Rita Has Arrived Safely in the DR!


 

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Altagracia School and Health Clinic Visits

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  We got right to work on Monday, and accomplished a great deal on a busy day.     We were up at 6:30, ate breakfast at 7:00, and had a 7:30 departure time in order to make it to the Altagracia school in time for the opening ceremonies.     When our bus pulled through the gate (the school is in an urban walled compound topped by concertina wire) we were greeted like rock stars.     Children raced back and forth to get a look at us, and crowded toward classroom windows. Every child we encountered eagerly high-fived or first bumped us as we walked into the school to meet the Director, who guided us to a spot in the large courtyard where opening ceremonies happen every day.     Hundreds of children in plum-colored uniform shirts were lined up in their class groups, patiently waiting for things to start.     After a few announcements on the portable PA system, two children raised the DR flag and students and teachers alike sang the nati...
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Our Last Full Day in the DR was Amazing. Really!

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  I’m writing this at 9:30 on Friday night after a long and amazing day.     I use “amazing a” lot     Not once an overstatement.     The group is resting at a hotel before we head to the airport at Midnight to check in for our 3:45 flight.     I’d rather compose this now and attempt to send it via the hotel’s weak Wi-Fi that may revive once the kids log off and take a nap.     It was a day that demands chronicling.   Fully packed, we managed to consolidate all of our luggage and personnel and cram everything/everyone onto the bus after breakfast and make it to the Altagracia school for final goodbyes.  As all of the children lined up for the opening ceremony and national anthem, we saw that almost every one of them was holding flags that they had made of every country in North, South and Central America, and of course the Caribbean.  They were celebrating Pan American Day, a perfect occasion for them to cel...
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Wednesday at Altagracia: Our Best Day Yet

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    We have learned in past years to expect the unexpected on our trips to the DR, and be ready to adjust.  Schedules are schedules, but there are times when events beyond our control change the agenda.  Such the case twice Wednesday, a day that had temperatures pushing into the 90s.  We arrived at the Altagracia school in time for the now familiar opening ceremony, and after the national anthem the Director made the announcement to the students that Thursday’s classes were cancelled and there would be no school.  Just like that, our last teaching day was wiped out.  The students cheered, of course, although many of them later figured out the implications of Thursday’s day off and expressed their disappointment to us.  School was cancelled across the country to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the teachers’ union.  In possibly related news, it was announced Wednesday that Juan Valdez, our good fr...
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