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!