Top 10 things to know about visiting the campo

1. Do not throw toilet paper in the toilet. Ever. It will clog it. Every time.

Really that's the most important, so I'll just stop the list there. Let that one sink in.

The last two point five weeks have been a busy, exhilirating, exhausting, fulfilling blur. First I had three visitors from the states- Alex, Chosei, and Haley. We spent some time in the capital, we jumped off some waterfalls (I know they say "don't go chasing waterfalls," but when in Rome...) and we went on a wonderfully fun, hot, entertaining hike with about 40 kids and adults from my community. They brought toothbrushes and toothpastes by the suitcase-load, so we got to start distributing those (along with a little educational lecture) and they helped put up a mural of the world on the side of the school wall. They played with my kids, helped me cook, clean, and really boosted my popularity. It was probably the most fun I've had since coming here and was very gratifying to spend time with people in my site.

And THEN my sisters came, and of course, that was amazing. We had a fun night in the campo (I use the word "fun" more to mean "adventure," which, as you all know, may or may not include actual fun, but in this case it did include some). Michelle became well acquainted with my gato Denny (who is more like a Tiger, if you ask me) and learned to bucket flush a toilet, Theresa learned to wash dishes rustic-style, and both learned what happens when the garbage people decide to stop coming and my neighbor decides to let her dog rummage through my trash. And then we visited Tio Feli at the beach and got tanned and pampered, and that was lovely.

With the help of Haley, I finally had my reading celebration. Ten of my students were invited, and, despite the rain, my burnt hand (which resulted in delicious brownies), and my destroyed computer (no music = more fun games!), everyone had a wonderful time, including myself. I am still reading with my students and am spending more quality time with my neighborhood kids. If any of you haven't colored in a good long time, I recommend it. It's fun, and when you're done, you have a pretty picture that you can put on your wall.

Another event which should be highlighted in detail was the mural-painting process. To paint a map of the world on the wall (important because the classrooms don't have maps, among other reasons), all I had to do was buy paint, brushes, find an image of a map online, find a projector to borrow, project it on the wall when there was electriciy, and have people trace the countries on the wall with pencil, then paint them in, then label the countries. No problem, right? Well, first, there was no electricy. Then the electricity came on, but didn't work in my office, so we found another electricity source to project the world onto the wall. Then the sun was too strong to see the projected image on the wall. So I lined up the kids behind the projector with their arms in the air to block the sun light. It didn't really work, but it was really cute. Eventually, a neighbor lent us some sheets to block out the light, which helped. After a little while of some quality tracing, the lightbulb in the projector burnt out. So then we finished the countries by looking at the image on a computer and freehanding it. If you've never freehanded the countries of southeast asia, I encourage it. It's a good exercise in patience.
So we finish that, and then start painting (all with help of kids). Turns out most of the colors require about 10 coats (mild exaggeration) to look good, but that's ok. Also turns out that many countries need some last minute adjusting (that can happen when one freehands a map of the world). Finally we labeled the countries, and wrote "Our World" in Español, Kreyol, and English. And now we have a fairly accurate, beautiful map of the mundo that I'm really proud to have contributed to. The kids love staring at it and practicing the country names. There was an initial shock when the DR turned out to be much smaller than Russia, but I told them that Russia was really cold so then the kids felt better.

The next few weeks will see me reading and playing with kids, doing some end-of-the-year activities with the staff at the school, taking some kids to Camp Superman (and all-boys outdoors camp), and then GOING HOME! Obviously, I am having a hard time containing my enthusiasm, and if you are reading this, then I hope to get to see you.

live long and prosper
-alicia