The DeYoung Diaries

Happy first day of March!
So though happy to report things here have been relatively uneventful, at least in terms of no natural disasters, near fatal illnesses, climbing mountains, etc., I can't believe what is happening in the rest of the world! We were at the beach on Saturday when we got word, then came back praying for my roommate Kristina who has lived the past 2 years in Santiago, Chile, where all her best friends and boyfriend live. She was trying to skype him all night without luck, sitting in our kitchen in suspense. Finally she got word from a friend that he is okay, but still hasn't even talked to him. Then we heard about the tsunami heading for Hawaii, where my sister, and New Zealand and her home country of New Zealand. Crazy! I haven't seen the news yet today, but it looks like there has been so much devastation in Chile. Not quite what happened in Haiti but we keep saying that can't imagine if this 8.8 had happened in Haiti, the whole country would have been wiped out. Anyways, crazy stuff. I'm sure they will need lots of help and prayer now too.

So since I am limited on time here, I think I will make more a bulleted list of highlights/updates from the week rather than my usual looooooong email... though I'm sure some bullets will be quite long themselves. :) Some weekly highlights:

* Dave's new garden in our courtyard of our house... he's planted tomatoes, mangos, avacados, papaya, chile peppers, and much more. And his surprise going back to our old house and finding a mango tree and two avacado trees growing out of our compost pile! Hopefully a few years from now the kiddos will be getting all the fruits and veggies they could ever need in their diets, and hope we can come back to see it and enjoy! :)

*CANADIANS!! January starting the Canadian CRAZE that was bigger than I ever realized... they are coming down in teams of 20-30 each week in phases, there are 129 altogether, and it all started when this amazing couple from Canada feuded over where to spend their 25th anniversary vacation. They came across NPH Nicaragua and since then they have brought hundreds of friends and literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. They have built houses and bathrooms in the nearby bateys, as well as schools, churches, and do microfinance loans to start businesses in the poor areas. They took me shopping last week and bought all new workbooks and supplies for my class. From our few vacations through Canada, I never would have known how much I could love Canadians!

* Italians... we've had about 30-40 staying in our house in this past week (though not all at the same time) We still have aid trucks go to Haiti everyday, and we are still filling them with doctors and volunteers all the time, still dominated by the Italians. They are sleeping on cushions all over our living room floor every night. We had a famous Italian actress with her famous soccer player husband the other night. I was already in my PJ's so Dave tried to convince me it was Victoria Beckham so I'd come out but I didn't fall for it, and didn't meet the famous people who were sleeping on our living room floor. Speaking of famous though, we have had many names through our NPH hospital in these past months.. Wyclef Jean, Diane Lane, Sean Penn to name a few... NPH Haiti is becoming a pretty happening place.

*Germans... okay last ethnic group I swear... my roommate Nikki had her family here and Wednesday they cooked us a HUUUUGE feast of German food and barbecue, desserts and beverages... with them here and the roommates, the Germans dominated Wednesday night, more Germans than the rest of our countries combined. It was the most delicious food I had in all my time here and we ended the night by climbing up the wall of our house and sitting in a campfire style circle on the roof laughing and telling stories under the stars.

* Dinosaurs! We started our unit on dinosaurs this week, and the kids love it. Our 5 year old nephew Asher sent us these awesome videos on him teaching about dinosaurs with his great collection of toys (SO cute!), and we used our blow up dino toys from Mrs. Gooding's class in Owosso to play all kinds of games like Dino Stomp, Name that Dino, and jumping over the Dino Swamp. We are making lace up dino stuffed animals, dino teeth necklaces, going on dino bone digs on the playground and even found a baby dino egg! (I painted a watermelon white and we hid it on the playground :) The library even had all the fun dino books about Dinos going to school or the doctor, in Spanish. (see dino egg photos below)

*Carnival and Independence Day... Friday we celebrated carnival by making fun sparkly masks... idea and materials provided again by lovely Mrs. Gooding... and put on dress up clothes and marched around the carnival. The kids had an assembly where they read poems and sang songs about Dominican independence, I learned a lot. Saturday night we decided, against others' advice, to go out to the malecon for the Independence Day celebration and for roomie Jose's bday (I baked him a lemon cake painted as a Spain flag!). But definitely would never go back. Mostly just really drunk people doing things I would would never imagine to see in public, streets in mountains of garbage, and people breaking and throwing bottles and getting into fights all while children wandered helplessly through the crowds and across streets of broken glass. We snuck into a club down the street that was completely empty because everyone was outside, and spent the night practicing our merengue and bachata dancing.

*The bateys.... In addition to taking my student Rodolfo out with my roommate to celebrate his classroom success, the nearest batey, Batey Nuevo, set up a snack shop/bar with the microloan from the Canadians. We went out Friday night to support the efforts, but mostly for me just to play with the kids. All the kids recognize me from the school and come running and jumping, Kristina Kristina... I became a human jungle gym for the rest of the night and we danced and danced all night swinging the kids in airplane rides, upside down, etc. I bought grape soda and gave it all away to the kids in "vasitos de munecitos"... using the top as a "little dolly glass". I love the kids at NPH, but hanging out with the batey kids in and outside of their one room tin huts in the batey both melts and breaks my heart to just a whole different level.

* The beach and sunshine... Dave and I jumped on his motorcycle Saturday and snuck away for a few hours, speeding down the highway along the shore, sun burning my shoulders, until we found a deserted beach to enjoy for the afternoon... just us, our books, the swaying palms, turquoise water, and sand. Though I did get super burnt. :(

*Progress reports... okay so this more just a ton of work than a highlight but it is so worth and exciting to see the little to lot of progress the kiddos are making.

Okay, so maybe the bullets weren't really a shortcut. Other than that, the usual highlights are just the hugs and kisses from the kids, the flowers and love notes and treats.... playing and dancing, breaking my back with the bajillion piggy back rides.

Child of the week, let me know if you want to commit to praying for Samuel O. He was expelled in the fall and is fulltime in my class, and it is not always easy.... he is a sweetie but definitely a trouble maker to say the least.

Okay love, peace, and prayers to all. Wishing you all an awesome week!!
xoxo
Love,
Kristin