Life @ THE ORPHANAGE

A few pics from around the orphanage ...

Cristopher had his 15th Birthday this week ...

Erika (age 7) coloring

Santos (15) with Jennifer (1 1/2) ... Santos is one of the smartest students in his class at the private school-- he is currently working on studying English with me and has plans to study English even more in depth this summer-- he told me he will work 10 hours a day at it if he needs to :) ...Jennifer, on the other hand, is currently working on talking.

Marianny (back) and Raileni (front) playing with dolls on the playground equipment at the orphanage

Cristofer and Jennifer --the 2 littlest ones here @ the orphanage ... they aren't brother and sister, but in this picture they look pretty close to it.

New storgae building ready to go!

A building was started in March to be divided into 3 rooms-- one for laundry, one for a workshop/tool storage, and one for mattress/pillow/sheet/towel/blanket storage. This week the building was nearly finished ...just a few finishing touches need to be done-- the exterior will be painted in May

2nd story on the kids home!

Early in March a 2nd story was begun on the existing building where the orphanage kids' sleepingand bathroom areas are ... this past week the volunteer team that came brought an extra $2000 to continue that project. They made sme great progress and it is coming long well!

Laying cement blocks ... the volunteers worked with a Dominican construction worker Monday through Thursday doing this.
A view of some of the walls they go done.

Englsh School

This week a few volunteers came to the English school to help teach ... here they are presenting the Chapter 5 "Grammar Rap"

The volunteers singing "Grammar Rap" with the students

Vida ... in English her name means LIFE

One of my fav students- Donald

Cristopher hiding behind his notebook as we were singing Happy Birthday to him

a few more pics from Santo Domingo ...

Lunch: Bryan, me, Anna

Dinner: Me, Anna, Elizabeth, Bryan

Santo Domingo

We recently went on an overnight trip to the capital- Santo Domingo. Here are Bryan and Elizabeth outside of the National Palace gates.

The Dominican National Palace ...comparable to the White House?

PARE!!!

A cool house near our hotel ... not at all like the average homes you see in Monte Cristi

Sun Dial ... can you tell what time it is?

PLAYA POPA- on-shore pics

A view of Playa Popa ... about 30 minutes away from the orphanage, this beach is on the ocean and we were the only ones there. We left at 7:30am, arrived and ate breakfast, ate lunch there, and came back around 5:30

Winston & I
Rafael

Kelvin and Andres up in the Sea Grape trees

brothers- William and Winston

Some broken shades

Carolina with the shades

Bryan with the shades

Edwin with a live starfish

Rafael and Andres

Carmelo and Winston eating sea grapes

Jennifer in a towel ... she had a crazy fro too

PLAYA POPA- Burried in the SAND

Saqueo, Winston and Jose Luis burried in the sand later in the afternoon during our beach rip to Playa Popa

Jose Luis

Winston

Saqueo

Cristofer

Saqueo- post sand burrial

Moncho, after being burried in the sand

Saqueo and I (a close up while he was burried)

Jessica's CRAZY beach hair!

Jessica has some pretty cool poofy, fro-ish hair that she lets out at the beach ...

Below- Jessica and Bryan

a little less poofy ...
... blowing in the wind ...

what's with all the puckered lips?

... a great shot of the hair!

more puckered lips ...maybe it was the sour Sea Grapes

PLAYA POPA - Fun in the Ocean

We spent the entire day on Saturday at Playa Popa beach with the kids ... we had breakfast and lunch there and the kids had a great time! Here are some pics from in the water ...more beach pics will follow!

Below: Argenis

Marianny

Tricks in the water

Domingo

Bryan and Luis

Ariel

Jose Luis