An alligator ate my pencils!

Here they are... my sole purpose for being on this island, my 7 boys. These kids are awsome, a helluva handful but absolutely awsome.

So, the schedule i though i was going to have didnt exactly work out as expected. i pretty much live in the shelter, im there from monday til friday usally sat morning and i go home for the weekend to recharge. All the kids started school 2 weeks ago, they still have class with me but now its more like study hall, i help with there homework and teach more on what there learning at school. my main focus right now is getting there behaviors in check. at the moment there isnt a set schedule for the boys and depending on who's working that day is what they say will be like. since im there everyday ive taken it upon myself to organize a schedule. i also got all the kids working for stars in there "passports" i made them. when they do everything there supposed to (chores, classes, following the schedule) they get stars and at the end of two weeks those who have all there stars go on an outing. Yesturday was the first one, i took the kids out into the town for icecream. Ive just barely started this on thursday but so far its proven to be quite effective, we'll see how it goes.

Hey good lookin... I wanted ya to get a look of the view from my bedroom in the shelter. Now you may ask yourself why i would want to live there 24/5. well several reasons really, 1. establishing the schedule with the kids kinda requires my presence there at least right now while we're gettin it started 2. why go home to a dark, moldy, leaky, hot room where i have to take bucket baths and sleep on a mold smelling bed, when i can stay in a 4 months old private room with my own shower and this view. 3. and most importantly, i really like it there, its a great family envirionment. i fell like im living with 7 little brothers. i love it. when they behave i absolutely love it, when they dont it can get alittle tough but the kids bounce back pretty quickly and never hold grudges for longer than an hour.

The shelter is about a five minute walk from downtown (the only intersection in town) but its out away from everything so its a beautiful view. Although you cant catch the sunset, the sky looks amazing in the late afternoon, you get different colers everynight reflecting off the clouds. ill add a pic in my next blog.

Yea, its a tough life! i get a break from like 4-530 while the kids are out for P.E. so i sneak off to my room, sip on my 3rd cup of coffee for the day and read. and when i peak up from my book this is what i see.

OK, well ima gonna go ahead and end this blog, i think ive done a pretty good job, eh? leave comments, id love to hear from yall.

miss yall and love ya a bunch.

Enrique

Santo Domingo

OOOPS!

This was posted on Aug25th, apparently i suck so bad at blogging that i posted it on the wrong blog. i have a secret one hidden and only for the cool people who hear the uncensored detail of my experience..... not really im just an idoit.

enjoy.


ok, so apprently i suck at posting blogs. so im almost hitting the one year in county and this is my third post i believe, i swear things have been going on, im just to lazy to type it, besides most of the really fun stuff i usually dont remember anyways. but for that which i do, here goes... Barahona didnt quite work out, my shelter lost its funding and closed up shop. so after 2 weeks of doing absolutley nothing (i loved it), i went home to do a whole lotta eating and gained 11 pounds. i dont think i look like a crack head anymore (thanks jolly, ant, neeks, jason, you A holes!) anyways i got back on friday, and was welcomed back vary appropriettly by me nearest and dearest. i put off moving to my site til weds, i went to see the president at a high school inauguration. (i didnt get to meet him) so my new home is awsome, im living it campo style, rats bugs, mud, i even have a latrine. im finally getting peace corps with it. im only an hour outise the capital which is very convenient. im back with a host mom so ill prolly conitnue the weight gaining process begun in the states. im still working in a shelter only a much more organized better funded one. the kids are younger (9-14) and are so much fun to work with. my job is to teach and i absolutely love it. im going to be working closely with the school and getting these kids caught up. i also got a youth group, they happened to form right as i moved in so i jumped in, and im also working on getting a girls group going, again also kinda forming as i got there. i really got lucky and landed in a sweet spot.
i havent been in my site too much yet, since we did a retreat and then the hurricane hit and all the PCVs were forced to consolidate (25 pcv's stuck in ahotel for 2 days.. see what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real) so no routine has been established yet, but it looks like ill be working from 9-2 iish then youth group stuff in the afternoon. i havent had any routine since i got here so im really looking forward to some kind of sanity. im afraid i may not remember what thats like.

ok well enough bloggin for me, hope all is well in the sane world.

josh how was santa cruz... you dirty hippie.

vero keep running.

nessa keep being crazy.

everyone else i love ya a bunch and miss ya.

oh yea, samantha good job on that award at school and not getting your name on the board, i love you and miss you the most

.love enrique

in Nagua now

whats up everyone, well just to clarify my last blog i happened to be in Barahona that weekend visiting a volunteer, i actually spent the first three weeks of training in the capital. this month ive been in Nagua which is a small city on the north coast. the first morning i was here i finally made it to my first dominican beach and had a refreshing swim in the ocean. i later found out that the beach is contaminated and not safe for swimming, oops!
so far its been alot of fun out here, we're being kept busy with spanish class, tech training, internships, and we are assigned to a youth group. my internship is in a newly opened computer lab at a catholic church. its pretty boring cuz they have no work for me to do other than answering the few questions that the kids might have. spanish class is held in my front porch so i simply roll outta bed and im there, yet i stilll manage to be late.
so far ive gotten to do some kool stuff out here, the first weekend here we celebrated a volunteers birthday at a club, no i dont kknow how to dance merengue but i faked it. that saturday we were up early for a trip to an uncontaminated beach, that night we went to a party thrown for us by the people of Matancitas which is where 4 of the 17 youth volunteers are staying, about 3 kilometers outside of Nagua. that night was absolutely amazing, we had the beach to ourselves, and there was drinking and dancing at a colmado right on the beach. there was also a dance contest, i lost. the full moon reflected down on the water and it was an amazing sight. the following weekend me and 6 other volunteers boarded a flatbed truck with 40 other youth and went out to some river to go swimming, the river was fun the transportating was scary. i sat on the bed of the truck and had nothing to hold on to, i saw my life flash before my eyes at everyturn.
well, we finally have been informed of where we're going to be placed for out 2 years of service. Im going to be in the city of Barahona, where i happend to be on my volunteer visit. its a city in the south, im going to be working with catholic nuns who work with homeless kids. barahona has running water and electricity, not exactly the conditions i was expecting when i joined the PC but the work is whats important to me and i think i can do well working with homeless kids. im really excited!

ok well hope everyone is doing well.

Vero way to kick ass in Long Beach

Danny give Kari a big birthday hug from her tio.

Nessa write me back stupid!

love
enrique

greetings from barahona d.r.

ok so i finally made it to an internet cafe, they'vs been really close by but if theres ever a wait of more than a minute i go home and then end up to lazy to walk back after dinner. anyways...
two weeks in country so far and im really having a great time. the first 2 days after labor day in miami were awsome, monday night shortly after arriving i met up with paul (my cousin) and we crammed his semi truck with 10 people and headed to south beach. the rest of the time in miami was prett chill since tues and weds we had orientation.
we (originally 57 now 54 volunteers) arrived to the DR on thurs the 7th, and stayed in a retreat center and then went on to meet and stay with our host familys the next day. My host family is awsome, mom and dad are really nice and theres a 5 and 7 year old girls and 12 and 14 year old boys. they are all really great.
so heres a list of things ive gotten to do in my two weeks in county:
>kill, pluck, and eat a chicken
>ride in cars and busses crammed with more people and one can imagine
>bathed useing buckets
>bathed in a spring with 6 other people bathing
>gathered water from a stream for the bucket showers at home
>eaten more avocado than i have in my entire life

theres more stuff i just dont have enough time to finish as im down to just 4 minutes of infernet at this place.
all is great im adjusting quite nicely, miss everyone, hope all is well way over there.

welcome to my blog

well this here blog is to chronicle my adventure as a peace corps volunteer in the dominican republic as a youth development promoter. for those of you who choose to read it i ask for your patience for i dont beleive much in proper spelling or grammer, or the use of periods,
with that warning given if you still conitue to read than good luk. ill try my best to update this as often as possible.