Gap Year in Dominican Republic

To sum up today - rubbish! Today has got to be the day where I've been most homesick so far. We arrived back in La Hoya yesterday (where there was a mouldy fridge and lots of tidying to be done) to find out school won't be open till tomorrow and that we won't start teaching until Monday - if there isn't another storm! So having started our fifth week here and not even touched on teaching yet (school's only been open three days in total), I've been starting to wonder what on earth I'm doing here. We're still been made to wake up early for a 'full working day'but there's not much to do around the school apart from study spanish - something I'm starting to get sick of. Basically today I've been wallowing in self pity having no energy and sleeping most of the day because it's so hot. However, tonight I was persuaded to go for a walk with Rosie where we met the Haitian children, and I was suddenly reminded of why I was here. I came here to help people and see another way of life and that's exactly what I'm doing; nothing around here goes smoothly so I just have to go with the flow and enjoy the ride! School opens tomorrow... again, and I'm looking forward to it. Having been through the flood with the village I'm not feeling like the tourist I once was when I first arrived.

Well the past two days have probably got to be the hardest yet. We got evacuated on Friday and we've been staying in Barahona since then with a friend of Marges; ten people in a house - cosy! Sunday night was when the storm from Hurricane Ike eventually came; lots of thunder (never heard anything like it!), lightening and RAIN! La Hoya and Bombita got evacuated that night - well those that wanted to. Bombita had got flooded from the rains and the river near La Hoya was rising quickly with water from mountains, other villages etc. The next morning we went to visit the evacuees at the refugee centre; it was schocking - but apparently the centre was better than after Hurricane Noel last year! The floorboards were rotting in places, there were matresses everywhere; kids came running up to us as soon as we arrived because they were so bored. Everyone was asking us our names and teaching us clapping games until it was time for food... there was no indication that it was food time until all the kids in the hall stampeded by us to rush into a line. The Dominican red cross were there handing out milk and breaded - the families hadn't been fed since they had arrived. The villagers had formed committees to keep the bathrooms clean and make sure that it was only villagers in the Olympic stadium - Bombita had been evacuated there, we didn't have a clue where La Hoya were! After saying hello and playing a few more games in was time to leave for our lunch. As we left there was this really dirty, poor boy wandering about in old pants asking for anything he could find on us; he wasn't part of the village and had been escorted out quite a few times when we'd been there. It really was heartbreaking but you couldn't do anything as there were too many kids that needed help. When we got back to the house we were all dirty and smelly and had to disinfect ourselves well. After lunch we went into Barahona and bumped into quite a few white people! First we met American mormens in the internet cafe, then a Dutch doctor when we were eating ice cream in the park, and then Bill and Jerry who were so like a couple it was unrel, they offered to buy us lunch next time they saw us. Also 'broke' a toe and a flip flop while we were there; just wasn't my day! Got a concho back then we were brought back down to the reality of our situation when we were met at the door by Connie. La Hoya was about to be flooded, the river was rising rapidly and eventhough we'd put most things up, we needed to help put more stuff up on tables etc at the school. Lynne was already in the truck so we hopped in the back and off we went. As we arrived people were packing belongings onto trucks, trying to carry as much stuff as they could on a motorbike and others were walking out of the village. Part of the village was already knee deep in water and so we had to leave the truck on the other side. We all built up a bit of muscle carrying beds and motorbikes etc around the school. We then had five minutes to check our house, grab some extra clothes and we were rushed out again; we had packed an overnight bag on the Friday since we thought we were only staying for a day or two! The Friday night was also when we'd put most beds and fridges up - the villagers came up to help, they were fab! As we were leaving we offered to give people a ride back but many people didn't want to leave until it was properly flooded because it was where they belonged. It was starting to get dark now and as we got up to the main road we saw the Haitian families waiting at the gua-gua stop to try and get to Barahona... We offered to give them a lift and we managed to squeeze into the back of the truck. As we were helping load their belongings on - all they had was one bag - I got handed the most beautiful baby that was fast asleep. The whole experience of sitting in the back of a truck in the dark with the families who were just so poor, holding a beautiful baby was a really humbling experience. When we managed to find the refugee centre there was no power and we weren't even sure if they would be able to get inh because they were from La Hoya. The children were all tired so we took and child each along with a bag and carried them down to the centre. Luckily we'd picked up Connie along the way so she'd managed to persuade the centre to find the families somehwere for the night and so we left them sitting on the wall waiting to be taken to where they'd stay for the night. It was after nine when we got back and we still hadn't eaten, so we had our dinner and went straight to bed as we were exhausted. The next morning we did a bit of spanish and then went to the refugee centre. We took the kids outside to a nearby park to play some games so that the parents could have a bit of a rest - we certainly needed a rest after it! We then went to the La Hoya refugee centre; we'd finally found out where they were staying. They weren't as cramped as the Bombitians as many had family in Barahona. We said our hellos and played a couple of games and left as it had started to rain and the street the centre was on was flooding.... for the last couple of days we have been visitng both centres and today the president came to visit. Connie the head of COPA managed to get to speak to him and hopefully some plans will be made to reduce the flooding in the future. We are still in Barahona and won't be going back for a couple of days. I'll try and keep you updated. Write soon... x

Firstly apologies if this doesn't totally make sense; it was written in a rush as I only have so much time on the internet...
Initial impressions... HOT and HUMID! The night we arrived at San Dom airport it was like walking into a suana, literally. As soon as we'd met Raoul after getting through immigration - took a while - and walked out of the doors, sweat was pouring off us and hair was stuck to our foreheads. Accommodation is a lot better than expected, yellow walls and a fridge but electricity is on and off all the time. Tonight we went in the village on our own without Lynne, starting to feel like part of the community. The village, pueblos, is full of children running around naked with massive knives who drive motorbikes every once in a while. Earlier today we got a tour of the school, saw our 'classrooms'- well I don't really have one - and got given our teaching materials. Ended up carrying English stuff from my tiny room full of sport stuff to the screen room in a wheelbarrow. Then went to the art room where we met Angelina and bridy who came running in to help us tidy. After that we saw our first TARANTULA, Bridy went running after it with a rock... We then saw Sylvia who met us for the first time on on our first wander through the village. We were invited to hers for dinner which just shows how friendly the people are, we've only been here two seconds! We also met Lorrainee and some guys who we managed to communicate with through a mixture of English and Spanish, yaaaaay our first friends! I love it here already! The village initially reminded me of out of the telly adverts for sponsoring a child apart from most of the houses being concrete. Hygiene probably isn't the strongest point in the village and so we've been warned about it by almost everyone... dinner a couple of nights ago was a prime example where the fish - which was huge - was being cut open on the ground outside of a house. Flies were on it and the water it was being washed with wasn't exactly clean. It was at this point the Rosie, Lauren and I started to worry we were going to have to eat it. Just as we were about to say we were going to leave as we were being bitten to death by mosquitos - plus we weren't actually sure if we were going to get fed! - we were invited inside. Luckily we were given egg rolls instead; not sure when they're going to use the fish. Our spanish is starting to come along too - well for me that's non-existant to the basics - and I'm picking up a couple of new words each day. Learning the Spanish gives you a little lift each day as you can feel yourself improving, haha it's only been a couple of days! Everyone is so patient and relaxed and you can sit for hours not speaking but knowing you're at peace with each other - I love it! On our way back for example we stopped off at Winita's, spoke a little spanish and just sat while watching little Vanessa playing with the cat, everyone's so friendly. Not many people are employed so sitting around is what they do. The stars last night on the way back were beautiful; it's all so clear. Also in the daytime the scenery is just magical with a light breeze blowing through the palm trees and the hills in the background - WOW! This is my home for the next year! unfortunately that's all I've got time to write; there are so many more stories about floods and fires but I'll save that for next time. Hasta luego!!!