I actually had no idea there even was such a thing as Corpus Christi until very recently (as in this week) but it appears that today is Corpus Christi. It is a day without work here in the Dominican Republic, so rather than observe in the school and trek up to the main city in Barahona I'm sitting in the house, amusing myself with qualquier cosa and blogging.
For those who are also ignorant, let me share a bit of cultural knowledge. A long time ago, there was a nun who had a vision that there needed to be a day celebrating the Eucharist outside of Lent. She spent the rest of her life campaigning for that day, and after she died, the Pope issued a Bull saying that there should be a feast day of Corpus Christi. That's today. In Catholic countries the world over, today is a very special day. Including my new one.
So, anybody wondering what I've been up to lately?
I've done some pretty intense parent-engagement activities, conducted non-participant observation activities, am planning participant observation activities, and yesterday I learned more details about my primary assignment and ran follow up checks with other members of the committee.
All of which is a fancy way of saying I have climbed a mountain with a parent who was so flattered by the fact that I wanted to take pictures of his chicken farm that he took me up a mountain so I could take more pictures of the mountains and the sea, and have greeted way more people than I have names for (all of whom seem to have my name down pat) and sat in the school watching lessons, and have decided to take up a teacher's repeated offer that I teach his class for an hour, and yesterday I had a meeting with my boss from the Peace Corps and went down to the river later and chatted for a few minutes with a committee member who wasn't there.
Oh, and I've got keys to the library!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, about the assignment. I'll be working this summer on a bit of diagnostic activities, obviously, and also there is a group of girls in eighth grade who'll be aiding me in a tutoring program at the Centro. Yay! And doing other things in the Centro. Small, enjoyable activities, and cleaning it up a touch. There's going to be a clean-up day there with community people. It needs it. Poor place has been shut down since last July, nearly a year by the time anything happens there now.
There's going to be a lot of fundraising plans needed for things. For this, I may need to call in my business volunteer contacts. Hehe. And the community needs to feel more invested in the building. There are always possibilities. And my boss told the committee member showing us the Center how I'd reacted when she told me about the library. He was pleased. I thought it was funny how she remembered that too. It is certainly a moment in my life that I will never forget as long as I live. I wasn't exactly subtle and I wanted it so badly I did not wish to be subtle because I was afraid subtly would be lost. Hence the wide-eyed, desperate begging for the library project. Shameless.
Ah, there went the electricity. Dang. This is the price of paradise.
Dominican Wolf
For those who are also ignorant, let me share a bit of cultural knowledge. A long time ago, there was a nun who had a vision that there needed to be a day celebrating the Eucharist outside of Lent. She spent the rest of her life campaigning for that day, and after she died, the Pope issued a Bull saying that there should be a feast day of Corpus Christi. That's today. In Catholic countries the world over, today is a very special day. Including my new one.
So, anybody wondering what I've been up to lately?
I've done some pretty intense parent-engagement activities, conducted non-participant observation activities, am planning participant observation activities, and yesterday I learned more details about my primary assignment and ran follow up checks with other members of the committee.
All of which is a fancy way of saying I have climbed a mountain with a parent who was so flattered by the fact that I wanted to take pictures of his chicken farm that he took me up a mountain so I could take more pictures of the mountains and the sea, and have greeted way more people than I have names for (all of whom seem to have my name down pat) and sat in the school watching lessons, and have decided to take up a teacher's repeated offer that I teach his class for an hour, and yesterday I had a meeting with my boss from the Peace Corps and went down to the river later and chatted for a few minutes with a committee member who wasn't there.
Oh, and I've got keys to the library!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, about the assignment. I'll be working this summer on a bit of diagnostic activities, obviously, and also there is a group of girls in eighth grade who'll be aiding me in a tutoring program at the Centro. Yay! And doing other things in the Centro. Small, enjoyable activities, and cleaning it up a touch. There's going to be a clean-up day there with community people. It needs it. Poor place has been shut down since last July, nearly a year by the time anything happens there now.
There's going to be a lot of fundraising plans needed for things. For this, I may need to call in my business volunteer contacts. Hehe. And the community needs to feel more invested in the building. There are always possibilities. And my boss told the committee member showing us the Center how I'd reacted when she told me about the library. He was pleased. I thought it was funny how she remembered that too. It is certainly a moment in my life that I will never forget as long as I live. I wasn't exactly subtle and I wanted it so badly I did not wish to be subtle because I was afraid subtly would be lost. Hence the wide-eyed, desperate begging for the library project. Shameless.
Ah, there went the electricity. Dang. This is the price of paradise.
Dominican Wolf
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Dominican Republic? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Dominican Republic in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
Dear Emilio
ReplyDeleteIt is very brave of you to ask me this. The next time I travel to Santo Domingo, I will arrange to send you a letter with a Dominican stamp. Good luck reaching your goal.