Flaunting my Causes

Today I'm excited to participate in Flaunt Your Cause and share with you two wonderful organizations that I spend my time with in Dominica.

Here on the island I keep myself really busy and as a former teacher, I love working with local youth in a couple of different capacities.  

InLightIn is an after school program for local preschool and elementary schoolers here in Dominica.  Every Friday, we meet the kids in the park for an afternoon of games, craft projects, and an afternoon snack.  I love just hanging out with the kids, hearing about their day at school, and playing soccer, Uno, and dominoes (such a popular game here!), or coloring while listening to their stories.  

We bring mac and cheese, baked goods, and juice for the kids to enjoy each week.  For some of the kids who attend InLightIn, this may be the only meal they have all day, so this is an especially important part of the program.  We also help the families of our InLightIn kids by buying and delivering groceries for them when needed.  I have been working with InLightIn and our kids for 17 months now, and feel so lucky to know them. They are sweet and hilarious, and their laughs are contagious! 

The second organization that I work with here in Dominica is CALLS.  CALLS is an alternative high school in Dominica that gives students a second chance to finishing school and learn vocational skills.  I have volunteered my time at CALLS as a tutor and art teacher since I arrived on the island in December 2010 and love going to the school on Wednesdays afternoons.  

I usually work with the boys and have a soft spot for all of them. I love that they call me Miss Clare {said in an awesome Caribbean accent, of course!}.

A huge thank you to Emily and Lindsay for organizing this wonderful event.  I loved having the chance to flaunt my causes! 

Previous posts about my volunteer experiences in Dominica:
InLightIn Fridays
Silver Dust
Wednesdays at CALLS

Friday Friends

These are my favorite Friday friends.  

They are full of hugs, smiles, sass, and laughter.  They get fired up in games of Uno and are never too cool to hang out with me or throw a football with me, even when they've reached grade five.  I love their island accents and big brown eyes.  They give me surprises like friendship bracelets and half-colored coloring book pages with T-Rexes on them.  

They're sweet and hilarious and I love every one of them, even though they try to look like gangsters in basically every photograph I take.

Yesterday was our last In.Light.In until we start the program up again in June... I'm really going to miss these kiddos over the next two months! 

In.Light.In Fridays

One of the highlights of my week is hanging out with some of my favorite kids at In.Light.In on Friday afternoons.  This is the fourth semester that I've been involved with In.Light.In, so I've known most of these kids for over a year now.  I love hanging out with them, coloring, playing Uno, and kicking the soccer ball with them.  I have a soft spot in my heart for these kids, especially the hilarious boys and sassy little girls.  They are just too cute!

{just hanging out. love him!}

{all smiles}

{sassy artiste}

{mesmerized by the toy airplane on the field that's gearing up to fly}

{so serious and proud of his penguin}

{back handspring - midair! so impressive!}

{sweet girls}

Bon weekend!

Wednesdays at CALLS

For the past year, I have spent nearly ever Wednesday at CALLS, the local alternative high school.  For my first two semesters in Dominica, I tutored students and recent graduates, working with them on homework, reading, and math skills (aka maths), in addition to mentoring them and just chatting with them about life.

A photo from one of my favorite afternoons at CALLS - we walked to Purple Turtle Beach to sketch and enjoy snacks. I love these kids, even though they are trying way to hard to look tough in this photo!

I have worked mainly with the boys, which is pretty rewarding and entertaining, but also, often frustrating, since many of them have a hard time in school and come from difficult backgrounds.  A few of the students I have tutored have left school and dropped out, which is  really disheartening.  I am always so impressed by the students who stick with CALLS and complete the two-year program.  CALLS provides job training and vocational skills, so even for students who don't excel in a traditional classroom setting, CALLS can teach them a great deal.

Last semester, I joined my good friend Mary, a Peace Corps Volunteer here in Dominica, and helped her teach art classes at CALLS on Wednesday afternoons.  It is always interesting - some days good, some days bad - but overall, I love being part of the school and getting to know the students, even though they aren't always thrilled about art class.  In a few minutes, I'll head to Portsmouth for my first art class this semester.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we have a good afternoon!

2 Ladies, Come & Gone

[caption id="attachment_498" align="aligncenter" width="553" caption="My two besties"][/caption]

Tropical cyclone Emily:  We've been busy preparing for her for the past 2 days... Purchased electricity, check. Filled up all our water bottles and pitchers with water, check.  2 extra gallons of water from the grocery store, check.  Washed all the dishes in the sink (the water cuts off when it rains for long periods of time, so if you forget to do those dishes... yuck!), check.  Non perishable food in case we really get in trouble, check.  Luckily, Emily has now passed us and all we've seen of her is a little wind and lots of rain.  We did wake up this morning with no water though, so I am glad we have lots of extra on hand, because I am using it already!

This week Charlie and I were also lucky enough to have a sweet little puppy for a few day, until we found her a permanent home. We aren't allowed to have pets in our current apartment, and our landlord tends crops in the garden behind our apartment, so she's around way too much to sneak anything past her.  We found our pup a home for good last night, with some loving students, but I'm not going to lie, Charlie and I both definitely cried a little when we had to give her up!  She was the sweetest little puppy, and we loved her!  We're not sure what kind she was -- but she looked like a mixture of an island dog with a Rottweiler or Doberman Pinscher.  She had the sweetest little personality!

And now, the humorous story of how acquiring the puppy went down.
Last week when I went to Portsmouth to tutor, I spotted her as I was walking down the street.  She was cowering and crawling out from under a shack.  She approached me timidly, crouched down in fear, but she covered my face in kisses the minute I scooped her up.  I held her for a little while and then put her back on the ground, and she stayed near me, although she was also interested in scouring a nearby trash pile for something to eat.  A group of local women passed me and told me, "Take her!  She need a home.  This is not a life!"  I told them that I'd love to take her, but that I didn't want to take someone's dog.  They replied, "She live on the street, she need a home!"

Done.  I knew right then that I couldn't leave such a sweet little lady on the street!

I carried her down the street to CALLS, where we played with some of the kids in daycare while I waited to meet James for tutoring.  She loved me, she loved the children, she loved to play.  After CALLS, we walked to Best Buy (the hilarious Caribbean junk shop, not the awesome techy Best Buy of the U.S.) so I could buy her a collar.  I walked in holding the puppy, and a woman inside smirked.

"Where you find dat po-ppy?"

"I found her in the street in a trash pile."

"That Alvin's po-ppy!"

{Oh sh*t.}

"Hey, you see dat po-ppy?  That Alvin's po-ppy!"

"Yeah, dat Alvin's po-ppy."

{Double sh*t!}

"Oh, then I'm going to put her back. I don't want to steal someone's dog.  A group of ladies told me she was a stray, that's why I was taking her."

"Alvin don't care for her.  She live on da street.  It don't even look like he feed her.  She need a home.  Take her!"

"Well I don't want to steal someone's dog..."

"Take her! Take her, people don't know how to treat dogs round here."

So I leave the store, worried that some man named Alvin is not going to be happy with me.  I walk back to the spot where I found her, deciding if I should leave her or not.  I turn around and see that one of the women from Best Buy has followed me.  She sees me and laughs.

"Don't put her back.  She need you.  My store is right here.  If you can't keep her, you bring her back to me and I will find her a home, but take her.  Go, go."

So... I hopped on a transport {bus} and took Little Lady on her first bus ride.  I. Stole. A. Puppy.

Don't tell Alvin!

{Coming soon: how we cared for Little Lady, found her a home, and as a result, a security guard was paid $200 EC...}

Graduations

The past few weeks here in Dominica have been filled with graduations, and I've been lucky enough to attend 2 of these.  The first was at CALLS, where 12 hard-working high schoolers beat the odds and graduated, despite having to drop out of secondary school earlier in life.  CALLS gave them a second chance, and they completed their studies and internships, which is a huge deal.  These kids are amazing, and I felt so lucky to be able to celebrate with them and wish them well.





The following week I attended the St. John's graduation with two friends.  There, we cheered on two sweet boys we know from In.Light.In as they graduated from primary school.  We felt like proud moms!  These boys are so great, and they looked especially dapper in their bright orange graduation blazers... don't you love them?!?

















It was a big week!  (Did I mention that it was a long week, too?  Each graduation ceremony was over three hours long!)  I love these kids and am so glad I've been lucky enough to spend some time with them and help them celebrate their big achievements!  You go, grads!

What we do all day...

Contrary to popular belief, I do not sit around and pick my nose or eat bon bons all day long (only for a small part of the day).  I am actually really busy most days, as is Charlie, who rarely has a chance to enjoy the beach, or much of anything, for that matter.  After tests and exams, however, we both look forward to a fun afternoon and evening together.  Until then, however, here is what a normal day here is like...

I get up between 8 and 10, put away the dishes that dried overnight, and do whatever dishes were left in the sink from the day before.  Then make coffee or tea and have breakfast (usually fruit, oatmeal, or eggs) outside, if the porch isn't swarmed with the remains of dead bugs (in which case I avoid going outside for as long as possible so I can put off sweeping them up.  It's pretty sick.  Currently the porch is covered with the inch-long wings of these crazy rain-fly termite things.  ICK!).  If Charlie is media-siting (watching class lectures online) that day then we'll have breakfast together, if I'm up early.  If he's going to class, he's gone by 8.  After breakfast I do the breakfast dishes.  Then I make the bed, clean up our apartment, put away clothes or laundry.

[caption id="attachment_402" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="bug covered porch... good stuff."][/caption]

If it's a busy day, I'm up early for an RSO meeting, an assembly at CALLS, a day trip with friends.  If it's a low-key day,  I will check emails, write a blog post, catch up on news and blogs, read about re-finishing furniture and other how-tos which I will bookmark for use in several years when we have a real home.  I'll peruse the food blogs and book mark recipes with minimal and/or tropical ingredients for current use, and ones with fancy shmancy ingredients or luxuries not available here like berries, buttermilk, and arugula for later use (again, in several years, when I can also break out those DIY home projects, like making an upholstered headboard!).  If I'm feeling energized (which usually I'm not), I'll walk to the gym and get in a nice air-conditioned work out, or I'll visit my friend Brandi and play with her 4 week old kittens.  At noon, Charlie will come home for lunch or I'll make him lunch and bring it to him at school.  We'll sit outside under a tree by the library if the weather is nice.  I'll head home after lunch and do some more dishes.  Then I'll relax and watch some TV shows on my computer... The Wire, Big Love, Mad Men, Weeds.

[caption id="attachment_410" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="lunch with Charlie at Pagua Bay after exams"][/caption]

If I'm feeling brave, I'll do some laundry.  Here's how this goes down without a washer or dryer: I'll turn on our hot water heater (which we rarely do these days, as cold showers are the only way to go when it's just as hot or often hotter inside our apartment than it is outside), put a bucket in the shower, add a scoop of detergent to the bucket, fill it up with hot water, throw in some clothes, and swish them around for a little while with a clean plunger.  Then I'll rinse the clothes and wring them out in the shower.  Then I'll go on the porch and rig up a clothes line and hang up the clothes to dry.  I'll do this for about an hour and if I'm lucky, the clothes will smell nice when they're dry.  Sometimes, they still smell sweaty once they're dry, and I lose my gumption and send my stiff, sweaty, horribly hand washed and line dried clothes out and pay someone and deal with them effectively.

After the laundry nightmare I'll read for a little while and figure out and google some recipes to help figure out what to make for dinner.  I give myself extra gold stars if the meal requires little to-no oven time.  Here's why: 1. Our oven sucks.  When you bake anything, the oven handle gets so hot that when you touch it your burn your hand.  2.  Our oven really sucks.  In our last apartment, the baking temperatures were in degrees Celsius.  That I could handle, I just made a conversion chart on a post-it and stuck it to the fridge.  Boom.  In our new apartment, however, our oven is the worst.  Seriously, THE ABSOLUTE WORST.  There are no temperatures.  Yes, you read that correctly.  No temperatures.  Just a knob that says "1 2 3 4 5."  (I really wish I were making that up.)  So, I just guess on baking temperatures.  You can imagine how that turns out... burnt everything, all the time.

[caption id="attachment_403" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="every baker's dream"][/caption]

Good stuff.  Anyways, I figure out what to make for dinner.  Usually it's something vegetarian because sometimes the meat here is scary and/or hard to find, or just really expensive.  I wish I could say that I bought and cooked fish all the time, but I don't.  I've bought it once.  Buying fish requires walking for 20 minutes down to the waterfront when you hear someone blow a conch shell.  The problem is that where I live, you can't hear anyone blow a conch shell, so then you trek down to the water and loiter and act sketchy and wait for several hours until you actually see someone blow a conch shell, and well, that is really not my idea of fun.  Then you trek 20 minutes home with a plastic grocery bag full of fresh fish.  I need to figure out a better system for this, because the fish is amazing.  It's literally fresh out of the ocean, and is usually tuna or mahi mahi, for $7 a pound.  I made the best fish tacos with the tuna I bought last semester.  Note to self: figure out the fish situation, ASAP.

If it's a Tuesday, I help my friend Emily teach a sewing class at a local Women's Center.  (Actually, I provide moral support and do a kid-friendly fabric project with the women's children, while Emily teaches the sewing class, since I literally cannot sew a stitch).

[caption id="attachment_407" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="me with my little friends at the women's club... aren't they precious?"][/caption]

If it's a Thursday, I tutor at CALLS, the local alternative high school that gives at-risk students a second chance.

[caption id="attachment_401" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="me with some of the amazing girls I've gotten to know at CALLS"][/caption]

If it's a Friday, I spend the afternoon at the park in Portsmouth with friends and local children at In.Light.In, an after school program and ministry, where we play with the kids, do a craft project, and then feed them a meal.

[caption id="attachment_404" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="some of my favorite sassy ladies at in.light.in"][/caption]

Some days I'll spend a few hours at the pool with friends, read a book on our porch or in the hammock if it's not excruciatingly hot out, go to yoga in the early evenings, walk to the grocery story (not an option until a few months ago!), go on a hike or take a trip with friends, or meet friends for coffee at Rituals, the fabulously air-conditioned coffee shop.

[caption id="attachment_406" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="after a hike and swim at Bense Pool"][/caption]

Charlie and I have dinner together almost every night around 7.  Usually I cook and he either comes home for dinner on the porch or I bring him a meal at school.  Then, he hits the book again until midnight.  After dinner, I do some more dishes, tidy up the apartment, and either enjoy a cold shower and some TV or a movie in our air-conditioned bed room (we have AC in our bedroom only and only turn it on for a little while before we go to bed since electricity is pricey here.  We have don't have AC in living room/kitchen (they are the same room) which is brutal this time of year!), or a meet friends for game night, drinks, a night swim at the pool, a cookout, or a Friday night movie on campus.

By the time the day is over, I'm usually exhausted.  Between the heat, the walking/carrying everything everywhere all the time, and all the cooking and dish washing (I am the dishwasher), I am out like a light by bed time.  Charlie conks out, too, exhausted from the heat, the walking, and mostly the studying.  That, my friends, is how we spend out days!

[caption id="attachment_411" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="Charlie, victoriously posing with 7 weeks of material, after Mini 2"][/caption]

Real White Lady

The other day I was talking to an 8 year old Dominican boy who lives down the street.  He asked to try on my huge sunglasses.  I handed them to him and he put them on and laughed.  

"You look like a movie star!" I told him.  He smiled, took them off, and said, "now you put them on."  So I did.  He looked at me and said, with conviction, "now you look like a real white lady!"

I am still laughing about this, days later!  Hilarious!

Second semester, going strong!

I know I've been a stranger, but with exams last semester, moving to a new apartment, our trip home, my extra time in the U.S. to attend Frannie's college graduation (you go, girl!), Frannie's visit to Dominica, and my trip with Frannie to St. Maarten, it has taken me a little while to get settled back in to life here on the island.



Charlie has been working hard to master neuroanatomy (my worst nightmare!) and is studying night and day in preparation for Mini 1, the first huge test of the semester. He has also gotten to do a little bit of work outside of the classroom, diagnosing a standardized patient, and playing dominoes with the older generation of Dominicans at a local senior citizens center. I think it was a nice break to step out of the classroom for a little while! As always, he is working and studying like I have never seen. His dedication is amazing, and I know it will pay off!

[caption id="attachment_359" align="aligncenter" width="546" caption="The kittens, just a few days old. Please focus on them and not my grungy, sweaty appearance, which sadly is inevitable in this insane heat... We're talking boiling heat with 70% humidity. I was so hot and flustered the other day on my walk home that I choked on my own spit and almost passed out on the road. No joke. It's so hot you can't even breathe properly!"][/caption]

I have been busy volunteering with CALLS (the alternative high school) and In.Light.In (a ministry working with local kids on Friday afternoons), serving on RSO's (Ross Spouses Organization) board helping with fundraising, and mainly just trying to stay cool. It has been unbelievably (unbearably) hot lately, so just trying to maintain a functional body temperature has been a task in and of itself! I've also spent lots of time with friends, mostly hiking, swimming, having game nights, and hanging out in the air conditioned coffee shop. My friend Brandi's cat just had 7 kittens, so I spend as much time as I can watching those little cuties (I actually saw the mama cat give birth to 2 of them... CRAZY!). And I am looking forward to a fun day with Charlie after his test next week!!!

[caption id="attachment_357" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="Contrary to popular belief, this is NOT how Charlie spends his days. (Only after a big test!)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_363" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="This, however, is how I do spend mine!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_360" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="Sisters at Frannie's graduation from Sewanee"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_362" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="Enjoying a hike and swim during Fran's visit"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_361" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="Our  fabulous porch view!"][/caption]

P.S. -- I apologize if this post has the lame sound of a holiday Christmas letter, updating you a little too chipperley on our fabulous life and the many accomplishments of our 4 amazing children (all on the honor roll!) and their little league championships.  (As I proofread this myself, that's the vibe I got.)  Luckily, I spared you from having to read about the accomplishments of our 4 amazing children since we have none.

Studies, Trips & Island Life

[caption id="attachment_92" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Charlie relaxing on our whale watching trip"][/caption]

So I've been a delinquent blogger lately... I know this because many friends have sent me emails saying "update your blog soon!"  Sorry that you have to ask!  I have been busy lately and have been enjoying the island and even forgetting to bring my camera with me everywhere (gasp!).  And I feel like a blog post without photos is no good, no good at all.  But I scrounged up some photos and poached a few too, so hopefully I won't disappoint you!  Here is what has been going on lately:

[caption id="attachment_84" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Charlie in his scrubs before his first anatomy lab"][/caption]

For Charlie, studying.  Always.  He is working super hard and did well on his first exam, which is awesome.  He is trying to get his study routine down, but is struggling with information overload:  tons and tons of material and the impossibility of studying and knowing every single darn thing, which is a hard thing to handle when you are expected to know every single darn thing.  But he is doing well!  He actually went and played tennis with a friend yesterday and went to "Yoga at the Desk" to help him de-stress, so all is well in the land of science.

[caption id="attachment_97" align="aligncenter" width="335" caption="banana truck"][/caption]

I have been busy with friends (yes, Frannie, I finally have friends!), trips, volunteering, cooking, reading... I would like to fit in more art, more yoga (I have done some of both but not as much as I'd like), and more working out.  This can be done.  I am volunteering with a few different groups here on the island.  The first is called CALLS and it is the alternative high school here in Dominica for students who have had to drop out of high school or leave school for one reason or another.  Students choose to return school and attend CALLS and they all have pretty amazing stories and have gone through hardships that I cannot even imagine experiencing, especially as a high schooler.  The students range in age from 15 to early 20s.  I am working with a 17 year old boy who is hilarious.  I meet with him 1 hour a week as a mentor/tutor and work with him on reading and English.  After the CALLS students finish the 2 year program, they take the Dominica equivalent of a GED test.  The school also provides the students with vocational training and summer internships in their area of interest.  I am not sure who exactly runs the school, but there are some nuns there from Canada who are in charge of the mentoring/tutoring and there are also Peace Corps volunteers teaching there.  I have only been twice so far, but it is a pretty cool experience.  My latest challenge is finding a book on a third grade reading level on the topic of "drugs and the law" at my student's request.  I am pretty sure that will not happen, and luckily geared him towards mystery/crime type books.  We'll see.

[caption id="attachment_91" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="sailboat and gorgeous view on our whale watching trip"][/caption]

I am also volunteering at InLightIn (pronounced "enlighten"), a group founded by a pastor on the island who was either a Ross student or spouse (can't remember which) that provides a fun after school program for elementary school students in Portsmouth, the neighboring town, on Fridays.  We play with kids, do a simple craft project, provide them with a snack, and teach them some sort of lesson about virtues like kindness or generosity.  This past Friday we went to Portsmouth to hand out fliers and candy to get the students excited about starting InLightIn next week.  It was such an incredible experience to meet the kids and see their homes.  They all had the biggest smiles on their faces and were so excited to see the volunteers who they knew from previous semesters.  So that is going to be really fun. Here are some photos of the kids from InLighIn poached from my friend Heidi's blog. A few more pics...

[caption id="attachment_99" align="aligncenter" width="429" caption="Me in front of a view of Batibou Beach on the hike down"][/caption]