Cosmopolitans in the rain

Hola

SO again it would seem I didnt stick to my promise of remebering to post!!!! Muchas Lo siento!!! but lets start from where I think I left off…… mmmmm… where to start…… I know the story of 4 girls in the big city!!! Ok so it was a pretty good trip we got to see alot of the capital ( well 3 of us did one of our numbers had her head in a plastic bag for that part of the trip) particularly the historical parts as we were staying in zona colonial but anyway tht was the last day lets go from the beginning so we arrived in santo domingo for our first trip away and we were all pretty excited so we spent the first day satrurday doing what any girl would do when deprived of it for a month shopping !! which was really fun we also went to the movies to see horrible bosses which although I’d already seen it was soooooo funny and just what we all needed andthe came saturday night !!! well I would like to first say that I take almost no responsibility for what happened I blame cosmopolitans and and topless men !!!! You see the thing is we researched we did India had her head pushed firmly into any travel book she could get her hands for the whole week before looking out good club destinations in the capital and we had our hearts set on a completely touristy one. we were pretty safe in pur knowledge and so we headed out without a care in the world so that club was closed !!! problem number one problem number two there was a religious festival on so most of the good clubs would be open!! still not yet disheartened we trusted our taxi driver to take us some good clubs in town problem three our taxi driver doesnt understand what ‘musica americano’was so when we ended up outside ‘Club Cool’ our hopes were not too high then we saw the bar tenders straight from calvin klien underwear ad I kid you not and long story short after too many cosmos we tramped back to our hotel me missing half my tooth !!!! so next morning after a wonderful 4 hour shower ( I may have fallen asleep) and for others a freezing nights sleep with a towel for cover because she was a bit too intoxicated to realise that she had a cover lol !! we went for a stroll with olivia to see santo domingo which didnt last long because someone had to puke every five seconds !!! but we made it home and thts the main part and I would like to report I now have a full tooth and I can eat bon bon babies again !!! wooohooo

Sorry for the Radio Silence

Hola !!!

 

First of alll I just really want to apologise for not writing sooner its been a really hectic three weeks where anytime we got on the computer was very limited not enough time to write all the fascinating daily occurences that happen to us gappers.  But never fear no longer will I leave you with out a word of what we´re up to so here goes……..

1 month gone only 11 left !!! its been a pretty hectic few weeks for all involved!!! with painting classes, crazy lightning storms, and a lot of bug bites !!! for the La hoy girls we were into our fourth week of teaching and the Bombitans are now into their third week.  Everyday it gets easier and we find ourselves feeling more at home.  For me I began teaching my classes how to paint not an easy task as it would appear the children were much interested in painting themselves, their amigos and me !! Motta was not impressed that week!!  It would start of well but after a while they would get bored of painting Casas and Manzanas and start painting the person next to thems shirt !! I was glad when the last paintbrush was washed on thursday !!!!  We also began the prep for christmas cards ,now I know what your thinking CHRISTMAS CARDS in september!! Well the reason is that all the children in the school are sponsored by someone in the states and someone in the uk,  so every year the children make them each a christmas card and its the volunteers job to design the cards so they look nice but are completley idiot proof……. Not Easy !!!! During the week we also went out for awesome team meal (peppered steak for emma!!) which was rounded off by Patrick, Katherine , Amanda and Myself being attacked by a welga!! for those of you not schooled in dominican terms a welga is kind of like a riot where they put burning tyres in the middle of the road and if you try and drive past they throw rocks at you woooohooo !! but the good news is we got electrictiy because of that welga !!!!  The weekend was spent painting my classroom as the god awful blue it was before was giving me a sore head !! so we rounded up the troops Miguel, Frances, Gregori (although he didnt actually do much ) and Diego and they set about changing my classroom to a nice cream colour.  I can now report it is much better than it was before and I´m very happy with my new colour 😛 Unfortunatley thats all really going to get the last 2 weeks worht of life up hopefully by tonight but lets not get angry if I dont remember we´ve only had an hour of electricty in the pass to days !!! there is definitley a welga coming sooon !!

Adios x

Snakes in the towels ….. whatever next

So yet another week goes flashing by!!!

this week has been hard core teacher traing with spanish lessons thrown in as well for Carla and I !! The La Hoya girls start on Monday and the Bombita girls have yet another week off (unfair).  This week we started off by going to the beautiful resort of Playa Azul its a hotel right on the side of cliff over looking the turquoise carribean sea (jealous or what ) we had a team retreat where we got to know our strengths and weaknesses and then went for a wonderful lunch.  Unfortunaley that was the only beach we saw, the rest of the week was dedicated to preparing us for the classroom ! we had countless meetings and planning sessions with Amanda and Olivia to helps us take on the 200 something kids that would soon be walking through our doors, scary I know !! but at night we got to have a little bit of fun when we werent to tired tuesday for Katherine and I was Bible study which was surprisingly fun !!! then dominoes with Manuel and Jesus who seems to like us as he keeps bringing us patata ands platanos and sugar cane seems to be his new favourite thing to give us but I´m not complaining it tastes gooooooood !!! for Carla and India it was a lively all singing all dancing church service and getting to know the locals of Bombita that filled their days ! Katherine and I seem to have aquired a house guest though in the form of a small puppy called Dukessa who likes to sleep under our kitchen however she wasnt to keen on being in the house when we found a snake in the washing basket ….. my reactions was of course mature scream and then get roger the night watchman to handle it !!! On friday we all attended the youth service in la hoya which was fantastic with hundreds of people coming to watch the kids sing and dancing and acting all in all a top night :::: wooooh I´m almost out of time damn internet cafe !!!

welll Hasta Luego

Emma x

And then it started Raining …….

Hola!

Its been a pretty full  first week here in Dominican Republic! We arrived safe and sound, although pretty tired, to a smiling Ameilia (our country representative).  She took us to our hotel that we would be staying in for the night with two double beds in each room and a very technical looking air-con, that Carla ad I decided to figure out when we got back from dinner! Ameilia took us to a really nice Pizza place and after the meal we headed back to the hotel, all now full and sleepy and the night porter had fixed our air con so all was good!! That was until half way through the night carla and I woke up thinking we were in a freezer!! The Air con had malfunctioned and was now colder than it should be after about 10 minutes of fiddling with the remote I managed to turn it up or so I thought about an hour later our air con began to defrost and started raining everywhere.  By the time we stopped it it was 6 am so time to get up.  Ameilia shipped us on to the coach early that mornig andwe headed for Barahona! 3 hours later with very little extra sleep, thanks to Carla´s boredom, we arrived in Barahona and met Patrick and Amanda who took us for a quick lunch and then off to the SuperMarket!! Katherine and I quicly settled into life at La Hoya, a beautiful town were you can pick mangoes, avocados and Bananas straight of the tree, and soon we were planning our night aroud Domino night with Hazues, Maunuel, Connie and Olivia(although last night it was with Ninga Hazues son in law Olivia was away in Bombita watching the Kings Speech with Carla ad India)I also saw my first TARANTULA!! which was terrifying and I reacted very maturely screaming very loudy and dancing round it to get away but I´m serious this thing was huge !!

But thats all for  now te electricity is bound to cut out any minute so

Hasta Luego !!!

Emma x

Hola!

and welcome to our blog!! Following the life of a gapper is hard work but someones got to do so over the next year India, Carla, Katherine and myself will document the exciting, the terrifying and the down-right-weird things that will befall the four of us on our Gap Year!!! First of all here are the Deets the four of us will be living and working in the Dominican Republic in two villages just outside Barahona! Myself and Katherine will be working in La Hoya and India and Carla in Bombita! So we’ll keep this updated (as much as we can its likely we’ll only get internet once a week) so stay tuned!!
Adios Amigo x

Katherine, Emma, Carla and India