of the consequences of it, it is opening new doors and new possibilities for these girls. I really liked what they were doing at the Mariposas DR foundation. The foundation teaches the girls English so they can have more opportunities for a different life than they think that have to have. They can get a waitressing job or work in a store, because Cabarete is a tourist town. They allow these girls to see more opportunities than becoming a mother at 15 or becoming a prostitute. I eventually want to work with children who come from lower class families and these experiences are helping me witness first hand how to help these children overcome some of these outside barriers. The past two days have been a huge learning experience and have tremendously opened my eyes to a whole new world and how people live in other cultures. I have learned about the culture in ways such as food and eating together. I have learned through experience and conversations with Dominicans that the people cooking the food will be offended if you are not eating it. At times during lunch the communication can be very hard. It is hard to have conversations to get to know each other when we do not speak the same language at all. We often have to almost act things out to get our points across. As awkward as lunch with the family is, we are building skills to put in our tool box on communicating with the families in the future. The Spanish classes are very in tense and I keep thinking it is for children learning any language. Whether it is their first language or their second language I saw learning from their eyes. I realized how hard it is to understand the teacher who is speaking in a different language and how it is so easy to get lost. When our Spanish teacher speaks to us in Spanish and I don't understand a sentence it is hard to stay focused. I often found my mind wondering. I can now empathize with students who are learning English and who are in a classroom where English is in the primary language. In the future, I will now be able to reflect on this experience and help those children who are struggling. Monday: 1/13/14 Today we observed in 3 Mariposas Montessori school. It was interesting to see how the children interact with the materials, the teachers, and each other. I spent over an hour observing in the infant and toddler area where I was able to see how the Montessori setting was different from traditional schooling. I observed how children in the Dominican and children in the U.S. play the same and how the class interacts as a group. Even being so young the children had roles in the group which shows many of the different personalities. What I absolutely love and is part of Maria Montessori's belief is how independent children can be starting at such a young age. Having worked with toddlers in the past I know how much they are capable of, but I also know how adults have such low expectations of their abilities based on their age. I loved seeing children, as young as two opening their own milk bottle, getting their own glass cup and bowl and pouring their milk on their own. I also loved seeing a child who had spilled their hand washing water on the floor and went and mopped up the water. Even though it is common in the Dominican culture to be independent at a young age it shows how much a two year old can do. Then we went to the primary ages where we observed line, which is like their circle time. It was hard to be able to understand what was going on because it was in Spanish but it was still beneficial to observe the children's body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice. Then we walked with Willfrank, who works at 3 Mariposas, who took us to the homes for lunch. We went to the Dolce's home who greeted us with a kiss on the cheek. There were three of us who from our group who ate Dolce's chicken, rice and beans, and salad; they also had red fresco or pop for us to drink. After that we went to Spanish class and Miche, the VERY beginners instructor, taught us more vocab and adjectives and also a lot more about culture, here and in the US. She is extremely knowledgeable on so many topics and so informative. She shared with us how it was living I'm NYC when she was younger and how she was treated as an immigrant. We discussed American history and when it was segregated it was not done properly which is one reason why the country is so segregated. She moved back to the Dominican as an adult and prefers living here. Tonight we went to Voyvoy located right on the beach about a mile from Nanny estates. It was delicious food followed by some loco Americans participating in some karaoke. It was a blast and people were stopping on the beach to here our amazing voices and song choices: we are family, party on the USA, don't stop believing, call me maybe and some others as well. I am not sure if the other people eating at the restaurant enjoyed it as much as we did, but it was truly a fun time. Well I am headed to bed, buenas noches. Saturday We went to cabarete coffee company which was so amazing to get some good food. After breakfast we went to the coco farm who were the same people who owned Cabarete coffee company. It was a tad muddy (or a lot muddy:)) but we were still optimistic! We were able to try passion fruit which was sweet and bread fruit. We also made our own coco. They took the coffee beans, roasted them, peeled the shell off, mashed them in a trunk of a tree until they were a paste, rolled it into a ball, let it get hard, then you shred it. They then made the hot coco. Sunday: We went kayaking for 6 miles today down the river. Sara and I got stuck a few times on the rocks but we were champs about getting out of it! I was more adventurous and paddle board, where you stand up and use e paddle to move. I also jumped off the a rope swing that was contacted to a tree and jumped into the water. It was an absolutely amazing day and such an amazing adventure:) Our full day in the Dominican Repulic; and it still does not feel real!! This morning we up bright and early and were in the taxis around 7:45 am. We went to 3 Mariposas Montesorri where we had a little tour of the grounds and met with Sara who is the founder and director. She talked to us about how she started the Montessori school, how she ended up in the Dominican and how she found her students to attend the school. Some amazing parent volunteers from the school took us for a tour in La Cienega where a lot of the children from the school live. We were able to see a lot of homes which were about the size of our laundry room and sometimes held a whole family of 5 with one bed. We saw a lot of kids being pretty independent and home alone. Most of the children were excited to see us. We were lucky enough to see many of the families homes. The amazing people who were showing us their houses were also so proud to show us it. They were pretty clean even though they do not have running water, electricity, and bathrooms. They often threw their garbage in the back of the homes so there were a lot of garbage on the roads that were made of dirt. We were told that the garbage service is very unreliable and they need to Cary your garbage to a certain place and sometimes it still does not get picked up. We also were able to see churches, a school on top of the church where we met Joseph who was the director of the school and a place where Haitians met and discussed what is happening politically in their lives. They want to be sure that their people are okay and they have peace among the people. La Cienega have a large population of Haitians. Then we went to Spanish class where I am in a group of 5 and we are the very beginners starting with hola and uno!!! Our teacher is amazing and is an extremely smart Dominican women, who is proud of her heritage and allows us to ask questions about Dominican culture and the history. For dinner we went to Casa Mama where I decided to order fish and was a little surprised of what was put in front of me! I did try it but because of my dislike for bones I stuck with my side of fried plantains. Day1: We finally made it out of buffalo and flew into Santiago! It was about an hour and a half drive to cabarete, where we drove over a mountain and got to see some of the poverty of the country. Going through Santiago was definitely an experience. There were people hanging out very close to the roads and there were many shops located right next to the to the road that would sell a few things such as corn. We saw children walking home from school and we also drove by a few schools. All of the children who were walking around the town were all wearing the same uniform; a pale blue shirt with kakis, so it was hard to tell which kids went to which school. The houses were only a few feet from the street where there were at least a 3 foot deep ditch separating the road and where the homes were located. Most homes did not have electricity and if they didn't was only one light bulb, some homes did not have doors or full windows; they just had something covering up their windows. The driving and rules of the road are much different from the rules in the states. People were walking on the side of the road and the cars would just beep so they knew they were coming. Going over the mountains there were very narrow windy roads where cars, trucks, and a lot of motorcycles were flying by. My driving looks so calm next to their crazy driving! We went to gordittos for dinner where I had a burrito that was labeled "Richard" close enough to Rachel right:) After dinner and my first Dominican beer I unpacked, jumped in the pool and took a shower. I would have to say that the hardest part so far was not using the water to brush my teeth. I had to put a towel over the faucet. Okay I should be going to bed because the mosquito in my room keeps flying over to the light and is driving me crazy! Nighty night! We finally made it out of buffalo and flew into Santiago! It was about an hour and a half drive to cabarete, where we drove over a mountain and got to see some of the poverty of the country. Going through Santiago was definitely an experience. There were people hanging out very close to the roads and there were many shops located right next to the to the road that would sell a few things such as corn. We saw children walking home from school and we also drove by a few schools. All of the children who were walking around the town were all wearing the same uniform; a pale blue shirt with kakis, so it was hard to tell which kids went to which school. The houses were only a few feet from the street where there were at least a 3 foot deep ditch separating the road and where the homes were located. Most homes did not have electricity and if they didn't was only one light bulb, some homes did not have doors or full windows; they just had something covering up their windows. The driving and rules of the road are much different from the rules in the states. People were walking on the side of the road and the cars would just beep so they knew they were coming. Going over the mountains there were very narrow windy roads where cars, trucks, and a lot of motorcycles were flying by. My driving looks so calm next to their crazy driving! We went to gordittos for dinner where I had a burrito that was labeled "Richard" close enough to Rachel right:) After dinner and my first Dominican beer I unpacked, jumped in the pool and took a shower. I would have to say that the hardest part so far was not using the water to brush my teeth. I had to put a towel over the faucet. Okay I should be going to bed because the mosquito in my room keeps flying over to the light and is driving me crazy! Nighty night! Driving to the airport, happy to get away from this snow! So excited for this amazing opportunity that we have been lucky enough to be a part of! Send safe travels our way and see you in the Dominican! As I sit in my very cold apartment, I can only dream about what I would be doing if this wonderful blizzard did not have horrible timing. We would be on the plane counting down the minutes until the flight attendant made the announcement to prepare for landing. We would be getting our sun glasses out, taking our sweatshirts off, and getting our bags ready to exit it the plane! Instead, I am sitting under a blanket and watching tv. Anyways, I am glad that our flights have been rescheduled and am thankful we are still able to go! When we arrive in the Dominican Republic it will be so much better because we had to wait 2 extra days. Stay warm everyone! |
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