Art Lessons on the Beach

Friday November 26, 2010

Day 84

Today is Black Friday and I am happy to report that I wasn’t stuck in any mall traffic.  I guess that isn’t a holiday here.  Teresa thought I wasn’t going to the office today because her kids were off from school but I went to work because if I was in the US I would have to go, so why not? I spent most of the day working on a presentation for the conference with Teresa.  For lunch, Teresa and I brought our leftovers from Thanksgiving and when we heated them up it smelled like Thanksgiving in the office.  I felt like I was home and eating leftovers the day after Thanksgiving so that was really neat.

At night we went to a special mass that Matteo, the driver for the clinic/Project HOPE invited Teresa too. The church is right near the clinic and that neighborhood is a whole different world at night.  Everyone was outside and hanging out in the street.  Everyone seemed to be having fun but wow, it was much different. Since we were special guests we got these neat pins and were invited to a little thing after where they gave us some snacks.  The snacks came in a little Styrofoam box and they were questionable.  Most of the things were breaded and fried so I traded them with Cynthia for a tiny piece of a suspicious hot dog. I was really hungry and I also didn’t want to be rude so I had to eat a little. 

After church we went to a birthday party for Teresa’s friend, Grace.  Grace is from Ecuador and so there were a bunch of people there from Ecuador, including the ambassador of course.  He was actually a really nice guy and much more fun than you’d expect an ambassador to be.  It was an interesting party because there were people from a few different countries there, so everyone had different accents and different dancing styles.  They had a band and they were really good but not good enough to get me to dance.

Saturday November 27, 2010

Day 85

Today was a relaxing, uneventful Saturday.  I spent most of my day reading and then worked on some things for the conference next week.  I think this marks my last relaxing, uneventful Saturday for a long time because next week I will be at the conference all day on Saturday and after that I will be home and I always have too much to do there.  My aunt and uncle, Zoe and Thom are coming tomorrow and I am so excited!

Sunday November 28, 2010

Day 86
I woke up early today to do my laundry and get ready for my day with my aunt and uncle.  I did my laundry with a hint of sadness since it will be my last time doing laundry here. OK, it wasn’t that sad. I am looking forward to doing my laundry at home with my regular machine and not having to wait for the three necessary things for laundry (power, water, sun). 

Later on we went to go pick up my aunt and uncle from the airport.  They wanted to go to the beach when they got here so we all (Teresa and her family too of course) went to Juan Dolio.  Juan Dolio is near Boca Chica, where I went with my family, and the beach we went to was definitely a local beach.  It was right on the side of the road but it was still beautiful.  Unfortunately we were next to a bunch of young adults with loud music and inappropriate dancing so we had to ask them to turn it down a few times.  They were actually very nice about it and I think they were just having fun.  In order to sit at a table with an umbrella you had to order food and I am still wondering if that is true.  Teresa politely complied and ordered four whole fish (for those of us who eat fish), tostones and sweet potatoes.  The fish was very tasty and so were the tostones and sweet potatoes.  It is fun to eat fish when you are 15 feet away from the ocean.

The coolest part of the day was when my uncle took out his colored pencils and sketch book.  He was sitting at a table and drawing a scene of the ocean and within a few minutes he had about eight new little friends.  All of these little boys from the neighborhood, ranging from about 7 to 12 years old, sat down and my uncle gave them paper and an art lesson.  The kids loved every minute of it.  You wouldn’t think this age group would have an attention span for this type of activity but I would say they were doing it for about an hour.  They were so proud of their work and kept showing it to my uncle so he could critique it and give them suggestions to add more.  These little boys definitely made my day. It also didn’t hurt that I got to swim in the ocean in late November. Bragging? Yes.

After the beach we brought T & Z to the Dominican Fiesta and then we all went home.  In the evening we went to church and I think it will be my last time there since I am leaving next Sunday.  There was a different priest and I am pretty sure Spanish was his second language because he had some sort of accent and I was able to understand what he was saying.  I usually have an easier time understanding people who are speaking Spanish as their second or third, etc. language because they speak slower and annunciate more.  It will be interesting to go to church on Christmas Eve in Glen Rock and to hear a mass in English now.  I wonder which mass I know better now?

Fun Facts:

1.       Someone left the hot water heater (you normally put it on right before you take a shower and then turn it off right after) on while we were at the beach so when we came back the water was boiling hot and the water pressure was all messed up.  Coincidently, one of the neighbors also came down to tell us that she saw on the roof that a pipe was disconnected.  Juan Carlos just had to turn a little thing on the PVC pipe and it fixed it.  Luckily people hang their laundry up there to dry and someone saw that the pipe wasn’t connected to the tank or we would have wasted more water.   

2.       Nanita used to own a little restaurant.  No wonder she is such a great cook!

3.       This vendor tried to sell my uncle a bag of nuts for twice the normal price, obviously picking on him because he is a foreigner.  Luckily, he didn’t fall for it.

4.       At the birthday party they played really loud music, with the windows open, until after midnight and the neighbors didn’t even complain. 

5.       At the church on Friday little kid did the readings instead of adults and it was cute.  I was able to understand them perfectly because they read slowly and very clearly.  I think I like that tradition.

Peace,

Jaclyn



Nice artwork, right? They all made nice beach scenes because that is what T was doing.



T and his students. I gave them a peace sign and this is what I got. Love it!