Cultural Weekend

One hour after our return from living on a mountain with our students, the new teachers headed off to the capital in public transportation to spend the weekend learning about the culture of the Dominican Republic. The conference was held in a Catholic retreat center on a cliff overlooking the seascape. I learned a lot about the various family structures of my students and my own reactions to cultural differences. The weekend was exhausting, but I was thankful for the opportunity to learn more about the culture I am living in. There are so many miscommunications that occur due to differences in culture and I hope to be able to avoid more of them now. Living in a different culture is humbling and a great opportunity for personal growth. I highly recommend it to all of you. This picture is of all of the new Doulos staff. I thoroughly enjoy all of these teachers and we always have a lot of fun together. For more pictures, visit my web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/ewissema/

Living in the Mountains......

Every year the school takes the students up on top of a mountain in the midst of a coffee plantation for a week of outdoor education. Many of the students look forward to this week all year and talk about it for the rest of the year. Classes are held in the woods and students learn to appreciate the amazingly beautiful natural world around them. Living in the mountains with 55 12-16 year old students is slightly less relaxing than the usual camping experience, but it certainly was an adventure. The mountains were breathtakingly beautiful even through all of the rain. I had the opportunity to talk to many of my students on a more personal level and build better relationships. This picture is of the girls in my cooking/sleeping group in our outdoor kitchen. It poured for more than half of the 4 days that we were on top of the mountain and many of the sleeping bags were soaked, but thankfully no one was hurt in the slippery mud and everyone saw the rain as more of an adventure. I was exhausted after this trip, but delighted with the experience.