BRYSON | ADAMS

March Medical and Dental Clinics

2011-04-12T06:29:00.000-07:00

Me with our Haitian-Dominican translators at one of the rural clinics.

Hello everyone! We had a very busy spring down here in the D.R. with Orphanage Outreach and an extremely busy month of medical and dental clinics! In fact, this spring we had the most successful medical and dental clinics since we started running free clinics back in 2008. In order to put on free clinics it’s important to have partnerships with local organizations to ensure adequate follow-through with patient care when needed. Here, in the small costal town of Monte Cristi, we partner with a local NGO called Banelino, which is a Fair Trade Banana operation that uses profits to provide services to the people that live and work in the plantation areas. A well respected local physician named Dr. Miguel Garcia works with the Banelino Preventative Health Care Program and also partners with us during our medical and dental clinic weeks. After finishing a busy spring of clinics he sent a review of the services to Banelino’s CEO, which sums up some of what we did. He said..

“Friends, I can tell you that I feel swollen with emotion! Never before have we carried out three Medical Clinics in a year. It has been a huge success. ORPHANAGE OUTREACH & BANELINO have achieved it. Congratulations to Bryson, Kevin, and Conor for their efforts. To Marike for her support. There have been 2,227 actions of health that have been carried out from January 10 to March 24. In three clinics with three medical and nurse teams and two dental teams we have achieved it. I want to highlight this last team from March 21-24: Tremendous, Excellent, Marvelous. The doctors, the nurses, the students, those blessed dentists and their personnel. Very good people, healthy, caring, hard working and with a great sense of humanity. Here you have the results for yourselves to analyze! Thank you, -Dr. Miguel Garcia Tatis”

As you can see in Dr. Garcia’s words, we served the medical and dental needs of so many people in the relatively short time period that we ran clinics. In just three major clinics we met the needs of over 2,000 people in very poor, rural villages where residents don’t even have access to medications as simple as Tylenol or Benedryl. Our American and Canadian clinic teams met patients with a tremendous amount of pathology....infections, skin disease, STD’s and more...and not only treated their ailments, but treated them with the kindness and dignity that all human beings deserve. Unfortunately, the people living in these remote villages are all-to-used to living and suffering with whatever affliction they have, simply because they don’t have access to care. A young mother caring for her two year old child with scabies, for example, may be not be able to do anything about it and so her child simply suffers.

Some of the incredible dental work during our spring clinics. Click for a larger view.

Consequently, people in these very small villages and remote areas will go to great lengths to get the respected, high quality free care we provided. One of our patient’s effort to see a doctor, painted a clear picture for me of the daily struggle so many people face in this part of the world. After talking to a Haitian man waiting in line, I discovered that he was from a village named Meyac just across the Massacre River that creates the natural northern border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. That morning, he walked 3 kilometers from his town to the river, then swam across the river with his two-year old daughter on his back and his clothes in a plastic bag to keep them dry. Then, as he walked into the Dominican Republic he had to pay a bribe of $50-100 pesos (about$1.50-$3.00USD) to a Dominican Border Patrol Officer in order to be allowed to cross in. Finally, he walked another kilometer or so to the clinic site where we had set up, just so his daughter could get a check up. Fortunately, neither him nor his daughter needed any severe care and were able to get some much needed vitamins and Tylenol. Nonetheless, I think something as simple as Tylenol or Vitamins are taken for granted in the United States. Do you ever think twice about going to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom or kitchen to grab some Tylenol when you have a headache? How about some Ibuprofen when your back hurts? I can pretty much guarantee that I will NEVER have to walk five miles, swim across a river with my child on my back, and risk being beaten or thrown in jail by military border patrol, just to get a small bag of Tylenol. Sadly, this is the way of life for many Dominicans and Haitians as well as most of the rest of the developing world. Fortunately, life is perhaps a little bit easier this spring for many of the people living in these ares of poverty thanks to the many volunteers that came to serve, and thanks to the support of generous people like yourselves that are willing to give of themselves or give financially to help make a difference!

Cuando Seas Grande

2011-03-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

Mineli, Bryson, and Joanny

I'm back down in the Dominican Republic for a bit with Orphanage Outreach helping to lead the Medical and Dental Clinics that we put on in the spring. We've been very busy and have helped a lot of people with their medical and dental needs. Of course, whenever possible I spend as much time as I can with the kids at the orphanage. After being in the states for about five months and then returning to see the kids I have realized how much I missed them and how much I would like to continue to be a part of their lives. I want to always be able to see them and to see them graduate from high school and go on to college. I want to see them have all of the opportunities that I had growing up and to see them have to opportunity to realize their dreams. Recently I started giving little pieces of paper to some of the kids in Junior High and in High School with a single question on it...."¿Qué quieres ser cuando seas grande?"...."What do you want to be when you grow up?" It's been so great to see them return the pieces of paper to me on their own time each with their own answers. Some of the things they write are so interesting and I of course want them to be able to become whatever they want. Nicol, for example, wrote that she wants to be a "world lawyer, and travel to all of the countries." Coral wants to "study art, graphic design, and advertising." Anyway, I'm enjoying the time I have with the kids and looking forward to seeing what some of them become when they grow up!

1st eBook: Nicaragua

2010-11-27T16:01:00.000-08:00

I've been working on a variety of projects lately and one of them has been creating several different photo eBooks from the photographs I made while in the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. This is the release of the first eBook titled, "Nicaragua: a Selection of Prints,"which is (for lack of a better title) basically just that; a selection of my favorite photographs from the 10 days I spent in Nicaragua in July. I still have a long way to go and many more photographs to make in order to really convey the way I feel about Nicaraguan culture, but I hope you enjoy the shots in this eBook. If time permits, I'll also be posting a few different eBooks from the D.R. To download a PDF of the Nicaragua eBook just click here. Or...there is a download available on the right margin under eBooks. Happy viewing!

The Million Dollar Question

2010-11-22T10:33:00.000-08:00

Bryson and Conor at Mt. Eddy Summit. November 17, 2010.

So...it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything to my blog and during that time I’ve been busy thinking. Thinking about my future and what I want to do next with my life. As I’ve been reading, thinking, and processing, there have been several things that caught my attention and that I’ve learned from. The first thing was something written about my Great Uncle Stewart who passed away while I was in the Dominican Republic. While visiting relatives in California, I came across the pamphlet from his funeral service. The pamphlet said a lot of great things, but what hit me the hardest was when it read, “He lived the life he imagined.” Wow! I think that line sums up Uncle Stewart...he lived healthy well into his 90s and continued to do the things he loved until he passed! As I read those words, I thought, “man, I want to be able to say that.” I want to be able to say I lived the life I imagined. It really made me think....Am I living the life I imagined? What is the life I imagined for myself? I think all too often we don’t live the life we imagined or the life we dreamed of. Now, this alone isn’t a bad thing. Life always changes and evolves. So, the life we’re living might be not be the life we imagined, but it might still be great. It’s just different or perhaps even better. I’ve heard people say before, “This isn’t the life I imagined at all, it’s better.” I think the bad part is when we know we’re not living the life we imagined and we end up just settling for something less that isn’t what we really want. What I’m getting to here is that those words made me think about how I want to spend my time on this earth. What is the life I imagine? The great part about that is that I get to create that image of my life. I’m the artist. Of course, the next step is making that image a reality. After you know what you want, you have to go out and get it.

That brings me to another question that has had me thinking during the past couple of months. My friend Lauren first asked me this question back in July when I was in Nicaragua...she said, “What would you do if you had a million dollars?” Of course, a lot of ideas popped into my mind, but the question made me really think about what I want to do with my life. What do I want to do with my time on this earth? What do I want my funeral pamphlet to read? I started to ask other people this question as well and have received a million different answers. Of course, there are answers like...I’d buy a new car, or invest in the stock market. Those answers aside, I focused on the answers that had to do with people’s dreams and the lives they imagined. I’d hear people say, “I’d like to do volunteer work.” “I’d like to take a trip to Europe.” “I’d like to learn to take good pictures.” “I’d like to learn to play the guitar.” “I’d like to climb a mountain.” As I processed the answers to these questions, I really began to ask another question. My question is, why don’t we do those things that we say we’d do if we had a million dollars? In other words, if that’s what you’d do if you had a million dollars, then that’s what you should be doing now. Right? I guess the point that I’m trying to make is that we don’t need a million dollars to start living our dreams. To live the life we imagined. We just need to go do it. Overcome those fears, and do it. We may need to start small, but we must start! A friend of mine once read me a quote that said, “God gives us all the ingredients we need for our daily bread...but He expects us to the baking.” Dreams aren’t just going to land in our lap. We have to do the work! So go out and live the life you imagined!

As I finish this blog post, there is one more thing that has me thinking. It is a recent post from one of my favorite humanitarian photographers named David Duchemin, that prompted me to actually write this post that I have been thinking about for so long. Check out the post at Life is Short. Check out his blog at www.pixelatedimage.com/blog/

His words resonate with all that I have been thinking about lately and inspire me to go out and chase my dreams, love harder, laugh more, and not be afraid to take those chances. I challenge you to complete the sentence that he starts.

Life is short and therefore I will...

Graduation

2010-08-08T15:13:00.001-07:00

Leonel and Carolina graduated from high school last weekend! Carolina asked me to be her "Padrino" and walk her into the graduation ceremony as her representative! What an honor!

The Rabbit

2010-07-28T18:47:00.000-07:00

I’m sitting with Mineli and she says, look at that...and points to the sky. As I look, I don’t see anything. Just clouds. She says, look...look at the bird. I look again, still no bird. This continues for a while and I still don’t see any of the things she’s pointing to. Then she says look, a rainbow. Now I know for sure their aren’t any rainbows out right now and then I realize, that what she’s been pointing at and telling me to look at are the things she’s seeing in the clouds. Sure enough, there is a perfect rainbow in the clouds, the classic image of that rainbow arc coming out of a puffy cloud and ending in another. Wow...what an imagination kids have. Soon, Mineli starts to ask me what some of the different things are in the clouds. I come up with a few things, but sadly my imagination is no match for hers. I realize this is a hard game for me, and for her it doesn’t require much thought at all. She just sees. As I ask myself “why is that? Why can’t I see like she does?” she points to another and says whats that? I struggle with an answer and start to feel the pressure for taking too long with my response...all I can come up with is that’s a dinosaur head. She says, “nope, silly. That’s a rabbit.” I look again, sure enough...its a rabbit.

July Dusk

2010-07-27T08:56:00.001-07:00

The orphanage grounds at dusk.

Back in the D.R.

2010-07-21T17:38:00.001-07:00

I'm back here in the Dominican Republic now and we've been putting on summer camps here in a variety of communities....some out in the Bateyes. I love the Bateyes! There is such contrast between poverty and richness. Richness...not wealth. The people are so, so poor but are so rich with life in so many ways. They have almost nothing material....but are so rich in spirit. The kids have such richness to their smiles...their eyes are so vibrant when they smile. I could spend hours out in the bateyes just trying to capture a glimpse of that richness in a photograph.

Good Luck!

2010-07-18T07:38:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Elvis, one of the kids from the neighborhood in Jinotega that the day care center is located in. Elvis and the other kids from the neighborhood were great and quickly learned my name so they could ask me when the volunteers were coming out to play. While we were doing repairs to the day care centers, I kept hearing “Bryson....jugemos...Bryson, let’s play!” Anyway, I eventually headed out to the front of the daycare center to see what was going on and as I looked over to where I had parked the van, I saw the back of a kid that was kneeling down facing the wheel. The kid looked suspicious and some of the other kids had mentioned that one of the boys had let some air out of the tires. So, assuming this might be the case, I started to walk to the van to see what was going on. The van was parked on a steep hill with a lot of water run off. As I got closer, I realized it was Elvis, and he wasn’t letting air out of the tires. He was washing the tires. With his little hands, he had been scooping up water from the water that was running down the side of the curb from the recent rain and using it to wash the tires. I later found out that in Nicaragua, it is considered very good luck to wash your tires before going on a trip and that it can help keep you safe. As Elvis knew that we would soon be leaving, he wanted to give us something back in return for the time we spent in his neighborhood for playing games and activities with the kids. His gift to us was good luck and safe journey....and he showed us by washing our tires!

Bubbles

2010-07-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of the week working in Nicaragua was simply playing with bubbles in the community we were working in. As soon as the volunteers got the bubbles out and started to show the kids, there was an instant high-pitched squeal that started to come out of all the children as they ran around crazily trying to pop the bubbles. Based on their reaction and that squeal that kids emit when they’re so excited they can’t contain themselves, I’m pretty sure they had never seen bubbles before! Imagine that, you’re 6, 7, 8 even 12 years old and you’ve never seen bubbles before. We had an incredible time and when the week started to come to an end the kids started to ask us how long we were going to be there. When asking these questions, one kid said “todos los días....every day” another shouted, “para siempre.....for every” and still another kids exclaimed “hasta el fin del mundo?...until the end of the world?” This little kid was hoping with all of his heart that we were going to be their until the end of the world. That alone is all I need to know to understand the impact Orphanage Outreach volunteers are having on the lives of these kids in the rural communities we work in.

City of Mist

2010-07-14T17:50:00.000-07:00

Jinotega is known as La Ciudad de las Brumas....the city of mist. Nestled high in the mountains, its name holds true as mist trickles into the city at different times of the day.

Linda Vista

2010-07-08T15:01:00.000-07:00

We've been working in a neighborhood here in Nicaragua just outside the city in Jinotega called Linda Vista. It's up on the side of a hill and when we show up in the morning, kids come pouring out of the hills because they want to play. This little girl started posing with her friend and I was able to make this picture. These kids are cute!

Chigüines

2010-07-06T20:29:00.000-07:00

Chigünes is a Nicaragua word for children used in very rule areas up in the mountains. Today Orphanage Outreach started working with Chigünes at preschool centers in the mountain town of Jinotega. Here's a quick hello from the kids!

Nicaragua

2010-07-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

Exciting News everyone! Orphanage Outreach is now working in Nicaragua too! I'm down here right now helping lead the first ever volunteer group for Orphanage Outreach and we're going to be working in some day care centers tomorrow! I'll post some more pictures then! For now....here's a shot I made in Granada...a gorgeous colonial city! Even today you can see the striking contrast of wealth and poverty that the Spanish initiated during colonization. Here this man struggles carrying a large sack of onions in front of some of Central America's most impressively restored colonial buildings.

Jaibon

2010-06-30T08:48:00.001-07:00

Cristian poses for a shot with his soccer ball at the Jaibon Orphanage.

Life is Good!

2010-06-29T19:00:00.001-07:00

We just got back from an evening dip in the ocean while watching the big round circle sink into the sea! It is so refreshing to go for a nice swim in the ocean in the evening...it's probably my favorite time of day to go for a swim. Life is good....how often do you get to go for an evening swim in the ocean at a deserted beach and watch the sunset? Wow! I made this photograph as the sun was dropping behind a rock know as "El Zapato" named by the one and only Christopher Columbus and documented in his travel journals as he came sailing along the northern coast of the island he called Hispaniola.

Damajagua

2010-06-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

Another one of the great locations we've been working at in the Jaibon area is a small agricultural town known as Damajagua! Last week we put on an English Camp in a small church to the delight of the local children. We hosted a group called Breakaway that does training and workshops for service learning departments at universities and part of their group worked at Damajagua for the service portion of their trip. The little guy in this photo lived just down the street from the church where we held camp. He was hanging out without his pants, watching his family butcher a cows head to make stew. When you live in poverty, even the cow's head can be salvaged for the little meat that it has and I could tell by the look in the children's eyes as they watched their dad carve the head that it was quite the prize! They were all certainly looking forward to the tastey meal they would enjoy that evening and for the next several days. Soon enough, this kids found some pants and joined us for camp activities.

La Caya

2010-06-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I know it has been a very long time since I last posted a blog....probably the longest period without posting to date! I've been at our Jaibon location for the past month and have been having a blast! There is tremendous opportunity and potential not only at the orphanage in Jaibon but also in the surrounding community. We started our summer program last month and have been doing different camps at some fabulous locations with great people and very welcoming communities. One of my favorite locations is a beautiful little place out in the country called La Caya that is nestled in the hills at the base of the costal mountains that separate the Cibao valley from the northern coast. The scenery is charming with lush vegetation and quaint little homes characterized by vibrant colors and gardens full of plantains, mangos, bananas, limes, watermelons, and more. The people are simply delightful and despite the poverty they might live in, they are perhaps the most genuine, sincere, and friendly people I have met in the entire country. A stroll through La Caya's dirt streets is peaceful and therapeutic, and the welcoming "buenos dias" or kindred wave makes you feel like you are in a hidden utopia while simultaneously in the comfort of your own home. I'll leave you with that for now and I'll write more soon! The picture above is of one of la Caya's friendly residents!

A Visit to the Salon!

2010-05-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

The other day we were doing an activity with the kids and Nicole suddenly called me over and made me sit down in a chair. She promptly told me that I was going to have a visit to the salon (Nicole is always the one that seems to be worried about my hair...or lack of it...and always notices changes with it and likes it when I grow it out). Anyway, as I sat in the chair, both Nicole and Jessica proceeded to tape yarn to my head to give me hair! Nicole had simple decided that it was time I had hair again! Meanwhile, Mineli watched with an uncertain look on her face not knowing whether she like my new look or not.

Sunrise

2010-05-12T07:37:00.001-07:00

I have a lot to learn about landscape photography before I'm going to be able to communicate the way I feel about places and to communicate the way I seem them, but i gotta start somewhere! So, here's a shot of the sunrise at El Morro National Park here in Monte Cristi. We took our volunteer group out this morning for a sunrise hike with a nice view of the ocean.

Free Time

2010-05-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

This kid from Batey Isabel proudly holds his pet rooster, which he has been raising and training for the local cock fights. With little to do in these small argricultural communities, locals look to evening tournaments of dominoes, cock fights, or heading to the makeshift discoteca to loose themselves in a few presidente beers and the baladas of local bachata music echoing themes of love and hardship common in Dominican Culture.

Garbage Cans

2010-05-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

For some reason, kids around the world love to crawl into things...like garbage cans. Occasionally the kids here find themselves inside a garbage can too. Here's a shot of Mineli...mischievous look in her eyes!

Feliz Cumpleanos

2010-05-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I wanted to write a quick post about my birthday last Wednesday. Here in the Dominican Republic it's tradition to douse people with water on their birthday. Mine was no exception! People spend much time carefully plotting out all of the ways they are going to soak you with water! In the morning some of the staff and volunteers got me wet but the real madness came in the evening with the kids. I had avoided getting too wet for most of the day, but while sitting on the patio the kids began their plan. They knew I would be on my best guard, but their devious trickery got the best of me and I ended up getting several small trash cans full of water dumbed on me! Many people around me got wet as well and even the little kids would come running up to me with a glass of water to toss on me and then turn away running excitedly to have participated in the action. I also share my birthday with one of the older girls here, Nicol, and so the celebration turned into an all out water fight on the basketball court. We had a fabulous time and Christine grabbed this snapshot of Heather and I returning from the battlefield.

2010-05-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

The other evening I went over to visit the kids and they were all inside the orphanage dining area with the door closed. Negra, one of the orphanage caretakers, was the only one on staff at the time because most of the children except for the little ones were at church. She was busy preparing dinner for the kids and had them all inside so she could watch them at the same time. When I came over to visit, I saw the door closed so I peeked through one of the slotted windows from the outside to peer in. I was met by a burst of little hands and eyes all giggling crazily! It was clear they had been cooped up inside for a bit too long and were starting to literally bounce off the walls. Suddenly they all went running off through the dining area...except for mineli. She came up close to the window and whispered, entra por la cocina...which I interpret as..sneak in through the kitchen. It was definitely a mischievous message sent through the breaks in the window and when I did go into the dining area the kids were more than wound up. So we read some books while Negra prepared diner and then, of course, the kids eventually escaped. As you can tell in this picture...they were just a little bit excited about escaping!

One Cool Old Guy

2010-04-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

I had to post this shot! This is Jesus Maria...a cool old guy that lives at the property in Jaibon. Just like old guys do, he dozed off in his chair for a little nap after lunch!

Just Because

2010-04-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

Kids are kids. It seems like no matter what is going through your mind, no matter what's challenging you, no matter what you're struggling with, kids bring you back and ground you for a bit. There is a constant to them. A "carefreeness" to them. They run up to you to play and there isn't anything else in the world that is going through their mind except you. Just you. They want to interact with you. They want to make you laugh. They want to make you smile. They want to laugh and smile. It is simplicity, but often seems difficult to reach.

What Is a Dad?

2010-04-20T16:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Edison I took the other day while hanging out at the front gate. He's Mineli's, Coral's, and Nicol's little brother and is always asking about doing something whether it's reading a book or getting out some fake snow....snow has been a hit ever since I first brought it out! :) Some times he even asks if I'm his dad...and, even if I would like to be, I answer him by saying that I'm more like an uncle or a relative. It's very common in Dominican culture for father figures to be missing from the family picture. It's very common for moms to have several children all with different dads....and in most cases the dads aren't around, or they simply live as a mixed family and so a kid might not ever know his real father. Anyway, that's usually one of the reasons that prompts kids to be curious about dads....what they're like....what they do....what it means to have a dad....what it feels like to have a dad.

On another note, click here to check out a video of our summer intern program that we run at the Boys and Girls English Institute here in Monte Cristi.

Northern Coast

2010-04-18T19:13:00.001-07:00

Just felt like posting this picture of one of the many deserted beaches on the northern coast. You can walk for miles without seeing a single person.

The Boarder

2010-04-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we went to the boarder town of Dajabon after not having been for several months. As we walked through the market I took a lot of pictures but the expression on this woman's face really stood out for me. She was sitting on a sack of corn at a busy corner in the market, dressed with a bow in her hair and a blouse and flower skirt typical of Haitian women. Quietly, motionless, she waits hoping to sell enough corn on Friday's market day to feed her family. She is iconic of the daily struggle a Haitian faces in search of a better life in the Dominican Republic.

Beach Day

2010-04-17T18:54:00.001-07:00

The kids had their first beach excursion of the year last Saturday and it was one of the best beach excursions to date! Highlights of the trip for me included: 1. Burying Winston in the sand (with William & Mineli's help). 2. Building a sand castle with William and Winston. 3. Playing with sea shells with Mineli for what seemed like hours. 4. Having Ari, one of the twins, ask me to wrap her up tight in a towel after swimming all morning and then falling asleep in my lap. 5. Delicious Dominican chicken and spaghetti for lunch...cooked on the spot.

P.S. Thanks for the photos Coco!

Snow in the D.R.

2010-04-15T18:52:00.001-07:00

Thanks for the snow Mom!

Fresh Fruit

2010-04-11T05:51:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite pictures of Moni, as she buys fresh fruit for the day from the delivery truck in Monte Cristi. Pineapple, papaya, cantaloupe, watermelon, and bananas are some of the fresh fruits we enjoy daily down here in the D.R.

Batey Maguaca

2010-04-06T18:44:00.000-07:00

Maybe you've noticed a trend with the recent posts regarding the Bateyes...the rural agricultural communities here in the D.R...so I've decided to post another picture of Batey Maguaca. Maybe some of you recognize the girl in this picture...her name is Lisel and I met her last year in July out at Maguaca while putting on a summer camp for the kids. Click here to check out my post about her from July. Just these past couple of week we were lucky enough to go out to Maguaca twice! Once to put on free medical and dental clinic for the people that live in the community and a second time to put on an impromptu camp for the children during Semana Santa, or Holy Week. I was very excited to see her again and to see that her foot had healed well from the intense burn that was causing her to limp last year. She was excited to see me too, and so proud to be one of the only kids that I remembered by name. She was so proud that she couldn't help smiling! It was one of those bashful smiles that a person tries to hold back and then they can't help themselves so it comes bursting out! Some of the adults at the batey, who are clearly aware of her disabilities but love her nonetheless, even joked with her a little bit saying "Wow, Lisel, look at you and your American boyfriend!" She proudly blushed and then jumped in to take this picture with me. Priceless!

Batey Isabel

2010-04-05T17:22:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite bateyes is Batey Isabel and we had the opportunity to go do camp-style activities with the children their during Semana Santa. This little girl was very quite but had the most curious eyes. She sat quietly on one of the pews in the local church where we held a reading station, but frequently peeked over the pew to watch the other activities! Kids in the bateyes love books and can sit their for hours looking through them and listening to you read to them. Even the kids in their teens, young adults, and adults come over to listen to children's stories that are written at a second grade reading level. There really aren't any books in these small, rule communities and it never ceases to amaze me how many people come over to the reading station. Imagine a young mom with three kids looking through a book as if she was one of her own children....as if she had never seen a book before. Eyes wide open and amazed at all of the illustrations and colors. Then she tries to read it to herself, following along with her finger, and although she is reading quietly her lips are moving as if she was reading aloud as she sounds the words out. Now remind yourself that this is a book written at 1st or 2nd grade level in the states. What a privilege and blessing it is to be able to read!

Batey Walterio

2010-04-03T17:57:00.000-07:00

The other day we drove out to Batey Walterio and as we arrived this older woman diligently began to sweep the dirt patio by her home and in front of the church where we were going to set up activities with the children. Despite the extent of poverty that these people face daily, they have tremendous dignity, and do their best to present their best. She was thankful that we came to the community to serve the children and wanted the area of our activities to be clean. She busily swept the goat poop with a home-made broom for over an hour while we put on an impromptu camp for the community.

Batey Madre

2010-04-02T10:32:00.000-07:00

While putting on a camp for children in Batey Madre during Semana Santa we met this little guy who was happy to pose for a quick picture. He was standing inside a gigantic hollowed out tree and as I knelt down to take this picture he mimicked my movement and knelt down too! As I stood, he would stand! He was very friendly and had the beginnings of a sixth finger on each hand...with small finger nails even forming. This is something that is common in the poor agricultural villages where incest often abounds. In the states, these extra digits would be removed before he even turned one year old.

A Long Walk

2010-03-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

Banana workers walk home after a long day in the plantations.

Linda

2010-03-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

This is another one of my little friends from Batey Jaramillo. Her name is Linda and she is the most mischievous kid! And rightly so....she lives in such poverty that she has had to learn to fend for herself in so many ways that and 8-year-old should never have to do. The day I saw her we were putting on free medical and dental clinics at one of the banana washing and packing facilities near the small community where she lives. When I saw her, she was sucking water out of a well from a broken pipe and spitting it into am empty soda bottle to give to her younger siblings.

Dashka

2010-03-25T18:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've had a chance to post something on my blog! We've been extremely busy running medical and dental clinics down here in the D.R. for the past 5 weeks and I haven't had much spare time. Today we ended out last major dental clinic of the year at the banana washing station near batey Jaramillo. This is a picture of me with a little Haitian girl named Dashka. She is the sweetest thing ever. I had only know her for a maybe an hour before taking this picture and she held on to me like she had known me for forever. Although she lives in one of the poorest rural bateys in the country, her smile is so rich. The people that live in the bateys have so little, and yet seem so happy. I guess when you have so little you are forced to really see what is important in life.

School

2010-02-22T17:15:00.001-08:00

Kids at School in Jaibon.

Family Week

2010-02-04T17:54:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of my favorite rice factory outside of Monte Cristi. It's no longer in use, and so it's rusty and covered in overgrown foliage which gives it such character. Rice fields still surround it which are very vibrant green and provide the nice reflection. On another note, everyone down here is excited for parent week starting this weekend! The kids are excited about meeting some of the leaders' parents and the leaders are excited to show them all of the great things that are going on down here!

Going To Church

2010-01-28T17:06:00.000-08:00

Well....this evening ended up being one of the best evenings ever!!!! Just like this morning, I had the opportunity to help take the kids in to church tonight and take some pictures. The only time we normally go to church with the kids is on Sundays because we like to give them their space and not invade every aspect of their lives. Although we enjoy going to church with them on Sundays, it’s important that they have their own space as well. Anyway, back to my story of one of the best evenings ever!!! Just like this morning, when I started to tell the kids that I would be accompanying them to church they answered me in disbelief. I remember telling Winston and being answered with “mentiras”...”lies.” When I told Winston again that I was really going he said, “Well then if you’re not lying, get in the back of the truck already!” I told him I had to take pictures first and most of them still didn’t really believe me when I was taking pictures before I got into the back of the truck. When I did get into the back of the truck, they still looked at me in disbelief, and one of them even asked me, “Who gave you permission to come to church?” I laughed of course, and told them that Pastor Ramon had invited me.

As we headed to church sitting on benches in the back of the Daihatsu flatbed, little Nicole snuggled up close to me and started asking if I was going to stay for church and how I was going to get back since they were staying late. I told her that Pastor had asked me to take some pictures and that I could only stay a little while. She suddenly became very concerned about me getting home ok and asked if I would wait for them so we could go back together. She was worried about me walking home alone at night in the dark and was definitely not ok with it! (there really was no danger) She especially didn’t want me walking home with the camera and was worried about someone stealing it from me. It’s funny how smart these kids are...they know who the bad guys are and what they do. Nicole continued by asking me how I was going to hide the camera when I walked, to which I replied that I would hide it under my shirt. She said that certainly wouldn’t work because the camera was too big and bulky...she was right...the camera is pretty big. So, then she wanted me to leave the camera locked in the truck if I walked home. She kept holding my arm saying please leave it locked in the truck. She wasn’t satisfied with me saying “I’d check into it,” she wanted to know for sure that I’d be ok. When we got to the church I jumped out to take some more pictures and just assumed Nicole would head in and then I'd deal with getting back to the orphanage. Of course, she knew we hadn’t officially settled on an agreement, so the last thing she said to me was , “Please goes ask pastor if he’ll give you a ride home.” Then she nudged me in Pastor’s direction. So, sure enough Pastor Ramon ended up giving me a ride back and as I hopped in the cab of the truck, I saw Nicole peering out the church doors to make sure I was safe. I love that girl! She’s such a sweet kid...she just didn’t want me walking home alone in the dark.

Going To School

2010-01-28T07:01:00.000-08:00

Joanni climbing out of the truck

This morning was one of the best mornings ever.....I had the opportunity to help take the kids to school!!! Normally we don’t interfere with the kids’ morning because they're busy getting ready for school and the volunteers are busy getting ready to go teach. But today was a special exception because I needed to take some pictures for the orphanage! In the morning the kids are all dressed up in their brown and yellow uniforms for Doña Neña, the local school that they attend, and a few of them usually come wondering out eating their breakfast before they all get in lines to sing the Dominican National Anthem and then pray with Pastor Ramon. Next, they line up to get their allowance for the day...a few pesos that they use to buy snacks during their break at school. Finally, they load up into the back of the truck, the littlest ones sitting in the cab, and away they go. This morning I’m not sure who was more excited...me or the kids! They were so excited that I was going with them to take them to school that they kept asking, “Are you coming? Are you coming too?” Even when I was already sitting in the back of the truck next to Jennifer and Pili, some of them thought I was joking and they couldn’t believe that I was actually going to ride with them in the back of the truck to take them to school! In the midst of all of them asking if I was going and wanting me to take pictures, Luz Maria decided she was going to take advantage of the situation so she came over and sat on my lap and showed me where she had added glitter to her name on her backpack. So, we rode to school and as we all crawled out of the back of the truck I got to wish them a good day and good luck at school!

On another note, here is a link to a video download of Christmas Week in Jaibon. For an iPod or iPhone version click the link under “Video Downloads” on the left.

Haiti

2010-01-23T08:53:00.000-08:00

A lot of friends and family have been asking me about the recent earthquakes in Haiti, if we were affected here in the D.R., if Orphanage Outreach has been involved in aid, etc. So I've decided to post a statement from Tom Eklund, the Executive Director of Orphanage Outreach, that has been posted on the O.O. website.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

-Bryson

Earthquake Update/Response

January 13, 2010

Dear Orphanage Outreach Volunteers and Sponsors,

The earthquake was felt at the orphanages in Monte Cristi and Jaibon, but there has been no structural damage or any deaths reported in the Dominican Republic. Our prayers and thoughts are with the people in Haiti as they struggle with this terrible catastrophe.

We have received some questions about any possible changes to our program given the earthquake in Haiti. Our plans for this spring and summer remain unchanged. There are numerous organizations whose ongoing mission is to focus their energies on Haiti, organizations that focus on large-scale emergency response, and large governmental organizations that are mobilizing to respond. Our mission is currently in the Dominican Republic. The needs in the Dominican Republic remain, and we will remain focused here.

Authorities are saying that the best way to assist in relief efforts in Haiti are through financial donations to the organizations involved in the efforts mentioned above. We encourage you to financially support those agencies.

And thank you for your continued support of Orphanage Outreach.

Sincerely,
Tom

Innocence

2010-01-20T18:48:00.001-08:00

Children are innocent. They don't get to choose where they are born. They don't choose to be abandoned. They don't choose to be forgotten or abused....neglected or mistreated. They're just kids.

Children at Batey Libertad

2010-01-20T18:45:00.000-08:00

These are some of the kids that we played with at Batey Libertad while putting on our first medical clinic of the year. The kids had such delight in their eyes! I could write a bunch about the clinic week, but it might be easier just to check out the video. Or Click on "January Medical Clinic" under Video Downloads to the left for an iPod or iPhone version of the video.

No Disappointment

2010-01-17T19:17:00.001-08:00

This may seem like a rather random post, but I’ve been thinking about a title for this blog for a while. Some of the recent things that have happened down here with Orphanage Outreach, with the kids, with people that I’ve met, and with people that read my blog that I don’t even know, have made me see a little bit of a change in myself. Not a big change necessarily, perhaps just clarity on things I always sort of knew about how I wanted my life to be. Those things made me think of titling this blog “No Disappointment.” Part of that title is influenced by the quote I have posted above by Mark Twain. I’ve been very fortunate to not have any regrets in my life and I hope to be able to look back many years from now and be able to still say I have no regrets. I also want to be able to live my life without looking back and being disappointed that I didn’t do something that I had the chance to do. Before moving down to the Dominican Republic to volunteer for Orphanage Outreach I remember being a little nervous, but was also restless my last year teaching in California. Since college I also had it in the back of my mind that I would do a year or so of volunteer/mission work in a Spanish speaking country but kept putting it off because I was working, going to grad school, etc. I guess that restlessness finally caught up with me because here I am....volunteering in the D.R. I’m glad I took that leap of faith to quit my job and go to a place that I had never been before...to work with people I didn’t know...not knowing what to expect or where it would lead. That may seem like a gigantic leap to some people....it isn’t easy to leave a wonderful home with amazing friends...but I am happy with my life and what I am doing. I know now that I can look back years from now and not be disappointed. I won’t be sitting in a rocking chair someday wondering what my life would be like if I had done a year or so of volunteer service work. I won’t be wishing I would have had that unknown experience. I will have no disappointment.

P.S. Thanks for the quote Amelia! :)

Esperanza

2010-01-17T10:41:00.001-08:00

A young Haitian girl watches from behind a chain-link fence as physicians, nurses, and Orphanage Outreach Health Corp volunteers provide free medical consultations and medications during our first health clinic of the new year at the Ercilla Pepin school in the small town of Esperanza. We ended up serving over 1,000 Dominicans and Haitians during the week of clinics.

First Medical Clinic of the Year

2010-01-13T16:34:00.001-08:00

This week we've launched our first medical clinics of the year....reaching out into some very poor areas of the Dominican Republic where there is so much need! Today we were working at a primarily Haitian Batey. Meeting kids with such amazing smiles that live in such poverty is something we all need to see...we have it pretty good back in the states. It made us all think of the disaster in Haiti as well, with the earthquake that many of the Haitians talked about and their family members that had most certainly died in the quake.

ISU

2010-01-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

Illinois State University was a blast to have down for ten days here at the Jaibon location! Wow...what a team! They were instrumental in cleaning up trash, working on construction and, of course, making an impact on the lives of the boys with their creative activities. They are the kind of people that will change the world bit by bit....one corner at a time. They are going to be active citizens that contribute to improving the world we live in. We need people like that who recognize a need, get involved however they can, and do something about it. It doesn’t have to be overseas, in a far away place. It can be as simple as recognizing a need in ones own community and taking a step toward helping out. So....thank you ISU for coming down and making a difference! And....thanks for reading my blog! :)

Here’s Chelsea making dinosaurs out of playdough with Pedro Luis. He played with those little Dinosaurs like a kitten plays with a ball of yarn. It was hilarious to see how focused he was on those little things.

Chelsea working with Pedro Luis

Pedro Luis playing with Dinosaurs

Movie Time

2010-01-05T14:05:00.001-08:00

This is a picture of Reynaldo, one of the boys with learning disabilities at the orphanage in Jaibon. He’s a great kid, and loves doing work. You can always see him walking around the grounds with a wheel barrel, taking trash to the dumb or hauling something somewhere. He’s been one of the kids I took a special interest in from the beginning when Orphanage Outreach first started working here a little over a year ago. Last night I had the privilege of watching Disney’s “Up” with both Reynaldo and my little pal Manuel...another one of the kids that needed a little extra attention when I first came to Jaibon. Reynaldo laughed at all the dogs and Manuel ended up holding onto my arm and resting his head on it for the second half of the movie....he’s about eight years old and gets pretty tired at night. Anyway, it was fun sharing that time with them and I look forward to hanging out with them more during the next couple of weeks.

2010

2010-01-03T13:26:00.001-08:00

We're kicking off the new year with a lot of great things here in Jaibon, so I wanted to take a quick second to post some pictures and write a bit. I'm happy to report that I'm living in a tent right now under the mango trees and loving it! I even get excited at night when I get to crawl into my tent to go to sleep. It will be a good story I can tell my grandkids some day...."back in 2010 I was livin in a tent at an orphanage in the Dominican Repbulic!" Another fun fact about the Holiday Season is that, oddly enough, I spent both Christmas Day and New Year's Day on the beach enjoying sunshine and some good waves. I promise...I'm very busy working down here....it's not just a beach vacation!

Above is a picture of me and Dani, one of the boys here at the orphanage in Jaibon. He's a great kid and has the kindest demeanor. He always uses my name whenever he talks to me and never forgets when I tell him I'll do something for him. He's also very smart and loves to memorizes songs and then sing them. He busted out an entire rap for the talent show we hosted on New Year's Eve! Hilarious! :) Anyway, we're gearing up for a busy spring and our first medical clinics of the new year! It should be very busy...but also very exicting! I'll keep everyone posted.

Home away from home.

Happy New Year's Eve!

2009-12-31T14:26:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! I wanted to take a second to post this picture of Alex, one of the youngest boys here at the orphanage in Jaibon. He's holding one of the six new-born lambs here on the property. The boys raise everything form pigeons to pigs, and one of the Sheep had four baby black lambs while another one had two white and black lambs. Alex is a pretty little guy and the Lambs are tiny! We're gearing up for a New Year's celebration with the kids tonight and I think everyone is excited for what 2010 has to bring! I wish everyone a happy and safe New Year and challenge you to do something in 2010 that you've never done before.....learn how to surf...volunteer in a soup kitchen...climb a mountain...teach yourself photography....volunteer in the D.R.! Whatever it might be, do something new!

Cheers,

-Bryson

Christmas Week

2009-12-29T10:03:00.000-08:00

Christmas week ended up being family week here at the orphanage in Jaibon! We were very fortunate to have three families join us for the week, along with a handful of individual volunteers. We occasionally have families that come down, but usually not more than one family at a time. These families were AWESOME! Everyone took our core principles to heart and jumped right in on all the work we had planned for the week. We worked on construction projects...building a second story on the front of the orphanage building that will consist of several rooms including a large study area for the boys and a great apartment for Tia, the woman and runs the orphanage and the elementary school on the property. We also did various other work projects (there are always work projects here in Jaibon), did different activities with the kids, played games, and hosted some very exciting events including a Festival and a Christmas Eve party. These families worked non-stop, even the kids, and never lost the smiles on their faces. Even picking up trashing and moving rumble in much need areas on Christmas morning didn’t phase them! It was a blessing to have them and they served as good role models for the boys here at the orphanage. It’s important for them to see healthy families volunteering together when they themselves often come from very broken family backgrounds. It’s also very exciting to see the Dominican children interact with kids their own age and how easily they bridge the communication gap.

The first family that arrived was the Smith Family. With four kids ages 6 to 12, they worked just as hard on the construction projects as they did on the activities. Even the youngest two, Riley and Tyler, helped fill holes in construction blocks with cement. One of the great memories of the week for me was the expression on one of the Dominican worker’s face when he saw little 6-year-old Riley carrying a huge shovel to do some cement work. She had no fear of getting her hands dirty! Priceless! The younger two also ended up being my helpers for the week....ringing the bell for me during meal times and helping me with announcements. During the festival we put on for the boys (an evening of activities kind of like a carnival with booth and prizes), the Smiths came up with a game that required two competitors to race to two different chairs where they found balloons. The first person to blow up the balloon and pop it won the competition! The game was a huge success! Christie, the mom, also did an amazing job helping out with the re-enactment of the Christmas story that the boys from the orphanage performed on Christmas Eve. It was an inspiration to see the Smiths during the week and they serve as testimony that it is possible to travel and serve as a family even with young children.

Another great family that joined us for the week was the Barclay Family! Their two kids, 12 and 13 years old, raised extra funds for their bar and bat mitzvah, and as a service component of the tradition, they chose to come down to volunteer with us for a week. How COOL is that! Any extra fundraising is such a blessing. Our priority is to meet the needs of the boys at the orphanage and program fees go towards those needs! The construction, expansion of the second floor, or renovation of the orphanage, for example, is made possible by the those who are so passionate and generous in raising additional funds.

It’s also so great for teenage kids to get involved with service and experience that change that happens inside....that eye opening process....which is really only possible by living a service experience first hand. By serving others in a developing country, and stretching beyond one’s perceived limits and comfort zone, you change as a person and look at the world differently. You realize great things can be achieved. I think it’s a great step to becoming young adults that choose to contribute to the well being of a global society is such a positive way. Overall the Barclay’s rocked the whole week. We made huge gains on the construction because of their support and they definitely made a lasting impact on the lives of the boys.

It was also an inspiration to have the Coe Family volunteer with us for a week (They're from Bend, OR so I liked them from the beginning!). What really struck me was that they were all in college traveling with their mom. It’s not very common to see a family doing a service trip when everyone is in college....that’s awesome! They worked non-stop all week and even continued after the bell rang for breaks! They had great energy and did everything from moving block, laying cement, picking up trash, to coming up with creative games for the kids. For the Festival night they created an amazingly colorful and elaborate fish backdrop that they used for their ball-toss station. It was a huge hit! They spent quality time with the kids that may not seem like much in a week, but that makes lasting memories for theses boys at the orphanage. Like they say, ‘You can’t change the world in a week, but you can make a world of a different in the life of one of these kids!’

All of the great events during the week were a buildup to the highlight of the holiday season here in the DominicanRepublic. ..La Nochebuena...Christmas Eve. We started the evening off with a Spa event. Volunteers washed the boys’ hands and feet, clipped their nails, and gave them massages. This was hilarious! First of all, none of the boys had ever had anyone give them what were basically pedicures and manicures. They loved it. Many of them couldn’t stop themselves from giggling uncontrollably as volunteers scrubbed their callused feet with brushes! The best part... even though they are tuff, working boys who run around barefoot 90% of the time...was to see them tip toeing between stations on sheets we put down to avoid getting their feet dirty. It was great. After the spa, they all got new shoes thanks again to the extra fundraising of a volunteer.

The next activity was a delicious Christmas Eve dinner. Just like in Monte Cristi, we don’t normally eat with the kids so this was a big deal for them. In fact, I think it was the first time the boys ate with volunteers! One of the pigs the boys had been raising was butchered and slow cooked for the huge meal that included lots of side dishes! Following dinner, the boys performed the Christmas Story rendition they had been practicing (they all had their lines memorized!) and sang Christmas songs before we played games, gave out treats, and finished by watching a Christmas movie. Based on the looks on their faces and the energy in their bodies, I’d say it was a Christmas they’ll remember for a long time.

In the end it was a very memorable week and a Christmas I won’t forget! Being away from home during the holidays is hard, but it was very exciting to be a part of the first Christmas that these boys have had with volunteers. Even the Reverend and Tia, who run the orphanage, couldn’t have imagined what an amazing Christmas Eve it would be for the boys because of the Orphanage Outreach volunteers and their creativity and dedication to making it an unforgettable evening.

Not only was it a privilege to serve these boys during the week, it was also an inspiration to work with the families. Like the Smith’s, when I have kids I want to involve them in service, even when they’re young. Seven-year-old Tyler was able to articulate his experience better than some college students, when he shared what he had learned about what it means to give during Christmas. Like the Barclay’s, I want to give my teenagers the chance to do something bigger than themselves as young people. Like the Coe Family, I want to be able to spend time serving together as young adults, giving of ourselves for Christmas...sacrificing gifts and materials things to spend time serving kids in a developing country that are less fortunate than us.

Of course, I can’t forget to thank my family for the opportunities I had growing up. For the support they gave me and the support they still give me while I’m away from them during the holidays to serve others.

Priorities

2009-12-27T12:07:00.001-08:00

I haven’t written for a while because we’ve been so busy down here during the Holiday Season so I’m going to have to rewind a little bit because there are some important things that I don’t want to forget! Thursday, December 17th was a very busy day as I was finishing the Spanish Language program I had been teaching all fall while trying to finish other projects at the same time before packing to move over to our location in Jaibon for a month. As I wrapped up my responsibilities in the morning I decided to forgo packing and some other chores in the afternoon to participate in our Christmas camp that we put on at the English Institute. It ended up being a blast and was just what I needed to remind myself of some of the more important things in life.....like taking the time to celebrate Christmas and spend some quality time with the kids instead of worrying about work! After singing Christmas songs in the park and enjoying other party activities we headed back to the orphanage and that’s when one of the best parts of my day started...

We got back about an hour before dinner and Nicole came running up to me asking me about helping her build a model house out of cardboard boxes. It was a school project that she had been asking me to help her with all week and I keep telling her I would help her later because I was busy with work....just writing that sentences makes me feel like the terrible stereotypical dad that never spends time with his kids...yuck! :( Anyway, the project was due the following day and instead of having someone else help her with the project earlier in the week, she waited for me to help her with it because I had told her I would. I had forgotten about it of course....shame on me...but when she came running up to me to tell me that she had been waiting, it made me realize that I definitely needed to check my priorities! So....we jumped to it. I ran to our supply room, found some cardboard, glue, tape, scissors, etc. and rushed back out to the table where Nicole was waiting. As we built the house Nicole played the role of head architect or general contractor overseeing the design and look of the house, while I did the bulk of the manual labor. We ended up finishing a humble little Dominican Style home just before I had to go to dinner and she had to get ready to go to church for the evening.

Even though we finished the house, Nicole still had plans for landscaping and decoration! So, since she had to go to church and I had to go tutor the university-bound kids, we set up a game plan and put her sister Coral in charge of landscaping and decoration for the model house....deciding that Coral would help me finish it when I got done tutoring. So when I finished I went inside the orphanage common area and Coral and I began to work while Mineli protectively sat on my lap. Coral is very creative and she had all kinds of ideas for decorating. We ended up gluing the house to a flat piece of cardboard that acted as the yard. Then built a palm tree that we glued in the back yard and Coral made an eye-catching path to the front door complete with stepping stones and glitter for grass. Let me tell you....the kids love glitter! Anything you can put glitter on, they try and do it! We finished the roof with big “Feliz Navidad” letters written across the top and Nicole’s name secretly written on the inside of the front door. It was quite the model house! It didn’t exactly match, but was unique and the girls thought it was the prettiest model house anyone had ever made! Coral was so proud of the finishing touches that should kept saying “should I go put it away so it’s safe?” but then didn’t want to go put it away because she wanted everyone to see it.

After we finished, we hung out and chatted until it was time for me to go pack. As I sat on the floor, Mineli sat in front of me and tucked her little feet between mine and my flip flops before she started to doze off. As I went up to my room I realized that building that model house with Nicole and finishing it with Coral was the best thing I could have done that evening. I am SO thankful that I didn’t miss that opportunity to spend that time with them and I wouldn’t change that evening for anything in the world.

As I wrap this post up, I want to leave you all with a quote that I got in a recent email from a distant friend. I think it holds true not only for the evening I spent making that model house, but for my entire time here in the Dominican Republic.

Cheers,

"20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did so... sail away from the safe harbor... Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain

Feliz Navidad

2009-12-17T19:30:00.001-08:00

December

2009-12-02T11:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday

2009-11-30T18:05:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T17:09:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Tonight I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to share a Thanksgiving meal with 44 of my friends! We don’t normally eat with the kids so it’s always a fun filled event when we can invite the kids to join us for a meal! I was happy to get to sit next to my girls Mineli and Coral.....we had so much fun eating together. When Mineli first got her Thanksgiving plate she immediately shoved a handful of steamed carrots at me.....she's not the kind of kid that likes to eat her vegetables! So I told her I didn’t want her carrots and helped her find a place on her plate that she could corner the carrots and not have them touch the rest of her food. Then, after trying a few peas, she decided she didn’t like those either! So she carefully moved them over to the reject section of her plate along with the carrots. Unfortunately, some of the peas had gotten stuck in the mashed potatoes. So she began to pick them out with her fingers, but the mashed potatoes kind of acted like a paste and they stuck to her fingers. So she tried to flick them off and we ended up with peas flung on the table. Then she tired to pick them up off the table to clean the table and they would stick to her fingers again! The poor thing just wanted to eat her chicken, mashed potatoes, and sweet roll! The kids here absolutely love bread and they stuff themselves silly with the sweet roles. Then as we continued to eat, Paola and Coral were afraid to go get seconds and kept asking me to refill their cups with fruit punch and go find more sweet rolls for them! Paola wanted me to go get her more of the canned cranberries which she called jam or marmalade while Coral wanted me to get her more bread and more chicken! Naturally I couldn’t resist those little smiles! So I started by sharing my sweet roll with them...breaking it into small pieces and being careful to make sure they didn’t actually bite my fingers as I gave it to them! They love that bread! Coral also liked the stuffing....she said it tasted like the little seasoning packets that they use here to season food....a salty taste kinda of like chicken bouillon cubes! It’s funny how they compare foods they haven’t had before to what they know! Anyway, it was fun to spend a meal with them and share some memories.

Coloring

2009-11-16T10:53:00.000-08:00

We have a high school team from St. John's-Ravenscourt in Canada down in Monte Cristi right now and we've been doing some fun activities with the kids. One of the funnest things we've done this week was a game night with the kids. Aside from movie night, we don't normally do evening activities with the kids because they go to Church in the evening. The past monday, however, we had the special opportunity to have a game night with the kids....an evening of coloring, games, reading, etc. This is a picture of Coral and I after we did some coloring. Coral is very artistically talented and is very specific about her coloring technique....she likes to outline in darker color and fill in with a light one. As I was coloring with her, she made sure to let me know that I was coloring wrong and then she ended up teaching me her technique! :) It was a ton of fun and everyone enjoyed the evening.

Motos

2009-11-15T19:07:00.000-08:00

Dominicans love their 'motos' (any kind of small motorcycle/scooter) and here in the D.R. the word 'moto' is often synonymous with car....taxi....minivan....truck....etc. :) As you can see, they'll easily fit a family of five on a small Honda 180 trail bike! Five is pretty common....the most I've seen is six....but there have been sightings of seven.

A New Friend

2009-11-10T17:35:00.000-08:00

Just the past week I’ve become better friends with Nicole and Mineli’s older sister, Coral. I’m always excited when I can reach more kids so I was super excited to spend some time reading with her this week. She’s very smart and unfortunately, I don’t think she’s challenged very much in school. I first started reading with her just last Thursday and she has the sweetest disposition. On Thursday we read ‘The Little Mermaid’ in Spanish and a book called ‘El Dia de Sonreir.‘ She hadn’t read this book before and soon she was trying to skip pages to look ahead at the pictures to see what was going to happen! It made me laugh that she couldn’t contain herself. On Thursday she was a little reluctant to read at first, so I was super excited today when she asked me to go get some books to read with her! I hope I get to continue to work with her and help her with her reading.

Basketball

2009-11-10T17:26:00.000-08:00

Today I had a blast playing basketball with Nicole, Yessica and Caela (Caela is down here long term with her parents and brothers). It was Nicole and I against Yessica and Caela. At first, Yessica and Caela had the lead on us 5 to 3. Then we made a bit of a comeback and took the lead 7 to 5. Eventually we ended up 9 to 9 playing hard for the winning shot...it was such an intense game we only played to 10! Finally Nicole made the winning basket! She was so excited and I was very proud of her! Everyone ended up collapsing on the court because we had played so hard. It was a great afternoon.

Road Trip

2009-11-10T17:21:00.001-08:00

Last Friday we had the opportunity to take a group of the older kids at the orphanage on an educational trip to the center of the Dominican Republic. It was a fantastic road trip on the bus and we all had a blast. The kids really enjoyed getting out and seeing some of their own country. We stopped in several different cities south east of Santiago, visited some churches, some parks, and ate lunch at Dominoes Pizza...a definite highlight for the kids! They don’t get pizza very often so they can certainly eat a lot! Another one of the highlights of the trip was visiting the ‘Museo de las Hermanas Mirabal’ the Mirabal Sister’s Museum. The Mirabal sisters we ultimately responsible for the fall of the Trujillo dictator ship in 1960 and suffered a brutal martyrdom at the hands of the Trujillo ruthless regime. One of the four sisters survived, Dedé, and is still alive today. She recounted her sisters’ story to Julia Alvarez who wrote the novel ‘In the Time of the Butterflies.’ We were surprised to see meet her at the museum and visit with her.

El Morro in the morning

2009-11-05T16:34:00.000-08:00

I snapped this shot looking out of my door this morning when I was working before breakfast. We see a lot of unique cloud formations and rainbows with the climate down here. The mountain is know as 'El Morro.'

Reading

2009-11-05T16:21:00.001-08:00

Here's a picture of Idiana, Winston, and me. The kids LOVE this horse book! They can't get enough of it and they ask me for it every day!

Jaibon

2009-11-01T16:46:00.000-08:00

We went over to the orphanage in Jaibon this weekend to spend some time with the kids there doing games and activities. This is a shot of Alex and Waikin before heading in to read.

No Teeth

2009-10-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

Here's one of my favorite shots of Mineli without her front teeth. This is proof that a picture is worth a thousand words!

Yesterday afternoon one of the other long term volunteers planned a ‘side-walk chalk drawing party’ with the kids and I decided I would join in on the fun. The kids love side-walk chalk and they love laying on the basketball court and tracing each other or making me lay down so they can trace me. The only thing is, when they trace me I turn out looking very distorted....usually with extremely chubby legs and a veeerrrrryyy small head.

So, I decided I would take ‘side-walk chalk tracing’ to the next level. I started with Pili, who had been begging me to trace her. As she laid down on the cement, I made her close her eyes and as I traced her I added a curled tail. As she got up she was a bit confused at first and then couldn’t wait to tell everyone that I had turned her into a monkey! As you can imagine, interest began to spark in other kids. Next up was Mineli, and even though she tried to peek, I traced her and turned her into a mermaid. This was both a good decision and a bad decision. Good.....because Mineli was so excited and immediately started to add to what I had created and made sure one of the older girls wrote her name for her right next to it. This was bad, because news spread like wildfire and I soon found my self sweating in the hot sun with a dozen kids brining me chalk and all wanting me to trace them. Naturally all of the little girls wanted to be a mermaid or some kind of a princess. As they tugged on my clothes and forced chalk into my hands, I heard everything from “Make me a mermaid” to “make me a lion,” to “make Carmelo a shark.”

We had a blast, and I continued to trace kids, making them close their eyes and surprising them by turning them into some kind of animal or fairytale creature. It soon became a game of trying to guess what I was drawing and trying to keep it a secret from the kids at the same time! We would say ‘Joanni is going to lay down as a kid and wake up as an elephant,’ or whatever other animal came to my mind at the time.” Anyway, it was a great afternoon and it’s exciting to know that zoo animals will remain on the basketball court for a while.

These kids have so little when compared to all of the toys, television, video games, and iPods of kids in the States....but at the same time they have so much more. They are truly happy. You can see it in their smiles. There is joy in their hearts and I am happy to be a part of that!

Paola

2009-10-25T18:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Paola. She kept pretending she didn't want her picture taken for this shot by covering her face with her hands, but by the end she was totally working the camera. She's such a sweet kid and has an amazing smile!

Birthday

2009-10-11T13:01:00.001-07:00

Today was William’s 14th birthday and he was very excited to have his mom make the journey into town to visit him from a place out in the bush they refer to as El Gome. He had been talking about her visit for several days, as was his brother Winston and sister Yulisa. In fact, Yulisa is the one that originally told me that William’s birthday was coming up and that their mother was planning on making a visit. She is the older sister and seems to be the one that keeps important dates, like birthdays, in track. William is the shyest of the three, and although excited, he was very shy about telling me it was his birthday unless no one else was around. I first heard the news of her first last Friday, as William excitedly told me he was saving a piece of sugarcane candy for his mamá, that pastor Ramon had given him. Winston too was saving his candy to give to his mother. Sure enough, she came for a short visit today and the three siblings were giddily stuck to her side the entire time.

After their mom’s visit, we went into the kids dining area to do a puzzle together to celebrate William’s birthday. They love any kind of educational book, puzzle, sticker, etc. that has colorful pictures of animals and things in the natural world. I’ve been working the two brothers on puzzles lately, but because of their learning disabilities, the simplest of puzzles seem to be a big challenge. Nonetheless, we continue to work on puzzles and the one we worked on today was a dinosaur puzzle. By the end, several kids had joined us, and we had to “take turns” so each person got to put in a piece of the puzzle as we went around the circle.

All Smiles

2009-10-11T12:38:00.000-07:00

Luz María, the youngest of a family of five and about four years old, has the most amazing black eyes. Although she often has a dazed and confused look in her eyes, they light up and have a twinkle all to their own when she smiles. The other day during a simple game of peek-a-bo she was all smiles and I wouldn’t have been able to get her to stop even if I had tried. And, as if her smile isn’t cute enough, she often has her short little haircut in a single little accented tuft on top!

King Kong

2009-10-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

Before I start it’s important to note that Dominican’s are very observant. They notice the smallest of details about a person. Whether you wore the same shirt two days in a row or you gained two pounds, a Dominican will be the first to bluntly point it out. It’s actually quite funny how blunt they are and I not only find it humorous but also a bit refreshing because they just tell it how it is.

Anyway, the other day I’m hanging out with Winston on the steps, just shooting the breeze and chit-chatting a bit. Now...Winston is no exception to being a Dominican and as we’re chatting he suddenly finds a grey hair on my leg and starts laughing out loud that I’m getting old. As he attempts to pluck it out he’s confronted with the difficulty of getting just the one hair and he seems to suddenly realize how much hair I have on my legs. As if pointing out that I’m getting old isn’t enough, he starts laughing and says “Oye Bryson, tú te vas a ser un King Kong.” I didn’t quite understand what he was saying at first, but has he continued and talked about how I needed to trim up my leg hair or just shave me legs all together, I realized he was telling me I was going to be King Kong if I didn’t do something about the hair on my legs.

We ended up having a great little chat just sitting on the steps and it made me step back a moment and appreciate how far Winston has come in his social and communication skills! For that, I’ll take being called King Kong any day!

Mineli

2009-10-03T16:39:00.001-07:00

A day or so after reading with Winston and William, I had another magic moment with one of the kids at the orphanage....Mineli. Again, I had been tutoring in the education center and came down stairs to find only a couple of kids on the patio. Mineli was laying on the patio bench, and of course I went over to visit with her. Immediately she crawled into my lap and squirmed around until she made herself comfortable. She started to ask me about the books I had with me and she knew they were books for the university-bound kids that I had been working with in the education center. She proudly started to tell me who the kids were as she counted them on my fingers.

She’s not the best at counting yet, but together we figured out that there were five of students total. Then we started to chat about the storm that was blowing in and watched as some of the fast clouds began to cover the moon. When they quickly covered the moon, Mineli asked where the moon had gone. Just as I finished explaining that it went behind the clouds, the clouds blew over and the moon emerged again as Mineli exclaimed “There’s another moon!”...not knowing that it was the same one. It was a funny moment and made me realize how kids learn about things in the natural world in a developing country compared to how learning is so comprehensive in the states and how often we take learning the simple things for granted. Things like learning how to count or learning about the earth, sun and moon.

Anyway, somewhere in the middle of watching the storm and talking about the moon Mineli had repositioned herself to lay sideways across my lap with her head on my knees. And...in the middle of our conversation she just fell asleep. We were talking and the next second I look down and she was out cold. She was so totally asleep, that when I picked her up to take her inside so that her caretaker could put her in bed, her arms and head flopped around like she was a toy doll. It may seem like a simple moment, but it was precious.

Reading

2009-10-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

I had just finished GED tutoring for the five older kids at the orphanage who have potential for our university program and was making my way down the education center stairs only to find the patio empty at the back of the orphanage. It had just rained heavily...the tropical kind that comes more like a torrential down-poor...so I assumed most of the kids would be inside the orphanage common area and I decided to take a quick peak before I headed back to my room to rest. I was tired from a long week and a busy day. I said hi to a few kids inside and as I left to return to the volunteer area I didn’t make it more that ten steps out the door before Winston and William came running out to see what I was up to and wanting to read with me. They were anxious to get some book time in because I didn’t get a chance to read with them the previous week while I was busy leading a team of high school volunteers from California.

I was tired and a little frustrated that the tutoring lesson I had just taught didn’t go as well as I had hoped or expected, and honestly wasn’t really feeling up to reading. I kind of just wanted to go to bed. Moreover, I wasn’t really feeling like reading in the kids’ dinning area because there were a lot of mosquitos inside due to the recent rain and I wasn’t really feeling like sitting outside and reading on the patio because everything was so wet. Nonetheless, I knew how much it would mean to Winston and William to have some reading time, so I embraced one of the Orphanage Outreach principals that we live by down here, “It’s not about you.” There are many challenges when working with orphaned and abandoned children in a developing country and I often have to remind myself that they are just kids and that I’m here to serve them...that it’s not about me.

So, as my conversation with the brothers continued we discussed read

ing locations and Winston pointed out that the mosquitos were bad inside. I pointed out that it was very wet outside, still thinking and perhaps hoping because I was tired, that the boys would decide to read a different day and that I would be able to go rest. We decided that Winston and William would pick a good location as I went to get a book. Upon my return, the brothers were hiding under the second story staircase...as if they were hiding something. When they saw me start to cross the basketball court in route to the patio they emerged from the shadows and I saw that Winston had smuggled his towel down from the boys quarters upstairs. He secretly pulled the towel out from underneath his shirt, cautiously looking up to both sides to make sure no one was watching him, and then carefully began to place his towel on one of the benches, str

etching it out and adjusting it ever so carefully allowing us all to sit comfortably without getting wet.

It was then that I realized the magic of that moment...a moment I could have easily missed. I never would have imagined returning from getting a book to find that Winston and cleverly retrieved his own towel from his sleeping area. How selfless of Winston to share his own towel so that we didn’t get wet sitting on the bench to read, while I had selfishly hoped he and his brother would choose to read a different day.

As Winston made final adjustments to his towel, a much shyer William spoke up excitedly about how we all were going to fit on the towel. “Bryson en el medio”...”Bryson in the middle,” he said as we sat down to read.

Picture of the Week

2009-09-19T13:35:00.001-07:00

Franchesca peeking out of the hallway

Lightning

2009-09-14T18:32:00.000-07:00

There was a crazy lightning storm in Monte Cristi tonight that continued to light up the sky in all directions. I took this shot from the roof of the leader housing looking out over Monte Cristi and the Ocean. If you look closely, you can actually see the reflection of the lightning in the water. It was cool!

Back in Monte Cristi

2009-09-12T10:48:00.001-07:00

Here's some pictures of the new kids that we got at the orphanage while I was gone. The twins names' are Ari and Ariani......It's very hard to tell them apart. Their older brother's name is Luis Alberto. The twins are adorable and I think they know it. At least they walk around like they do!

A Day at the Beach

2009-08-08T12:34:00.001-07:00

Here's a video of a beach trip we took with the kids.

Summer Camps

2009-07-20T18:50:00.002-07:00

The past couple of weeks I’ve been working out in some of the poorest communities in the Dominican Republic to help run summer camps for children that live in what are called Bateyes; a dominican term used to describe small, rural, agricultural-based communities.

The camps we put on usually have four different station (arts & crafts, reading, vocabulary and recreation) that we rotate 4 teams of about 25 children through. The kids spend about 20 minutes at each station, engaged in a variety of activities and are also provided with a snack during our reading station. The kids that come to camp are so energized and filled with joy that there is no doubt in my mind that the experiences they have with us are some of the most memorable of their entire year. Mainly because there isn’t anything out in these small communities except for broken down housing without running water or electricity and a dusty dry field that the houses surround. Granted the people that live in the batayes have learned to overcome the challenges th

ey face on a daily basis and still find joy in the small things in life that we often take for granted in the

states....something as simple as talking with a neighbor or playing a game of dominoes or checkers. They are very “people” oriented and seem to invest the free time they have in each other.

Nonetheless, the poverty in th

e areas could be described as unimaginable to most people. In other words, most people in the states would never be able to imagine what it might be like to live in the conditions that these Dominicans live in. To go into a little bit of detail, the first day we arrived at a community named Maguaca I realized that m

ost of the community members had empty barrels in front of their homes. I soon found out that they were waiting for the water truck to come that hadn’t been their in 16 days. These people have no running water and have been living off of a si

ngle barrel of water for over 16 days....water that they have to use to cook and bathe with. More over, when the water truck does come, the barrel is too heavy to move inside and so residents have to scoop water up with smaller containers and m

ove it into their homes with several trips. When water does run out, they can’t use the nearby canal, because the water is brown with animal feces and pesticides from the surroun

d crops.

Because of these conditions, many of the children we were working with at camp smelled like urine because they hadn’t been able to

bathe, the babies walked around naked because they didn’t have any clean clothes or their parent’s couldn’t clean them, had fungus in the hair/heads, and open wounds that hadn’t been clean and treated. These kids have any number of problems that would easily be taken care of in the states, but go untreated due to lack of resources and adequate care. For example, there is a young girl about 8 years old that lives in this community named Lisel. She’s partially blind and deaf for reasons that would be treated medically in the states with a pair of glasses or small hearing aid. She al

so walks with a limp because she accidentally stepped in burning trash that she didn’t see and hot, melting plastic stuck to her foot and burned her severely.

This is just one example of the children we work with in these agricultural communities. I could tell dozen of more stories and go on for paragraphs to describe the living conditions, but I’ll post a few pictures to save on some words. Perhaps one of the most challenge parts of working in these communities is when it comes time for us to leave at the end of the week. Some of the older children almost seem

resentful or angry....but when I talk to them it’s because they’re holding back tears that they don’t want me to see. They come across as if they don’t want us to be there and then pretend to be joking as is very common in the dominican culture. Ultimately one of the girls came up to me and put all joking aside as she tried to hold back some of her own emotions. She asked me very seriously when we were coming back. Will it be soon, she asked? Waiting another year for our summer camp seemed too long.

Mineli

2009-07-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help posting this picture of Mineli. The other day, she came out in the morning all clean and dressed in new clothes along with these random, but cute, bunny ears! She had the best time wearing them all day long, and of course, when I saw her in the morning I had to grab my camera. :) A couple of weeks ago we also celebrated a bunch of the kids birthdays. We had cake, juice, and party hats!

VBS...Disneyland Style

2009-07-05T18:11:00.000-07:00

JUNE 20-27, 2009

Hello everyone! It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten a break to post a blog and so many things have happened over the past month that it’s hard to decide what to write about! If I wrote about everything, I think this would turn out to be the never-ending-blog! First I want to remember to thank everyone who has been supportive of my work down here at the orphanage, for your thoughts, prayers, donations, and contributions to the efforts of Orphanage Outreach. I have to send a special “shout-out” to my friends Conor and Lauren who not only made donations to my fundraising efforts in the fall of 2008, but also raised their own funds to come down and work with the children here as volunteers themselves. It means a lot to me that they were willing to take time out of their lives, to give u

p the comforts of the U.S.A. and to not only give so generously financially but also to give so freely of themselves and their character in order to affect the lives of the children here!

This week was our biggest week this summer and I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend it than with the Graystone church group from Atlanta, Georgia and the Old Orchard church group from St. Louis, Miss

ouri. They were perhaps the most genuine, sincere and noble people that I’ve been able to work with this year. The week was packed wit

h activities and all of the volunteers worked h

ard to accomplish our goals and to provided unforgettable opportunities to the kids here at the orphanage and in the Monte Cristi

community. Click this link to download a video of the weeks activities: http://files.me.com/bryson_adams/fe5shk.mov

This week part of the teams worked on painting the second floor addition to the orphanage and on bu

ilding cabinets in preparation

for the boys to be able to move up-stairs. The second floor addition has been an on-going project and we are very excited to finally be finishing it and to provide more room and more defined separation of space between the boys and the girls. I was mainly involved in working with the painting and cabinet crews to make sure things ran smoothly and to provide them with the support they needed to complete the job. Painting the entire upstairs of the addition was a very ambition undertaking, but everyone pulled together, putting in long days and even working at night, in order to complete the project. I had the privilege of painting alongside the guys pictured here: Me, Eric, Walter, & Dan. Walter headed up the project and so we decided to title him “King Walter,” while Dan’s General Contractor experience earned him the title of “Sir Dan

.”

In addition to

the work projects at the orphanage, we also hosted a summer Vacation Bible School based on the theme’s from C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series. This was perhaps the biggest surprise for me for the summer! W

e ended up having over 300 energized kids from the community pouring through the orphanage gates to participate in the variety of summer-camp style stations the teams had set up. It was like seeing kids at Disneyland with their hearts filled with so much joy and their spirits filled with so much energy that they couldn’t help themselves from “bouncing off the walls!” The VBS was really almost indescribable and pictures can’t even capture the spirit of the

kids.

The rest of the summer will calm down a bit, as we continue to run smaller camps with the summer interns and volunteers that come down. Next week I’m looking forward to spending time in Manzanillo, a small community outside of Monte Cristi, where we will be putting on both health and sports camps! I’ll try and post more consistently to keep everyone updated on all the great things that are happening down here!

-Bryson

Guest Blog from a Friend

2009-06-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! My friend Conor came down to volunteer about a month ago and just a couple of weeks ago my friend Lauren came down to volunteer and share her talents with the kids here in Monte Cristi! I invited here to write a guest blog about her experience...

So today is the Friday, June 26th. I returned from the Dominican Republic on Saturday June 20th. I've been home just about a week and I am finally done (I think) going through withdraw of wanting to return to Monte Cristi to see all the wonderful people and adorable children that I worked with. I was only t

here volunteering for a week, but it was truly one of the best experiences of my life. As soon as I returned I wanted to GO BA

CK! I've been traveling and out of the country since the summer of 2002. Most of my trips lasted at least a month and as long as 3 months. But this trip,

although the shortest, taught me the most.
When we arrived in Santiago, I waited at the airport for 5 hours for other volunteers' flights to arrive. Five hours seems to be a long time at the airport, but I was waiting with all these friendly and adorable volunteers whom I believed to be all around my age (I found out later that I was the old lady of the bunch. They were all between

18-22, and still in college). We chatted and got to know one another a bit and then began our two and a half hour journey to arrive at the orphanage. But that two and a half hour journey turned into five or six more hours in bus because it began to rain and drainage really doesn't exist in the Dominican Republic or something because the streets turned into rivers and we sat and waited as motorcycl

es and smaller cars stalled as they attempted to make it through the water and we (in a bus) were able to make it through slowly but surely.

We arrived safely in Monte Cristi and ate dinner and then moved into our ramadas. The ramadas are on the orphanage grounds and kinda look like chicken coops. Myself and three other girls all chose a small bunk bed covered with a mosquito net, organized ourselves a bit, and then fell fast asleep with ear plugs in, to drown out the sounds of pigs, roosters, ch

ickens, bachata music and whatever else went bump in the night.

The next day we went on a tour of the neighborhood, got to know some of the kids at the orphanage as well as one another. The kids there did not care if you spoke Spanish or not. They just wanted your a

ttention and your love and they were happy to be held, listened to, talked to (in English or Spanish) and just paid attention to. They were so sweet and amazing. There were 44 kids total with ages ranging from 1-18. It was spectacular to get to know them and just show and give them what I thought they wanted from me. One of the things that amazed me most about all these young college kids tha

t I was volunteering with was that the majority of them were staying for at least 2 weeks and some for 8 weeks or more. They are college students. They are supposed to be wild and crazy and selfish kids. You know those ones that just think of themselves all the time? I know I was when I was their age. But each of them had decided to volunteer there ON THEIR OWN. No one pushed them to do it. No one was forcing them to do this. Almost every single one of them

had found Orphanage Outreach on FaceBook and then just

decided, "Hmm, yes. This is how I want to spend my time this summer. I want to teach English and volunteer to help this program and the children at the orphanage." I was just amazed by them.
One of the girls there had googled the word orphan and then clicked on Orphanage Outreach's website when it popped up. Then she just signed up and came! Another girl there had paid for the entire trip herself because her family did not believe that Orphanage Outreach was a valid organization so they did not donate any

money for her program costs. So s

he just signed up and paid for it all. They were all just so sweet and self-less. Each person there just wanted to be there for the kids. When we had siesta time for ourselves after lunch, almost every single volunteer went to spend time with the kids instead of taking a little siesta.
Each day was so great after that. We were split into teaching pairs and each in charge of teaching the numbers 1-10 and animal names to the kids at the English Institute that Orphange Outreach started. We taught each day from 9:30-11:30 where we had 4 different 30 minute classes from Monday-Thursday. Then we returned to the orphanage to eat and see the kids (some of them attended the English Institute too). After lunch we went back to teac

h again from 2:30-5:00 where we had 5 different 30 minute classes. In the morning the ki

d's ages ranged from 8-10 and in the afternoon their ages ranged from 11-17...I believe. I LOVED TEACHING THESE KIDS ENGLISH!!!! They were wild and crazy and sooooo not accustomed to structure and rules in a classroom setting, but once you showed these kids a little love, affection, encouragment and any words and glances that sent the message that they were doing a great job, they were all ears and so pumped to learn and do what you say. It was sooo HOT (I've never sweated that much in my life. I mean I was drenched by the end of the day) and sooooo tiring, but soooo worth it.
The whole experience remi

nded me of why I became a teacher in the first place. Teaching in an extremely priveledged school district outside of Chicago for seven years surrounded by children who seem not to appreciate a thing you are doing, students that seem to have every material possession possible, students that seem to have parents that seem to love them so much, students that don't always show as much respect for you or one another when they should despite all this, other adults in my school building acting like immature children; this environment made me forget the reason that I wanted to be a teacher. I became a teacher because I LOVE BEING SURROUNDED BY CHILDREN, I LOVE MAKING CHILDREN FEEL AS IF THEY ARE DOING A GREAT JOB AND THAT THEY THEMSELVES ARE GREAT OVERALL, IT IS NOT ABOUT ME BUT ABOUT FORMING THESE CHILDREN, AND I LOVE THAT I AM IN A POSITION TO BE A ROLE MODEL to build students' self-esteem, self-confidence and overall well-being. I know I am just a Spanish Teacher, but I did not beco

me a Spanish Teacher becau

se I am enamored with Spanish. I became a Spanish teacher for the reasons above. But I forgot all of this. I let all the personal mumbo jumbo get in the way of my true reasons for being a teacher. I lost my thick skin that my cooperating teacher told me to have around teenagers. I lost my love for the cute, but adorably silly little things that Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc graders do. But this experience brought it all back. This experience helped me realize that I LOVE what I do. It is not just a job. It truly is what I want to be doing. My job is teaching Spanish, but it REALLY is about so much more than that. Teaching Spanish is secondary really. :-)
The team leaders also organized an English Bee while I was there for the students at the Instistute. That was what we were prepping the afternoon kids for each day. It was on Thursday night and worked just like a spelling bee, but the kids were given a Spanish word and then had to pronounce it in English. IT WAS SO FUN TO BE A PART OF AND WITNESS! The kids did so well and their parents and relatives were there to watch and support them. It was great! There were three different levels of learners and each first pla

ce student won a scooter in the end! Awesome!
My last day was spent touring around Santo Domingo with Bryson as our tour guide. He did a fabulous job and was and is extremely knowledgeable about the history of the D.R. (JUST FOR THE RECORD I WANTED TO WRITE THIS WHOLE BOG ABOUT BRYSON AND THE AWESOME AND MANY THINGS THAT HE DOES in the D.R.....but he would not let me and said he wouldn't post it if I did, so there BRYSONS!!!) This trip to Santo Domingo was an added bonus surprise in the end. None of us knew that we were going to Santo Domingo. It was a 5 hour bus ride away from Monte Cristi, but again...so well worth it! There is so much history there and the city is very beautiful to visit. On the way home we had a man attempt to board our bus and a theft along with police officers pulling out their guns and pointing right next to and at our bus. But these things along with the flooding never really surprise me when they happen in the Spanish-speaking countries that I have visited.

So I will stop now. I won't write anymore even though I could say so much m

ore about the kids and BRYSON, but he won't let me talk about how amazing HE IS. But I will say this in hopes that he will put it in the blog....those kids love him and need him. He is their constant and their rock. They think the world of him and are not the same when he is not around. THANK YOU BRYSON for allowing me to be a part of this. THANK YOU BRYSON for doing what you do and being so unbelieveably selfless. THANK YOU BRYSON for being there for me when I was there and for being my rock and my constant friend there and always. I am so happy we met as neighbors in Costa Rica and so happy to call you my friend. I really couldn't ask for a better friend or person to learn from. You are so wonderful.
-Lauren

Guest Blogger

2009-05-25T18:47:00.000-07:00

Life has been moving right along down here in Monte Cristi and I’m happy to report that the kids are doing very well! The school year is wrapping up and we’re getting geared up to start our summer programs and camps here at the orphanage and at the English Institute in Monte Cristi, as well as at the orphanage in Jaibon.

One of the exciting recent events has been a visit from my good friend Conor…proof that you too can come down to volunteer with Orphanage Outreach. During his visit, Conor has had the opportunity to get involved in a variety of the different programs here and I’ve invited him to post as a guest blogger:

As a longtime friend and frequent traveling companion of Bryson’s, I thought it would be almost inexcusable for me to miss out on visiting him during his year of volunteer service in the Dominican Republic. I had been reading his blog throughout his time in the DR, and I had visited him over Winter break in Mt. Shasta, hearing about all of his stories and seeing his pictures of the kids at the orphanage. After living vicariously through his blog posts, emails, and stories, I decided that I wanted to share in his experience, even if I could only do so for two weeks.

I have been in the Dominican Republic for nine days now and I am enjoying myself as much or more than I have on any other trips that I have taken. Since I have only been in the country for a relatively short period, I will leave the deep and insightful cultural analyses to Bryson and instead try to focus on describing my impressions and experiences as a short-term volunteer.

The first thing that I noticed upon arriving here in the Dominican Republic is the warm and welcoming nature of the citizenry. Countless people have welcomed me to the local community with a hearty handshake, kind words, and a genuine smile. Many times, as an independent traveler, one may sometimes feel a sense of self-consciousness or unease when moving about unknown and unfamiliar areas, but here, in Monte Cristi at least, it seems that most people greet you with a wave, a smile, or a simple “hola” as you pass by them on the street.

My days here have so far been very packed with activity. Bryson is one of five staff members whose job is to help facilitate and oversee the experiences of other volunteers such as myself. We start our day with a 7:45 wake up bell and have breakfast at 8:00. Usually I am awake around 6 AM; the crowing roosters, barking dogs, and blasted bachata music from the surrounding neighborhood serving as my alarm clock. Last week I spent some time teaching in one of the toughest schools in Monte Cristi. I worked on a team with three other volunteers, and we were charged with teaching shapes, and the alphabet, to fourth and fifth grade students. This school certainly presented us with some unforeseen challenges, but hopefully we were able to provide the students with a positive experience and inspire them to continue with their learning of English.

This week, along with Bryson, I have been working amongst a group of university students. Each day we drive together for about seventy five minutes to another orphanage (Jaibon) where we participate in various tasks. For the next few days we will be disassembling bunk beds. This seems like an easy enough task, but imagine doing this work in a sauna…because that is what it sometimes feels like since the beds are located in small unventilated bedrooms in the midst of the Dominican summer heat and humidity. However, the camaraderie of the other volunteers, coupled with the thought of a delicious and plentiful lunch awaiting us, makes the work pass by in a pleasant fashion.

While we work pretty hard throughout the day, we also have time to participate in some fun and varied activities. I have been to two local youth baseball games, visited a small museum of shared importance for the Dominican Republic and Cuba, hiked to the top of a hill to watch the sun rise, swam in the ocean at 6AM, boated to an island, watched a movie on Dominican history, and gone out for both ice cream and pizza.

Yet, without a doubt, the best part of this trip has been getting to know and playing with the children at the orphanage. These kids are absolutely amazing! They are among the most joyful, playful, and creative kids I have ever had the privilege to spend time with. Each kid is bursting with character and personality. One of the kids fashioned a harpoon gun to hunt fish with. The mechanical aptitude and imagination to create such a contraption is astonishing. I call another one of the kids “trampoline” because when he jumps (barefooted nonetheless) to dunk the basketball on the nine foot hoop at the orphanage, he jumps so high that it looks like he is launching off a trampoline. I call one of the little girls “Platita” (Little Silver) because one time she covered her front teeth with foil, giving them the appearance of being gleamingly silver plated. A group of boys frequently congregates to spontaneously create harmonious and complex musical beats using a variety of recycled objects such as garbage cans, water jugs, tin cans, sticks, and wires. If I had the time and space to do so, I bet I could give an anecdote or story about each kid that I’ve met here at the orphanage, 44 in total.

I know the kids are extremely fortunate to have Bryson in their lives, but I am sure that Bryson also feels the same way about them, that he is extremely fortunate to have them in his life. I for one, feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to spend time with these kids for the last nine days. I am sad that I only have five more days left with them… and jealous… that Bryson still has more than two months with them!

Sun-ripened banana

2009-04-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

Plantains and bananas are staples here in the Dominican Republic and are eaten as much as one might eat potatoes in North America. Just like potatoes, there are dozens of different recipes and ways to prepare plantains….my favorites being tostones, or fried green plantains, and platanos maduros, or fried sweet plantains. Here at the orphanage the children grow their own plantains and Pastor Ramon hopes to one day have enough plantain trees to be self-sustaining and not rely on purchasing plantains from local markets. As a gift, Pastor Ramon recently gave us some of the first plantains from the trees that were planted as bulbs in late spring 2008. Like bananas, plantains also grow upward, and would be hanging on the tree just like I’m holding them in this picture. Plantains are more starchy, and less sweet than a banana, and normally aren’t eaten raw like bananas are. I recently had the experience of eating a sun-ripened banana right off of the tree from a small, personal garden. It was probably one of the best tasting bananas I’ve had in my life!

Odd Jobs

2009-04-27T14:08:00.001-07:00

Here at the orphanage there are always a variety of odd jobs that I end up doing in addition to teaching, leading teams, translating, etc. These jobs range from things like sorting donations, cleaning storage and common areas, or organizing dental equipment for future teams. However, one of my top “odd jobs” this week has been herding goats! Normally the kids herd the goats around on the orphanage property to make sure they only eat what they’re supposed to. Let me tell you…goats will eat ANYTHING and are tenacious in getting food in some of the most hard-to-reach places! They can eat things fast too….give a single goat three seconds and all of your flowers in the flower bed will be destined to goat poop. So, the small goat herd that lives on the property ventured over to where I live and before I could even get down the stairs to see what the ruckus was, the goats had gotten into one of the bathrooms, eaten a ton of flowers, and had climbed into our planters where we grow beans (I wouldn’t be surprised to see a goat climb a tree someday!) We’re talking big goats, little goats, mother goats, a big huge white father goat, baby goats, black goats, brown goats, spotted goats, goats with horns, goats with beards, goats, goats, goats! So, it was left up to me (and my roommate Travis) to spend some time herding the goats! In fact, they’re actually very useful at getting rid of vegetation that you don’t want….especially vegetation in hard to reach places or that is hard to get rid of, like plants with thorns, or plants that are difficult to pull up. So I found myself a “goat-herding” stick and away I went! I was able to get them to clean out some of the vegetation overgrowing an area by our water tanks, but my goat herding skills are limited. I spent most of the time just running around trying to get them all together to eat where I wanted them to eat and not have them escaping and eating our egg plants, beans or flowers. Finally, some of the little girls from the orphanage came over to herd the goats back. Nicole (she’s about 9) and Jennifer (she’s about 4) helped herd them all the way back down to where they’re normally supposed to be. It ended up being a fun experience and I hope to be able to herd them another day and take care of some more of that growth by the water tower!

Beach Day

2009-04-20T16:41:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was one of the most exciting and fun days we’ve had here this spring with the kids at the orphanage…..beach day! That’s right, we took the kids to the beach for the day and I don’t think I’ve every seen them SO excited! They were talking about it several days before we even went, asking about who was going, who had been before, who was going to swim, etc. Anyway, the day started early in the morning with the kids running around showing us their new swimsuits before breakfast and helping to load the truck. They’re never up that early…even on a school day!

To get to the beach we loaded up on a couple of buses and off we went. It was about an hour drive to our paradise destination and at first the kids were captivated by the drive and watched wide-eyed out the windows at all the things we passed….buildings, goats, dry jungle, etc. They don’t get outside the orphanage very often (except to go to school) so this was a very exciting day for them! In route, Lisy (one of the little ones) was squirming around to sit on my lap or on the armrest next to me so she could see out the windows! She wanted to make sure I had my arms around her like a seatbelt though, just in case. The funniest thing was how she repeatedly lifted up her shirt or peaked down it, just to make sure her swim suit was still there! Indiana was sitting on the other side of me and eventually made a little pillow out of her towel to put on my lap so she could rest and look up out the windows.

As we came closer and closer to the beach the kids naturally became more and more restless. It took a combined effort from the adults to make sure the kids kept their clothes on over their swimsuits until we got there. The moment we saw a glimpse of the water the kids went crazy and started to shout ‘playa, playa, playa’ which means beach in Spanish. Indiana, who was laying down next to me, began to squirm and kick with uncontrollable excitement! She really couldn’t contain herself and just had to squirm and squeal!

As we were getting off the busses kids could barely contain them selves. They started ripping off their shirts and shoes while running to reveal their new swim suits. When they were all lined up on the beach, pastor Ramon gave the go-ahead to allow them to get into the water and all we could hear as they went crashing in were the their shouts of excitement.

Most of the little ones were afraid to go too deep (most Dominicans can’t swim) but wanted to be picked up and splashed up and down in the water. Winston, William, Paola, Pili, and many others wanted piggy back rides in the water and to have you carry them out to the deep areas. Winston was probably the most excited of the “piggy-back riders.” I’m not sure he’s every really been to the beach before and certainly had never had a ride through the water. As I gave him quick rides through the water, he started to get this high-pitched squeal and howl, and when I looked back he had a smile stretched across his face from ear to ear! It was hilarious to see. This “squeal” was particularly noticeable as I was running through chest deep water with him on my back or when I made sharp turns and he would start to slide off a bit. He felt like he was riding on some type of a sea monster or something!

These crazy fun times in the water continued all morning until lunch! Everyone was pretty exhausted by then….at least the volunteers like myself. Nonetheless, we continued with a fantastic spaghetti and chicken lunch, a very common meal prepared for a day on the beach in the Dominican Republic. By the time everything was all said and done, it was one of the most fun filled days we’ve had with the kids and I will never forget the smiles on the kids' faces.

Kids

2009-04-17T13:33:00.001-07:00

This is picture of Me, Nena, Paola and Julie at the independence day parade. The parade ended in the local gym and we had the opportunity to sit with some of the kids who had come to watch the parade with their schools. They always look so cute when they're dressed up in their school uniforms!

These are some pictures of me holding the mic for Lisy during the reciente talent show we put on for the kids here at the orphanage. Lisy sang a short song and all of the kids had a blast! The last photo is one of Paola and she's getting ready to perform her talent! I was the DJ for the talent show and the kids were very excited to participate.

Thankful

2009-04-06T19:08:00.001-07:00

I’ve been back at the Orphanage for a couple of weeks now after jumping around to do different types of work at the locations that Orphanage Outreach sends teams to. We finally wrapped up our five biggest weeks of the year and I’m excited to have a little bit of a break for some rest and relaxation. As I mentioned in my other blogs, I’ve been working with medical and dental teams to provide educational outreach in the communities in and around Monte Cristi, as well as put on free medical and dental clinics. I just finished putting on the last dental clinic with a great group of dentists and as the week came to an end I began to reflect on the past month and realize how many things I am thankful for! Before I get all of those things, I want to talk a little bit about this last dental clinic and some of the patients we saw.

The first couple of days of the week we worked with the kids here at the Orphanage to serve their dental needs. The next couple of days we spent working with the kids at the orphanage in Jaibon (the orphanage the Orphanage Outreach just started to sponsor in December) and trying to meet the dental needs of the children from the Jaibon community that attend the school located on the orphanage grounds. After we got the clinic set up and ready to go, Scott and I went around the different classrooms to triage the kids and select those who were in greatest need. This was one of the most challenging parts of putting on the clinic because every kid we asked to open their mouth had extreme tooth decay or gum disease. As a result, we unfortunately had to limit our selection to the older kids that had four or more rotten permanent teeth and even so, we were only able to serve about 1/10 of the school population. It would have taken a team of dentists a month to serve all of the kids!

As the days progressed the dentists as well as my self continued to struggle with the fact that we had to turn children away without being able to take care of all their dental needs. Moreover, we began to see the bigger picture of how a society could allow so many of these children to live with such extreme tooth decay. As we asked kids to open their mouths, for example, we would see brown and black teeth and as the dentists did exams, it wasn’t uncommon for a kid to need 10 extractions. In the states, a school would end up calling CPS after seeing some of these kids’ mouths! This made me realize how much we take dental hygiene for granted in the states…as if everyone should have the right to clean and healthy teeth. This isn’t the case outside the states and ultimately, I began to realize that the reason for such poor dental hygiene really comes down to poor education, or in the case of extreme poverty, a lack of education entirely. Children simply don’t know how to brush their teeth. They don’t know about dental hygiene, proper nutrition, or the dangers of plaque build-upand tooth decay. With out proper dental care, many of these kids will end up loosing many of their permanent teeth by the time they turn 20.

Moreover, as we examined more children, we began to see some of the deeper problems of a community struggling with poverty. We began to see kids that were “tongue-tied.” When one of the dentists first pointed out the problem, I thought that being “tongue-tied” was just an expression, when in fact it’s an actual condition. It is genetic, and occurs when the soft tissue that connects the tongue to the bottom of the mouth is attached too close to the tip of the tongue. This inhibits the person from being able to stick their tongue out or touch the roof of their mouth with their tongue when their mouth is open. Ultimately this is the cause of speech problems, and children in the Dominican Republic with speech impediments are isolated from their peers, looked down upon and struggle getting jobs in their adult lives. The solution to this problem is a simple procedure called a frenectomy, which involves cutting that soft tissue. One of our dentists had seen several cases in the States and had experience performing the minor surgery. The first kid that Dr. Romano performed the surgery on couldn’t extend his tongue past his bottom front teeth and wasn’t able to pronounce words with rolling R’s….a skill essential in the Spanish language. After performing the procedure, the young boy had a huge smile on his face (he was able to stick his tongue out at his friends for the first time) and his father was overjoyed. What seems like such a simple procedure is actually very costly for a poor family in the D.R. and beyond their financial capabilities.

After the vice-principal of the school saw that Dr. Romano was performing frenectomies, (the first patient was actually her nephew’s nephew) she started to bring us other students from the school with the same problem. That’s when we learned about some of the shocking history about these kids and why so many of them were tongue tied. As it turns out, the boy’s father was actually an 82 year old man who had raped a neighbor girl who was one of his nephew’s, nephew’s nieces. Unfortunately, these types of crimes and the lack of education ultimately foster inbreeding and lead to the repeated hereditary traits, like being tongue-tied, that we saw in so many children.

Between struggling with not meeting the needs of all the children, and not being able to change a culture overnight, many people might wonder if we actually made a difference at all. I think we have to look at the positive side of things and realize that every bit counts. These dentists really did work miracles for the people we saw in Jaibon and I can tell you that they made a difference in the life of the 8-year-old boy who could stick his tongue out for the first time. And perhaps even on a greater level, a difference was made in the lives of the dentists themselves and in the volunteers helping them. I know how much the experience made me realize how thankful I am for having healthy teeth, having had braces and good dental care. For knowing how to brush my teeth, for having parents that taught me how to brush my teeth, and for the simple fact that I can go and see a dentist in the States, feel confident that my dental needs will be met with good care, and not have to worry about asking a relative to pull out my rotten teeth with a pair of rusty pliers from the tool box.

Dental Clinic

2009-03-28T17:48:00.000-07:00

Back at the Orphanage

2009-03-28T17:41:00.001-07:00

Los Medicos Voladores

2009-03-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! As is usual these days, I’ve been busier than ever and haven’t had much time to post regularly to my blog. But, last week was a very exciting week and I wanted to write as much as I could about it before I got too far into this week!

Anyway, this past week I was out in the banana and rice plantation communities translating for, and providing general support for the free medical and dental clinics that Orphanage Outreach put on. Orphanage Outreach organized and implemented these free clinics with a group of medical doctors, nurses, dentists, and dental assistant that are part of an organization called the “Flying Doctors.” We also had over a hundred pre-med and pre-dental students that participated in the clinics, shadowing and supporting doctors and dentists! This was a very cool week and an amazing opportunity not only for the communities that we worked in but also for all of the volunteers involved in pulling off a great week of free clinics.

During this week of Clinics, Orphanage Outreach also partnered with “Banelino,” a non-government organization here in the Monte Cristi area that sells free-trade bananas to Europe and uses the profits to provide services to underprivileged and disadvantaged workers in the banana platations. Banelino provide lunch for the doctors and general support in setting up clinics in the Batey (bannana plantation) areas.

In general, the clinics consisted of signing patients in and giving them a name tag that was used to record medical information as they passed through the different stations of the clinic. After sign-in, patients were sent to a triage station were their blood pressure was taken and they were screened for diabetes (something that is very common in these communities). Next, patients were sent to see one of the five doctors depending on their gender, nationality (Haitian or Dominican) and medical needs. After seeing the doctor, they were generally sent directly to the pharmacy to get prescriptions filled from the doctors. Patients that had dental priorities were sent to the dentist.

My job during the clinics was to rotate between these stations and provide any support necessary…..which mainly was translation. I worked some with the dentists, who were mainly pulling teeth. In fact, there were often plantation workers that had 4 or 5 teeth pulled at once! Some times dentists would be in the middle of pulling a tooth and the generator would run out of gas…so I would have to get the generators fired up again and reset the compressor so they could get their instruments working again and clean up all the blood. Some of the work I did with the doctors was figuring out minor problems like muscle pain, headaches and stomachaches or simply managing lines and explaining procedures to the patients we saw.

Oddly enough…and rather ironic…..is the fact that my main job was to run the pharmacy along with some of the nurses and doctors. I just think it’s funny because both of my brothers are and uncle Pharmacists and suddenly I found my self working in a Pharmacy and getting a taste for what they do every day….counting pills and talking to patients about usage/dosage. Anyway, being in charge of the pharmacy with one of the Flying Doctors named Christine, mainly meant that I was translating prescriptions….although I did fill a few prescriptions for “tums,” “vitamins,” and “Tylenol,” he he he he he. This was often very challenging because many of the patients were children that showed up without parents or were workers that were basically illiterate. Most of the prescriptions we filled (aside from the ones for headaches, etc.) were for worms meds or STD meds. For example, one of the patients who came to the pharmacy was a 16 year old girl who had her three children with her and was trying to get vitamins and worm-meds for them, while getting prenatal vitamins for herself! Another young woman that came through the line had one of her children in her arm while she was nursing him, and had several other children with her...some of them hers, some of them her siblings.

Anyway, it was amazing to see how much need there was in these poor developing areas.....we saw hundreds of patients every day. It was very common for the doctors to see 250-300 patients while the dentists saw another 50. I could go on and on writing about all the different cases we saw, but I think you get the idea. One of the other challenges was trying to explain meds to the Haitian workers who spoke Creole. I had to learn very quickly how to say things like “take one a day for three days” in order to serve those patients.

Anyway, it was a very exciting week and I could go on and on about details but then this blog post would be way too long! So I’ll wrap it up and try and post another blog again soon!

-Bryson

Health in the Dominican Republic

2009-03-09T17:34:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I'm sorry I haven't been able to keep up with my blog posts very often, but I've been busier than ever leading volunteer groups in and around Monte Cristi for a variety of outreach programs. This last week, we launched the Orphanage Outreach health program in the small rural schools of Manzanillo and Copy outside of Monte Cristi and were very pleased with how well it was recieved. Scott Hagan, our current health program director has been working on developing a series of health lessons ranging from dental hygene to STDs, all of which are in Spanish and can be taught to a variety of grade levels. Scott will be attending med-school next fall and has put a tremendous amount of effort into creating these lesson templates so it was a very exciting time for us to see them put into action. This week Scott and I were working with 45 pre-med and pre-dental students from North Carolina State University, Boston College, and Pepperdine universtiy to launch the health program and we were excited to see so much creativity and energy amoungst them. By the end of the week, the children in the schools had learned so much and were singing songs about brushing their teeth and telling their friends about general health. There is such a need for health education here. Something as simply as brushing your teeth may seem like second nature to any American, but is filled with misconseptions in the Dominican Republic.

At the end of the week, we also organized and put on a Health Camp for 320 children from the Manzanillo school that included games, activities, songs, and even a puppet show. In fact, the health program was so well recieved, that even the teachers were sitting at the back of the classrooms taking notes, and the principal came into the classrooms smilling at how engaed the students were.

One of the other key elements of the health experience we provided for the university students, was the opportunity to do diabetes and other health screenings in what we call a Batey. A batey is a word we use to describe a small community in a plantation area that is very poor, isolated, and extremely disadvantaged. The people generally work in banana plantations, have extremely low levels of education, and are often from Haiti. Some of the communites almost appear to be abandonded ruins, when in turn they are actually homes that people are living in.

We ended up have a very exciting and fulfilling week reaching out to these disadvanted communities and affecting their lives in very positive ways. This week I'm working as a translator with a group know as the "Flying Doctors," a group similar to "Doctors without Boarders." There will be many stories to share by the end of the week, so I hope to post another blog soon. Of course, my evenings are still spent with the children at the orphanage and the time with them always seems to be the highlight of my day.

-Bryson

Back in Mone Cristi

2009-02-23T07:52:00.001-08:00

Well everyone...I've been back in Monte Cristi for a couple of weeks now and I'm busier than ever! I have a new position for the Spring which keeps me busy leading volunteer teams that come down for week-long service learing trips. Facilitating their experience mainly includes leading them into the local schools to teach English or other lessons focusing on topics such as health, and also includes leading teams on work projects such as building or construction. My first week back I worked with a group of Canadians from the University of Western Ontario and took them to two different schools to teach English. Last week I led a group from New Hampshire and we focused on construction projects at a different orphanage in Jaibon that Orphanage Outreach has just started to sponsor and will be providing services and opportunities to starting this week. This week, I'm in charge of leading several teams of pre-med students from Pepperdine, Boston College, and NCSU that will be providing health education in the small communities outside of Monte Cristi. Some very exciting things are happening down here right now and these teams are providing some unique opportunities for the children at the orphanage as well as extending their outreach into the local communities.

Even though I'm not teaching English at our English Institute this spring, I still have time to spend with the children at the orphanage! However, when I first got back a couple of weeks ago some of the children were a little surprised to see me....Winston for example....had to go and get his older sister so that she could confirm that it was really me. On the other hand, the first thing Joanni said to me was "ya no te quiero porque te fuiste." Which basicially means, "I don't love you any more because you left." Nonetheless, within the week she came up to me and took off my hat to see if I was still bald and if by chance some of the "imaginary" hair she had planted on my head in the fall, had perhaps grown!

Well...I better wrap this up. I want to thank everyone who has supported my work down here for this spring! These kids have so many amazing opportunities because the donations and support of all of you! :) All of the things that are happening down here wouldn't be possible without it!

-Bryson

Back in the States

2009-01-20T08:44:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone and happy 2009! Well...I've been back in the states for about a month now so I figured I'd better post a quick blog to keep everyone up to date on what's been happening with Orphanage Outreach. I've continued to do work for O.O. while I've been in the states, most of which is photo and video work. I have a lot of editing to do before I head back down to the D.R. in mid february, and it's going to keep me very busy for the next couple of weeks. I am also very excited about going back down for another 6 months! The kids are amazing and there is a lot of work to be done! Anyway, I wanted to share a few highlights about December in Monte Cristi.

The dominicans start preparing for the Christmas season very early on...some even start in November! Some of the first signs that Christmas is coming are the extremely loud firecrackers you hear going off in the streets. It can actually be very startling and seems that no matter how us

ed to the sound you get, the loud ones still catch you off guard! Perhaps the most startling part about it, is the fact that the neighborhood kids that attend our English Institute are the ones setting them off! Of course, this custom seems very strange to us Americans teaching at the institute all of whom believe kids shouldn't be setting off M60s and M80s in the street by themselves! But, you have to remind yourself that it's a different culture, a different world, and what may seem strange to you is often seen entirely different through the eyes of another culture. :)

The next thing I st

arted to notice as we got closer to Christmas was everyone beginning to paint their homes. It's tradition in Monte Cristi, and perhaps in other parts of the D.R. as well, that families paint their homes around Christmas time to prepare for the new year. I began to see these freshly-painted homes during my morning runs, and one of the coolest things about it is that even some of the poorer families try to paint a little bit of there home if they can. This might mean that they can only afford to paint the front of their house, or even just the door. Nonetheless, they add new paint as kind of a sign of renewal and hope that the new year will bring good fortune.

The next thing I started to notice were all of the Christmas decorations

going up around town. Dominicans try and decorate as much as they can, and even if it is a single strand of lights, they put them up to show their participation in the Christmas cheer! They are also very resourceful, and will create Christmas decorations out of almost anything...from empty juice boxes to scratched CDs. The dominicans don't have to go out and buy a bunch of Christmas decorations to participate in the season, they make

them and they turn out just as inspiring!

We were fortunate enough to have a very motivated neighborhood around the English Institute, and all of them pitched in to decorate the entire street! It was quite the sight to see and they even e

nded up building a make-shift archway leading into the street! All of the volunteers were impre

ssed and we added to the spirit by getting our own Christmas lights to put on the English Institute. Perhaps even more amazing was seeing the street at night! On one particular evening, everyone was out in the street celebrating the season, dressed in Christmas attire, visiting with friends or family, and listening to the live music being played. All of the neighborhood kids came up to us and wanted visit and play! It was an amazing evening and very exciting to get into the Christmas spirit!

Finally, the last week I was in Monte Cristi before coming back to the states, we put on a Christmas camp at the English Institute for the community children. Our activities were classic, ranging from teaching the kids Christmas carols in English (which they later sang in the park) to building gingerbread houses. The kids had a blast, and seeing their smiling faces was truly a gift!

The Price of a Chicken

2008-12-10T15:39:00.000-08:00

Things have been busy down here in the D.R. the past couple of weeks, but I wanted to take a minute to share a quick story about three siblings that we have here at the orphanage. A younger brother, a middle brother, and an older sister. I've mentioned a little bit about them in other blog posts but they are a special family and I wanted to tell a little bit more about their story. So....here we go!

All of them struggle with learning difficulties as well as with socializing, which, according to the psychologist that has worked with them, is partly genetic. However, one of the most probable reasons for the difficulties they face in learning and in social situations is the lack of stimulus they experienced in their childhoods. They spent their early years out in the bush. We're talking living in near isolation from society in some type of a small hut without electricity and with animals. Everything was very new for them here at the orphanage when we first got them and in fact, I've been told stories of one of their brothers who couldn't handle the assimilation into the orphanage. Being inside buildings with lights and hearing noises from the neighborhood were too much for him and he had to be taken back to the bush. Another example is the fact that the younger one had never seen a vehicle before and didn't know how to get into the truck when they went to pick him up. He literally had to be put into the truck. Then, he also started ducking and screaming a little bit when they were on the highway and vehicles started to pass them at fast speeds. Anyway, that should give you a little bit of an idea of where these kids come from.

Now I want to talk a little bit about each one of the siblings individually. I've been working a lot with the youngest one, who is in the first grade and is about 7 or 8 years old. At first he was very shy, but I'm working on helping him be more social and communicative, and he talks

a lot more now than when I first got here. I've also been working with him learning the names of the colors. He knows them all now except for red. One of these days we'll figure that one out too! He also loves to have me read to him (he can't read) and always selects non-fiction bo

oks about animals or nature. This week we read about animals that live underground like mice or foxes. His favorite book is about how cats are raised. This is one of my favorite pictures of him with his book. After every week, he tries to hide it in a special place in the bookshelf so he can find it the following week.

The middle brother is about 13 or 14 years old and is in the 3rd grade. I haven't had as much time to work with him and I think that's why he is less social than the youngest brother. Nonetheless, one of his favorite things to do is draw and so I've combined art projects with learning the days of the week in Spanish. I've been working with him for almost a month now and he knows Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and sometimes Wednesday. I'm still trying to figure out how we're going to learn Thursday through Saturday!

The oldest sister is 16 and in the 4th grade. I've only worked with her a little bit, but she is just as fun to work with as the other two. She can read a little bit and we also spend time writing and practicing simple spelling. One of my most memorable times reading with her was when she picked out a book about wild boars...not surprising considering the types of books her younger brother likes! Anyway, she was absolutely fascinated with it and I definitely attribute the family interest in wild animals from their childhood out in the bush. Her favorite animal is a chicken, which reminds me of one of my favorite parts of her story. About a month ago she had a birthday and her mother...who still lives out in the bush..sold a chicken to pay for bus fair to come visit her. What seems like a small sacrifice to us, was something that was very meaningful to a young girl at an orphange. It makes me put things in my life in perspective.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T05:14:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It has been very busy here in Monte Cristi lately and I haven't had a chance to post anything for a couple of weeks. We've had a few high school volunteer groups here that came down for Thanksgiving week, so we've been busy facilitating their experience.

Anyway, I've been very thankful to have the opportunity to serve here in the Dominican Republic and very thankful for all of the very gracious support from my family, friends, and the members of Christ Lutheran Church in Mt. Shasta. Your support provides opportunities to the children here that they would otherwise never have. And....although your support does provide food, clothes, and other necessities for the children...what it really gives them is smiles, laughter, and joy in their hearts because of the experiences and opportunities they have with volunteers. That gift is truly priceless!

A great example of this is the Thanksgiving dinner we celebrated with the children on Thursday thanks to the support from donations and some of the extra fund raising from one of the high school groups that came down. Dominicans don't celebrate Thanksgiving and myself, and the other long-term interns here normally don't eat with the kids (although we live at the same compound we have separate spaces) so this was a special occasion! The kids were sooooooo excited! That morning they had received new clothes from donations, so they came to Thanksgiving dinner all dressed up with huge smiles on their faces. As they came up for dinner, we funneled them through one of our roofed areas to take some pictures before we ate. They were so excited they could barely contain themselves from running full speed to where we were taking pictures and then over to find a seat at the tables. One of the little girls named Franchesca, who is about three years old, ran so fast that she could stop and ran right into the cabinets where we were taking pictures. Fortunately, her little belly bounced her right off and she got right back up! :)

At dinner, the kids were able to have big plate-fulls of all kinds of food like the Dominican favorite "Stewed Goat" to classic American dishes like the turkeys we arranged to have cooked. The kids are always fed very well here, but their eyes lit up as they saw some of the things that they don't normally get to eat, or don't eat very often. Mashed potatoes and fresh buns were a definite treat! One of my favorites was the stuffing that one of the high school volunteer groups brought down. However, the kids had never had stuffing before that they were very cautious about trying it! They kept asking me what it was called in Spanish and I had to explain to them that there wasn't a word for it in Spanish. I think it was a little too exotic for them and they preferred their mashed potatoes!

After dinner, we finished up the evening with a skit about why we celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States. It was prepared and preformed by me and the other long-term interns focusing on little bits of history and why we give thanks! The evening was very memorable and a wonderful time spent with the kids!

WHY ENGLISH?

2008-11-16T06:16:00.001-08:00

A lot of what I do here in the Dominican Republic revolves around teaching English. But, before I go into too much detail about teaching, I want to give a brief background about the education system here.

EDUCATION:Education here has the reputation of being the worst in the Spanish speaking world for several reasons. Mainly, because kids attend school an average of 2.5 hours a day. A normal school day for kids would be from 8:00 to 12:00...totaling four hours of time at school including the multiple recesses and breaks that take place. There are also afternoon sessions for different class groups. However, this four-hour school day can easily be cut down. If it rains, for example, school is canceled because the dirt roads get so muddy that kids can't get to school. The main transportation in Monte Cristi is the "scooter" or other type of small motorcycle, and you often see a dad or older brother bringing four kids to school all packed on one small scooter. In the mud, this simply doesn't work! The only other way to get to school is by walking. If it's raining a kid isn't going to walk 30-60 minutes to get to school. Another reason school might be canceled is if a teacher is ill or can't make it to school for whatever reason. There is no official substitution system in the country, so it is the teacher's responsibility to find a substitute and pay that sub during an absence. When a teacher makes about $1,500 USD a year, they're not going to pay for a sub. Finally, kids often miss a day or two of school a week to work helping their family with chores and other business. So...you can see how quickly other things affect the average school day.

Nonetheless, on the positive side, there are some good universities in Santiago and in the Capital, that provide a variety of career paths and attract international students. Part of what we do here is try and give students and edge to getting into a university as well as trying to boost the low average of classroom hours with our outreach program at the English Institute. By providing an extra hour or two of education a day we can give these kids just that much more of a boost to help them be successful. The program is free, but because it's free, students go through a screening process to make sure they are old enough and capable of learning in the classroom environment we provide. The program is also slowing expanding, and this fall we launched a library program giving students the option of an extra hour of alternative English immersion.
SO WHY ENGLISH?: This brings us to the question of why English? Isn't there a need for so many other outreach services and programs in a developing country? Well...there certainly is an overwhelming need for all kids of services, and volunteer teams do come down to run a variety of services ranging from dental work to vacation bible studies for community kids. But, the reason we teach English is because it gives Dominican children a very necessary edge in life. In fact, English is a requirement in the D.R. to get any kind of a professional job. Whether you become a teacher, work in business, are a doctor, or work in tourism, English is a requirement and job applications for such positions are often given in English. So, it's pretty fair to say that if we want to help give these kids the opportunity to choose a life working outside of a small fishing village, laboring in rice fields, factories, or on a small farm, then it's essential that they have a solid background in English. The sooner we get them started and the more exposure they have the better.

The English Institute has three hours of classes every afternoon, each class lasting one hour. I teach two classes, often co-teaching to give students greater one-on-one attention at the beginning levels, and spend a third hour working in the library. The Institute is available to both the orphanage kids, as well as kids in the community. It is often a very challenge type of teaching for a variety of reasons (loud motorcycles and scooters buzz are a huge distraction and the intense heat can also inhibit learning), but also very rewarding. I am learning new levels of patience and have adapted my teaching to a very different pace. One of the biggest things I have learned, or perhaps just been reminded of, is that to be a successful teacher, the kids need to know that you love them and want to see them overcome adversity! One of my goals is to make learning fun and to try and keep kids coming consistently. As I mentioned above, attendance in schools can be very sporadic. But for the most part, kids are very excited to be at the institute and wait anxiously in the park across the street for the bell to ring. When we do ring the bell, they come flooding in with big smiles, barely controlling their walking from bursting into running to get a good place in line for the library or to simply get into their classroom!

-Bryson

Un Fin de Semana

2008-11-09T06:02:00.000-08:00

SATURDAY:
Last week I wrote about a typical week here in Monte Cristi, so this week I thought I'd write about a typical weekend. Saturdays are usually a play-day for the volunteers and a chance to rest up from the fast, busy pace of the week. Saturdays usually involve going on some type of a day trip, exploring a beach, and eating in a Dominican restaurant. Like I mentioned, these days are a welcome opportunity to rest up and share some memorable experiences with friends. One of our most memorable weekend excursions was a trip we took to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. It was great for many reasons and because I've been recruited to produce some different educational videos for Orphanage Outreach that will be used to give volunteer groups a quick virtual tour of Dominican history and culture. Santo Domingo was a great place to film some history...including the very first church built in the "New World." We were also lucky enough to film a very important part of Dominican Culture...Baseball!!! Baseball is bigger than any other sport here in the D.R. and many of the players here go on to play Major League Baseball in the states. I was able to get some great shots of the game (we were a couple of rows back from the field) and even get an interview with one of the pitchers, who has played for various teams in the states. Here is a picture of us wearing our "Licey" hats....the name of the team we cheered for!

SUNDAY: Sundays are super-chill in the Dominican Republic and people take advantage of doing just that!!! Even if you have work to do, it gets put off to just relax. I usually take advantage of Sundays to clean...things get very dirty here very quickly. If you don't mop and wash things down with bleach and disinfectant on a weekly basis, bugs will most certainly begin to take over. I also spend time taking care of things like posting to my blog, grading a few papers, and of course spending time with the kids. Sunday evenings we go to church with the kids, and every other sunday I translate for the other volunteers that doen't speak Spanish. Pastor Ramon usually preaches, but ocationally guest pastors come. Here is a quick video clip of me translating. It's pretty low quality, but will give you an idea. Translating is definately a challenge and has been a new experience for me!

Un Dia Normal

2008-11-02T06:13:00.000-08:00

The volunteers are usually pretty busy here at Orphanage Outreach and my schedule is certainly no exception. So, I decided to write a little bit about what goes on during a normal day and during a normal week. This is what my schedule usually looks like....
6:30-8:00 Get up and exercise: Run, pushups, pullups, etc. It's important to stay healthy over seas!
8:00-8:30: Breakfast
8:30-9:00: Lesson planning/prep.
9:00-10:00: Individual English Tutoring.
10:00-10:30: Lesson planning/pre.
10:30-11:30: Individual English Tutoring.
11:30-12:00: Prep.
12:00-1:00: Lunch
1:15: Leave for teaching at the English Institute.
1:30-2:00: Sweep, mop, and clean the classrooms and library at the Institute.
2:00-3:00: I work in the library at the Institute reading in English and Playing games in English.
3:00-4:00: Teaching level one.
4:00-5:00: Teaching level three.
5:00-5:30: Head back to the orphange.
5:30-6:00: Play with the kids.
6:00-6:30: Dinner.
6:30-8:30: Activity with the kids.
8:30-10:00: Planning/free time.

Although my schedule seems pretty consistent, it actually changes quite a bit and you have to learn to be very flexible in the D.R. Things change all the time and you have to go with the flow. The evening activities are also varied....so I'll write a little bit about them as well.

MONDAY EVENING:
Monday is movie night and we use a projector to project movies onto a painted wall for the kids. Movies are all G-Rated, dubbed in Spanish, and range from Disney classics like "Mary Poppins," to modern computer animated films like "The Bee Movie." We usually prepare some kind of a treat....like brownies...for the kids and sit back and watch the movie with them. Inevitably, one of the little ones will eventually crawl into your lap just because they need someones lap to sit on! :) More times than not, if they make it into your lap, they'll end up putting their head on your chest and falling asleep too.

TUESDAY EVENING: Tuesday evening we spend one-on-one time with select kids in our education center that is located above the administration building. This time is normally specifically dedicated to literacy or working with students who need some extra help with learning English. I work with two kids, a 14 year old boy and a 8 year old girl. The first hour I work with the boy who is still learning to read. His reading level is about at the level of a 6 or 7 year old in his native language, Spanish. We use a book called "Nacho" which is an elementary reader that the entire country uses and is how Dominican children learn to read. Learning to read also involves learning to spell and write. Progress is slow, considering I only work with him for one hour a week. Nonetheless, he is a great kid and very much wants to learn how to read. He always shows up on time and almost always checks in with me a day before to make sure we're still on for tutoring. Occasionally, he'll bring his English work to get help with as well. My favorite thing about working with him is his modesty with me during our time together. He struggles with it a bit because guys are supposed to be "macho" in this culture, but learning to read seems to be more important to him. It still is a delicate line and I have to make sure to keep him involved.

For the second hour I work with a girl who is about 8 and is also learning to read. However, she reads at her level and uses the second level "Nacho" book. She's a bit onry, and very much a tom boy. It's not softball with her....it's just fast pitch! She also likes very much to be in charge and tell me what we're going to work on for the evening! Sometimes she'll say she's not going to read, but when I get out a fun story and start to read it, she gets so excited with the pictures and the story that she can't help it and ends up moving my finger off the page , puts hers on the words and begins to read! Last week we read "Sopa de Calabaza," a story about a squirrel, duck, and cat, and the importance of kindness, acceptance, and friendship.

WEDNESDAY EVENING:
Wednesday nights the activity is what is called "culto." It's basically like an informal worship time/bible message time with the kids. We sing songs with them similar to children Sunday school songs like "He's got the whole world in his hands," just in Spanish. A handful of the older kids play rhythms to the songs on makeshift instruments like a water jug and two sticks. It's often led by Jeff, one of the volunteers, or by Pastor Ramon, the pastor in charge of the orphanage.

THURSDAY EVENING:
Thursday evening we're back in the education center...one of the things I always look forward to! The first hour I work with a 6 year old girl named Nena, who loves to read. While waiting for her turn, she usually makes sure to tell the other kids that I'm her "profesor." To give you an idea of her excitement for reading time, she normally waits for me at a small gate to the ed. center with her arms up, hoping I'll pick her up and lift her over the gate to go read. She's a great little reader, and because Spanish is phonetic, she can read almost any word by sounding it out. So when reading, we usually work on comprehension and understanding. We also work on writing and spelling. Last week we worked on putting spaces between her words and using her tiny finger to help measure spaces. One of my favorite things about Nena is her smile and how she does a great job of rolling her "r's" too!

The second hour I work with a boy who is also about 8, but has some learning disabilities. I've been helping him learn his colors and he knows almost all of them except red and blue. Last week, we spent an hour coloring and working with red and blue, and I think he might have red down now! He also doesn't' speak much, but likes to be read to considering he can't read. Usually when he gets tired of coloring he'll grin and say something like "after this you're going to read to me." I always get a kick out of it and tease him back a little bit. Nonetheless, we always end up reading, and he likes informative books with a lot of facts....like books about animals or hurricanes.

FRIDAY EVENING:
By the time Friday rolls around, I'm usually exhausted and very happy to have the evening off. After getting back from teaching and having dinner, we usually just spend time with the kids hanging out, reading, playing games, or just chatting. The evenings here are usually pleasant, because it cools down some.

WEEKENDS:
Weekends here are a totally different pace, so I'll have to write about them later!

-Bryson

On The Border!

2008-10-24T17:26:00.000-07:00

A couple of Fridays ago (October 17th) we took a trip to the border with Haiti to get an idea of the constrast between Domincan life and Hatian life. Wow...was that an experience! It's pretty common knowledge that Haiti suffers from much greater poverty than the D.R. This fact was extremely evident in Dajabon, the border city that we visited. Before I go into too much detail about the experience, I have to preface it with the fact that I have traveled a lot and seen so much that little surprises me. However, in my ten years of traveling I have never experienced what I saw at the border.

To begin, every Monday and Friday morning, the border in Dajabon is open for free crossing to allow for commerce and trade in the local Haitian market. The physical border between the two countries is actually the Dajabon river...a dirty brown river that has zero visability. A small bridge crosses the river. On market days with free crossing, there seems to be complete chaos on the streets and on the bridge as Haitians make there way back and forth to try to buy and sell as many goods as they can while the border is open...usually between 9 a.m and noon. Haitians can usually get things cheaper on the Dominican side, and when it a question of survival, you can only imagin what they will do to make sure they take advantage of the opportunity to cross into the D.R.

As we made our way to the river and the bridge in a single file line, we had to weave in and ot of people pusing carts overloaded with everything from bags of rice to firewood. The scene is really indescribable and reminded me of something you might see in a movie about a poverty stricken area in Africa. I say this not to be stereotypical, but perhaps because it is the only way to really create and image for you of what it was like. I also say this for several other reasons.

First of all, I've never been in a country where I don't speak the langauge. The Haitians speak creol, and as we made our way to the brdge, the buzz of a strange language added to the feeling og being very much out of my element and in a foreign land. Second, the Haitians are mch darker skinned than the Dominicans (probably due to Trujillos attempt to make the Dominican race whiter during his rutherless dictatorship) and have much more distinctive facial features. Third, there was Dominican military security with guns on the Dominican side of the bridge (they actually will shoot people that try and cross the river on days when the border is closed) and U.N. peace keepers from Paraguay stationed in the middle of the bridge wearing the unmistakable blue helmets. Fourth, as we made our way through the overwhelming stench of body oder and market activity to position ourselves on the bridge, we saw people crossing the river carrying large amounts of goods on their heads.

It's very common for people to simply cross the river on a free crossing day instead of attempting to make it rhough the swarming snail-paced madness on the small bridge. The people crossing the river were mainly women, and both on the streets and the river, they could be carrying around 50 pounds or more on their heads. Some people were even using their arms to support what was on their heads and looked as though they would tip over if accidentally bumped. Often, they carry items that don't necessarily weight too much, but are extremely bulky. One woman was carrying something the size of a LazyBoy recliner on her head!

Anyway, as we battled or way off the bridge and into the markety, we saw people selling everything from a few small onions to underware in bulk. This market is not a tourist market...it doesn't have trinquets and goodies, and we weren't bothered to buy stuff like you are often incessantly bothered at a market for tourists. It was really just a market for the locals to trade and do buisness.

All in all, although the experience was short lived, it was well worth it. I have a much better understanding of the contrast between the D.R. and Haiti. There is a lot of desperation in most of the world and on the border you can see with your own eyes how people live when they are fighting just to buy food or firewood....something we perhaps never experience in the States.

-Bryson