Fresh Mountain Air

A pretty acurate representation of my boys along with my favorite of the Tías, Marta!

I know I´ve been starting off my posts by introducing you to an individual kid, but today I think I´ll switch it up just a bit and instead introduce you to the boys of the house I spend most of my time in. The house I eat lunch and dinner with, wish the kids sweet dreams at night, take part in a bit of the discipline, and well just hang out with. We have 20 boys between the ages of 5 and 12 who are most of the newest boys in the home... though that could mean they´ve been here anywhere from a month or so to over a year. With such a broad range of ages, the atmosphere in the house is a lot different from that in many of the others. The older kids take on a lot more responsibility, cleaning after the youngsters have gone to bed, and when they are on their best behavior they can really look out after the little ones. Sometimes I´ll look up from my meal to see one of the oldest and toughest kids feeding our littlest one who sometimes needs a bit of help. Many of the boys are really interested in gardening and are always asking me to bring them seeds and help them build a garden in the backyard. As we´ve recently moved into a new house, the process is starting all over again with fresh land. I have hopes for vegetables of all kinds to be growing there! Also as they are the newbies, they aren´t all used to living in a home of people who care about them or having any sorts of rules whatsoever... so they can be really hard at times. Slowly they are getting more used to my presense and taking me a bit more seriously, but it can still really be a challenge. That said, I´ve grown to love every single one of those boys and hope my presence will help guide them in the right direction!

As for other things, this post is mostly just to share with you a bit about my last weekend off! I know I know, maybe you all want to hear about my work and the life at the home... but this is what I currently have the motivation and desire to share. About a 5 hour journey from here lies a few town scattered in the mountains loving referred to as the Dominican Alps... though without snow and anywhere near the height of the real Alps, I´m not sure I would go so far. Names aside, the mountains are a wonderfully fresh and beautiful change of climate, landscape, and pace of life from my home here close to the Carribean beaches. So off I went this past weekend with one of my fellow volunteers and another NPH employee in search of fresh mountain air, beautiful views, and best of all, trails to hike.

Although our journey ended a bit different than we had envisioned, it was a refreshing change of lifestyle from that I have here, a bit of a peak back into the life I tend to crave. Some of the trails we had heard of required paying a motoconcho (motorcycle taxi) quite a large sum of money to drive you up to the head of the trail and sit and wait for you to return. Being rather poor volunteers, we instead spent our days mostly wandering. We would set off in the direction of the mountains or a friendly looking hill to explore and just keep walking wherever the roads seemed to take us and whatever paths the roads turned into, no worries of how we would find our way back because without a doubt it always worked out. We saw the sun rise. held doves with a kind old man at his little shop. Climbed outdoor staircases to the roofs of buildings to find sprawling views of the town slowly becoming mountain. rode through mountain roads between towns in the back of pickup trucks, stopping for a potty break at someone´s home while the driver picked guavas and passing them out to all the passengers. made our way along mountain streams by wading upstream. stopped to chat with whatever people we found along the way... which led us to exciting things! From chatting came spending a little time helping some men till thier land behind a friendly old horse and sipping on homemade sugarcane wine.

The whole weekend left me feeling so refreshed and excited about what other possibilities may lay ahead of me by finding my way out of this little section of the country. Although a meager 3 days off every other weekend doesn´t allow for exploring too extensively, I´m ready to get out there and see more of what the country has to offer inland and away from the tourist filled beach towns!

I wanted to add some photos of the mountains as well, but I dont have the patience to wait for the internet right now... hopefully this week I will be putting an album on facebook and can post a link here for all to see! And before long will be coming more about the actual work I´m doing and how life is at the home of course.

Last but not least, I´ve been feeling a tad bit homesick the past week or so, which in turn has me thinking of all of you, my beloved family and friends. I would love to hear a bit about what you´re up to, so when you get a chance shoot me an email and update me on your life! It would be ever so appreciated J