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!