This week truly was rough though teaching-wise. These kids are absolutely adorable but can be such nightmares in our classes. It's hard too because we've been told that the semester before us was not a very successful/diligent group of girls so we kind of have to clean up the mistakes that were made. We really are so motivated as teachers though to fix all of the things going wrong here with the program so that these kids can learn English and use it to benefit their future! I could write a million pages worth of things we need to change and how we all feel about the frustrating parts of teaching, but there is so much more I need to document on here!
After the first few days of teaching, we all had a better attitude going day by day because we knew that the weekend was coming up and our trip to Samana was going to be on Saturday. It was so nice to have something to look forward to because teaching is so draining. Our coordinator here (Amarillas) that is ILP's leader here in the DR was going to take us to Samana but recently had a major surgery so her son and daughter took us to Samana, which is a little peninsula on the island. We left at 5 am to take a bus for four hours to the docks, then took a boat for probably 20 minutes to Samana. It was really pretty but it was raining off and on all day which was a bummer. It felt so nice to just sit on the beach though, and I was reading Harry Potter all day so it was bound to be a good day :) The water was so clear and pretty, but since it was rainy and a little cold we didn't stay in the actual ocean for too long. There were cool clear jellyfish everywhere in the water, and some girls saw sea urchins and starfish. Super cool! And of course we had pina coladas again, so yummy.
Honestly though, the best part of the trip was finding the yummiest taco place on the way home. Food here has been a hard adjustment, even though that might sound silly. We have pretty much the exact same meal for lunch and dinner every day--some sort of fatty meat, rice and beans. And there's no seasoning or anything on it, and we don't get a very big portion so we are always hungry. We live off of snacks that we get at the local grocery stores and the local fruit from the fruit stands in our neighborhood. Amarillas' (she's the coordinator of the program that lived here) son took us to a taco place called La Casa de Dona Petra here in Puerto Plata. SO YUMMY. We all downed the tacos, you get two of them for 80 pesos, which is like $1.50. It literally changed everyones moods knowing that like 10 minutes away from our house was this amazingly yummy taco place that actually kept us full! It was so good that we went back and tried the burritos, which are huge and only $3. So, so, so yummy.
On Sunday we went to our local branch for the first time since last week was an area conference and I loved it. I love singing the hymns in Spanish and I love trying to figure out what everyone is saying in their prayers/talks, even if I can barely understand. It's still so cool to me to hear the church in other languages, it's also so comforting to have the routine of church even here in the DR. One of the Elders that is here from Nevada translated Sunday School for us which was so nice of him. It was so cool to learn with the locals in the same class, even though we didn't speak each others language. We learned about the Atonement and how you never have to go through trials and hard times alone, which is exactly what we needed to hear during this super hard time. Teaching is hard, I don't know how many times I can say that. It truly is and it takes a toll on us every day. Last week during the area broadcast Elder Anderson said, "Although He won't always take away our transgressions, He will take them with us." That has been so comforting to me knowing that I'm not alone in this trial.
After church a little group of us took the teleferico up to the little Christus statue here in Puerto Plata. We were expecting it to just be the statue to look at and nothing really else, but it was seriously so pretty up there. We had a beautiful view of the city, the statue was amazing, there were hardly any people there and they had gardens and paths everywhere that were so fun to explore and walk around on. It was a perfect little Sunday trip and I felt so much peace up there, and felt like I can get through these four months successfully.
The past couple days have been filled with the stresses that come from teaching, but these kids have my heart. The more we learn about them, the more I love them. They come from such hard homes and are part of such a scary culture/neighborhood. I know that is why they act out so much in class but I really wish we could change their lives in a way greater than just teaching them English. I wish I could give them all a mattress to sleep on and clean clothes to wear every day, but for now we're doing what we can to try and make an impact on their lives even if every day is so hard.
This week we don't have school on Friday because we are going with the ward to Santo Domingo for a temple trip! We are staying at the MTC Friday night and then going to the temple in the morning. I am so excited to feel the peace that comes from the temple. And I hope the next few days of teaching go smoother than the past few days :)
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