Today’s blog was written by our Global Glimpse Leader Roxane

Today our students enjoyed their second free day!

In the morning they had time to work on their CAP (Community Action Project) some more. This involved deciding who would go to the hardware store to buy supplies with our Program Coordinator, Carissa, and one of the locals helping with the mural, an artist named Ken. The students had a hard time agreeing who would be the representative to go to the hardware store since it meant giving up their afternoon free time! But in the end we had a good team head out after lunch to  get all the supplies we will need.

The rest of the students were free to explore Constanza on their own (in groups of 4 or more for safety!) Myself and my partner Global Glimpse Leader, Junie, got a motorcycle ride (off limits to the students!) from a friend of a friend of one of the staff, over to a store that we heard had some good shopping! After a little shopping we headed out to find a papelería (sort of like an office supply store), just as it started raining.

The rain here means rivers in the streets. The cars and motorcycles mysteriously disappear and the roads are empty. And the people disappear as well. We’re been told, “Dominicans will under no circumstances go out in the rain”! As we walked down the street under our umbrellas from every single shop we passed the locals hollered at us to come inside, don’t get wet! We grinned because we loved how kind people were being and were also enjoying getting drenched.

We stopped at the papelería and picked up some notebooks, then headed down the street to a pharmacy that the papelería shop keeper told us might have souvenirs. Warning to family and friends: don’t be mad at your glimpser if they don’t come home without souvenirs, it’s proved near impossible to find any of the regular tourist stuff here in Constanza because there aren’t really any tourists!

By then the rain had died down and we stopped at the grocery store on our way back to pick up some more snacks. In lieu of touristy souvenirs I bought some packs of the local chocolate and vanilla wafer crackers the students have been eating as snacks everyday as gifts for my mom and in-laws. I’ll have to find something else for my dad because he’s not a fan of sugar!

Back at the hostel all our little ones had made it back through the rain storm and after changing we headed out to Arroyo Arriba School for our 4th English lesson! While the students teach their lessons Junie and I sit at the entrance to the school to sign up any newcomers and I was still surprised and happy to see that even in the second week we are getting new signups. Our biggest class is the 9-11 year olds, it’s almost 20 students and last week we had to split it in half. We gave the other half to our glimpsers who were supposed to be teaching the 14 year old because no 14 year olds were coming! We think they are all out on the soccer and baseball field behind the school 😉 .

Another successful English class done and our students headed back to the hostel for dinner and our nightly meeting. Tomorrow is a big day for everyone as we will be starting our big Community Action Project.

Thanks for reading and we’ll keep you posted!