VOLUNTEERS

Welcome visitors.  We spent a very educational day with Julie, Leanne, and Luke from Canada.  They came to the centre to volunteer with the kids of Dominicanada.  Julie led a class on self defense and how to protect yourself.  Five main areas to poke, kick, or elbow if someone were to have you in a hold.  Leanne and Luke taught the kids how to floss and brush their teeth properly.  Fun to watch the kids with dental floss for the first time in their lives.  Then to top it all off a class led by Leanne on juggling.  The kids had great fun with their juggling balls, and had lots of laughs learning how to keep them all in the air.  Thank you to Julie, Leanne, and Luke for all the school supply donations that you brought along with you, because of your generosity, so many kids will be able to attend school this September.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Our Mother's Day celebration was a huge success.  The children all took great pride in presenting their skits, songs and dances.  Ally played the guitar with some back up singers.  Mom's, abuelas (grandmothers) and kids alike all enjoyed their day.  The table was full of homemade gifts compliments of the kids for each and every mom. Happy Mother's Day to all.

MORE GIFTS FOR MOMS

The kids made more gifts for Mother's day today that included chickens made from felt, and greeting cards. As materials are hard to come by, we made lamps from styrofoam cups, and dolls from wooden spoons.

KRAFT SMOOTHY

Each time our kids are at the Centre, we have a snack before we begin our activities.  Our kids love peanut butter and Cheese Whiz, but the favorite is definitely peanut butter. Our daily helpers take great pride in spreading the smoothy and handing it out to their buddies.

MOTHER'S DAY GIFTS

The kids of Dominicanada are busy preparing for Mother's Day which is the last Sunday of May in the Dominican Republic.  Here are some of the different crafts our children are busy making for their mothers and grandmothers.  Paper mache plates and flowers from tissue paper.

MANGO TIME

Mangos are in season now.  No matter where you look you will surely see kids (and adults) eating them everywhere.  Mangos are a favorite treat for Dominican children.  Helping yourself to anyone's tree, is to be expected.  With so many pits left over we decided to make them useful and here is what we came up with; Mango Fish.  Made with a dried mango pit and some good old fashion coloured markers!

HELLO....WHAT'S YOUR NAME?

"Hello" and "What's your name", are usually the first two things that Dominicans will say when asked if they speak English. Lately I have noticed that the younger generation of Dominicans all have a great desire to learn the English language.  A highly needed skill to be able to work in the hotels, and in the tourist industry.  We decided to begin teaching English to our kids at Dominicanada as soon as possible.  I know from experience that it was much more difficult for me to pick up the Spanish language as an adult.  My daughter on the other hand was fluent by the age of three.  So little by little we will introduce basic grammar, conversation, games and songs in English. 

This week we had our first English class on things to wear, and things in the neighbourhood.  The kids were very attentive.  They recognized words that sounded very similar in both languages.  Pants are pantalones, lamp and lampara were easy as well.  They walked around practicing all morning, and it was cute to see them imitating me.  I was thrilled to see that they can already put together little phrases.
Eventually we will use Skype to bring our donors live from Canada into the Centre to have actual conversations with their sponsored child. We're looking forward to the day the kids can communicate directly with our sponsors.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC

Music is definitely a big part of the lives of Dominican children, it is in their soul.  They light up with even the mention of music.  We began our music classes this week with a local teacher Fran from Puerto Plata.  The kids made drums with recycled plastic gallon jugs. It was a noisy day......but great fun!  This week we will make güiras, a typical Dominican instrument that looks like a cheese grater!  This link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCira will show you a photo and the actual sound of a güira.  We will make our  güiras with a recycled can of baby milk.  We'll hammer holes with a nail, evenly perforated and put the serrated edges on one side. The metal will be raised, and they will be played with a hair pic or a stiff metal brush.  Shortly we will have a class full of professional "Güireros."!