Four Friends on a boat

We have finally found some friends for Carlos and Julia down here in the Dominican Republic. There are two girls with the name of Avery and Kaylee living on the Sailing boat "Happy Our" here in the harbour of Luperon. Avery is 6 and Kaylee is 8, so the perfect age to play with Julia and Carlos. They have lots of fun together and hearing their laughter in the afternoon fills my heart with joy. Once in a while we have got the odd fight and a few tears, but most of the time they are a bundle of joy and you can hear them for miles :)

Today they are playing on JUCA and I just made three batches of Playdough. We have got now six different colours and they are busy making a "Sponge Bob City", all of them are very creative! When they play together I have a chance to catch up on some of my staff. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story........

Another trip to Santiago

We had to do another trip to Santiago to do some shopping and to to buy a washing machine. We borrowed the car of Jerry and made plans to leave early in the morning with Jay and Stephanie and their children. We managed to leave at 9.30 in the morning, not early enough to miss the worse heat, but early enough for all of us. We filled the car up with 4 kids and 4 adults and I would say we were full and was wondering how on earth would we fit two washing machines and shopping in. But we cross the bridge when we are there. The trip to Santiago takes roughly two hours and it was an easy trip. I had packed a few drinks and buns to eat for the kids and had taken blocks of paper to draw and scribble on. We did not hear a peep from any of the children during the whole trip. Once we arrived in Santiago we went to the shopping mall "Jumbo"...... ahhhhh shopping in air conditions, what a treat. We quickly decided on our choice of washing machine and had lunch in the mall and then finished our shopping spree in the supermarket. By 4 o'clock we were all getting tired and it was time to head back to Luperon. When we came out of the mall the heat was nearable unbareable. The car was loaded to the maximum and we kept buying cold water on the way back. We had to stop once for the restrooms and bought some fresh vegetables on one of the roadside stalls. We made it back in time to collapse, to have dinner and watch a movie..... wow I thought shopping in New Zealand was a mission, but here it seems even more of a mission......however it was fun and I would not want to swap and miss these experiences at all.

Success of Homeschooling

This week we have taken a break from schooling, however Julia and Carlos still learn lots of new things every day.

I have figured that times have changed and instead of writing letters to the grandparents, they can email their Oma's and Opa's to keep in touch. Thus I have signed both of them up for their own email adress and this will be their first step to keep in touch with their grandparents and of course their current friends and friends to come. I know there is Facebook to keep in touch, but I would like to keep the tradition of pan pals a little bit. Long story short, I have arranged with the grandparents, that they will write to Julia and Carlos once a week and they have to write back. This brings me to the next subject that I would like both of them to learn, typing. So I have discovered a really awesome free webpage, that offers typing games and typing tuturiol, even I can improve my speed typing.

It has been now 8 month since we started homeschooling the children and I have to say it is amazing to see how much they have changed. I am very glad that I can wittness so closely there progress and the development. I must say it more work then I thought, but it worth it, thats for sure. Julia's reading is awesome and her love for books is increasing by the day. The way she participates in teaching and submits her work, great work Julia. Carlos questions are quiet tricky and very technical so I often have to ask Sven to answer and explain, which is simply great for the development between father and son. The other day he asked what the difference was between a 2 stroke and 4 stroke motor was, and they sat together and the way Sven explained it to him, beautiful to watch. Carlos also has developed a very creative side in him and the pictures that he draws are amazing. He draws with lots of details and passion, awesome, especially that I can give him the opportunity, support and time to explore this side in him. Keep up your loveley pictures Carlos.

I believe we all have come along way with our homeschooling and even though it is hard work and they both push and challenge me in their own way ....... I love every minute of it and would have not wanted to miss this great challenge and experience.

After a long summer break school will starts again in the Dominican Republic. So I am still eager for both of them to experience the schooling system here in Luperon. One of my motiv is to have a little break myself from schooling and children all day every day. However my biggest motiv is for them to learn and to pick up the spanish language and hopefully afterwards they will appreciate our teaching/schooling time together even more. Apparently I am a very mean teacher!

Adventure tour to Playa Punta Rusia

We got invited by Jan and David to join them for a trip to Playa Punta Rusia. Yeah, another trip down the country side.... another excursion to a beautiful beach. We had to wait for a dry spell, as we had to drive through a river to make it to the other side. Well that sounded very exciting right from the start. We made plans to go Monday this week if the weather stayed like it was. We were lucky and so we packed our bags in the morning and met Dave and Jan at 9 am at Puerto Blanco. David and Jan have got a truck where four of us could sit in the back, wow Julia and Carlos loved that. We took our matrace to make it as comfortable as possible.

Once we reached the river we all got a bit excited and all jumped up on our feet to see what was going on. David checked the level of the river before we went through. It was a beautfiul ride through the country side and we went pass lots of eggplant fields, banana plantages and various other orchards, it was mind blowing what grows in the Dominican Republic.

After a two hour ride we arrived at Playa Punta Rusia. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the beach and the water. I have to say it had opened my eyes again, that Luperon is certainly not showing the best side of the Dominican Republic. The beach and the water were amazing and we spend all day swimming in luke warm water and enjoyed ourselves. Little restaurants were plotted along the beach, so we had a yummy meal for lunch. At round about 3 o'clock we packe our bags again and made our way back to Luperon. Jan and David did not use the direct way back home and offered us a bit of sighseeing from its best and we got to see a bit more of the Dominican Republic sitting at the back of the truck. We were all exhausted that day, but very happy and content that night.

Looking for Investors

Sven met a woman here in Luperon that used to own a little resort in the little township of El Castilla. We got to know this woman and she invited us to have a look at the property. Wow, we were blown away by the location and views of the property. It has got ten rooms to rent, a huge swimming pool, a restaurant and a Pizza oven with lots of space to sit and lounge around and to enjoy the view. It would be a perfect little place to have a body, mind and soul Health Retreat. Unfortunately we cannot come up with the asking price, even though I believe the price is negotable, but we would need someone to invest with us in a project like that. However I think that I am not quiet ready yet to leave our dream sailing around the seven seas, but you never know what might happen so as usual we are having an open mind and always looking for opportunities to explore ......

At present the pool does not look like that anymore, as the property has been unattended for the last two years and a lot of LTC is needed to bring the pool into that state again, these pictures above are old ones, but I thought it would be great to share these ones as well to give an impression of the property, what it could be like.

A trip to Playa Isabella in El Castilla

We are celebrating Sven's Birthday on the 20. July, what a wonderful number to celebrate 44. He doesn't want to have any present, lucky me, I don't have to buy any socks or handkerchiefs :), but buy coincidence I do find a little surprise for him to buy, a spiderleg crab. He is huge and I know that he will love this little present. Julia and Carlos make him card and we do bake him a chocolat brownie and putting the crab on ice! His first Birthday on our new home Sailingboat "Juca"

A couple of days later we are going on a trip with some friends to the beach in Isabella. In 1492 Columbus landed here with his 17 ships to anchor. He fell in love with the Dominican Republic and called it " the new land". Its beautiful and peaceful here. The children are having a blast and playing in the water all day. They found a little pontoon to play with, and we do not hear a little bit of arguing or beep of the four kids all day. They just played fantastically and we all have a break from the Luperon harbour and all its dramas. We also discovered a little Lion fish. Did you know that the Lion fish is very poison and isa pest here in the Carribbean, because it has got no natural enemies. He is an unknown predator to the fish here and destroys the reefs and kills all the fish. We spend all day in El Castilla and returned happily back to Luperon with a new teint and a happy heart. We all agree that we do have to repeat this outing very soon.

Lots of things are happening

I haven't updated the blog for a while, and I feel a bit bad about it, but believe it or not, each day I have been running out of time :) It started with Carlos getting sick, it was nothing serious only a little bit of cold and running a fever, but it still kept me busy during the night and it probably took a week to get over it. After that we picked up our social life again, meeting the people in Luperon, playing with the newly made friends Avery and Kayle . Then we had few problems with the owner of one of the restaurants and we ended up going to court with that issue, again nothing serious, but still it occupied my mind as we do not speak any spanish and we are in a foreign country, but luckily we got that organised and the very same day, somthing else happened where we had to defend our honour as sailors. Luckily the week after that the focus of attention was on our friend Sarah and we stayed by her side to the rescue, and so on and so on. Before we started our journey on the boat someone said to me, oh you will have so much time and might even get bored on the boat... excuse me, but I am probably in the wrong movie or book, because Mr. Time has not really introduced itself to us, so most of my books are still sitting untouched on the shelves. However we are still having a good time here and enjoying each moment as much as we can. We attend our weekly Trivial Pursuits nights, and my team won, yeah. Sarah and me are in one team and we reckon to have us on the team is the secret to win the Trivial Pursuit nights..... Yahooooo! Go Girls. Homeschooling is still written big on the boat, very much to the dislike of Carlos. However I had the pleasure to see the growing interest in Carlos drawings. It is amazing what little details he comes up with while he is drawing... I love it and very much appreciate it that I can give him the time to explore that side of him more and more. Julia is as always in love with her books and reading, with the only difference now that she can understand and read the words in the books. Very delightful to hear the improvement in her reading.