Day 7

Hola !  Hola!

Wow time is flying over here in the Dominican. We are over 2/3 of the way done with our trip! Today was the 4^th day of camp, and I was very excited for today’s session because it focused on volleyball… my sport J! I could not wait to share my passion with these kids. We started off the session with another “dinámica”.   It was a song and dance about a dying duck, interesting to say the least. It was amusing to participate in and it also got the children excited for the day!

Cara Baarendse instructing a camper

Liz Trinchere (VB), Devin Carter (WRES) and I were in charge of planning this session. To start it off we brought all the kids together and quizzed them about the game of volleyball. We informed them on how many players are on the court, how many touches you can have before sending the ball over, and whether or not you can hit the ball twice. Most of them knew the answers, but we wanted to clarify. I then explained the correct passing form and we all went on the field to practice. All of them were committed to learning, and you could really see a difference in their passing as the day went on. We took a quick agua break and then Liz explained “how to set.” We ran a similar drill with setting. The kids gave us feedback and mentioned that they thought setting was a lot easier than passing.

After we taught them the basic skills of volleyball, we spiced it up and turned it into a competition.  We had 9 teams made up of 7 kids and a coach.  The idea of the competition was to count how many times you could keep the volleyball up without letting it touch the ground (you couldn’t touch the ball twice in a row either).  We made it into a tournament that had elimination rounds. After 3 minutes the team with the fewest touches was eliminated.  The final 2 teams left were coached by Nick Smirniotopolous (Green Grasshoppers) and Zack McCray (The Avengers). It was a very close fight to the finish (maybe some controversy) but “The Avengers” took home the title as #1!  The kids really enjoyed this part of the day. It was great seeing their competitive drive come out and how energetic they can be.

Liz Trinchere teaching a leadership lesson

We finished out our session with Liz leading Habitudes. The leadership lesson we taught today was about “emotional fuel.”  To simplify, if you are surrounded by bad people, they will influence you negatively, but if you surround yourself with encouraging things & people, it will have a positive impact on you.  We also asked the kids what it meant to be a good friend.  Being respectful, supportive and caring are some answers we received.

With the little time we had left, we started a kickball game with a twist. Instead of catching the ball and getting someone out you had to “pass” it up in the air or “set” it, then proceed to catch it. The game ended short when the buses arrived, but it was actually perfect timing because it started to rain. The rain was very refreshing after 4 hours in the heat!

We had a break before class, where some of us went to Wendy’s, the beach & others stayed in and napped (like me). We also had to say goodbye to one of the DPV Directors, Julio. It was so awesome working with him and hearing his story. The DPV guys have been extremely helpful. Luckily, we all get the opportunity to stay in touch with him and the others through Facebook!

We reviewed and discussed “The Price of Sugar” in class today. The conversation was very in-depth and passionate. We all are gaining something different out of this experience and it’s awesome to see how close we are getting as a group.  We also talked about the five person states: Choice, Self Esteem, Competence, Community and Optimism. We related these five states to our interpersonal stories we shared here in the Dominican.

I can’t believe tomorrow is our last day working with these kids. The goodbyes are going to be hard but the impression we are leaving on them and they are leaving on us is extraordinary. We hope to get the opportunity to share our stories when we get home.

Buenas noches!

Cara