Goats

Well, things are really winding down now. Graduation was a week ago last Friday (June 5th). It was originally going to be at school, but with the prediction of rain, they moved it to the Gran Teatro Cibao, which is a big theater by the Monument. It was really nice, better than at school, because it was air conditioned, had stadium seating so people could actually see, and they had a baby grand! So, I got to accompany the Friends (by Michael W. Smith) song that the choir sang on a real piano instead of a keyboard which sounded SO much better! The service itself was a good mix of English and Spanish, which songs in both, speeches in both, etc. It kept moving nicely and was actually not totally boring, haha! Our song sounded really nice. Miss Jennie asked one teacher from the Dominican curriculum and one from the American curriculum to prepare a short message for the graduates, and for the American "speech" she asked me. I tried to make it short, inspirational, and a little funny so I wouldn't cry. The kids laughed, which is what I was going for, and the American teachers all said it sounded really good, so that's good. I didn't actually start crying until after the service when German came up to give me a hug and totally lost it. I thought I was going to be able to make it without crying since I made it through the service, but when he started crying, I did too. I'm going to miss those guys! Anyways, after the service, they had a dinner for the seniors, their families, and then invited some of the teachers at this fancy restaurant/ party place. It was a really nice meal and fun to get to hang out with kids. We had a good time. Dinner was yummy, some of the kids, Kaitlyn, and I snuck out to go get some frozen yogurt at the Bon that's close at like 11:30, and then we came back, visited, and danced before heading home around 1:00. All in all, it was a really nice time.

Christie (a graduate!)


Steffany (a graduate!)


Alana (a graduate!)


Chris (a graduate!)


German (a graduate!)


Mike and Arnold (two of the boys that were in choir, from 9th and 10th grade)


Albania and Ashley (2 of my ninth grade girls in choir)


All my seniors!


After the graduation with two ninth graders, Nicole and Marcel


Choir kids! Bianka, Steffany, Jonathan (not in choir), Johanna, Jose, and Albania


School "officially" ended last Monday with the end of the year party after their last final. (That's where a lot of my pictures with kids from the last blog came from.) The kids that failed classes however had to come in all last week and today (the day depended on what they failed) to re-take them. On Monday, Ignacio came and got me and told me Sebastian's grandmother was in the office and wanted to talk to me. Now, Sebastian failed algebra, and his grandmother is a very scary woman, so I was a little nervous. As I was walking up to the office, I ran into Sebastian, who gave me a big hug and an end of the year present. So, I figured that's all she wanted, so I didn't go to the office. So, I was talking to Sebastian when Ignacio came looking for me again. Apparently, she still wanted to talk to me. She was actually very nice to me though, and asked if I could help Sebastian study for the algebra re-take. I told her that was fine because I really wanted him to pass and to let me know when worked. So I went over to their house on Wednesday for about two/three hours. She sent a taxi over to pick me up, and gave us juice and lots of yummy tropical fruit which we were studying. Sebastian cracks me up. He told me that his grandma is very worried about appearance and so she made the maid clean everything all up before I came. I told him that really wasn't necessary, and he laughed and said he knew. He then proceeded to tell me that he was in trouble because he put boxers on the fan in the room that we were supposed to be studying in before I came to make his grandma mad and that she wasn't tall enough to get them off. Haha, how ninth grade boy-ish is that? Anyways, he said she was being "nice grandma" because I was around, so that made him happy. He said "mean grandma" made him sit at the kitchen table until like 1:30 in the morning the night before the algebra test the first time studying. Apparently she turned the motion sensing alarms on so he couldn't leave and go to bed. Poor kid! Anyways, we got a lot done, and she asked if I'd come over again the next day, so I agreed. Thursday was Corpus Cristi, which is a Catholic holiday, so we didn't have to work. So, she sent the taxi to get me around like 2:30. Jose was there that day too. We studied algebra for soooooo long. I made sure I gave them breaks so they didn't get too math-ed out. We played with Sebastian's dog Ozzy some (I miss Buddy!), and then took some random breaks and played like 20 questions sort of stuff... I learned a lot of really interesting things about both boys. Anyways, I ended up being at the house until like 10:30 by the time we got through everything. She ordered us pizza for dinner, and we got ice cream and popcorn for snacks throughout the 8 hours of studying algebra. Both boys worked really hard, and I was really pleased with them. The grandma asked me how much I wanted her to pay me and I said nothing. And then she made Sebastian ask me in English because she didn't think I understood, and I said nothing again. So, she came in the room and gave me 1000 pesos (which is like $30), and I gave it back. So, she left, and came back with and envelope and tried to give me that... Which I gave back. Anyways, when I got home, and was looking for my apartment keys, I found the envelope with a note from Sebastian that said "Ha ha she made me do it" in my purse. He was happy because before I left I told him, in front of her in Spanish, that I wanted him to go to bed and not study any more algebra, haha. Anyways, so Friday they took the test. Jose got an 89% and Sebastian got a 96%, which was way higher than either needed to pass. So, I was very happy! Jose picked me up and gave me a huge hug when I showed him his score. Sebastian informed him that he would get cooties doing that. But Sebastian gave me a big hug like 5 minutes later when he passed too and said his house was probably full of cooties, but that was ok.

I'm going to miss my kids and all their crazy questions and shenanigans. Last week Sebastian asked me at school if I "had any charity money" so he could get something to eat. So, I was like, "Yeah, get what you want." And he was like, "Yes?? Really?!?! Thanks! I mean, you do make 20Gs a month!" (Which is technically true.... but 20,000 pesos is a lot less than 20,000 dollars, haha!)

Sebastian, probably playing Tetris



Then during the math retake on Friday, Juan was in the room because he was re-taking matematicas, and all the other kids were retaking mine. And he asked me if anyone failed chemistry, and I said no. And then he asked if I knew if anyone had re-failed quimica, and I said I didn't know. And he was like, "If Camilo failed, he's the biggest retard ever! He had the biggest goat ever! It was so obvious!" I had to laugh because that's one of those cases where the word in Spanish and the word in English don't quite match up. In Spanish (at least here), they use the word "chivo" for cheat sheets. Literally though, "chivo" means goat. So, like if you eat chivo, it's goat meat (a delicacy here). Anyways, the kids don't know what a "cheat sheet" is, so they always just say "chivo" when they are taking in English even though it's obviously a Spanish word (Like: so and so had a chivo for the French test). Well, Juan decided to translate the word "chivo" which as I said, literally means goat. However, no one had any goats during any tests. Haha! (Although there are some goats that live next door to school....)

Juan's the trouble maker in the middle (along with his two best friends, and some of my favorite kids, Marcel and Alex)


This week is our last week at school. Today was the last day we had kids in. Friday is conferences. And Thursday, Jonathan comes to visit! Yay! We are going to do some traveling around the country before heading home on July 2nd. Man time flies! While I'm really, really sad to be leaving, at the same time, I can't WAIT to get to see everyone at home! Miss you all! (Less that three weeks to go now!)