NPH Graduation!

The 1st NPH-DR Graduation EVER!

            I have officially been living in the Dominican Republic for a month.  I am feeling more comfortable around the kids and building stronger relationships with the volunteers in my program.  One way that we, as volunteers, are able to bond so well is because we all live in the same home called the Volunteer House.  We all work in our respective homes with the kids and the tías, or aunts, throughout the day.  We eat and spend time with our kids daily but when it is time to rest we all come back to the Volunteer Home where we have our respective rooms and a communal kitchen.  The Volunteer Home is separated into two floors.  The first floor is where all of the yearlong volunteers live as well as the director of our home and our volunteer coordinator.  They both serve as “Resident Advisors” of our house and we can go to them if we have any problems or concerns.  The second floor is the Visitor’s floor, where the summer volunteers reside and where our visitors can stay for short periods of time.  The summer volunteers have been living here for a month now and will be leaving next week to continue their studies at their universities or to get jobs back at home.  One thing that I really enjoy about the Volunteer House is its diversity.  As of now we have volunteers from Germany, Austria, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Holland and the United States.  It is beautiful to see how the different cultures interact and I also enjoy learning more about their countries of origin. 

            We have also had our first NPH-DR (Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos- Dominican Republic) graduation!  Two girls, shown in the picture above, are the first one’s to graduate high school from the DR home.  The DR program is relatively new and has only been established for 9 years that is why they are the first one’s to graduation from NPH-DR!  I felt fortunate that I was able to attend my first graduation outside of the US and it was awesome!  I must say that it was a lot different than any graduation that I have attended in the states.  Each graduate walked down with a family member to receive his or her diploma, which was really different for me to see.  Now our new graduates must dedicate one year of service to NPH and after that they can attend college.  Both girls plan to have different majors in college; one desires to obtain a job as a lawyer and the other a child oncologist, I wish them both the best of luck and am very proud of their accomplishments.

            One thing that I have observed is the way that I bond with the kids.  It still amazes me how after only living here for a month I feel like the kids are my family.  I hug and kiss them nearly everyday and it makes me think about my own culture back at home and how sometimes I don’t think that we show each other enough love.  I often think that I should tell the kids that I love them and I make excuses for showing them affection because I say to myself that they need it.  However, I have realized that my friends and family back home need it too as do I.  When I return back to the states I plan on showing more affection to those that I care about most because I feel that even something as little as a hug can go a long way.  When I hug and kiss my kids I see them light up and I get excited as well.  Their hugs make me feel that everything is all right and nothing else matters because in that moment I am with a child that loves and appreciates me. 

            Finally I am impressed daily by the improvement in my level of Spanish.  When I first arrived in the DR I didn’t speak much and kind of shied away from speaking because I was so accustomed to speaking in English.  Even though I majored in Spanish at the University of Michigan it was hard to go from just speaking Spanish about 14 hours a week to speaking it 24/7.  I guess I would have to say that was my first culture shock.  Now, after a month, I am back into the groove of things and can speak Spanish at a moment’s notice.  The only thing that I am getting accustomed to now is the Dominican accent.  Some Dominicans I can understand very well, other’s I can make out every other word and sometimes, although rarely, I cannot make out a thing.  However, my greatest accomplishment is being able to understand the kids in Santa Clara, the house where I work, the first week I was here all I could think was, the kids are so cute but I have no idea what they are saying.  I would just say “Sí” and nod my head to everything they said whether it was a question or not.  Now I am accustomed to their speaking and can understand them a lot better than before.  I am very pleased with my progress.  I keep thinking to myself, if I am starting to understand nearly everything that I hear in Spanish now I cannot wait to see how good my Spanish is after a year!  Each day I get better at speaking and listening and I believe that in the upcoming months I will show miraculous improvements.  Watch out world, I may become fluent in a few months, yay! 

I love my blue polo!

In the beginning there were intros...

            After spending exactly 2 weeks in San Pedro de Macorís in the Dominican Republic (DR) I can say that I finally feel integrated into the society.  I no longer feel like an outsider but rather a citizen because I know about the society in which I live.  I am working through an organization called Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH), which stands for Our Little Brothers and Sisters where we serve orphaned and abandoned children in different capacities.  Father Wasson started this program in 1954 when a young boy in Mexico stole money from a collect plate in a Catholic Church.  Father Wasson decided to take the boy in and help him since he knew there had to be a reason that the boy stole the money.  Shortly there after Father Wasson was sent 15 boys to look after and from there NPH was born.  It has since grown and we have homes in 9 different countries to include: Honduras, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Guatemala, Perú, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Bolivia.  I work in the school in the DR as a geography teacher during the summer and will be working as a tutor of mathematics and Spanish during the school year.  Our program contains 12 houses where the kids in our program live.  The ages of our kids range 2-20, in each house the kids are separated by age and gender.  After a student graduates from high school with NPH they must dedicate a year of service to the program and after their service they may attend college.  On NPH grounds it is as if we have created our own society and inside these gates only members of NPH and occasional visitors may enter. 

            I work in the house called Santa Clara with girls from ages 8-11.  I eat with them everyday for lunch and dinner.  Each house also has an "ayudante" or helper that helps the "tías" or the aunts of the house.  The "tías" serve as the guardians of each house and are the caregivers for each of the children.  I feel that their jobs are the most challenging because they must work with the girls and boys around the clock cooking for them, cleaning, doing their hair and so much more.  I have the most respect for them especially because they sacrifice spending time with their families to work with the children of NPH daily.  My first day here my "ayudante" immediately feel in love with me and I instantly felt welcome and right at home.  As for the kids it took them a little more time to warm up to me.  One of the funniest things that happened during the first week was when my volunteer coordinator would introduce me to the kids and they would always ask “Does she even know how to speak Spanish?”  It was so funny because they have no idea that I live to speak Spanish.  I mean sometimes I can be a little self-conscious about my speaking but I really am determined to get better and to speak fluently.  As the kids have started to warm up to us they now call my name in the streets and run up and hug me, which makes me feel so good.  As for teaching them in the school it is awesome but definitely can be challenging sometimes.  My hat is off to every teacher out there, you all are simply AMAZING!  To have to plan a lesson plan for each day is a huge challenge and then trying to keep the kids intrigued and interested in the lesson can be hard sometimes too.  Since I am a geography teacher, the most rewarding moment for me is when my students walk up to other volunteers and are able to tell them their country of origin!  It is so rewarding to know that they have learned something from the lesson.  So far I have one week of the summer program down only three more to go.  I’m enjoying every moment of it!