Out of the Office

This week I was lucky enough to get out of the office in order to help run a summer camp for a local school. The organization that I work for has a partner organization that gives loans to private schools instead of to individuals. Two families associated with this organization came down from the US to put together the camp at one of the schools that happens to be in La Romana where I live. A few people from the capital came to help translate, and since I'm already here I got to come help out too!


The kids were in elementary school and we divided them into three groups by age. I went with the littlest kids because they needed the most assistance with everything. A lot of them turned out to be even younger than we expected but they were a lot of fun. Every day we did three activities: sports, crafts, and English. My favorite moment was the day we played with one of those giant parachutes in sports. I don't think any of the kids had seen anything like that before, and it was mass chaos as we tried to play the usual games with them, but they were so happy and excited that it was impossible not to smile.


Another perk of the week was that I got to stay in the famed Casa de Campo because that's where everyone else was staying. They figured it would be easier for me to just stay with them instead of them having to come pick me up every day. Ever since I found out I would be living in La Romana for the summer I have wanted to see Casa de Campo. If you look at the Google map of the city, you will see that Casa de Campo is almost as large as the entire city of La Romana. "What on earth is in there?" I wanted to know. Now I know! Although there is a resort and several golf courses in there, it is mostly like a large gated neighborhood with ridiculously nice houses that people own or rent. So after every long sweaty day of camp we got to come back and go to the beach.

Also one of the American families was really into volleyball so that happened again haha. Between the camp and Samana, this has probably been my favorite week so far in the DR. All the people I got to work with at the camp were awesome, both those that I knew through work and those visiting from the States. Back to the office next week though! It's hard to believe that not much time remains in my internship.