I must say that I have respect for anyone who works out programs for kids of all different ages. I can come up with a lot of ideas for crafts and games...but these are kids who have never experienced a summer camp before. They are a bit easy because even crafts that you would do with the younger kids, the older kids enjoy as well. For instance, I am in the midst of cutting out supplies for the smaller kids to make "pom pom critters" (translate that to spanish...please) and all the volunteers who are in university want to make them too. My work this past week has been coordinating a lot of stuff and getting crafts cut out and ready for the first week of kids. I sat down one day and started cutting out feet for the pom pom critters, cutting out cardboard doughnuts to make them, and getting examples ready. I ended up cutting out 160 feet and over 100 doughnuts. My hands hurt a bit. The next day I had a friend helping with the doughnuts which was very much appreciated. We have 50 kids a week so I need 100 doughnuts a week plus a bunch extra in case they break them or they disappear. (the doughnuts are made out of cardboard to wrap yarn around to begin the process of pom pom critters.) I am then making butterflies with the kids with construction paper and tissue paper so the light can shine through the tissue paper. There´s an item that definitely doesn´t exist in Hato Mayor...haha. The nice part through all of it is that I don´t have to come up with new crafts for each week. (I just have to make 150 copies of everything...haha)

All is going well for me here. I "accidentally" (We all know Kat and animals) made friends with the dog that guards my house (he´s a Rottweiler/Labrador mix who grins like my Dylan does) so now at night he barks at everything to keep me protected. They refer to him as "my dog" now. He keeps me up every night right now and I have come out there and threatened his life several times at 2, 4, and 5 in the morning. I end up trying to throw in naps at random times during the day just to catch up! haha. Life is a funny, funny place, isn´t it?!

Spanish is easier in some ways because I am dreaming in Spanish and thinking in Spanish but there are days that it is hard too because I am in the mentality of home. Because I talk fast in Spanish, everyone talks fast back to me and I get lost in the mumbling of Dominican spanish where they drop "s´s". "Me gusta" becomes "me guta" when spoken and it often makes deciphering words fun. We all need a break sometimes I guess. Don´t worry, it´s still my favorite country!