that wicked witch again....

i'm not going to tell you all that the gossipy-gossips around these parts don't get annoying - they do. if you where a pink shirt and a yellow hair tie, people are talking about it. oh, what? she ate a carrot for snack? she is so obviously trying to get skinny to find a man. duh.

it gets old.

but man, this witch thing kills me. i'm not sure i'll ever get tired of it. you'll recall my first encounter with the local witch - where the neighbors assured me that she danced on their roofs at night. and then when we saw her day-dreaming, and she was definitely lejos, flying around in some sort of out-of-body experience.

just the other day, i was in the playground, probably avoiding any kind of real work, and a little girl came up to the gate and asked for our empty bottles. she and her mother troll the neighborhood, collecting plastics which they then sell forward to some of the recycling plants near the landfill. the pair stop by school at least once a week, and we usually have something to help them out with - especially since we've been getting juice in gallon-jugs lately. sometimes we have something, sometimes we don't.

that day, we didn't.

the girl walked away, kind of pouting. the mother then came to the gate and asked for the jugs. i informed her that we didn't have any - we are saving them for a gardening project with the students.

"but i see them over there! give them to me."
"lady, i just told you that are saving them for a project."
"but, there are a ton, you can give me half. i need them."
"yes, i understand, but we need them as well. if i give you these jugs, i'll have to buy something for our project and we prefer to recycle."
"this is how i make money."
"yeah, i get that. i just explained...."

and the conversation went on for a few minutes. me getting more and more exasperated and she looking for more reasons why i should just give her what i had. i think she thought that she was getting somewhere, but she wasn't. i was frustrated and ready to tell her that she wouldn't ever be able to get our plastics again if she didn't leave. as i turned to walk away, she "shhhhhhhh"ed me.

i turned to look, and she asked me if i knew luisa. luisa who lives in la bendicion, the neighborhood next to ours. i just looked at her. really? was this woman really invoking the witch?

"yes. i do. i know her well."
she looks at me, completely serious.

"you know that she eats babies, right?"

i'm not even going to lie. i laughed in her face. i did really well when i was first confronted with the witch - i think because i wasn't being told about her as a threat, but as like, a friendly aviso, notice, about the goings on in the community. but, i'm not really sure what plastic-jugs woman was trying to do - insinuate that she'd have her eat my babies, or just the babies in the community? or accepting her loss in the battle for the jugs, deciding to throw something so non-"christian" in my face? a last word of sorts?

i'm not sure.
but believe me, i got a good laugh out of it.

a little piece of negativity.

there is a lot going on lately - it's finally the end of the semester, shower-six-times-a-day season has arrived, and weh have been busy trying to keep up with everything going on. i am cutting beads for poderosa mujer like a mad-woman - we have an order for 300 pieces of jewelry and we need more than 2000 hand-rolled beads for that.

this week at school we were busy preparing for re-enrollment. it's a stressful process, and one that had the ability to make or break my vision. i teeter-tottered on the fence of "we're going to be turning people away by the bus-loads" and "how are we going to re-fill these classrooms when nobody wants to re-enroll?"

as the principal, i know all of the problems - the teachers who were physically punishing kids, the kids who just weren't learning, the food allergies and bullying and inappropriateness of some students. it was easy to get lost in that negativity, to underestimate the power of all of the amazing things that have happened this school year and focus just on the quejas, the complaints - most of which were real and valid.

last summer we attempted a summer program. one kid enrolled. granted, we were new, there wasn't a lot of promotion for it and our school-year enrollment had been 23. i was sure that that one-kid enrollment was an omen for a bad school year. the community wouldn't trust us, we'd have to constantly explain ourselves and de-bunk myths just to get people to let us teach their kids. and, although we've had a great year, i've been carrying that little seed of doubt around with me since last june.

this "success" won't last. we'll go stagnant at some point and the whole thing will fall apart.

yesterday was our meeting. it was the test - we made the meeting obligatory for all parents who were interested in re-enrolling their child for the coming school year. we have a waiting list, and the only fair way to give away spots is in a raffle. if the parents didn't show up to the meeting, their kid would be entered into the raffle for next year, taking away the security of a spot. it sounds harsh. but every story is heart breaking, and choosing who "deserves" a spot is impossible. the meeting was scheduled for 4:30.
at 4:35 there were representatives for maybe 40 kids. maybe.

i knew it. my heart sunk a little in my chest. for me, this was the way to know if we were doing it right, if people trusted us and wanted their children with us. and only 40 showed up? really?

the sky was even dark, threatening a crazy-dominican-style downpour, so we started. and kind of masochistically, knowing the weight that last year's summer-school failure held in my mind, i had "summer program" as the first point on the agenda. if there wasn't interest, i don't know what i would have done. i quickly explained why we'd like to "do summer," but also that we couldn't do it if there wasn't enough interest. (i left out that if nobody raised their hands i might die).

the whole room raised their hands. and by the time i had finished talking about summer programming, the room was full. over-full even. (i'd say standing room only, but we only have 30 adult-sized chairs, so meetings are almost always standing room only). of 93 students, only about 10 were not represented in the meeting. we will be full and growing next school year.

it's funny to me how i can hold on to one thing for so long as proof that things aren't going to work, even in the face of such proof that it is. we've been blessed over and over again this year in ways that i'd never imagined - from donations of supplies to volunteer-teachers to community support beyond belief and yet i held the single-student enrollment in my heart, letting it keep me down, keeping me from trusting that this is good.

i can't hold onto that anymore. it's time to hold on to the positive, the fruitful. it's so much easier to do, too, the pain and worry associated with that one little negative piece stressed me more than you could believe, but now, i'm choosing to hold on to all of the hands that were raised in that room - we want our children here, we want to invest in them.

good friday.

this morning, at 6am, we hopped in the car and headed to the airport. at 6 am on good friday, the streets are empty. here, almost nobody works today. it's a sacred day. the stores still close from 12-3 and it's hard to buy alcohol.

as we drove along, we saw groups of people walking. and as we arrived in la joya, in front of a prominent catholic church, the masses were beginning to congregate. today, beginning at 6am, catholics walk the via dolorosa, the stations of the cross, visiting 13 different churches throughout the city - reciting a station at each.

we made it to the airport, checked in my parents and i headed back. as i drove up the highway, i noticed a sea of umbrellas, led by a man with a stop sign. hundreds of people following the cross.

and as i made my way back through la joya i had to stop every few feet to avoid running into the ever growing crowd.

 

this celebration of good friday is incredible. masses of people remembering the sacrifice made for them - and the best part of it is that on sunday he will no longer be crucified, the tomb will be empty.

week in review.

my parents arrived on saturday night. we unpacked bags and quickly re-packed them. it's spring break everywhere except at the university. seriously. so samil and amely went to an all-inclusive resort with grandmom and grandpop for a few days - leaving me with work and meetings and a husband hell-bent on "fixing" the backyard.

on sunday we drove them to the resort, stopping in maimon - the best fried fish town in the republic. no lie. it was even better than in the past as the restaurant we usually go to now lets you choose the fish you want to fry up. my dad and i chose tilapia and amalio had a fried-parrot fish. the kids and my mom, who don't eat fish, ate some rice and fried batatas, white sweet potatoes. don't feel bad for them, i'm sure they're eating plenty of pizza and french fries at the beach. cost for the fresh-fish-fry, rice, beans, batatas and a beer? about 20 bucks. ah-may-zing.

on monday i made a quick trip to school to pay our staff, picked up some stuff and ran to a meeting for midwives for the dominican republic. we talked about some fundraising ideas and a little about our new pre-natal curriculum. i'm super excited about the new curriculum - and soon i'll be asking my blog readers and supporters for a little bit of help (keep an eye out for that!)

by the time i got to the university, i was in some intense pain. i've been putting off a dental visit for quite some time now - i lost the filling over a root canal i had done about a year ago. i've been popping ibuprofen like candy and smearing my gums with ambesol to keep the pain at bay until i had time to make it to the dentist (please don't judge me, i hate the dentist). i had an appointment for tuesday morning, but i got desperate and called an ex-student to see if she could take me. luckily, she was taking emergencies and could do it right after my classes. apparently the nerve was crazy inflamed, and no one could believe i had a) not developed an abscess the size of my head and b) that i was teaching with that pain. i was impressed by the quality of care in the university teaching clinic - and while i know some of it was because one of my "dentists" was an ex-student and the other a possible future student, i could see that the patients were treated with dignity and respect. they opened up the tooth and filled it up temporarily until i can get in to get a crown put on it. i don't have enough tooth left for anything else. all in all, the visit cost me six us dollars. SIX DOLLARS people!

on tuesday, i interviewed a few people for summer volunteer and school year internship positions. after messing with the skype and ultimately giving up and using the phone, i had some nice conversations with some pretty neat people. i also went with jewel to have lunch with angela, a super nice exchange student/missionary/awesome girl at one of my favorite lunch spots (naturalis te for you santiagueros). i'm teaching a writing class this semester and i absolutely adore my students. i knew that i would like teaching the class, but i didn't think that i'd come to really enjoy my students so much. we hiked across campus and sat by the chapel to discuss all of the deep issues of life (to tattoo a chinese symbol on my butt or not?)

wednesday was slow - and after a brief hostile exchange at the bus station, i headed to school to have a speed dating session with another class. too bad we called it dating and none of the guys wanted to choose other guys as their partners because "teacher, it's a date!"

thursday  i picked up the kids and then we hung out with my parents, took it easy and tried to maintain some semblance of order in the house. it didn't work.

today, friday, i've been cleaning up and trying to get my house in order - you know, just what i was supposed to be doing all week while the kids were  gone! it's been  rainy and gross and we're just going to take it easy all weekend.

all the pregnant ladies...

big sister learning to swaddle.

after what seemed like a million complications, we were finally able to get a group of pregnant women together for another round of pregnancy classes! while the first group was easy to round up and only seemed to grow week-by-week, this group took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to come together. the average age of the women was much younger and of the 8, only two were first time moms.

i am shocked and awed by the lack of basic anatomical and physiological knowledge. above and beyond all of the pregnancy myths and legends and the crazy dominican "do-not-do-during-pregnancy" list, the question that hurt my heart the most was, "what does my period have to do with my pregnancy?"

meditation and relaxation techniques

we've always talked to teenagers about protecting themselves - using condoms, birth control, abstaining. in fact, i've been known to bring in carry-ons full of condoms for amalio to have on hand at school. just recently two of his (male) students asked for condoms, because in "their line of work" they need them, but they often don't have money to buy any. they're strippers.

it's hard to teach teenagers, and even adults, how to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy if there isn't a working knowledge of how things work. and with all of the crazy rumors surrounding birth control, it's even harder.

pretty pregnancies (and jewel)

the question caught me so off guard because in my north american mind, everybody had some sort of human anatomy class in middle school, maybe high school. we all learned that the woman has eggs and a man has sperm and the two can meet up and form a baby, right? apparently not. as i asked around the group a bit, i realized that even in this hyper-sexual culture, women didn't know what their own body parts looked like on the outside! one woman asked how americans use tampons, because wouldn't pee get stuck inside of her? (tampon use is not common in latin america)

the new curriculum that we're working on will have all of this worked in on the first day of class. information and knowledge are power. when we know about our bodies, we can protect and care for ourselves and our loved ones.

thank you all for sharing this journey!!!

from the ashes.

on tuesday night, i didn't sleep well. amely was up numerous times, trying to crawl into our bed, get water from the refrigerator, "doing peepee." i was exhausted. and i gave up coffee for lent. it's not been pretty.

i was crabby and planning to just finish cleaning the office to avoid real interaction or sharing my bad mood with anyone else. as we pulled up to school, the kids engulfed the car - it's an awesome feeling, especially when jewel and i walk to school and the kids run up the street to hug and hold our hands. but that morning it was different.

"directora - did you know that a baby died last night." "melanie - did you hear about the fire?"

and little by little - pulling one piece of information from each child, and realizing that, yes, in fact, a child died last night in a fire that consumed three homes. three. and even though the fire station arrived in a timely fashion, it was just too late.

it's been weeks since it's rained. and houses made from wood, filled with wood and lined up next to other houses of wood is a disaster waiting to happen. like little tinderboxes just waiting for someone to make a little mistake.

i mentally prepared myself as best i could, and walked the two short blocks to the place - it smelled of smoke still, and as i got closer, i knew i probably wouldn't be able to handle it. the empty lots - were filled with people and a local news reporter stood in the ashes and reported on the tragedy.

there is no running water here. no way to get water onto a fire unless there happens to be some in the family tank. and the little tanker the fire fighters have might not be enough to do the job.

i asked what happens now. three families are homeless. an 11 month old baby is dead. there is nothing left save the box springs from the beds and a few cement columns that made a porch-fence. does the community help? and as i was met with blank stares i realized again that there is nothing material in this community to give. and that made me sad.

until one woman spoke out and said once the reconstruction starts, the men will come with their hammers and nails. and a little boy said and the women will drink coffee and laugh a lot.

this community will survive. it will console its neighbors, they will rebuild - one piece of wood at a time. because that's what they are - a community.

guest bloggin' it up.

 

i've got way too much floating  around in my head today

so i'm thankful to not have to worry about the blog (ha!)

check out my guest post at simplicityinthesuburbs.com about education in the dominican republic