East of Haiti

Hi everyone.
First, I arrived safe. I spent all day in Boston's aiport and arrived in the Dominican Republic Monday morning at 330am. I got home, took a nap and woke up just in time for lunch before riding a motorcycle to Mata Gorda preschool. The kids were really into designing Lego guns and shooting each other, so I challenged them to make elephants and towers, and their imaginative little fingers went to work. kids here are beautiful. They have great big smiles and lots of love.

My friend Katie teaches at that school, and the day I arrived, she tried teaching them the song head, shoulders, knees and toes in english. The kids caught on fast to the words and to the touching body parts, but somehow those two things never quite matched up. Somebody's hand was always on a knee as we sang shoulders, or on a toe as we sang head.

Last night we had a sort of welcome dinner. A bunch of the younger friends and staff members came over to the director's house (where I am staying) and we had dinner, played dominoes and spoons. I luckily avoided the dancing part of the evening, but I still met some pretty cool Dominicans who made fun of my Mexican accent.

Today we played baseball with some kids. The Major Leagues aren't going to be calling my name anytime soon. I proved to the kids that no, not all Americans are good at baseball. In fact, even one of my pitches hit a kid. Take your base. This is the ministry that Students International, the group I'm visiting, would like me to work with, but if its all baseball all the time, I might be better equipped for something else.

Finally, almost the highlight of my day was visiting a Haitian lady and her kids. We are trying to help her generate some income by selling hotdogs, but I got distracted and ended up playing with her two children, ages 2 and 5. We didn't do much but eat candy while Nate, the director/my tourguide, taught the mom how to grill hot dog kabobs on her gas grill. Of course, after we ate the candy, I found a couple of toothbrushes that someone had donated and explained that their teeth are like pearls, and it is vital to protect them. like I said, they have beautiful smiles.

I'll try to post some pictures next week. Have fun. I love you lots.