Last Teaching Day/First Smart Board Zoom with NH!/Nursing Home Visit

 Thanks so much to Nicole Lackie, who did the blogging for the last three days.  Your crusty veteran blogger Rob "El Pastor" Grasbill back here for the last blog from Cotui before we begin an extended trip home.  Good thing I am blogging, since Nicole was one of the real stars at the Altagracia school today!

We got to school in time for our first "normal" opening ceremony.  Tuesday's was a welcome ceremony, Wednesday's was rained out,  and we will once again be celebrating (and saying goodbye) on Friday.  So today's was typical:  All of the students lined up in the big outdoor courtyard, the flag was raised as the kids sang along with the very long DR national anthem, and the students filed off to classes in two big lines, passing all of us and exchanging high fives, handshakes, and hugs.  Several of the students had made fan mail at home, and gave it to their favorite teachers.

We gathered in the small room that has been our home base all week, finalized our plans for teaching, and then got down to work.  Today was one of our busiest and most effective teaching days. We greeted the students, split them into small groups, utilizing both indoor and outdoor spaces, and drilled them on vocabulary, using pictures, flash cards, matching games, and skits. The sixth graders worked on vegetables, the fifth graders on fruits, and the fourth graders on animals.  Again and again, we were impressed by their focus, energy, and facility with English. The culture at the Altagracia Centro Educativo is that English is cool, and a good thing to learn. Some of the older ones are spealing in complete sentances, and way beyond simple vocabulary. This school has come such a long way in five years.

The five morning classes were punctuated with a 30-minute recess, where studentss and DR volunteers were free to play and connect informally.  There was a rigorus basketball game, a dance party, a number of one-on-one games of thumbwrestling and rock/paper/scissors, and there were shy conversions,  Most of us were handed flowers (Yikes.  The poor flowering trees in the playground probably suffered this week) and more fan mail.

We went back to the hotel for a shortened lunch brak, after which we packed the bus with several huge boxes of adult diapers, a suitcase full of medival supplies, and two boxes of sunglasses, all for the Lions Club Nursing Home and adjoining diabetes and vision clinic. This is the biggest donation we have ever brought.  We have been accumulating this stuff at the Hanover and Norwich churches for years, and this year had the chance to ship two truckloads in advance with the help of a local Cotui shipping company with contacts in Camden, NJ.  As usual, we also carried lots of donated material (700 toothbrushes) in our luggage when we flew.

Back at school, the big event in the afternoon was a Zoom call between a classroom at Altagracia and Nicole's elementary classroom in Croyden, NH.  How cool was that?  Nicole originated the call to her class while sitting in the DR school, while longtiome DR Projects volunteer Frank Perotti and her Superintendent in Croyden, covered her class back home and handled the call on his end.  Oh, and did we mention that the newly-installed Promethean Smart Board at Altagracia was a used one from Croyden? Thw two classes waved to each other, and Croyden sang, and the DR kids counted in English.  Some of the longtime DR Projects volunteers in the back may have shed a tear, or maybe it was dusty,

After school we headed to the Lions Club Nursing Home, free to over 40 elderly citizens whose families could not care for them.  We have suported this wonderful enterprise, and the two clinics, for years. The diapers were badly needed, and the sunglasses made it possible for patients who have had cataract surgery to protect theit eyes from unforgiving tropical sun.  We took a tour of the building, admired, the huge cage/atrium full of 60 parakeets, and waved to the residents. We had the chance to wish one of them a happy birthday.

Back at the hotel for the last night, we spent time before and after supper packing gifts for the students and teachers at school, and then getting ourselves packed.  We will get up a bit early, check out of the hotel, pack the bus, and head to school for a heartfelt ceremony of thanks and goodbye.  The we will head to Samto Domingo.  We will tour the Colonial Zone in the oldest part of a very old (1493) city, do some shopping, and then have a swim and then supper at an oceanside hotel.  After supper we'll head up the hill to another hotel for a three-hour nap before we disemnbark for our overnight flight to Logan airport.  Wi-fi and time may be in short supply on Friday, so this is very likely the last blog until we get back to the U.S.  But, please keep checking in for at least one more post after our arrival with final photos and thoughts.  This has been a rich experience.  We have given a lot and gained a lot.  We have significatly deepened some meaingful friendships, and started new ones. We are so grateful for Rita Severinghaus, who started this whole project off more than two decades ago, and whose influence has bettered thiousands of lives in her beloved native country.  Until we see you in person, hasta pronto!