La Cancha

I once posted a blog about the basketball court in Pancho Mateo:

La Cancha

My home away from home. As long as I live, I will not forget that place. It is where I first played with kids in the DR. My first village visit when I arrived. Where I started to play basketball with Sili every week. Where I colored with Nelisa. Where I met one of my greatest friends Cakito, which then lead to me meeting my brothers of Pancho Mateo and playing basketball every Tuesday with them till I left (my old blog about them). I miss this place and the people more than words can express.

While I was still in the DR, the boys decided to give the cancha a makeover. Cakito put in alot of work to collect money from people and get the boys together to paint it and redo the backboards/rims. I was so proud of them!





I could say that was it and voila! the court was finished, but there needed to be one last final touch. I had been asking Cakito if we could all put our names on the court somewhere, and he told me if I bought spray paint, we could. A few weeks later, I bought a few cans and went to Pancho Mateo where I found him at the court with some other boys. I handed him the paint and said it was time to write our names. Well...what I wanted to be in a corner smaller somewhere along the walls turned out to be alot bigger haha. That is an understatement. Cakito called out the professional, and next thing you know, my name is HUGE above the stands. Now it is pretty funny, but I still get embarrassed thinking about it. They were so excited to write it there and thought it looked way "bacano" (cool). Honestly, I feel honored by them. Love and miss you mis hermanitos de Pancho!

Marileidi

Marileidi is one of our students at Makarios, and her brother Miguel Angel was one of my students this past school year (one of my favs!). Their family is well loved by the Makarios school because they have been there since the beginning of the first built school building, but also because their Mom Katherin is one of the sweetest people I have met in this country.

Marileidi graduated a few weeks ago from Kindergarten at the public school (she goes there in the afternoon), and Katherin asked if we would come and take pictures of her in her dress with her escort Yery (who also goes to our school). There are some pretty cute ones of her! Photo shoot de Leidi:

Gloria

Yes, I have a Dominican mom named Gloria, and she's cra cra, but I love her despite that. When I lived in my old apartment, her house was right across the street. I would walk over there every night to say hi and sit to talk with her. Since I have been living down the street, she asks me at least every other day where I have been and why I did not tell her where I was going...aka you need to get permission from me to go anywhere, and I especially need to see who you are going with. The funniest times in our relationship is when I have to refuse the proposal of her wanting me to marry her son...Oh Gloria.



Because we are leaving her, she has been asking us to come over so she can cook. She loves it when we come eat with her and talk for a couple of hours. She could talk for days. The things you find out about her life are more and more interesting every time I sit down with her. Love me some Gloria :)

Beach Trips

Throughout the summer we have gone on several beach trips with the students. These are my last times with the kids so they are very special to me. Crazy to think I am leaving my babies behind in a little over two weeks! I am going to miss them terribly.

Joel

I know I have talked about Joel before in other blogs (he is in the picture with the Dirk jersey), but I felt as though he needed his own solo blog this time. Joel is my little brother who lives in Pancho Mateo. He is fourteen and lives with his grandma and brothers Jhoan and Jovanny who I am also friends with. I really love this kid and wish I could take him home with me in my suitcase, but alas I will have to leave him when I go in August.
This past Monday night I was at my apartment, and he came by with Cakito. He loves talking to me and making fun of me so when Cakito went upstairs to hang out with some of our friends, Joel stayed to hang out with me. We had the music video channel on in our living room so I started doing silly dance moves while he laughed at me and told me I could not dance. He started showing me all his moves like normal, and like normal I was impressed. This kid can dance. If my internet was not so slow, I would post videos, but you will have to settle for pictures...they do not do enough justice trust me.


ps. You can also see the pictures here where they will be bigger:

Joel

A Tad Late

The two pictures with my girlfriends was me showing off all my Mavs gear (crap). They wanted to put it all on and pretend to be Mavs fans. Of course I soaked that up because no one here likes the Mavs except for one guy that I know in Pancho Mateo. The other two pictures are me with two of my friends (Cakito and Jhoan) after the Mavs won. What I would've done to be in Dallas...but I wasn't, so I ran around town in my Dirk jersey like a crazy person. I am pretty sure everyone thought I was drunk. Oops. Felicidades Los Mavs! Por fin!

Let's Go Mavs!

Like a true Mavs fan, I have been watching every game since the beginning of the playoffs either in my apartment or at my friend Cara's house. Whenever I watch it at my apartment, I tell my basketball brothers that they are welcome to come to my house and watch it with me. A few games back, three of them (Jhoan, Jovanny, and Joel) came over. Joel loves Lebron so he was cheering for Miami, but the rest of us were cheering for Dallas. Jhoan and Jovanny were only cheering for Dallas because they love Kobe Bryant therefore they hate Lebron.

Kristen took some celebration pictures at the end of the game by clicking on the button multiple times in a row really fast, which lead to the pictures shown in the slideshow. Watch Jhoan who is the striped shirt. Pretty funny.