Running with the Cows

Junior on Family Day

Today I am having a bit of a dilema about which kiddie I should write about, so I am going to include a short note about two different ones! First we have Junior, the second oldest of the children here at 17 years old so not quite a kiddie. In the past month or so he has become one of my best friends out of the kids, partially just because we chat often and as he is older it is possible to have more real conversations. We have shared a lot of past stories and future hopes for life, as well as constantly joking around. Junior is currently the equivalent of a freshman in high school, and with three more years to go will finish at an age of 21. But he realizes how lucky he is to have the opportunity to stay in NPH with all his needs covered to finish school and wants to do exactly that. He hopes to be an engineer when he grows up, but his real passion and favorite passtime is music. He writes hip hop songs and sings them, and was even going to a studio a little while back to record a few things! But he doesn´t want that to be his career, because he wants to be a responsible father who gives his kids a hug everyday when they come home from school. A really great kid that one.

Antony - Looking rather angelic! (and with a pretty normal look on his face!)

The second is Antony. A boy of 6 years who arrived at the home just before I did with his 3 bothers and sisters. To put it simply, Antony is an animal, in the best possible way. I am always referring to him as a monkey because he can generally be found swinging himself all over my body as if I were a tree. His second animal like talent is the ability to make the strangest and most amazing of faces and noises. I am constantly amazed by him and we are always giggling together. A great example of how I can have good relationships with the younger kids but need some real conversation to balance it out.

Although telling you a bit about my kids is a tradition, the real inspiration for this post was to share a funny story with you. A few days ago I was headed home from hanging out with some kids as they were headed to the chapel to say the rosary when Yan Carlos, one of the older boys, came riding up on one of our many recently repared bikes.

“Who is in charge of the cows?” he asked.

“Well technically I suppose I am” I told him.

“Bueno, four of them are on the baseball field.”

And that is how an evening of chasing cows began. We went to check out the situation: which in all reality was four very content cows eating some tasty plants that don´t grow inside their fence. They had escaped through a small hole in the fence, I honestly would love to have seen them escaping because I can´t imagine them getting through the hole! The decision was made that we needed reinforcement, more people. So I conspicuously removed about half of the oldest boys house from the rosary (for which they were all eternally grateful) and we headed off to herd some cows. This section of the night was rather simple, walking/running behind and to the side of them yelling and they head away from the noises... right into their pasture. What began as me wondering how we were going to herd cows ended rather uneventfully.

Or so I thought. We returned to the chapel for the last 10 minutes or so, and while leaving with a different herd, that of children, there were a few shouts of “las vacas las vacas!!” (the cows the cows!). I turned to see the cows had not been content being returned to their grand pasture and had simply headed out again (as we sillily thought it was about to be dark and we could fix the hole in the morning). But this time they weren´t wandering to the far end of the property... they were headed towards the houses. After a bit of commotion, trying to get the kids to head home, Guzman (a man who helps in the farm by day and works at the door by night) came running rather frantically. I looked over to see the cows jogging along through the entrance to the farm... ready to move on to vegetables! This is where the hilarity of the evening came into play. Whoever happened to be standing nearby, from kids of 10 years to Guzman who is probably close to 60, all went running after the cows. Through the squash plants. Through the orchard. And in winding maddness into the pasture of the sheep! There they stayed for the night, as it was easier than moving them back to their home on the other end of the property, and we were able to rest easy, knowing there were no holes in the fence.

Change is a comin´

Before I get into any details of things that have happened these past weeks… I have some rather large news to share. Over the past two days, I´ve been learning myself how to approach the subject and have found that really the only way to do it is to come right out and say it, without a preface... My time with NPH will be coming to a close soon. I will be heading home a bit earlier than planned. Although there were always a few doubts in my head, since my first few weeks here – the past two months have provided a lot of clarity for me. My heart is not with this community, this organization, my work here – this I am sure. And as I am sure you can imagine, this is not the type of work one can succeed in half-heartedly. In reality, the reasons are countless, though this is the largest of them all as well as the most important, so I shall not bore you with a long -winded explanation. Though if anyone cares to know more, contact me!

I would also like to express the fact that by no means do I regret my decision to come here. Not only this organization, but all of my experiences in this country have opened my eyes in a way that nothing in the US ever could have. I have met some of the most amazing people, be it in passing or relationships formed over the course of my months here. I´ve listened to people share their personal experiences with the deep social/infrastructure/governmental problems that exist in this country, and I am sure in many other places around the world. I have experienced things that one cannot experience without living in another country and gaining the trust of the people there. So I will be leaving, after a few weeks in the country with my family, at the beginning of January. Who knows where life will bring me next, though currently I am hoping to find a job in Ann Arbor (of anyone knows of anything, please please let me know) – and hope that my future will bring me to other countries and cultures when time and money allows. I think one of the things making this decision has taught me most is that in life it is so important to follow your heart. The dominicans have taught me that many people in the world don´t have the ability many of us do to change our circumstances when we aren´t content with them. They have reminded me that the ability to follow ones heart should be taken advantage of.

And now I suppose for a few annecdotes, as that seems to be the simplest way to go about this.

-Just after posting my last post, I headed to a little pueblo outside of San Pedro where a fellow employee of mine has reently moved. A woman from Germany who spends half her time in this country doing outreach work with the home, and by most is considered to be more dominican than most dominicans, she really embraces the culture. Anyways, she was hosting a house warming party for herself... and what I imagined to be some NPH employess and some of her dominican friends having a few drinks and dancing for the night was so so much more. Sancocho (a traditional dominican stew) was cooking in giant pots over big fires outside when I arrived, her front yard and street filled with the classic plastic chairs and tables of this country, and already (at 4pm) a slew of people filling the house and yard. The night turned into a grand gathering of people of all nationalities, from rich europeans to haitans from the batey of 15 houses next to our home living on almost nothing. There was a folkloric dance group who came and played music and danced for us, a grand feast of sancocho, and bachata merengue and reggetone until late in the night. But the fiesta was not over that night, it continued with a trip to the beach the next day. With about 20 people piled into her very broken pickup truck (Mother, for your sake I will spare the details) – we headed to a nearby beach and planted ourselves in the shade of a grove of coconut trees to rest from a long night of dancing. And then we ate spaghetti. I learned that day that dominicans are very fond of this food as a ´beach food.´ who would have thought, right, that it makes sense to bring a giant pot full of spaghetti to the beach... but to tell you the truth, it was damn good after a long swim!

My memory is not treating me very well currently and I cannot seem to think of any other grand anecdotes to share and my motivation to write has dwindled... so I shall leave it at that. I´ll try to keep up the blog a bit over the next few weeks, continue sharing interesting anecdotes about my life here.

Photo Mania!!!

After a morning of running around San Pedro trying to find an internet cafe that could handle the largeness of my photos... I have finally posted some on facebook!! Please check out the following link to see my favorite photos from the past few months!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2174951&id=7406685&l=767c33ad5a

Anecdotes

Two of our dear troublemakers, Obama to the right

Well well well, here I am writing, really unsure of where this post may take my thoughts... so I think I shall leave you with a few anecdotes about things that have happened the past few weeks. But first of all, to introduce you to someone! Today we have our beloved Obama/Persidente/Jefe as he is lovingly referred... though his real name is Jose Luis. I know I mentioned him once quite a while back and a few people have since asked me to post a photo, so I though what better way than to also tell you a bit about him. Jose Luis, to put it clearly, is one of our troublemakers. The word 'troublemaker' could be used to describe the majority of our kids, so to be one here means you really take things seriously. But despite his habits of skipping class and getting in fights, he can be a really sweet kid. He almost always has this serious look on his face like in this picture, but if you know how to work him he breaks into the most amazing smile. I've found that if I give him a serious look back for more than 30 seconds, he bursts out laughing. We've developed a bit of a friendship, but in quite the strange way. It mostly involves joking around with eachother and making faces... but hey, I'm not complaining.

And now, a few stories about the life here:
-I mentioned briefly in my last post that the boys who live in my house have been asking me for seeds lately and started planting a bit in our backyard. Well, over the past few weeks, it has turned into what one might call a full out family sized garden. Almost all of the land along the fence surrounding our backyard has turned into child sized gardens, each belonging to one of the boys in my house. I am pleasantly greeted at times with children exclaiming "la mata nacio! la mata nacio!" (the plant was born!). It seems much of the excitement has come from the kids learning that gardening is something I believe is important, as it is part of my work here... and wanting to appeal to that. It is really the first time I've felt like the kids maybe understand a bit about who I am. As for now, we have some seedlings and I'm hoping they can continue to care for them well enough to actually get some vegetables!

-My budding relationship with one of the dear old hatian men who I work with on the farm has led me to some wonderful times. If I haven't yet explained, there are 6 workers on the farm with whom I share my time there. Although I would love to say I am doing hordes of hard manual labor, I am spending a lot of time chatting (good in its own way, right?). But the good that has come from it is that I now have 2 great buddies and a few other burgeoning friendships. The two great buddies of mine are a pair of Hatian brothers, Caito and Moreno, who are in their 60s. So keen to share their knowledge of the land and of life. Caito has really taken me under his wing a bit teaching me about how the tropical plants grow and what you can do with different fruits and vegetables. He recently brought be a bag full of acidic oranges from the tree at his house, with special instructions to drink the juice of half an orange every day. No more, as they are so acidic and it can be hard on the system if you have too much. Both Caito and Moreno insist that if I continue with this, my heart will be strong and my body healthy. Funny enough, I've been drinking this juice for a week or so and during that time caught the nasty 'gripe' or cold that is going around the home. It's really knocked me out a bit the past few days, but also taught me a little something new! The first day I went to the farm to work with my cold, I told my pals upon asking how I was "well, I have gripe, so I'm a bit sick. But other than that good" Caito and Moreno replied, "well, it all depends on how you look at it. In reality, someone who doesn't have a cold is a whole lot sicker than someone who does" hmmm. And before long, I was in my housse hearing exactly the same from one of the Tias. Quite a different way of looking at things eh, but heres how they figure. When you've got a cold you're constantly coughing, sneezing, and blowing your nose. All of this is pulling all the bad things out of your body, leaving you a lot healthier. And all those without a cold still have all those things building up in their body. Maybe those of us who aren't sick just dont have that bad stuff in their, but needless to say, an interesting way of looking at things.

-A bit of the situation here is about to change as my dear partner in crime, Ingrid, has decided to move on to a new adventure. I'm sad to see her go, not only for the work we've been doing together, but also as we are very like minded and have therefore been able to share some wonderful times. But also am happy for her, as I know her heart has been calling her to somewhere else (although where has yet to be completely determined) and I know how important it can be to follow your heart. In her preparations to leave over the past few days, she has left to me what we hope to become a bit of a legacy within the volunteers. A perfect climbing tree hidden in a back corner of the property with a little perch from which you can see both the ocean and the mountains on a clear day. What has been her place of refuge to get away from the commotion of life here, a place to sit and think, will hopefully provide me with the same.

-Of course, what could be a post about life here at NPH without mention of frustration. I had a bit of a rough week trying to rest the sickness out of me, and came out of it ready to get a little bit of work done yesterday, only to feel shot down by the house director, a nun from Colombia. She made it very clear to me that she really doesn't give a darn about the program I am working on to have the kids clean up the beach for a short period of time when they go to the beach each Sunday. A simple way for them to give back to the community and learn about the problems of litter in the country (which are HUGE). It is just a rather disheartening feeling to know that almost no one in the administration cares whatsoever about environmental issues, and won't do anything to help me aside from telling me i have permission to complete projects if I do all of the work.

-Last, but definitely not least, this week has brought 5 new kids to the home, one of which is a little boy living in my house now. Sebastian, the new little guy, is incredibly sweet. Yet to be tainted by others in the house, I have nothing but great things to say about him. He seems to have taken quite greatly to me as he is always asking me when I'll be coming to the house if I see him out and about, asking me to stay just a little bit longer, and sitting with me whenever given the chance. It is a funny thing to feel like someone who has known me for all of a few days seems to care and respect me more than those who have known me for 3 months.

so there you have it, a bit of a peak into the life I've been living here at the home over the past few weeks. I know its just a few stories, but life seems to have settled into something more constant, so stories of what has happened seems to be the best way to share with you my excitements and troubles. I hope that life is bringing excitement to all of you, and wish you all a happy thanksgiving if I dont get to writing before then!

paz y amor

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

Redefining Family

Luis Arturo, mi hermanito

Today I want to introduce you all to Luis Arturo. Despite being adorable and having a really lovable attitude once getting to know him, Arturo (as he is known because there is another Luis in his house) is also the child that my parents are sponsoring. Side Note: all the kids here have between 6 and 8 Padrinos, or Godparents, who pay to support them. Although the money all goes into one pot for the home, the kids get letters and photos and things from their Padrinos and are always writing back to them. It is pretty amazing the love and appreciation some of them have for people they´ve never met. Anyways, I´ve been spending a lot of time with Arturo the past few weeks as I think of him a bit like a little brother... he even answers to hermanito when I see him (spanish for little brother). He can be a bit finicky, and somethings standoffish... but when he is ready to play with you – its hours of hugging and laughing and all sorts of wonderful things. I think as he is getting more accostomed to my presence as well, the standoffishness is fading. At only 2 years old, I´m excited to see him grow up over the years J

MMMMM Cucumber! We have an abundance of cucumbers coming out of our greenhouse (we´ve passed 1000 harvested a few weeks ago), and the kids enjoy eating them whole in the afternons!

One of the boys in my house wanted hearts and the word ´familia´(family) painted on both arms when we were face painting!

A few of you may be wondering why I would title a post ´Redefining Family.´ Especially if you know how strong of a role my family plays in my life, with a pretty clearly defined definition. Well here it is, yesterday was Dia de Familia here at the home. An interesting concept for me as we are a home for orphaned and abandoned children. If they have family that exists, for me there better be a gosh darn good reason for them to be here instead of with those families. I had a few doubts throughout the day as many of the families appeared not to have insufficient money to take care of children, in fact many had numerous other children with them (be them cousins, children born after our kids were brough here, whatever). Those who I saw interacting treated the children well, and many children were so sad to see them go at the end of the day. I guess I just need to remind myself that we have trained social workers and psychologists that investigate every situation and make the decisions of who comes to the home. They must have good reason!

Danilo, one of the older boys serving up pizza made by the leadership group and sold to the families. They were making money to feed their chickens!

The day consisted of the families of about half of the children coming to visit, bringing parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, nephews – a whole slew of people – dressed in their best, with gifts and food from outside for the kids. There were events all day, kids were sitting in the shade of trees spending time with their families, the Tias were sharing information about the kids lives with them – almost like mothers bragging with report cards and all, and there was also a whole lot of dissipointed/upset/lonely children. It was so interesting to see adults walking around and instantly being able to determine who they belong to. My favorite was when one of our sets of twins were walking with their father, all looking almost identical aside from the years aging the fathers face.

I spent quite a large part of the day painting the faces of kids who didnt have family there to keep them occupied, chatting about life and things. This is where the idea of redefining family comes in. I´ve always been amazed at the ability of one of my fellow volunteers, an ex-pequeño from the home in Haiti, to talk about his NPH family. Always in the form of brothers and sisters. Though he clarifies whether he is talking about an NPH brother or a blood brother – the sentiments are the same, the feeling of family never changes. I spent a lot of my day talking to those children, especially those who are newer to the home, about the idea of an NPH family. The fact that there are so many people here within these walls who love and care for them, the fact that no matter what family exists for them outside of the walls, they will always have their family here. These are some of the ideas I feel are so important for the children to be shown and told often as to help create those sentiments.

We had a retreat for the volunteers a few weeks ago and spent a lot of time thinking about various goals we have for our time here. One of the things I thought about was the importance of family in my life and how I can help the children to redefine the word and create that same sense of family importance with their fellow pequeños, tias, and all the others here. I know this weekend was just a start but I hope that by providing an example and talking with the kids, I can help to inspire that sentiment in them.

Tia Morena and Alberto (both from my house) showing that feeling of NPH family and dancing in the park to a bit of bachata!

In other news, I´ve really starting my work in the farm! I´m spending about 10 hours there every week working lots with plant reproduction as well as helping with the classes taught there. In these classes the kids each have their own row in the garden where they can grow and care for whatever they please as well as their own fruit tree to care for. As with everything here, it doesnt always work out perfectly, but it has been really exciting to see the kids who get into it. Last week I helped one of the boys harvest pounds and pounds of peanuts!!! It was the first time I had ever seen them growing and had me really excited. I´m also learning a lot from the Hatian workers we have there. I love the Hatian people, they are so kind and ready to share their knowlege. Slowly I´m learning the processes for planting and caring for plantains, bananas, yuca, batata (similar to a sweet potato but white in color, and different in shape), and many other tropical fruits and vegetables!

I think thats about it for now, I´m feeling more settled in a routine and work here, sometimes I can´t even figure how how the weeks are passing they go so fast, I feel like I´m living my life here not just visiting some foreign place. And this weekend, it´s off to visit a little town in the mountains and do a bit of exploring!

Birding Expert visits NPH-DR

Below is an article that I wrote for NPH publications... just thought I would share it with you!

Birding Expert visits NPH-DR

This week, numerous children here at the NPH home in the Dominican Republic had the opportunity to learn a little more about the birds around the property on which our home lies. As a part of the Naturalismo y El Medio Ambiente (Naturalism and the Environment) course taught to students fourth grade and down, each class spent an hour attempting to quietly walk through less developed areas of the property, taking notice of the perches, flight, and sounds of nearby birds.

It all began with a visit from bird expert and owner of Tody Tours (a bird tour company here in the DR), Kate Wallace. Kate led bird walks around our property this Monday for both the second and fourth grade classes, lovingly sharing her knowledge of Dominican birds with the children. At one point, she even had all of the children laying in the grass playing dead to see if the vulture above would believe they were food!

Kate also lead an early morning bird walk for some of the older children with specific interest in the topic. As the sun was rising and the tropical air was still brisk, the group was able to see and hear many more of the property´s numerous bird species. From this walk has stemmed the start of a bird club here at the home, who will be creating posters to help teach the rest of the children to identify our many birds, and sharing their excitement with fellow pequeños!

The events of the week were organized by Project Green volunteers Christina Carson and Ingrid Hannan with help from employee Marijo Rozycki who hope it will spark continued interest in appreciation for the wild birds and animals of our home.