Hey all,
So it's been soooooo long since I've last updated that I'm not sure where to even start. It seems like everyday I have so many moments that could be great stories to share, but at this moment I can't think of a single one, so I think I'll just list updates as they come to me and mostly let the pictures do the talking. :) (and since I couldn't get the pictures in the order I wanted, their talking will be in any random order)
First, Oansa (weekly children's program at church where I am a leader)...
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| After their tenth time at Oansa, they get t-shirts like these and are always proud to wear them - the boys in the yellow are the "chispas" (little ones) from my group - they are supposed to be ages 5 and under but I have kids up to age 9 trying to sneak in my room every time swearing they are younger... I think my boys in yellow here are at least 7. :) |
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| This is our church backyard, I think it makes for a pretty nice backdrop for Saturday games. :) |
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| A couple kids chillin in the shade... you'll learn quick here that nobody likes to be in the sun. |
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| I love these guys! Most are from my barrio (Cristo Rey) and practically live at our house (we rarely have a day go by without little visitors... and most the time rarely an hour). Dave tells me all the time to forget my dream of opening an orphanage cause we already have an orphanage right in our apartment. |
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| Dodgeball - the universal game everyone loves. |
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| Kids making their shout outs to the Lord. |
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| We like to cozy up in the van rides on the way there.... |
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| We usually squeeze over 30 in... |
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| but the kids never complain... wish we could all learn to enjoy the ride as much as they do. |
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| The kids from church have introduced me to all kinds of new friends around our hood - including this lovely family.... |
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| who are kind as can be and insist on cooking me lunch every Saturday afternoon after Oansa |
Then there's
school.... things are going good here too... I love my little munchkins and am never lacking in hugs and kisses and pictures and "I love you's" or any other form of 6 year old love.
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| Here's us acting out our "A Nap and a Map" book in reading groups today |
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| The kids got a little carried away when it came to napping in a pan :) |
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| Here's Amy showing off her badge and toilet paper tube firefighter for our fire safety unit in social studies. |
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| Dave showing off his get-up for the 4th-6th grade chapel on Kindness, all about being kind to others and not teasing each other for their differences as most do at this age (for things like big ears or nappy hair as you see here) I have to say Dave has developed quite the knack for creating art on a zero budget and being resourceful (this costume was made with paper plates and a garbage bag :) |
In the world of
after school extra-curriculars, I am still dancing, tutoring, and teaching Spanish classes, and Dave is coaching football, leading the middle school English speaking youth group Wyldlife, and giving private art lessons. Without TV, electricity, or money, this makes for a nice way to occupy our time and build relationships with the people here. :)
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| This is Nicole and Suleidy - two girls from our dance exercise class. So far we have done kickboxing, yoga, Shakira, hip-hop, Hannah Montana, and are now working on a country remix line dance for our "Wild West" themed Fall Festival coming up in a couple of weeks. And since we have such a small class (3 girls) my team teacher Johanna insisted we get up and perform with them.... I'm a little nervous since dancing onstage is something I don't think I've done since I was in elementary school myself. |
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| Our dance girls at "Dia de la Raza" - "Day of the Race" (race being ethnicity). I took a bajillion photos and videos and was planning to make Dia de la Raza a blog in itself but in short it is a holiday that celebrates all the different races (we're a rainbow of colors here if you haven't noticed) that make up the Dominican Republic. I could go on longer about all the history, dramas, music, dances, but it was a pretty cool production. |
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| A few of my first graders hanging out after shaking their tailfeathers in the Dia de la Raza show. |
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| One of our beautiful first graders dressed up as a Taino Indian |
Next topic, family... which means Dave and Santa
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| This has been Dave's way of transporting his other lady around with us, until lately as she gets bigger everyday. And the name saint was apparently not the right name... after her worms cleared up, she got a bad case of fleas - we went through two flea collars, a special shampoo, treatment, and had our apartment fumigated and we are still finding fleas around and I'm covered in flea bites... not to mention she loves to chew holes through my clothes and she chewed the strap right off my favorite (or should I say my only) pair of Sketchers that I wear at least 3 days a week to work. "Don't you know I can't get a new pair of these here? Don't you know we're poor cause we have to spend our money on you?" I yell at her, while her tail wags and she smiles up at me. But since my husband's life is incomplete without an animal in our home, I am learning to deal and love her unconditionally. |
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| This is the road across from our apartments where Dave runs Santa every morning at sunrise down to the river and back... I swear everyday I will get up and do it too, but I have yet to get my butt out of bed as these mornings just keep getting colder... (yes I sound like a Dominican but 60 degrees in these mountains is cold when you're used to 100 and you don't have heat or hot water or sufficient clothing) |
And there have been
visitors... the advantage to having a 2 bedroom apartment is that we have lots of visitors staying with us in our "guest room" (which is nothing fancy, but rather a foam cushion on the floor with my construction paper butterflies from the kids at orphanage adorning the walls as decor)... so far it's been Tim, Paola, and Ana Leah, then 2 girls from the Peace Corps, Wilson from orphanage for his birthday, and most recently a French-Columbian couple from Belgium who were these awesome traveling farmers (it was my sister-in-law's cousin's fiance's sister and her husband if you can catch that one). They were all great but I only have pictures of my favorite visitor... (though I loved them all)
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| Here's Wilson at the top of the mountain El Mogote (the steep, rough hike that Dave and I did last February when he had malaria).. Dave thought it would be a good idea until about halfway up... after that hike Wilson wasn't up for much the rest of the weekend. He also burned his leg on the moto and we took our first trip to the ER here at the hospital in Jarabacoa... another adventure, another story... |
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| Dave and Wilson at the top of the mountain |
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| We threw a surprise birthday party for Wilson's sweet 16 at our apartment while he was with us. You can't see in this picture, but after inviting a few neighbors, word got out and we had around 40 people (mostly kids) in our tiny apartment - it was pretty crazy but it was fun. :) |
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| Wilson with his cakes and food - the neighborhood kids started coming over around 5 hours before the party and after the first 10 times telling them to come back later I let them come in and help decorate and cook - they were great little helpers! |
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| My co-teacher (with both dance and first grade) Johanna was a godsend this night helping at the party. She has become my best friend here in Jarabacoa and I am super blessed to have her in my life here. |
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| It was hard for all the kids to stay in line waiting for the cake... and this pic hardly does justice to the amount of kids that were here... |
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| After a while cooped up in the apartment, we decided outside was better for games and dancing... this pic was taken from our balcony! |
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| Our neighborhood kids learned the word "sorpresa" (surprise) from the party and thought they would give me a surprise of my own. After talking for a few days about my upcoming "sorpresa", they followed form from our surprise party and made me stand in my stairwell with the lights off and my eyes closed. Then they flipped the lights on and all yelled "SORPRESA" and stood grinning with this piece of broken wood balancing green glitter on top (we wanted to glue it they explained, but we didn't have any glue), as well as four jars full of sawdust they collected for Dave's surprise. We were surprised and they were quite proud of themselves. Later they helped me glue on the glitter in various designs and decorated it with pictures, notes, and quotes, and it now is a beautiful piece of art in our guest room that makes me smile each morning when I go in there to get ready. |
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| I'll end here with another sunrise photo Dave took before waking me up.... |
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| And this last one from our roof.... one of these days I'll get up to see it too. :) |
Okay, well I guess that's it for now, but please continue to pray for the victims in Haiti that have resulted from the disasters that are occuring over there. Many homes were wiped out on the coast in Jeremie from the hurricane, and many people there continue to suffer.
Thank you for your prayers and support. If you are interested in sponsoring us each month or making a one time donation to support our ministry here in Jarabacoa, please let me know - this would help us get by each month and be able to continue with projects in our school and community. Love and miss you all.
Love, peace, and prayers,
Kristin
