Wrapping Things Up at Doulos

The last days of school were characterized by the usual whirlwind of activity. Here are a few of the highlights. The end of the year concluded with a service/workshop week where every class (PK3-11th grade) picked a project that would help the community and spent the mornings completing their projects. To provide the students with a few life skills that are not normally offered in town, the afternoons were dedicated to workshops ranging from cooking to swimming lessons. Many of the students do not know how to swim properly, even though the town is surrounded by rivers, simply because there is no community center or park district where swimming lessons are available. I thoroughly enjoyed the unexpected chance to use my training from many years ago as a swim instructor to teach some of the elementary students the basics of swimming and spend the hot afternoons cooling off in a private pool that was generously rented to us for the week.

Service projects ranged from spending time with some of the orphaned children that live near Jarabacoa’s largest river (Rio Yaque del Norte) to painting a map onto one of the walls of a public school. Half of the 10th and 11th grade classes teamed up with some of our elementary classes to lead them in playing games and spending time with children with disabilities at a neighboring school and with the elderly in a retirement center. The other half of our oldest grades worked with me, my cousin Bob (who was visiting for the last 2 weeks of school) and the Math teacher to complete the final stage in our Water project; painting trashcans.

This may seem like an odd service project, but it is very appropriate. The community of Jarabacoa is chronically short on trashcans in public locations. They are usually sparse in private homes as well. One of the biggest problems we found during our 11th grade Chemistry project studying the pollution of the region’s largest river (Rio Yaque del Norte) was simply solid waste. Trash bags, diapers, Styrofoam cups, soda cans, old shoes, etc. were found pilled up in slow areas of water flow and along the banks of many parts of the river. As a simple step towards resolving some of the pollution problems, the 11th graders worked together to design colorful messages to paint on metal trashcans that would educate the public as well as provide a place to properly dispose of trash.

Our final evening activity of the year was a talent show where students had the opportunity to show off some of their more hidden skills. The program ranged from praise songs to glorify God, to athletic dances, to humorous skits and comedy routines. Many of the students practiced for weeks to choreograph their own dances and come up with songs and jokes. The teachers contributed one skit to the program with a message about God and life. The skit was supposed to be somewhat serious, but most of our students found it hilarious to see some of their American teachers performing in Spanish and even using some of the local slang. It was my first performance in Spanish and hopefully not my last.
The last day of school was filled to the brim with the annual awards ceremony to recognize academic excellence as well as servant leadership, games, reflection, prayer, and goodbyes. All of my students have grown in so many ways over the course of the past two years and I can’t wait to see what they do in the future as the ministry of Doulos continues.