Whew, what an eventful weekend. So, Saturday was our sports camp!! Conviviendo en Deportes, and it…was….awesome…..Ok, so definitely underestimated handling 40 dominican kids. It was super stressfull, but gracias a Dios we had 5 more volunteers helping uso out. We had a great turnout! 40 kids were invited….39 showed up!! That’s an incredible success rate. These kids were from 7 different communities all around the Santiago/Moca region. Everyone showed up on time too, which is absolutely unheard of. We played all sorts of games such as: octopus walk, capture the flag, hula hoop races, tug of war, alka-seltzer tag and water balloon toss. We had a great lunch of chicken and rice with cherry, chinola, and orange juice. 2 awesome girls that attend my highschool and are part of a peace corps sponsored group called escojo mi vida that deals with AIDS awareness came in and talked to the kids about all that good stuff. It was important to us to have Dominicans teaching other Dominicans. They respect hearing this stuff from people who they can relate to. My friend Josiel also gave a great speech about taking care of the environment, conserving energy/water etc. So, we had an awesome fun-filled day and included 2 great educational aspects. All in all a huge success, and the closing ceremony was the cherry on top. One of the volunteers Amber, made these awesome ribbons to award to 4 kids that had shown the best sportsmanship and most impressive overall behavior. The first 2 teams (yea 40 kids were split into 4 teams, ten on each team, competing in each event for points which were tallied up at the end to anoint a champion!) were awarded medals, which another volunteer Sabrina made out of clay. It was the most creative camp award ceremony ever! I am so happy with how it turned out. We (Fabian, Chandler and I planned the camp) could not have done it without them. If they ever end up reading this blog, Topher, Heather, Sabrina, Carly, Amber, Josiel we love you guys!

Also, I wanna thank the people that donated money to this event. You know who you are. You helped provide a buttload of kids an awesome care-free day of fun. Most kids never leave their communities. This was a great opportunity for them to meet new people and just relax away from their parents. Seems simple enough to us, but I know it meant the world to them. HEre we all are, THANKS!

In other news, we have been installing filters like crazy. Running at a clip of about 3-4 a day which is pretty good. I taught francisco how to install them so i really just sit back and supervise (sustainability!!!)




We are doing so well we are already talking about ordering another 40! that would make 80! Yes i can still do math! People love them though. The other day we installed a filter for a lady who purchased 5 botellones each week (a botellon is a 5 gallon purified water jug) each one costs 30 pesos each, so were looking at 150 pesos a week or 600 pesos a month or 7,200 pesos a year or almost 200 dollars. She will never have to buy another botellon again. Not only that, they can make and sell ice with this water too, which serves as a source of nominal income.

Good stuff happening. Going to the capital this week for comittee weekend, which is basically where all the many national peace corps iniciatives get together, elect officers, recruit and inform people for the cause. I am giving up my position as medical missions chairmen. It was a fun year, but its time to give it up. It is a fun job with a lot of perks, and a lot of other stuff too, ha. So, we are having formal elections, vamos a ver.

Well thats about it. Oh! you guys remember the small business class i was teaching which offered dominicans the opportunity to compete for 60,000 pesos to start their own business? Well if you didnt, there it is. Anyways, my students finished their business plans, one for a restaurant, another for a school supplies store, and sent them into the national board. ALL OF MY STUDENTS WERE ACCEPTED! keep in mind, i have 3 students and 2 business plans, haha. But out of 60 plans submitted only 20 were accepted and all 3 of my kids are going! this means we will be traveling to the capital to attend a conference where they will present their plans through powerpoint, etc and there they will have the chance to win the money. Exciting stuff happening.

Well thats about it for real. Adios!

Whats new

Creativity continues to elude me as i search for any kind of interesting title for these blogs.

Anyways, business as usual over here. I do not have rabies. I know thats been hanging in the air and you guys were so worried about the development of this silent killer. Lockjaw has not set in, so im in the clear.
ummm.....going to school in the mornings, and putting in filters in the afternoon. Sounds super boring but its my life....Our sports camp is coming up this weekend! months and months of planning all culminates into a day of awesomeness. We are bringing in 40 kids from 7 different communities, ages 10-15. We are having 4 responsable Dominican youth, ages 16-19, come and talk to the kids about the dangers of AIDS, and the responsibility we have to the environment. We are playing all kinds of awesome games, we have shirts, medals and crowns to give out at the end. Im so excited! Look forward to some pictures!

So, yea thats about all. Im attaching some photos of one of my best friends (3-year old girl names Cha-Cha) and her first day of pre-k! So proud!

Wow, almost a month...

...since my last post...what have i been doing? I must have been too busy developing the character of young children and saving babies to update my blog, APOLOGIES! haha just kidding.
So, for real, what have i been doing.....well, let me think....i have been installing these bio-sand water filters i have been talking about for the pat few months. We have installed 8 of 40 so we are moving at a slow pace, but it is super cool to see the end product of something i do. Mostly, i teach classes and never really get to know if anything sticks, it may or may not. With the filters, i get to install (well i supervise francisco or josiel) the filters and then i get to literally drink the end product! All 8 people we have installed have been absolutely ecstatic with the results. They were all skeptical. Believe it or not, 2 people actually returned their filter before we got to install it because they didn't trust it, SUCKERS! These filters can filter 200 gallons of water a day! The water is cleaner then the stuff that comes out of the botellon (5 gallon water jugs you see at your office). Im certified, so i would know, ha. Anyways, so this guy gives me a cat in return for installing his filter, and im like ok cool i wanted a cat to kill all the rats (that ate through BOTH my air mattresses, sorry future visitors) and spiders and lizards that i live in peaceful harmony with. So, the guy brings the cat over in a sack and tells me its really brava (angry). Im used to cats being all fluffy, calm and kinda doing their own thing. This cat must have swallowed a pit-viper. The sounds this thing made to defend itself were terrifying. Yes, i was terrified of this cat and you would have been too. So, i throw a blanket over him run upstair and throw him off my balcony.....just kidding. He tried to kill me, so i just let him go in the house to get used to everything. I went out for a bit that night and by the time i had come back the cat was gone, and it had broken 6 glass coke bottles that were on the floor. GOOD RIDDANCE ya stupid cat. Anyways, a few days later my neighbor tells me she found the cat in the garbage dump right next to my house. Im like, gimme a break, i dont want the thing anymore. So, i decided to give it back to the guy who gave it to me, but when i went to grab it, it bit the living tar out of me. There is a 99 percent chance this thing has rabies, especially now that its been rummaging in trash for 4 days. The wound starts to swell and get infected, and i start to get really angry (probably just in my head, ha) so i call the medical office at Peace Corps and they tell me to come in for a rabies shot. So, at 1pm i head to the capital, get there at 5, receive the shot, leave 10 minutes later, get home right at 10. Moral of the story, I am not a cat person!
In other news, i have just been working on the usual stuff, school, engineers club, finished up my business class, gonna start another youth group based on global diversity, which i am pretty excited about. It will be a 6 week class that takes a tour around the globe. We will be learning things about different cultures, how to speak different languages, different customs, etc. It will be good for these kids to get a sense of global awareness. Not everyone believes in God (unfortunately) not everyone looks like you, not everyone dances bachata, stuff like that. The biggest thing in my life has been the whole rabies scare, so thats all i can really think of right now.
Ill try to update more frequently, ha.
ps here is my awesome beard! with two other volunteers Topher, and Chandler at this new hang out spot in Santiago.