Reflections

One Tuesday evening about 2 years ago, I decided to submit my application for a SST (Special Education) position at Santiago Christian School in the Dominican Republic. I honestly didn't think I would hear back from the school. I merely did it on a whim. Little did I know, the very next morning I received an email that would totally change my world for the next two years! Before I had applied for the position, I combed the school website up and down, looking at every inch of it, to try and gather as much as I could about the school. I can't believe how fortunate I was that it ended up being an amazing experience. With having the faith to move to a country where I knew no one, didn't speak the language, and hadn't ever lived abroad, it could have been an absolute nightmare! Though I'm not going to say it was easy, it was (and will be) and experience that I will never forget. I will say that the 2nd year here was actually a bit harder than the 1st. The first year I was merely going through the motions, and didn't know what to expect. The second year, I had somewhat of an idea of what to expect, and having to go through some of it (again), I wasn't looking forward to. Though this year I had an air conditioner in my bedroom, which you have no idea how much better it makes!!! At times I thought that this two years was going extreeeeemly slow, and then now it's hard to believe that my time here is coming to a close. I still can't believe that I actually did something like this, b/c I don't see myself as much of an adventurer, but to go to a country where you've never before, and had no experience with, is definitely an adventure.
Initially, I had a 2-hour phone interview with the Elementary School principal Stacey, and I still remember when, after telling her about an IEP meeting I was going to have with a family the next day, at the end of our conversation she prayed for me and about the meeting. It left an impression with me, in that she didn't know me, and we had just met, and yet she prayed for me. That was one of the many reasons why I wanted to come and teach here, especially at a Christian School. I had always said that I thought that the teaching part here was not going to be as much of an adjustment as the lifestyle/culture here, and for the most part I was right. It has been different not having to adhere to the US school customs of special education, but in some ways having those guidelines made it easier to know the expectations.

Some of the things I'm looking forward to when I move back to the States...
- Having water pressure in my shower (b/c sometimes it gets down to merely a trickle...)
- Being able to flush toilet paper
- Drinking water from the faucet (and not having to order water)
- Being able to wash my fruits and vegetables with just water
- Not having the water/electricity go out
- Having my own car and driving!!
- Not having to get on the bus every morning at 6:25 (though where I'm moving to, I'll still have a 30 minute drive! LOL)
- Being able to understand the language (which if I learned more Spanish, probably could be helped!!)
-Having Central Air Conditioning!!
-The seasons/Fall/COLD-- never again will I complain about it being cold (well unless it's below zero!!)
-Being able to wear hoodies and sweats!
-Not having to worry about my security and safety-- this comes from growing up/living in a rural Midwest America lifestyle. If I lived in a city, than this is something that wouldn't change...
-Having a car to do my grocery shopping and errands!
-Target/Wal-Mart
-Hill of Beans Coffee (My brother and my friend Kaitlyn will appreciate this... I just couldn't grow to love the Santo Domingo coffee here, if I made it on my own. Now if it was a Cafe con leche from Santo Domingo Coffee, than I would definitely take one of those...)
-Obviously seeing my family, and my nephew Dylan-- and Zach and Caleigh,
-Being in the same town as my best friend who I've known for 15 years!
-My cats-- though I do have a love/hate relationship with them! :-)
-Not having year-round mosquitos and also ants in my apartment!!

Even though I am looking forward to moving back to the States, there are things that I will miss about being here. My list isn't probably nearly as long, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't matter nearly as much. In fact, probably more, b/c it's more of the people here that I will miss!!

Things I will miss about the Dominican Republic/Santiago...
-My students - Out of all my 15 years years of teaching, I think this year will actually be one of the hardest for me to leave my students. I've had close relationships with my students in the past, but this year I seem to have bonded with my students even more, and though I'm not a person that cries, I have a feeling I will be shedding a few tears when I say Goodbye! :-(
-The teachers/staff- particularly Everg my aide (and her daughter Laura)-- though I didn't get to work with her this semester, she is still a close friend, whom I'm so thankful to have met; Paula, the other SST teacher who I'm so glad will be taking over for me, b/c I've been able to help her this semester.. and too many other people to count!
-Leonela/Her school staff and teachers-- When I was originally going to tutor at Leonela's last semester, it was only going to be a few days a week. It ended up being Mon-Thurs for 2 1/2 hrs with 6 students, seeing them 2-3 times a week! Though I didn't realize it at the time, it actually has prepared me for getting back to working with Preschool-K students! At times, I haven't always felt like being there, especially after being at school all day (and there's not AC there), but in the end it's been worth it to see the students and interact with them and the teachers and staff. (Particularly one of my Kindergartner's I've worked with that loves to play the game Uno, and refuses to say 'Uno' when she has one card left, but instead gives me a cheesy grin/look and says "One!"... Which my response is usually an eye roll and a chuckle....) And I've also learned a lot professionally with being able to help in training her staff.
-Though I have realized that I'm not one who enjoys the heat (and yes I know I moved to a tropical island where it does get hot here....) I will miss the nice weather from about, say November to March... when it's blizzarding and below zero temps in the Midwest!
-Tostones, Batata's and Yuca.... three foods that I have grown to really like
-Yogenfruz.... frozen yogurt and fruit mixed together
-The fellowship with the teachers and staff
-Being within driving distance of beaches and mountains- though I didn't take advantage of them as much as I should have, they were very beautiful to visit...

I have been very blessed by the prayers and support that I have received over the last 2 years, and I have greatly appreciated it all!!
                                                           v

Changes and the End of the School Year

My experience in the Dominican Republic has made me realize (even more) that I truly am a small town, Midwest North American Girl! The people here are very kind, there is warm weather, and yes there are beaches and beautiful scenery that are (somewhat) close by-- but for me, they are things that I can live without. (I never knew I would actually miss the seasons, or actually miss COLD WEATHER-- now when I say cold weather, I'm meaning above zero temperatures....🐱) I wanted to come here for the experience, and to be able to grow professionally/personally-- and I definitely have had new experiences, met some wonderful people, and have been able to share my knowledge with other teachers. Though I do like working with/teaching students, I have enjoyed being able to work with other teachers, and be able to teach them about what I know. Meeting Leonela (where I tutor at her school) was definitely a gift for me, b/c she has continually pushed me professionally (continually asking me questions...)-- I have helped her with many of her students and her teachers, and that has made me research and grow in different areas of my field. I will really miss being able to be at the school, b/c I have really enjoyed working with her teachers and students. I have mixed emotions about leaving here, b/c though I am definitely ready to return to the U.S., I will really miss the people here, especially my students. I really want to continue working  with SCS (as well as Leonela's) school in broadening the SST (Sped) department, and if I can afford the plane tickets, I do want to keep coming come back to help them and the other teachers.

June 15th I fly into Omaha, and back to Estados Unidos -- United States. For me, there were really only two places that I wanted to come back to after teaching here- - the area where I moved from in Northeast Kansas or Southwest Kansas. But SW Kansas actually came up on top for me. It is kind of ironic/funny that I want to move back to SW Kansas, b/c when I first moved there, I was not really fond of the area. It was pretty different from what I was used to. But I grew to really love it there, meeting a lot of people that I still keep in touch with. And since moving away 7 years ago, I still have been there every summer. Earlier in the year, I made the decision that I want to go back to High Plains Cooperative, the employer I started with 15 years ago (I feel so old!!!!). I wanted to live in Garden City, and the position that ended up being open was actually the original job I had when I first started- K-1 Special Education! So I've guess I've come full circle to returning back to my original roots. LOL ☺☺When I left 7 years ago, I didn't think that I would end up being back again, but God has a funny way of doing things. After I left, I worked with older students- 3-5th grade, which before, seemed rather intimidating for me. --but I actually have really enjoyed the older students. I have realized that each job that I went to, was a stepping stone for the next. Each job prepared me for the next one. It will be different for me to have to handle state testing, and upper elementary content, but I'm looking forward to going back down the grade levels. :-)

Our last day of school is June 8th, so we actually have quite a bit of school left. To have to go after Memorial Day (even though they don't have that here), seems rather strange (and kinda long...), but it's common here. We have a week off, and then we will have PT conferences on Wed June 14th. Right now, Paula and I are doing end of the year assessments with our student's, and then we type up reports with all the data. We also do Summer homework packets for some of our student's that need alternate summer homework. (All of the teacher's are required to give out summer homework packets). Next year the school will not be offering Replacement Classes (alternative classes), so that will be different for some of our students. I've really enjoyed getting to know Paula, and it's nice to know that she'll be taking over next year, so my student's will have someone that they know. ;-( I haven't told my students yet that I'm leaving, which I'm not looking forward to!

29 Days!!! 

May

My spring break was rather uneventful, other than getting bronchitis! LOL The week before spring break, I got a fever, and then I worked at SCS Family Day the next Saturday. That evening I started coughing, and by Monday I needed to go to the doctor. He prescribed and inhaler, but it wasn't working, so I started on nebulizer breathing treatments, and ended up being on them for 10 days, 6 times a day! It's been about a month, and my cough isn't nearly as bad as it was before, but it continues to annoyingly linger. The weather has been so crazy, with it starting to rain a lot again-- and that seems to create a lot of sickness from it being so damp.

And of course it started pouring at dismissal.... 😏😐

All the grades are taking end of the year computer MAP testing, and I'm starting to do my end of the year testing with my students. We do periodical assessments throughout the year, but we also do comparative standard assessments at the end of the year, and write  'End of the Year Reports' for all of our students.

The 1st Monday in May was the Dominican Labor Day, so we didn't have school. Saturday afternoon I watched my friend Everg's daughter, and we went to a pastry shop, and then also went 'toy browsing.' 

As we were leaving, it started pouring again, and we waited for a taxi for about 15 minutes-- I always forget how much chaos the rain causes (and it was also a busy Saturday afternoon!). When we got back to my apt, there was water all over the stairs--as the windows that are in the stairwells have missing window panes, so water will come in, but I don't think I've ever seen that  much water before.

Our last day of school is June 8th, so we have a month of school left! 

April

At times, this semester has gone by very slow, and at other times, it's hard to believe that it's already April and we're in the 4th quarter. Our last day of school is June 8th, and then I fly back to Nebraska June 15th. Last week was Spirit  week, where we got to dress up each day, and then we ended the week with a Pep Rally for the sports teams. Saturday was Family Day, and I helped with the Flying Chairs-- and it was fun to be able to see the student's outside of school.

 I am continuing to do tutoring at Leonela's 4 days a week, and then this last Friday I did a workshop for her teacher's on an overview of Reading- Phonics/Comprehension, Writing, and Math. This next Friday I am going to do a 2nd part with a Phonics/Reading strategy.

We have Spring Break next week-- I'm not sure yet if I'm going to do anything or not. I haven't been feeling the greatest this last week, with having a fever last week, and on Saturday, developed a cough, so if I don't go anywhere, it's okay. ;-) Our school nurse took me to the doctor yesterday, and I got an inhaler to use twice a day for a week, and some cough medicine-- so hopefully that will help. Going to the doctor involves putting your name in, and you kind of have an approximate time that your number will be called. The doctor's office is on the 6th floor, so you have to wait in a long line to get on the elevator-- and that takes up some time beforehand. A lot of the places/businesses don't have appointments- -you just wait in line, until they call you.

The Friday before Spring Break, the elementary has a Curriculum Fair with the grades doing various activities for parent's. 2nd grade is having students play math games with parent's, 3rd grade is doing a Wax Museum-- with student's selecting an important person in history and portraying them (dressing up like them and giving info about them), and 4th grade doing a Book Report display board on a book they have read.

Samana!

Friday afternoon, I left for a 3-day weekend trip to Samana with Kelsey, a teacher at my school, and her friend April, who is a nurse with Students International in Santiago. April has a SUV, so we were lucky enough to be able to drive there-- it took us about 3 1/2 hrs to get there. April found a really nice and clean hotel, with air conditioning and wi-fi. Ah, priorities!! :-D

Saturday morning we found a restaurant to have breakfast, and our plan for the day was to go to the Bridge to Nowhere, and then go whale watching in the afternoon.

The bridge...

 The view from the bridge.... 

The view from afar... the bridge we walked across.... 

I don't have any pictures of what it looked like once we crossed the bridge, but you climbed up stairs and walked along a path there as well.

We made our way back to the main part of town, and headed out for whale watching.... 

It was really hard to get pictures of the whales, b/c they were farther away, and they moved really fast. We did see one baby whale breech-- which they come up out of the water, and saw a fin, but the rest of the time, we just saw the tops of them. It was still really awesome to see them up close. We were out on the water for about 4 hours. The tour was very informational, with giving a lot of acts about the whales-- in English, Spanish, French and German!

After we got back, we were pretty exhausted-- ate dinner at a restaurant, and headed back to the hotel. 

Sunday, we left around 9ish to go to Salto Limon waterfall, which is the tallest waterfall in the Dominican Republic. There are a couple of different paths (shorter and longer) to get there, but we took about a 45 minute path/hike up/down to get there. I didn't seem to take many pictures along the way, but it had a lot of pretty views along the way. 

We saw a smaller version of a waterfall along the way...

And these were some of the stairs going down, when we were really close to the waterfall (it was only when we got close that we actually had stairs.) 

And then we were finally rewarded for our trek...

By the end of the hike, my shoes were covered with mud-- and I thankfully had brought a pair of flip-flops to cross some of the water areas. We went back to the hotel briefly, and looked for a beach that we were going to go to, along with eating dinner there. Kelsey found Playa Anadel...

I had the best fish ever, and then afterwards we decided to go for a walk....

The pictures don't quite show all the rocks that I/we had to climb over, -- but it was not a sandy beach to walk on.....

When we finally got to the end (about 30-45ish min there), there was an absolutely gorgeous view...

 For me, it was an absolutely HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT that I did not hurt myself climbing over the rocks, and wading through the rocks, especially with my flip-flops that I wearing (I was wearing Adidas ones that were spongy and when I walked in the water, they were weighted down...). I've never been the most limber/coordinated person in the world, and the entire way I was praying, Please don't let me hurt myself!!!  :-P
Needless to say, by the end of that, I was completely exhausted, but felt very accomplished for doing that!!
Monday morning we drove back, and stopped at 2 dams along the way. One of the dams was called Hatillo, and the other I forgot to write down. Some more pretty views...

Can't have a complete trip without a pic of a cow.... :-D 

All in all, I had a lot of fun, and it was awesome to see new parts of the country--- though today (and I was yesterday as well), I'm pretty sore from all the hiking I did!

On a slightly different note, I'm still working on the whole Amazon thing.. It's still not resolved... ;-( 

The Saga That Never Ends

In the saga that never ends, I called Amazon on Monday, b/c I was still getting emails from the seller's account-- and also from people that had ordered shoes. In all, (I think) they sold 9 pairs of shoes!! I asked them to delete the seller's account-- one of the ladies told me to go to the seller's account and delete my account there, but I get a Chinese symboled page... She asked me if I could change the language to English... Um, all the symbols/letters are Chinese. I can't exactly change it to English!! They couldn't delete the seller's account, b/c there were charges on it. I asked them to just delete my whole Amazon account, and they couldn't do that either, b/c of the seller's charges!!! Needless to say, it is beyond frustrating. They're investigating, and I'm just waiting to hear. I got another email from a buyer wanting to know where their shoes are, but I'm not about to reply to them.... I was on the phone with Bank of America for 45 minutes today (20 of them being on hold...) b/c they said they needed to contact me. I had them mail my card to my Florida address, and b/c of the different address than my mailing address, they have to verify it. I understand they have to go through all these measures, but I was transferred 5 times just to get it all figured out!!!

February

After getting a few suspicious emails from Amazon, Wed night I tried to login to my account to change my password-- I then discovered that they could not find my account... there was an email address ending in 163.com, and I figured out that my account had been hacked. I called Amazon Thursday morning, while also checking my credit card, and discovered that I had 2 transactions on my card that were not mine. :-( They took the card off the account, and are working on restoring my Amazon account. I took an Uber home from school Thursday morning to get my credit card, and as we were turning the corner, discovered that I had forgotten my apt keys! So, we went back to the school, and I came home and got my card. Returned to school, spent several minutes trying to find a number where I could get a hold of someone... finally they answered, and waited 15 minutes to talk to someone, and then another 30 minutes going through the process of getting a new card, and getting the charges off my account! When I got home from tutoring I downloaded 3 different programs, and finally got a malware remover- to check my computer.... and I thought everything was fine... S Though it was a pure coincidence where I got two emails from Paypal-- and thought that they were fake-- I tried to login to my Paypal account with what I thought was my login/password-- did the recovery password reset, and then couldn't login. I called Paypal and they said everything was fine with my account! Friday night I called Amazon, b/c I couldn't get on the account- the 1st phone call got me on the account, and they told me to reply to the seller account and tell them I didn't want them. When they sent me a reply email account, it said to click on the link for seller headquarter's and I got a Chinese symboled tab that opened! Called Amazon  back, and while I was on the phone I clicked on the seller's link and I got a Chinese symboled page again! Evidently they can't close the seller's account, b/c they are investigating it. Long story short, I won't be using Amazon for a very long time!! I did another malware scan and AVG scan and my computer came up clean, so I think my computer is okay.

On the school front, Paula and I have settled into our new schedules, and I've been helping with her in figuring out the SST protocols and routines. Fridays are still probably the most chaotic days with having Reading Tests for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade, but I do have her help with the 3rd grade tests, so that has been a big blessing! The SST department is always trying to improve itself, and we're talking about next year, and being able to provide the support to our students, with the staff that we have.
Thursday and Friday the student's do not have school, while we have inservices at school Thursday and Friday morning. Monday we don't have school for the DR Independence Day. Plans are still coming, but I think that I'm going north for the long weekend....

I've been continuing to tutor at Leonela's 4 days a week Monday through Thursday with 6 students preschool, Kinder, and a 5th grader. I've gotten pretty proficient with using Uber, with having to take it from school and home those days. Though I think I have found a parent at my school that picks up her students late enough for me to leave school on Mondays and Wednesdays, so that will at least help with having to take Uber so much. Besides being at SCS, working with Leonela has pushed me professionally as well, b/c they have been multiple occasions where she has asked me about a student, or I've helped her with something, that I have to do research in trying to figure it out. Or I've had to remember something I've learned/used to help her. After I finished my Master's, I said I would never do any more schooling, but this past year has actually made me want to pursue my Doctorate in Special Education. I started researching schools, and I would have to do an online degree, which limits my options. I found Liberty University in Virginia that I'm fairly certain that I would want to do my degree with.... It's just a matter of making the jump of doing it... and not cringing when thinking about the debt of graduate school... My previous degrees are all paid for, and I'm fortunate to not have any debt except my car loan. So, we'll see...