Poker Night!

OoO Mine! Where do I even begin! It feels like a long time since I have blog and a lot has happened. It is the Holiday Season with a little Dominica Twist. The Elections are finally over and for about a week we (Dominicans) can actually celebrate the Christmas Season and not be totally concerned with the Elections anymore. The Elections were on December 18, 2009 and the unofficial results were announced on the same day! The final day, Saturday, the OFFICIAL results were announced. On Friday, some of my friends and I had a Poker/Election party at my friends's home! It was a ROIT! The Dominicans that were over have never played poker before but rather just watched it on TV. Myself and other PCV (mostly the other PCV, Austin) taught them all how to play. I know a little bit how to play but not really! My friends loved it, we did not play for real money but used chips and all of that good stuff! My friends caught on really fast and after all of it they were like, ‘Now I understand a little more of what I see on TV!’ It was fun to share a little of American Culture and fun with my friends!

Cake Making!

It is amazing what you can do when you have time on your hands and nothing else to really do! :o) It is my agencies Christmas Party and I was in charge of bringing cake!


- Basic Homemade Yellow Cake with Red/Green Sprinkles Placed in it before I baked it -


- Melted Chocolate Chips in the Middle of the two cakes!-



- Finished Project! Peanut Butter Frosting and Decorations (THANK YOU MOM!) It is hard to see but it says 'NYC' which is the agency I work for-

Pictures!

Camp Pictures Cont.

Life Can Be A Beautiful Mess!

Beside the Volleyball Camp my afternoons were filled with an amazing MESS of glue, gittler, markers, goggle eyes, and everything inbetween!

The Libary had requested a Peace Corps volunteer to assist in the Libary Camp they were having. It is in the capital city so I thought what a great time that would be! Man did I sure have fun and meet some simply precious and amazing students. By the end of the week there was about 30 students there! For the most part they were very good and well-mannered while other times not so much! With children you roll with the punches and don't forget to smile!



Anyways... all of the crafts were Christmas related then we had a little party at the end where we decorated cookies and ate some cupcakes and other sweets. I sent those students home on a sugar rush! It was a great way to tell the students about Christmas in Michigan, and SNOW, and the fun we have in Snow, and how Christmas is just a little different then I am use to! I truly enjoy to ask the students at the end of the week what they liked best because their answers always seem to amaze me by their simple but pure responses.



My mini success story has nothing to do with Arts and Crafts but rather a mini change in character! For the whole week, I did my best to install 'Please, Thank You, and May I' as I lead by example! I find it to be extremely important for children to learn and use those words. Everytime if a student wanted to use something I would have them say a 'good' sentance for them to get the item and I would make sure I rewarded them. One of the older boys, he was about 14 or so and a riot but had a little sass to him! On Thursday, the last day of camp, he was helping to clean up and moving a table. The table had students art projects on it and he said to the group, 'If any of you have crafts on the table can you PLEASE move them!' My heart melted as he said that! I told him how proud I was of him! SUCESS!

C'est une belle vie

What a busy but amazing week I have had! It was jammed packed with ALL of my favorite activities! Playing volleyball, doing crafts with little ones, baking cookies, sleep over parties, and decorating cookies! Truly I could not of asked for a better week! To top it all off there is only five more days until CHRISTMAS! Friday was the first time some had wished me a Merry Christmas and it made me smile ear to ear!


-He was the son of the Sports Officer that was cute as a button and will be an amazing athlete when he gets older -

Here is a little more detail about the activities I had last week. Myself and Uno who is a Japan International Cooperation Agency volunteer (very similar to the PC but he is from Japan) held a Volleyball Camp held from the 14 December 2009 to 18 December 2009. The camp was open to female athletes going to Secondary School in the Roseau Central Area.



Uno and I meet a week before the camp started to develop a schedule of drills and skills for the week long camp. Then it was time to put those plans into place! The skill level of the girls was very low so it was basics that we started with! It was amazing to see the skills of the girl improve in just those short few days. Since there was not a lot of girls Uno and myself were able to provide a lot of one-on-one attention to the girls. In addition, there was a guy there who we play volleyball with that help, Julie (the PCV), two coaches from the Secondary School, and a man who is the Sport officer for the area. There were a lot of people there to assist the girls!

A Little Christmas Part 3

On Saturday I went to my FIRST Chritmas Function! My villiage is know for their flowers! We have a Flower Show Site and a Flower Show Group! The Flower Show Group (Which I am part of), had a Christmas Carol Celebration! The band you see in some of the pictures is a called a Jinx Ping Band from my villiage! It is local muisc!




- My Dancing Partner ALL Night -



- The Band -

A Little Christmas Part 2

What better way to Celebrate Christmas then MAKING COOKIES!! So... for about a week now we (the PC girls) have been trying to figure out a time that works for all to make cookies together! It has been a struggle but on Friday I ran into Alicia (PCV) and we decided we were going to make cookies!



We made two different kind- "Magically Surprise Cookies" and "Swedish Spritz Cookies" with a little Dominica twist because we did not have a cookie press so we just made them into circles and decorated them with some sugars and sprinkles! (THANK YOU MOM the decorations can in GREAT handy)!



We made the Spritz cookies first and when a recipe is for 5 dozen you know there are going to be good! So we doubled the recipe so Alicia could give them out to her neighbors and co-workers for presents. As we were making these cookies and I was tasting the dough, I thought to myself these taste very familiar but I have never made them. I took a look at the recipe ONE last time and it said butter, sugar, egg, flour, almond! I thought to myself that sounds really familiar what cookie could that be.... Any Guess?!?! It is the 'S' cookies we make! We made them a little different and the dough was a little more 'doughee' but there were still a little taste of home!



- The Taste Testers -

The Santa Hat you see me wearing! I did not bring that from home but rather my dear friend Alicia gave it to me for Christmas! Naturally there is a story behind this random but amazing gift! My BESTEST Beth from back at home made me a calender with pictures in it for Christmas. The picture she decided to use for December is the below picture. So every year (I mean EVERY year), our lovely Mother makes us wear these hats when we open our Christmas Presents! Jennifer and I are not always a fan but we understand it means the world to Mom and she means the world to us so we just do it. The two newest additions to the family (Andrew and Austin) even got one too! I was telling Alicia about it and it made her laugh out loud, so on Friday she came in with a gift for me and it was the Santa hat so I could have a little piece of home with me!