Thursday - Meeting our Day Campers!

 We had breakfast at the Westin this morning before leaving the resort to meet our day campers, many of whom reside at a local orphanage. Most of the campers can’t speak very much English, but we still found ways to communicate with them. The Dominican teen counselors are spectacular at helping everyone communicate! 

Getting the campers set up for the week with their packs was chaotic, but very fun. We had to put a bracelet on each camper in accordance with their pack (amarillo, azul, verde, y rojo), write their names on the pack roster, write their names on their name tags, figure out their shirt sizes, write their names inside their shirts, and get them started on beaded bracelets in accordance with their pack color. Once that was all done, we started our first activity. Each camper got a clear plastic mug with a strip of paper to decorate. Then they got to slide the paper inside the mug to create a custom mug. 

After that, my pack went on a tour of some of the facilities at the Punta Cana Foundation. We got to visit the place where all the honey bees are kept, see the foundation’s worm cultivation work, and stop by the nursery where many trees were being grown. Then we went back inside for the campers to decorate pencil cases. Once they were done with that, we went outside again so that the campers could dye their tie dye shirts. We got to help the campers twist their shirts into spirals for dyeing. Many of our campers here are much younger than the campers we have at 4-H Camp in the United States! 

We had lunch at the foundation with the campers. After that, our packs split up again for different activities. My pack, amarillo, worked on painting picture frames first. I got to learn the names of some more colors in Spanish by helping my campers set up their paint pallet plates! After that, we got to see the Ridgeway hawks who live at the foundation and the coral conservation cove. We also got to play some games with the campers. The first game was kind of like large badminton without rackets or a net. The second game involved tossing around a stick with colored marks on it. If you caught the stick below the blue, you “lost” a limb. 

The Dominican teens taught us the third game, which was called “blind chicken”. It was very similar to the game “Marco Polo”. In blind chicken, one person covers their eyes. The other people run around that person and make noise. The blindfolded person has to try to catch one of the people running around. We also got to play with the kids  with large bubble wands between activities! Before the campers left for the day, we spent some time playing games inside with them. I played Uno, Connect4, and Jenga with a few campers. After the campers got on their bus, we cleaned up and gathered the tie dye shirts to take back to the Westin with us. We had some free time at the Westin before dinner. I used the time to go to the pool, hot tub, and beach with other Virginia 4-Hers. After we had dinner together as a group, we went to our evening reflections. We also had to rinse out our campers’ tie dye shirts and hang them up to dry for tomorrow! They all did very good jobs with their tie dye. I am excited to go to the beach with the campers tomorrow!

Victoria Delacourt, Fairfax Co.

Today was the first day of Camp, and it was amazing! We arrived around 30 minutes before the children were supposed to come so that we had had ample time to prepare. The children arrived on a bus and as they were walking off, they were so meek and shy. The kids were split into 4 color groups: red, green, yellow, and blue. Once they were split into the groups, we began making crafts, like painting picture frames and coloring pencil pouches. 

Each group went on a tour of the agricultural facilities at the Foundation. As each hour passed, the kids became more comfortable and attached to us, the counselors. All throughout the day there was lots of games being played, dancing, and lots of fun being had. The kids quickly became attached to the counselors, which meant that we had lots of hands to hold and kids to carry on our hips. 

At the end of the day, it was sad knowing that we would only have one more day with them, and it hurt to watch them get back into their bus. The kids left and we started cleaning up and getting ready for the next day. After we were done, we came back to the hotel, hung out, and finished the night with dinner and our reflections. Another amazing and blessed day full of new experiences and memories! 

Ryley Crabtree, Lee Co.

¡Hola desde la Republica Dominicana! After landing in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday and meeting the Dominican camp counselors the following afternoon, the big day finally arrived: the beginning of 4-H Camp! I have to admit that I felt nervous as I watched the campers spilling out of the bus and milling about the stone patio in front of el Centro de Sustenabilidad. I struck up conversation with a few campers, hastily explaining that my knowledge of Spanish was limited when I met their rapid-fire responses with blank stares. Although there were a few times when the campers couldn't help but snicker at my hopelessly clunky Spanish, and many others when I had to ask them to repeat themselves a million times, I was usually able to hold a conversation in Spanish. 

I became particularly close to two of the girls in my group, who shared my love for art and even let me help them color parts of their crafts. Once we finished our crafts, I got out drawing paper to share among the kids, and of the girls started asking me to draw different pictures for her to color; when we finished, she'd ask me to sign my name alongside hers. At the end of the day, when I was giving her back all the completed drawings, she told me to keep one of them to remember her. In that moment I felt so grateful to be in the company of someone so young yet caring and thoughtful. Thanks to her kindness and lively character, she can be sure that I wouldn't need a memento to remember her. 

Besides all the amazing memories I've created with the campers, possibly my favorite part of the day was touring the facilities of Grupo Punta Cana with Leana, a Dominican counselor and intern with la Fundación Grupo Punta Cana. Since she was speaking more slowly and clearly than people normally do in conversation, I could understand everything she said almost perfectly and was thoroughly impressed by her ability to simplify complex ideas (for example, coral bleaching) without losing the nuance that makes such subjects interesting (e.g., that coral bleaching occurs when coral expels the symbiotic algae living inside the reef.) I especially enjoyed learning about la Fundación's efforts to restore coral reefs and why honeycombs have hexagonal walls (apparently, honey bees use them in conjunction with their dances to communicate with each other!) Moreover, I'm always delighted to meet other teenagers who share my passion for the environment. Since island nations are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, their perspective offers unique insight into a global issue, and I'm excited to learn more from Leana tomorrow and beyond.

Alex Blake, Fairfax Co.