Buenas Dias Amigos y Familia!

Hi everyone! We only have about a month left here in Punta Cana. I cant believe it! Time has flown by as it always does. We are half way done with Human Geography which we are studying right now and then we have one more class, Working in the Global Community. Human geography has been interesting. The main project for this class is doing a housing census in Veron. We are split into the same groups as we teach with. We have satellite images of the town to find our way around. The same project was done 2 years ago, so we're going around and filling in the buildings that have been built since then and also those under construction. Veron has grown very rapidly. There are new houses and businesses going up everywhere. Some of the town has a grided organization to it, but other parts are just shanty homes, built wherever there is a space. Part of the point of our work is to help the mayor and other officials know where people are living and ways that they can better regulate and organize construction. We have meet and talked with many locals in the process of doing our project. They are all very nice and interested in what we're doing. Only a few people have questioned our motives. For example, one man told another group that he didn't want them taking pictures of the houses because they were only going to take them back and make fun of them and give them to the government to be used against them. My friend Haley tried to explain to them that it was not like that at all that is wasnt for the government, but it was pretty much unsuccessful. As the left they walked away they noticed a large bottle of Brugal sitting next to the man which could explain his frustration and anger towards our group: the gringos. Steven Duke, our director at Virginia Tech, requested that we have escorts with us through Veron This never happened, but even with the cat calls and comments we dont feel unsafe.
Most of our facilites here at the Fundacion havent been in operation lately. Our cable worked for about 2-3 weeks when we got here but hasnt worked again until the beginning of this week. We insisted that it be working for March Madness. Our professor, Korine, emailed the top guys and it started working the next day, leading us to believe it couldve been fixed a long time ago. We've learned that there is a thing called "Dominican Time." You could say it is similar to "Huber Time" times 10. I think anyone looking at this should understand. We also havent had hot water for about two weeks now. We ask our director here, Heyddy everyday about it and everyday she says it should be fixed. Again....it's being fixed on "Dominican Time" Our wireless internet isnt very reliable either. Sometimes it works...sometimes it doesnt. Needless to say, we've learned to be flexible and that we're in la Republica Dominicana and they run on their own time.
My favorite thing we've been doing the last few weeks is going to the school twice a week to teach English. My group is teaching juniors and they're great. I think it's the easiest age to teach. The younger kids don't have as much interest and the older kids dont have as much respect. Our focus in class this week was parts of the body and verbs, along with some vocabulary. We taught them "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and they loved singing it. Teaching for me has been very rewarding especially when you can see the students progress. Some of the students will stay after class also to ask questions.
I hope things are going well in the States. I cant wait to see you all!
Hi everyone! We only have about a month left here in Punta Cana. I cant believe it! Time has flown by as it always does. We are half way done with Human Geography which we are studying right now and then we have one more class, Working in the Global Community. Human geography has been interesting. The main project for this class is doing a housing census in Veron. We are split into the same groups as we teach with. We have satellite images of the town to find our way around. The same project was done 2 years ago, so we're going around and filling in the buildings that have been built since then and also those under construction. Veron has grown very rapidly. There are new houses and businesses going up everywhere. Some of the town has a grided organization to it, but other parts are just shanty homes, built wherever there is a space. Part of the point of our work is to help the mayor and other officials know where people are living and ways that they can better regulate and organize construction. We have meet and talked with many locals in the process of doing our project. They are all very nice and interested in what we're doing. Only a few people have questioned our motives. For example, one man told another group that he didn't want them taking pictures of the houses because they were only going to take them back and make fun of them and give them to the government to be used against them. My friend Haley tried to explain to them that it was not like that at all that is wasnt for the government, but it was pretty much unsuccessful. As the left they walked away they noticed a large bottle of Brugal sitting next to the man which could explain his frustration and anger towards our group: the gringos. Steven Duke, our director at Virginia Tech, requested that we have escorts with us through Veron This never happened, but even with the cat calls and comments we dont feel unsafe.
Most of our facilites here at the Fundacion havent been in operation lately. Our cable worked for about 2-3 weeks when we got here but hasnt worked again until the beginning of this week. We insisted that it be working for March Madness. Our professor, Korine, emailed the top guys and it started working the next day, leading us to believe it couldve been fixed a long time ago. We've learned that there is a thing called "Dominican Time." You could say it is similar to "Huber Time" times 10. I think anyone looking at this should understand. We also havent had hot water for about two weeks now. We ask our director here, Heyddy everyday about it and everyday she says it should be fixed. Again....it's being fixed on "Dominican Time" Our wireless internet isnt very reliable either. Sometimes it works...sometimes it doesnt. Needless to say, we've learned to be flexible and that we're in la Republica Dominicana and they run on their own time.
My favorite thing we've been doing the last few weeks is going to the school twice a week to teach English. My group is teaching juniors and they're great. I think it's the easiest age to teach. The younger kids don't have as much interest and the older kids dont have as much respect. Our focus in class this week was parts of the body and verbs, along with some vocabulary. We taught them "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and they loved singing it. Teaching for me has been very rewarding especially when you can see the students progress. Some of the students will stay after class also to ask questions.
I hope things are going well in the States. I cant wait to see you all!

I love birds!

For the past week we've been bird watching (or birding) with Jerry Via and his friend Bill. I love them both! They're both very friendly; they're like the uncles that you love to go visit because he takes you out to do fun things. Jerry always has random presents for us: Tootsie Roll Pops, clown noses, pens....it's fun. Bird watching has been more interesting than I thought it was going to be. We have seen alot of the endemic species to the Dominican Republic right here around the hotel. You don't even realize until you look but there are always birds around you. Peacocks are wild around here. You'll see them on top of cars and you can always here them squawking.
The other day we went on a field trip to a couple lakes to look for birds. We ended up walking through about 1/2 mile of mangroves which is much easier said than done. Some people had flip-flops on and had to turn around. But we got the full effect of what a mangrove is like- very hard to walk through!
My camera is broken so I havent been able to take any pictures. But Jerry, and some others, have taken alot of pictures which I hope I can get sometime to show you some new pics.
My favorite thing we've done this past week is teaching at the school. We are split into three different groups. There's four people in my group and we go every Wed and Fri for three hours total. We are teaching at a private high school in Veron which is about 15 minutes away. We take the public bus to get there and back. Our group is teaching 11th graders. The first couple times we went, it was a little frustrating because the kids werent really paying attention and we werent very well instructed in what they had already learned and what we should be teaching them. Since we werent really prepared, it was hard to keep their attention.
The English teacher at the school right now is from Haiti, SO her first langauge was French and she doesnt really speak English OR Spanish. I feel really bad for her! I cant imagine trying to teaching kids a language that you barely know and on top of that you cant even speak to them in their own langauge. So, the teacher has been very grateful to have us. We were reviewing colors, days of the week, and months the other day and she was taking notes. (meaning she was learning the words too) When I speak to her, Im not sure weather to speak English or Spanish because sometimes I can understand her better in Spanish. Its a very interesting situation and I understand now why not many people her speak English. The education system is not very good.
There is a Dominican student here for two weeks to take Jerry's class with us. Her name is Natalie and her English is perfect. I've talked with her about the education in the DR and she said it's not good. She is a biology major (yay!) and super smart but people think she's crazy here because there isnt much opportunity once you graduate with a bio degree. It's really unfortunate because she is so smart. She would like to do research but she would have to get a masters or PhD which means going somewhere else (another country) and that of course takes money. It makes me realize how fortunate we are in the US to have so much opportunity right at our fingertips. You jus have to take advantage of it.
But that's a little bit about what's been goin on around here. Let me know how things are going for all you guys! I miss you all and cant wait to see everyone!!!!