Birthdays, Gardening, Baseball and Much More!

Hola! I am incredibly sorry that it has been nearly a month since I have updated my blog. I am planning on just highlighting certain events that took place over my last few weeks in the country. I decided it might be a little lengthy, so I am going to split it up into two blogs. So, right now I am back in the United States and have been since this past Thursday night, August 1st. The adjustment has been difficult, but I am starting to get used to being back in the good ol' USA. After I am finished with this blog, I plan to write an overview of the summer and share how this experience affected me and the way The Lord used it to mold and shape me. But for this particular blog I am just going to share how I spent my last few weeks. I mentioned in a blog earlier how for July 4th we had wanted to teach the community how to dance the 2-Step but it didn't work out. Well, we finally had a night where we were able to teach them how to! It was fun to have country music blaring and see all the guys struggle but eventually catch on. It was good for them to get a chance to feel how we felt when being taught how to dance meringue or bachata. They were real patient when learning and could tell that us girls really enjoyed sharing a taste of our culture with them! On the afternoon of July 13th, Christine and her study abroad students arrived in our community after spending three weeks in Jarabacoa. We spent most of the day showing them around and getting them accustomed to their new home for the next few weeks. It was great getting to know them and sharing experiences that we had so far in the community. There were six of them, five girls and one boy. Four of them were from the University of Michigan, one from the University of Chicago, and one from Xavier. We were able to really welcome them into the community with a huge birthday party on that Sunday night for a man in the community named Chepe. Birthday parties are a pretty big deal here and a lot of the community comes out to celebrate. A lot of planning goes into it and it lasts FOREVER. They serve soup at the party, but not until about 11:00PM. The soup they serve is The Dominican Republic's national dish called sancocho. It is basically a stew of tubers such as yucca, potatoes, carrots and others as well as pieces of meat usually pork or chicken. Then the stew is poured over a bed of rice and is absolutely delicious! I figured people wouldn't really eat a lot since it was so late but nearly everyone takes and finishes the huge bowl they are served.  And then of course there is cake that is needed to be served, too. They don't want to serve the cake too early because they know that most everyone will leave after the cake is served. So, they don't serve it until about 12:30-1:00AM. Crazy, I know! 

Here is Chepe's cake. Yes, it was 6 feet long!

The birthday parties make for a crazy and late night, but it is fun to see a big part of the community together dancing and having a wonderful time. The day of this birthday party happened to be the same day as Mama Purita's birthday, but her and Papa Lion aren't exactly the dancing or partying type so they didn't make it to the party. But I really enjoyed spending the day with her and hanging out with the family that came in to celebrate her birthday. 

This is Mama Purita and I before I headed to the birthday party. The precious thing is that she wasn't dressed up to go anywhere. She just wanted to look and feel nice on her birthday. She even had heels on, I loved it!

The next week was very productive! We headed to a hardware store to buy the small amount of supplies that we needed and actually started constructing our first keyhole garden. We needed to buy chicken wire and rebar and we were thrilled that it wasn't very expensive! 

The chicken wire we bought was 5 feet tall so this is Alicen cutting it in half so that the height of our garden would only be 2.5 feet.

Alicen and I wrapping the chicken wire around the rebar for our framework of the garden.

Taylor and Susie working hard as well!

Me collecting rocks to be placed on the bottom of the barrier for added support.

We placed plastic bottles that we had collected all over the community in between two layers of chicken wire to serve as a barrier for our keyhole garden. We liked the idea of using plastic bottles and chicken wire because it was less expensive than cement or bricks and also is a better learning tool. Now, the children will learn that plastic serves as a good barrier because it won't decompose like the other things we are putting in the middle of the garden. We are hoping they will learn to not throw their bottles on the side of the road anymore because they will remain there for forever!

Here is a photo which depicts the whole garden much better. We were only able to fill the barrier halfway full of plastic bottles and didn't put the other materials in yet. The circle in the middles serves as a "trashcan" wear the kids can continue to put compostable items such as paper and food scraps in once the garden is completed.

Here is what we accomplished on that day: Four girl aggies creating the framework for a keyhole garden. Gig 'em!

Also this week Susie and I headed to a field that they are starting to make into an actual baseball field to play baseball. We weren't aware that it was going to be such a big deal, but probably about 25-30 teenage boys and young men came to join in on the fun! Other times that I have mentioned playing baseball it was on a much smaller scale. First of all, it was usually with boys that were from 12-15 whereas this time the youngest were 15 and the oldest were probably in their mid 30's-40's. Also, I usually played in the street or driveway with at most 8 or 9 kiddos. Again, we used a tennis ball or some sort of homemade ball created with many pairs of socks. This time, we used actual softballs. Needless to say, Susie and I functioned as designated hitters because they didn't want us to get hurt trying to play in the field. It was so much fun to experience such a large scale pick-up game of baseball!

Yeury batting while others are waiting to bat. Also, notice how that one guy even hardcore dressed up in full uniform for the occasion!

So, Susie and I kind of dropped the ball on pictures of this game. But here is a little bit of a view of the game!

It kept raining off and on so here is the shelter we'd all run to when it started to rain! 

It was so much fun to see a lot of guys in the community actually be able to play the game in its full effect. I also enjoyed getting on base and even scoring a run! After this game of baseball, I ended up going to a pasture to play with some of the younger boys who were left out during this game for the older guys and even men. It was raining for a lot of the time we were playing and it was funny for the guys to realize that didn't bother me. I don't think girls here in the DR ever play sports and if they did, they definitely wouldn't play in the rain. I just kept telling them, you guys are out here and are playing so therefore I can too! When we play in the pasture, the kids usually put giant leaves down as the bases. So, there was one time that I was running super fast to try to get to first and it was going to be a close play. I wish I could say that I meant to slide into first, but I didn't and all the kids knew that. They sure got a kick out of me taking a fall and becoming all muddy! 

Later on in the week, my mom and I made peanut butter. They grow peanuts in our community, and I absolutely love eating the ones my mom roasted! But this one particular day, I asked my mom if we could try to make peanut butter. She of course agreed although neither of us knew what we were doing. We probably should have discussed a game plan before we both just started doing what we figured you are supposed to do when making peanut butter because we had much different plans of action. I wanted to take my mom's mortar and pestle and just smash the peanuts until they became smooth. If they needed a little moisture I was just going to add a little oil. Well, my mom on the other hand thought that we were going to cook the mixture. So after peeling the papery shell off, I took some and placed them in the mortar and started smashing. She decided to take peanuts and water and mix them in the blender. After, she placed them on the stove and brought it to a boil. Needless to say, our peanut butter didn't exactly turn out like I was expecting it to but it was a fun time spent with my mom! The peanut butter had good flavor, but it just retained too much water. I still ate it, but decided to put a layer of regular peanut butter on my crackers first and then top it with our creation! I think this is long enough for now and I will add the last week on my next blog!