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!!!!