Niños at work!!!

The kids have been helping out with a lot of the work projects this week ...yesterday we moved a lot of dirt and gravel to help even out areas around the basketball and volleyball courts. Here are Carlos (red) Jaury (blue) and Arial (yellow) in the truck.

Domingo and Carmelo

Tent City!

2 temporary sleeping areas are being built out of metal poles and tarps to house some of the 230 volunteers we will have here next week .... once the poles were in place, the metal bunk beds were set up and some of this week's team joined in to help get the tarp over it all. Along with teaching in the schools and having fun with the orphanage kids, this week's team is doing a lot of hard work to help us get ready for the biggest volunteer group in Orphanage Outreach history-- about 230 people!!!

Independence Day Ceremony

The parade ended at a big indoor gymnasium were there was an independence day ceremony ...several speakers, all of the local schools were there, and several singing and dancing performances.

Dominican Independence Day Parade!

On Tuesday we walked in the independence day parade ... our volunteer groups wore their Orphanage Outreach shirts and carried the Dominican, Canadian, American, and Orphanage Outreach flags ... we walked behind the orphanage kids wo also had a flag.

Carmelo

Nina, Bryan and I before the parade began

Our new Orphanage Outreach flag that was painted by a local artist and carried by 2 volunteers from Canada through the parade

The orphanage kids with the orphanage flag that they carried in the parade

Bryan, with Moncho on his shoulders

the 3 amigas

Mariani, Yessica and Mariola playing on a home made skatebard type thing!

Legos and Beyond ...

What does an activity hour with the orphanage kids look like? ...We had a lot of rain on Saturday, so once the 2 new volunteers groups arrived we invited the kids over to play games, legos, dominos, coloring books, drawing, etc ....they had a good time. Here is Jose Luis letting the monkeys out of their barrel!

After finishing his drawing on paper, Ariel gave himself a tattoo.
Raileni @ a coloring station

Domingo loves Legos! He could play with them for hours!

The Lego table in action

Jaury

Jaury, age 6, bouncing around on a mattress while we were busy making up bunk beds for the next group who will arrive Saturday.

Candle Making

Candles are something that we make with the older orphanage kids. Volunteers can then purchase them for $5 when they come down for a week.

On Wednesday I worked on a batch of candles with Leonel & Nicole (pictured) as well as Santos, Andres and Nina. We made about 100.

Here is Nicole stiring the wax while Leonel gets ready to light the burner.

Leonel adding wax to the pot and Nicole stiring in the color and scent.
Adjusting the wicks

Pouring some Cinimon scented candles

Abuelitos?

Presenting Winston and Carmelo-- showing us their best 'little old grandpa' (or abuelito) faces during recess.

Bienvenidos!

This week we have a High School group from Pennsylvania volunteering with us. They are teaching English lessons in two different public schools here in Monte Cristi, as well has having fun with the kids here at the orphanage!

Today a few of the group members got to ride in the back of a Dominican convertible, aka the back of the truck, to go visit the Orphanage Outreach English school with Bryan.

Here a volunteer works on a unscrambling work sheet with one of the 8th graders ... they were learning English 'emotion' words.

After teaching in the afternoon, we stay for recess to play outside with the students ...Jump Rope is one of the kids' favorites!

El Jardin (garden)

The garden at the orphanage has only been up and running for a few months but already they are having a lot of success. Several of the boys spend time helping to care for it. This past week there was such an over abundance of tomatos, they were able to sell the extras to local food vendors and made a nice profit!

Below are pics of Kelvin and Moncho helping to water the crops.

Valentines Day

For over a week we had been working on a surprise dinner/celebration for the orphanage kids ... they got their invitation the day before that said it would be a fancy occasion --- come 6 'o clock on Wednesday they were all excited and dressed to impress!!! We lead them to their seats in the dining ramada one by one (Nina was our hostess), had them come up one at a time for pictures (below), and after everyone arrived we served red pop and dinner, followed by strawberry popcicles and other treats. They had a great time!!!

Yulisa dressed up in RED

Winston
Domingo
Yennifer

Raisa

Each kid had a seat set up with a personalized place mat. Crayons were set out to color the placemats ...they also had Red Jello served to them as an appitizer. Here is little Winston jamming to the background music at his seat!

After dinner we cleared the tables and set up games ... I did face painting, which started out with hearts on the kids' cheeks, but then they really got into having the Dominican flag painted on their whole face!!!

Yessica, Mariola & Yenny w/ painted faces

Yessica & I

ME

The first week of March we have 236 volunteers joining us. Here I am building a tarped in pavillion so that we have more room for all of the volunteers to eat!!