The DeYoung Diaries

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Though I don’t know if you will get this today or not – we have had problems with our electricity and internet all week so I’m writing in Microsoft Word instead. So that’s why my email is so late. That and Monday night I was at a Dominican beauty salon getting my hair done and didn’t get to an internet café to write my usual email. That was a disaster, but long story short, I look like Carrot Top. Thanks to my dad’s genes, I have been picking out grays all the time so I thought I would do something about it, but I decided to do it in the wrong country (and I’ve only dyed my hair once or twice in my life – and never from a box). When I asked for them to color my hair the same color, they said they didn’t have anything like that and took me to the supermarket to look for boxes of Dominican hair dye (which should have been my first clue to leave but at that point I didn’t want to be rude). But even though it’s orange, I was still mostly relieved after they all called over their friends in the salon over to consult whether I did indeed have hongos (fungus) on my head or just dandruff and whether I’d need my head shaved so I guess orange hair is better than none at all (the little girls here get parts of their heads shaved then style it in comb over type braids which I don’t think would quite fit me). Either way, I was still fighting tears when I came down to meet all my roommates to leave and they all said “It’s gorgeous – don’t worry – it’s more of a strawberry blonde really, you look like a beautiful Barbie doll”, but when I got home to Dave he was more truthful with “I never thought I’d see you as a redhead, it’s really orange, oh well it’s just hair”. He and the kids still love me anyways. The kids mostly said “Something’s different about your hair? What, what would you paint your hair for?” They didn’t get the concept but they seemed to get over it quick – they’re more interested in what games I have to play, what’s new in the prizebox, and seeking out their daily hugs and kisses. So in case I don’t get it fixed before summer (which I’m sure won’t happen in this country) I thought I’d give the heads up so I don’t scare you too much – speaking of which… Dave and I bought our tickets to come home! June 24^th I’m flying into Detroit and then starting a grad class in Kalamazoo on the 28^th. There is a part of me that is sooo ready for the USA and to see friends, family, go to American stores, eat American food again, etc. and another part of me dying inside with guilt at the thought of leaving these kids. The older ones will be okay (like my teenage girls), by now they’re used to having volunteers walk in and out of their lives every year (which is sad in itself) but some of my little guys and especially ones that are emotionally impaired don’t understand quite so well. Yesterday, I took Rodolfo one on one to explain to him that I will be leaving after school finishes and don’t know yet if I would be back yet in the fall. The look of panic in his eyes, then anger as he screamed that I was a stupid bad poop head while he punched the wall over and over then fell onto my lap and sobbed leaving my skirt wet with tears, snot, and sweat. He remembers his mom abandoning him as a kid and still holds his breath every Visitor’s Day hoping maybe she will come (she lives in a batey right outside here) but since she never does we’ve become each other’s family and always spent those days together, and I always bought him ice cream cones and Johnny cakes and things visitors would usually buy). The tias say they’ve never seen him so attached to anyone and he sees me as a mother figure. I feel like I’m abandoning him all over again – it’s terrible. And it’s only May so I can’t imagine even how much harder it will be in June. But at the same time, I can’t wait to see everybody back home too.

This has been a rather eventful past week so I will try to explain as shortly as possible. Last week we finished our unit on colors and rainbows and had a “Colors Day Celebration” on Friday. Throughout the unit, we made color posters cut from magazines, played colors bingo, pasted together tactile rainbows, played musical colors hop, experimented with food coloring (with all kind of yummy treats), played colors “Hokey Pokey”, read colors books, made rainbow necklaces, sang colors songs, and at our celebration made rainbow cookies and rainbow juice with rainbow straws (see photos). It was really cute and the kids loved it – and many of them learned their colors too (always a bonus right?). I also recently translated and taught them “Going on a Bear Hunt” song which they are OBSESSED with and request about 20 times a day and I finally used the Magic Grow Manta Ray that grows 600% that I got for Christmas. The kids were astounded with this and all thought it was a real animal, daring each other to touch it and trying to find things to feed it. One of the older ones tricked my little guys by coming back from the bucket with his hand covered in red paint, exclaiming “Be careful – it really does bite!” The child with the best behavior in the past 2 weeks won it to take home (Luis Alberto), carefully putting it in his backpack before realizing it wasn’t real after all.

On Friday, classes got out early because they had “Worker’s Day” and a party for all the NPH staff with certificates of recognition and prize giveaways. We skipped out to go travel but from what I’ve heard it was quite the exciting gathering – one tia won an air conditioner and was crying, she was so excited saying “I’ve always dreamed of having one of these my whole life”. And one of our Haitian farmers won a king size bed that actually is bigger than his one room tin house in the batey…. it’s good it didn’t fit because it motivated some volunteers to fundraise to get him a better house so hopefully he will be moving up in life soon.

So while the Dominicans here were having the time of their lives at the party, we were on a loooong 6 hour bus ride through lush jungle and curvy mountain roads up to Playa Limon – one of the DR’s last truly deserted beaches. The ride was extra long because we were in a guagua and came across political events where people flooded the streets and would jump in our bus and scream at each other like crazy about the most random issues. One woman with long curly beard hairs yelled and yelled until one man called her a mother f-r and I thought he would knock her out right there – it got pretty wild. Elections are May 16^th so it has been all the rage here. That and we would stop about every half hour to let off someone to pee in a bush or grab a beer. We drove through nothing and nothing and more of nothing until we finally arrived at this little town called El Cedro and from there took a 20 minute very rocky moto ride through more nothing on the worst dirt roads imaginable out to “Harley’s Heaven” – where a guy from Switzerland named Jumbo (name matches his size just right) has a overpriced hotel COVERED in Harley Davison décor. Even Harley logos painted in the bottom of his pool. But coincidentally – no actual Harleys. We got up with the sun Saturday morning and took paddle boats through a lagoon/river surrounded by bright green mangrove trees with twisted roots stretching in every direction perfectly reflected off the mirror of water until we finally reached the outlet into the ocean. The beach was beyond perfect. You could walk for miles in either direction without seeing a soul (other than a rundown military checkpoint down the way where men in mismatched camouflage marched with their machine guns and herded cows). The sun sparkled on the water, which was just the right shade of turquoise. The bending palms swayed in the breeze, but there was not enough for shade, so of course my brilliant husband decided to build us some. He spent an hour dragging branches, bamboo, and dried palm leaves until we had a perfect little beach hut. It was spectacular. Being in the middle of nowhere at night was just as great, laying under a pitch black blanket of twinkling and shooting stars and watching them for hours. Later, we met up with some other tourists – an American engineer/former Peace Corps volunteer, an American English teacher and his wife from Spain – and had a bonfire and talked all night about life as a foreigner in the DR – the good, the bad, and the ugly. They had a rental car and offered to take us to another deserted beach an hour away on Sunday that they claimed was just as remote and even prettier (plus a free ride home) so we accepted. We got almost there through a downpour of rain through more super rocky dirt roads in their small KIA rental car and had to jump out a number of times until we found a spot where a small lake seemed to have formed in the road so we had to turn around. I was super bummed as we drove home early but the ride was even more incredible than the first. We kept winding further and further and further up into the gorgeous green mountains until when I looked out the window all I saw was thousands of feet down a brightly vegetated cliff. There are not words, or photos, that could justly describe it. Then we aimlessly came across a cocoa plantation and decided to stay for a while. Turned out to be fascinating and the original place where all the cocoa is manufactured and exported from the DR. And you would never believe the great founder, connoisseur, and “jefe” (boss) of the whole operation does most of the work that goes into your Starbucks bags and chocolate bars under and behind his tiny poor tin roof house, while a German man fills his pockets every week bringing in tourists from the resorts. So sad how cheated these poor people can get. Anyhow we got to see the entire process and it goes something like this – bright red and yellow fruit get picked from the farm, crack them open to find slimy white cocoa beans that you can suck the sweet flavor from (tastes like guayanabana), clean the beans, roast them (over a fire between cement blocks in the yard – the aroma of dark chocolate is mouth watering to say the least), crush them in this antique wooden bowl, add oil and roll them into balls (looks like you know what), put them in the fridge to cool, then cook them up with milk and voila – milk chocolate. The finished product was easily the most delicious chocolate I’ve ever tasted. We bought chocolate balls for the road and Dave was quick to whip up rich luscious brownies when we got home. A great spontaneous and unexpected experience. The weekend was just the right getaway and we are hoping to travel lots more in the upcoming weekends and see much more of these hidden hotspots around the country as time slips away through the hourglass – can’t believe only 50 more days.

Sunday night we said goodbye again to our good friend Antoine as he went back to Haiti, determined to start an orphanage like the one he grew up in – this is “his dream”. This will be another email, but if you are interested in sponsoring this project, please let me know. Will share his story and ideas if you are interested. Also, forgot to mention that our roommate Geza, the long-haired dentist/professional kite surfer from Switzerland also left on his next mission to be the first kite surfer to cross the Bering Strait. If he does, he will break 2 Guinness World Records – http://www.beringstraitexpedition.com/ - pretty cool stuff. Crazy the people you meet here. Last week I found out my roommate Kristina who is also an actress was cast for "this American show called Lost - ever heard of it?" - she couldn't get her American visa so came here to save the world instead.

I could write much more, but one last thing… we got a new child today, only 22 days old and severely malnourished – his skin hangs off all of his bony limbs. He is absolutely tiny – I would guess maybe 4 or 5 pounds – MUCH smaller than our niece Ana Leah when she was born. His name is Saul – his mom died in C-section and his dad is dying too and couldn’t care for him. The tia that was pregnant and recently lost her 3^rd baby (all 3 were lost after 7 months of pregnancy) was curled up with him in the clinic and explained emotionally that the most recent stillborn she had to deliver was the same size as him. It killed me to see the mixed emotion of pain and love in her eyes as she held him and explained she would give and do anything for a baby of her own. Instead she just loves so hard with the little ones we have here.

Okay, I think that’s it. It’s another super long one, I know - but I think these emails will give me a great journal to look back on later down the road - thanks for your patience to those who read.

Let me know if you want to pray for baby Saul or for Rodolfo too.

Can’t wait to see you all next month – can’t believe it’s so soon. And to answer your questions – I don’t know how long we will be in the states and don’t know what we are doing after that. For now, it’s in God’s hands and we just have to be patient and wait and see. Will send pictures in another email attached later to go with the stories.

Lots of love, peace, and prayers,