Yudelkis's Surgery a Success! :)

First and foremost, good news!  Yudelkis had a successful surgery.  Thank you for all of your prayers!  Please pray that she recovers during these next few weeks.  Also, please continue to keep Bernardo’s family in your prayers (the one who passed away last week with the cancerous tumor, leaving behind his wife and son).

In other news, we think we've found a church that we really like and are starting to get involved.  It's called "Templo Bautista" (Baptist Temple) and they claim to be the church that is "la mas amistosa en Jarabacoa" - the most friendly church in Jarabacoa - so far I agree.  I started volunteering with Oansa on Saturdays (which is like American Awana) - which totally brought me back to early elementary school - the color teams, tug of wars, memory verses with gem stickers, I used to love it so much, and I find it is just as much fun as an adult.  The kids there are great fun and come from a variety of backgrounds, they are quite easy to make friends with.  It is still quite a small church and has lots of room for growth and new programs, ministries, etc. so it feels like a perfect fit so far.

School is going great - I absolutely love my kids and am enjoying teaching in a Christian school.  Teaching Bible stories about God's miracles are already helping me grow in my own walk, and my first grade team teacher and I have all kinds of fun singing, dancing, and especially dressing up the kids in sheets and towels for weekly Bible skits. 


Class skit about Moses crossing the Red Sea during Bible class

 

Singing the Pharoh Pharoh song to go with the skit!

Jose Manuel serving up ice cream during Friday afternoon fun centers

Outside of school, I have begun tutoring, and will start teaching dance next week.  I am teaching dance Mondays after school, and tutoring Tues, Wed, and Thursday for three of my struggling students in my class – kinda fun cause it's kinda like teaching special ed. again.  The whole teaching dance thing is all new to me, so far I'm planning a Shakira "Waka Waka" dance, but let me know if you have any fun dance/exercise ideas for young girls (looks like mostly 4th graders so far).  Dave started coaching American football (I say American because futbol here is soccer), and has 7 kids so far ages 11-16.  So far I think it's far from actually coaching a team and more like teaching them just to throw the ball around.  He has identical triplets on the team and they are always playing tricks on him switching up teams.  He is coming up with all kinds of creative art projects too for teaching and I’m very proud of him.  Teaching art to 14 classes of kids grades 1^st -12^th without curriculum or materials (lucky if the kids have pencils and paper) is a challenge, but he is doing an amazing job and everyone loves him – especially the older girls who doodle all day about their love for Mr. DeYoung. :)

Last weekend we were at the orphanage again – a looong trip taking all kinds of crazy public transportation.  Being away in an atmosphere now where kids are loved by their families puts everything into a new perspective and makes my heart break for the kids in the orphanage all over again.  Some of them are still really struggling all kinds of unbelievable personal struggles.  I forget how much they hurt and how difficult they can be.  Pray for them there, and for the new Irish volunteer as she’s learning Spanish and will start teaching alongside Maria soon.  I got to hang out with Cristel, my Haitian girlfriend, and am so proud of her as she is starting to run the new home for Haitian orphans with cancer, and of course my Maria, and seeing her and my classroom at the orphanage made me oh so proud of her too.  Between teaching full-time and studying full-time, her fingers are blistered and her eyes are tired, but she works so hard, gives so much, and I am so so proud of her. 

Hanging out with my Haitian sis Cristel - which always means a mani pedi with funky Haitian style nail art!

We love each other a LOT! :)

I also went on a very short trip to the beach with a few of my former students – Luis Alberto, Christofer, Carlitos, and their house of boys, I say short because a huge storm (which we thought was a hurricane) blew in strong and so we spent our beach trip hiding out under a tin hut while it shook back and forth and rain blew in from all directions.  Fun while it lasted…. Dave and I are hoping to get in a beach trip soon, we live on a beautiful Caribbean island and it’s been almost 5 months since the two of us went… hopefully sometime soon. J

Hiding out in a tin roof dressing room on the beach from the "hurricane" storm!

Carlito and I on the bus ride home from our beach trip - soaked from running through the rain!

Dave and the other Carlito hanging out at the Saturday night dance party at the orphanage!

So that just leaves one last thing… Santa!  Well, though her worms seem to be gone, she is still not living up to her name yet (Saint).  We’re still trying to get the potty training thing down and still come home to lots of messes, and we are constantly trying to puppy proof the apartment as she chews on anything and everything.  But we love her of course and she is super cute and fun to come home to (most of the time…).

Santa loves giving hugs and being held like a baby!  She's growing up quick already!

One more of our neighbor boys... a helicopter landed across the street from our apartment and they were pushing and jumping for a peek!

Okay well that’s all for now.  Please keep us in touch with everything going on back home.  Thank you for your love, prayers, and support. 

Love, peace, and prayers,
Kristin

Lots of new news... new NPH home, new puppy, new illnesses, new haircut, new dance lessons....

So I thought it was about time for another update, and since I am home sick but not tired and without a TV, figured this would be an okay time (don't tell the school cause I know I should be resting but Dave got me daytime meds so I"m all hyped up :).  Sick seems to be a common theme here in the DR huh?  Well don't worry nothing too serious, just a bladder infection and sinus infection, and Dave is taking good care of me and I'm recovering quick.  The clinic I went to last week was called the Abad Clinic - like a bad clinic right?  Not a good sign.  Though not quite as dirty as the public hospital in San Pedro, it was swarming with dengue filled mosquitoes and equally ill-equipped with baby food jars for collecting "samples" in their bathrooms without running water or toilet paper (hope you guessed I did take care of them at home).  So a bad clinic it was - gotta love it right?

Anyways, I have a few pieces of new news to share.  Probably the best one is regarding NPH... we got to visit the orphanage last weekend and got some great news.  First, inspired by our little Haitian boy Alberto who passed away a couple of weeks ago, there has been a great donation to open a home at NPH DR for Haitian kids with cancer.  It will be in the old visitors house next door to where we lived (where my dad and Bradley stayed when they visited) that is now not being used.  Any child with cancer in Haiti will be eligible and can be taken over to our home where they will go back and forth to the capital for their radiation treatments in the new NPH van (also a new donation specially for these kids) since radiation treatments are not available at our hospital in Haiti.  What an amazing gift Alberto has inspired - the gift of hope for these little ones who would never have it in Haiti, if not only time and peace to be in a safe and happy place for their last days.  Their families will also be able to come and stay with them in the new home.  And the person in charge of the home is.... Christelle!! (the French teacher and my close Haitian girlfriend who lost her parents and home in the earthquake, and who spent nights painting my nails all fun and crazy colors and telling me stories of her past).  How amazing for an opportunity like this for her and for all these Haitian kids who are suffering, to come out of such a tradgedy.  How cool is that? 

Great NPH news number 2 - the new special ed. teacher for my program at the orphanage has confirmed and is flying in next week from Ireland!  Though I know Maria is doing a great job, I know she is exhausted and is in way over her head between teaching 20+ spec. ed.kids and going to university, and all our kids aren't able to be seen, so this will be so so great.  This woman has nine years experience teaching special ed. and volunteered at the hospital in Haiti, so she sounds like a pretty awesome fit.  Which means, I will be back again at the orphanage in the next weekend or two to train her - and I'm happy with any excuse to go back.  



Maria and I with Yudelkis at our end of the year ceremony - Yudelkis will be getting heart sugery in Spain :)




Great NPH news number 3 - my student Yudelkis with the fatal heart condition (some of you may remember me mentioning her in emails last year when we had a few scares when we almost lost her) has found someone to sponsor her heart surgery in Spain.  So my old roommate Kristina (aka Kiwi, the actress from New Zealand) is flying with her to Spain soon for her surgery.  Pray for their safety and guidance for the doctors throughout the surgery.

Other than that, in orphanage news, things are still as fun and crazy as ever.  Though I forgot how HOT San Pedro is this time of year, and it was also hard being away from the kids so long, such a huge part of my heart is still there.  The kids were all hard at work in a Christmas card competition (to be copied and mailed to sponsors) to win a trip to the movie theatre (some of you may remember me making hundreds of Christmas cards last year for the sponsors so this competition is a huge relief to this year's volunteers).  Spent lots of great time hanging out with the kids, tias, volunteers, and of course Maria - who had all kinds of gifts and made 20 sparkly butterfly cards with the each of the kids from my class which will soon be decorating the walls of our apartment.  The girls also spent a while teaching me dance routines to Waka Waka and Boom Boom Pow, because, next piece of news... I am going to be teaching dance classes starting in a couple weeks for our 7th-12th graders at JCS!  Joanna (my first grade co-teacher) and I will teach dance one day a week, and will run an ESL tutoring club for early el. the other day of the week.  The school has a policy everyone has to do at least one extra-curricular, which has made up a cool selection for the kids... Dance, tutoring, American football (Dave's team), basketball, soccer, piano lessons, baking class, recorders class, sculpting class, Glee club, Bible study, Gymnastics, I forget what else.... better than TV and video games though right?

Playing with Sandy this weekend in the Santa Theresa Home

Hanging out my chicas in Casa Santa Ana

Katerin in Casa Santa Ana - loves the camera!

Oh and I saved the best for last!  Our new puppy!!  We have a new puppy named Santa (not like Santa Clause, but rather Spanish for Saint - though so far she is definitely not living up to the name).  Well she is sooooo cute, but I discovered a part of her that is not so cute at all - she has worms... runs in the family I guess haha.. but I am paranoid of getting them.  She pukes them and poops them still alive and when I try to clean them up they swirl and coil all over the floor making them hard to grab.  It is SO gross, and Dave and I have decided not to eat spaghetti again for a while. :)  But she is very cute and sweet besides that part. (I have pics of the worms but will spare you unless you really want to see them then let me know :)   

Out on the balcony of our apartment with our new puppy Santa

Some of you may have already seen my pictures on facebook of us playing at the house where we got her - a Belgian couple who has 28 dogs - 19 of which are puppies that we've been visiting and playing with every week.  It is seriously like heaven there, just puppies playing and jumping on you from every which way - I can't imagine a more happy place. 

This is puppy heaven!  All 19 of them!  28 dogs in all!!  No way not to be happy when you're here... 



Well, Santa was a last minute spontaneous decision Friday night since they started giving the puppies free on Friday, which made it a late trip out for the weekend... another long story but we slept at a hostel in the colonial zone of the capital Friday night and spent hours late into the night walking the cobblestone streets and viewing the beautifully lit ancient buildings and talking and talking with our friends Mark and Kristina who we miss so much. 

Wandering around the colonial zone of Santo Domingo

Anyways, I think I'm writing in circles now, it may be the meds doing that... but thanks for all the prayers, and please keep in touch with us.  Oh yeah one last thing, since I'm attaching a picture - I got a $4 haircut, wash and style, and yeah I kinda have a semi-mullet now that the lady there called "layers" - a little scary, but like Dave says "It's just hair, kids are dying in Haiti ya know", so I can't get too upset about it - you can see the super chunky hair in the picture and also another one of my best teaching friend Joanna who went with me.  It is a humble looking salon (probably not like one you've been to), and though I wasn't all that excited with the outcome, the lady was so nice and invited us over for woman's prayer night which we'll hopefully go to soon since she lives right around the corner from me. Oh and notice we're soaking wet - our hair wash was by pouring cold water while hanging our heads over a bucket - that's the DR for ya - gotta love it. :) 



Dominican Hair Salon around the corner from our apartments where Johanna and I got our haircuts!  :)



Just one more of Dave teaching my first graders art - too cute!

Okay bye for real now.  We love and miss you all tons.  xoxoxo

Love, peace, and prayers,

Kristin