Happy 4th of July from Kelly in DR

Happy 4th of July! We had our little party last night (on the 3rd) and it went really well!

There were probably about 30 people. We all pitched in and 2 people went to the store. We had hamburgers, chicken burgers, hot dogs, chips, dips, salsa, watermelons, soda, beer, and Marijo made popcorn – DELICIOUS!

So we invited everyone over around 8:00. All the volunteers came, the nuns, Kieran (the director) Marijo and her niece (who is here for 2 weeks). We also had two new Haitian girls come for a month and they came too. One of the girls is going to work with me in the morning with the babies. So, it will be nice to have an extra set of hands! She speaks Creole and French but only a little bit of English and NO Spanish, so we’ll have to make due with hand gestures and speaking English slowly.

Anne (the volunteer coordinator) was reading my email, and added the following…

“Anne is the big chief and the nicest girl I ever met.”

Since I agree with the comment, I thought I’d leave it in. ;-)

Back to the party. Danny (Haitian guy who was a tio at NPH Haiti now lives and works here) is a DJ. OR, as he calls himself “D.J. International.” So, he played his “American Rock and Roll” which consisted of Elvis, and “The Twist” and some other “new” American tunes as he called them. He even had billboard hits from 1979! GOOD TIMES!

So, we all sat around, ate, drank, and chatted in a million different languages. The nuns were having fun and I have to say, I’ve never partied with nuns before, but the 3 gals here are AWESOME! Sister Fanny is older – maybe 50ish? And the other two are 25. You can walk past the nun’s house any time of day, and if they are in there – you’ll hear loud, contagious laughing coming through the walls. They are very happy, happy, SWEET ladies!

After dinner we continued on with the tradition of singing – it’s happened after most international group dinners. So, the Americans gathered up – there were probably 10 of us, and we sang “This Land is Your Land” and “Grand Old Flag” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Danny then put on some good dance tunes and we danced and chatted the night away. I was dancing with Danny to the Cumba (Haitian dance that I learned last weekend if you remember) and then I got passed to David. And for an American he really knew how to dance! Sorry – but most American men don’t dance well… I guess you probably knew that.

Kelly began making Smores and it was fun to watch all these people experience the pure splendor of a Smore for the first time! Sister Fanny had one on her way out, THEN she came back about 5 minutes later and asked if she could have another. It was very cute.

At the end there were about 8 of us drinking Presidente – the local beer of choice, and sitting at a picnic table. The funniest thing was Alex (tall Haitian guy) decided he was hungry and there wasn’t a lot of food left. So, he walks out with 2 pieces of white bread, scrounges for some crackers and sits down with his beer. Then, we all start laughing uncontrollably when Danny reached into the Ruffles bag and pulled out popcorn! Someone had put popcorn in the ruffle bag and the look on his face was priceless! I guess you might have had to be there. But, I convinced Wynn to hang out with me until midnight to welcome in the official 4th of July. All the other Americans had gone to bed.

All in all it was a good night – lots of food, lots of fun, lots of music and SMORES!!!