Fast Forward to Fall

Summer came to an end after we were lucky enough to have a team from MVPC visit us here in Jarabacoa! It was so great to see so many familiar faces and be able to share my love for this country with friends from home. It's crazy to think about how coming on that trip when I was 15 ended up changing my life and leading me here for an extended period of time. The team was doing a lot of much needed painting at ANIJA and running soccer camp at the Ark. The kids get so excited when they hear that another team will be coming to play soccer with them!

I was fortunate enough to be able to go home for a month after summer ended for my sister's wedding! Being a part of the wedding was definitely a memory that will last a lifetime and it was great to be able to see so many people who have been supporting me throughout this year. I can't thank you all enough for investing in my life and believing in the work I have been doing here. I am constantly blown away by the outpour of love and support you have provided for me over the last year!

Libby and James' Wedding!

The school year has been back in full swing since the end of August. Things at ANIJA seem to be running a lot smoother this year due to a few key changes in staffing and discipline. We are lucky to have a team of counselors and psychologists who are working with students to help them work through some tough situations this year. It's great to finally have people to address these issues that are affecting students in their classrooms on a daily basis. Oh yeah, and one of these amazing people happens to be one of my best friends from back home!

Been waiting years for this moment!

This year I have been focusing more on being the Sponsorship Coordinator for ANIJA. This job includes working on projects with the students four times a year. Their projects will be sent to the generous people who donate money to the students monthly to help pay for their education, food, and other resources needed. We are currently in the process of finishing the Christmas cards that will be sent out in December. My favorite thing is getting to see the excitement on the students' faces when they realize where the cards will be going. They so frequently ask when I will be sending the cards and if their sponsors are going to come visit them sometime. I love that Kids Alive makes it so easy for Sponsors to be in contact with the children they sponsor here! We are constantly looking for more people to sponsor children in our program so we can continue to grow and help more students. Please contact me if you're interested in learning more about being a sponsor. We have a new class of 4 year olds who are all looking for sponsors!

Birthday Boy making his Christmas Cards! 

This cutie comes to school with the whole alphabet accounted for in her hair clips!

8th graders working on their Christmas Cards.

Another one of my focuses this school year has been working in the library. I am teaching library classes for first through eighth graders and it's been a great experience so far. We are trying to encourage the love of reading and being able to read silently. Some classes are having competitions with each other to see who can read silently for the longest amount of time. We will see if we can get to 20 minutes by the end of the year! I am in awe every day with how much these kids love to read! They are so excited to get to change their books every week and search for a new one to take home for the week. I'm so thankful that we have the ability and resources to send books home with these students who are often not exposed to books at all before coming to ANIJA. It is quite the contrast from children in the U.S. who are read to before they can even speak. Recently, I have been having students come in during recess begging to sit and read a book during their free time. Doesn't get much better than that! 

As always, I am so thankful for your prayers and financial support. I am constantly reminded of how amazing it is that I get to be here doing this work because of the support I have received from such an incredible team at home. Thank you! I am still raising more support to help me stay until next Spring, so check out this link (https://secure.kidsalive.org/p-2747-hilary-ogro.aspx) if you're interested in seeing how you can be a part of what's being done in the Dominican Republic!

Summer, Storms, and Spiders

     The school year is winding down and summer is around the corner, so I thought I would update you on what's been going on in the DR recently! In April, I was lucky enough to have my parents and brother come visit me for a week. We were able to go to the beach for a few days and spend the rest of the week in Jarabacoa, where they were able to get a glimpse of the craziness we call life here. The beach trip was fantastic. It was great to be able to show my family what the DR is like...I even made sure they saw two propane tanks fall off of a motorcycle and fly in completely different directions across traffic. That was a great way to welcome them to this extremely organized and safe country. The rest of our time on the coast was filled with hanging by the pool, going to the beach and riding ATV's through the mountains.

Cabarete 

My dad and brother after riding ATV's to the beach.

     Once we arrived in Jarabacoa, my family was able to see what I've been doing here over the past 6 months and meet some of my favorite people. It's a very weird feeling to be so invested in a place that most of my family and friends have only ever heard of. Being able to help them connect the stories and pictures to the faces here was an experience I will never forget. The boy we sponsor at the Ark was finally able to meet my family after asking about them for years and only seeing their photos. There's nothing better than showing these kids that people love and care for them all over the world.

My family and Steven (the boy we sponsor).

      With Summer approaching, we are saying goodbye to the kiddos at ANIJA for a few months. English classes are over and we gave our final exams last week. Our most recent sponsorship project is finished and now I will have a total of a couple days before starting the next one...the excitement never stops! For the next few weeks I will be working with the kids at the Ark for their summer program. The students will be doing elective classes during the morning and then going to "school" in the afternoon. It's looking like I will be directing the afternoon program and working alongside the interns that will arrive in a couple short weeks!

One last lunchtime hang out with these kiddos.

     Summer in the DR also means very different weather. The days are a lot hotter but the afternoons turn into a thunder and lightning storm almost daily. This is often a nice break from the heat. With the rain also comes an interesting mix of bugs coming into the house. There have already been too many days where I've broken a sweat chasing a spider (read: HUGE spider) around the house in hopes of being able to sleep at night. Cockroaches are a regular occurrence and ants arrive in the thousands. I still haven't gotten used to this new life but let me assure you, this is a battle I will NOT lose!

Thank God for Raid.

     I'm excited to share that come August, I will be changing roles slightly and focusing more on sponsorship most of the time! Over the past few months I have really grown by being able to work with the students one on one and get to know them as individuals, instead of viewing them as just one of the 30 kids in their classroom. I will be working with them on quarterly projects which I will then translate so they can be sent to the students' sponsors in the U.S. I feel like this is going to be a change that will really allow me to grow personally as well as form more long lasting relationships with my students.

     Now that I am seven months into my year long commitment, it's time for me to look into the future and start to figure out what life will look like. There is an opportunity for me to stay in the DR until June of 2016 which would allow me to hold a more permanent job for the whole school year. However, staying longer comes with the need to raise more support.  In order for me to extend my stay for up to six months past my current commitment, Kids Alive has asked that I raise more monthly support, as well as one time donations. If you would like to join me in this ministry, please consider visiting my link (https://secure.kidsalive.org/p-2747-hilary-ogro.aspx?Source=OG53J00002) to find out how you can partner with the mission of Kids Alive in the DR. As always, thank you so much for all of your continued prayer and financial support. The work being done in Jarabacoa wouldn't be possible without you!

Winter Happenings

     It's been way too long since I've updated the blog, so here's a little glimpse at what my life has looked like over the past couple months! Since I got back to the DR after my time at home for Christmas, a lot has changed and life has been a little chaotic. The English teacher at ANIJA left at the beginning of January with very little notice, so I was given the job of teaching english to all of the students from 4th to 8th grade. 159 students in all. After getting a Bachelors Degree in Education, I thought I had a faint idea of what it meant to be a teacher. After working in some low income schools in Oregon I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. Let me just tell you, I had zero idea what was about to hit me.

View from the third level of ANIJA.

Making family trees after learning about family members.

One of my students showing some Cougar Pride!

     The kids at ANIJA are coming from home situations that are far from ideal, whether that involves abuse, neglect, or extreme poverty. Every student has their own story and they bring so many issues with them to school every day. It would be easy if they could just leave those issues at the door when they walked in the classroom, but that isn't the case. There are so many factors that influence who they are every minute of the day and that doesn't stop while they are in school. Dealing with these discipline issues would be difficult enough for me in English, but trying to correct behavior and explain my reasoning is nearly impossible in Spanish. A few weeks ago, another girl from the US arrived and she has been teaching English with me. We have decided to start celebrating the small victories every day. A few days ago I walked into one of the 7th grade classrooms and everyone sat down when I asked. Can you even believe that?! It was a pretty exciting moment that might have only lasted for a few seconds, but we're making progress! Overall this has been a very valuable experience for me and I'm hoping it just makes it that much easier to teach in the U.S. in English!

This boy knows how to brighten my day!

Just a little modeling session during our lunchtime chat.

     Since English classes are only three days a week, I have also been doing Sponsorship work for ANIJA. This involves sending all the information about new students and departing students to the Kids Alive home office so they can update their sponsors. All of the kids at every site send projects to their sponsors four times a year, so I was able to help them with their Easter projects that will be sent out in a few weeks. This is one of my favorite parts of the job because it really shows how grateful the kids are to have people sponsoring them. I am often blown away with some of the things the students want to share with their sponsors and how they want to express their gratitude. We are all very grateful for all of you that are sponsoring a child!

Working on sponsorship Easter projects at the Ark.

More Easter projects!

     I have also been able to spend a lot of time at the Ark and I've gone on a few house visits which are very eye opening. I'm a strong believer that it's so important to go visit students outside of school occasionally in order to see where they are coming from and build a relationship with them in a different context. It is so easy to get frustrated about students not doing their homework or not concentrating in class, but after seeing their home conditions it allows you to have more compassion and grace for the students. Of course they didn't do their homework; they live with 8 other people in a one bedroom house without a light. No wonder they can't concentrate in class; they are hungry and didn't get much sleep last night. Uniforms make it look like everyone is the same at school, but the reality is they are all coming from tough situations, all different from one another. Without seeing that, it would be impossible to give each student the help they need.

Play time at the Ark.

Barrio where some of my students live. 

One of my fourth graders (left) in his neighborhood.

Brothers at the Ark.

     Thanks to the donations of some of you, I was able to reward some of my students with ice cream for their success on our most recent test. They loved the experience and it is helping to increase motivation in the classroom!

7th grade ice cream trip!