rainy days

It's been rather rainy lately. As in all day, every day. (Stay tuned for a post about my rainy Thanksgiving camping adventure!) Rain means flooded roads, flooded rivers, and flooded houses. It means leaky ceilings (in my classroom, not my house) and early dismissals - we have to leave school before the river rises again and becomes impassable. Rain means wading through the river when it's too high to get the trucks across, and rain means screams from the men riding in the back of the truck with an umbrella when the downpour starts! It means low attendance, winter coats and hats, muddy footprints in my classroom, and worrying about getting colds. Rain means sweatpants and hoodies, wearing socks to bed, drinking tea and coffee at all hours of the day/night, soup, baking (favorite!), and wet laundry. It also, sadly, means not going to the beach for a few weeks (horrible, I know...).

But in the midst of the rain, I have found joyful moments. First, watching my coworkers cross the river yesterday. I, the smart gringa, wore Chacos and waded right through. Two of my coworkers, however, had worn socks, leather shoes, and nice pants. They did NOT want to get wet. Check it out:

Also, we finally saw the sun this morning! I rode in the back of the truck to soak up as many rays as I could.

 

Aguiluchooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

On Saturday I went with some friends to Santiago to watch an Aguilas baseball game - Dominican pro ball, which is sort of like AAA ball in the US - to celebrate a friend's birthday. We had so much fun and yelled "Aguiluchoooooooooooooo" which is their cheer, a LOT! There were all the normal parts of a baseball game (except the 7th inning stretch, which they apparently don’t do here?), but then there were a lot of things that were different from an American baseball game. All the concessions cost around a dollar! You could buy an entire bag of microwave popcorn for a dollar – a real treat for us, who don’t have microwaves! They also sold fried chicken and plantains, pork chops, beef jerky, ice cream, nachos, pizza… all in the stands! Another strange concessions thing: every couple rows, there were trash cans full of bottles of sodas, juice, beer, and rum! Despite that, there weren’t too many drunk people, possibly because the Aguilas won! Here are some pictures from the evening: the stadium, Cakito and Sarah watching a replay, fans, the beer/rum trash cans!, and the congratulatory line of Aguilas after the game.

renaissance.

renaissance: a renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc.; rebirth; revival

Thanks to God hitting me over the head with truth from friends, my devotional book, and my pastor over the past two weeks, I have come to some serious realizations.  The last few months, I have been living life passively.  I was not taking hold of the abundant life God continued to offer me.  I was using my circumstances as an excuse and playing the victim.  Yes, losing my roommate and many friends was hard, but where was my joy?  Was my joy really that wrapped up in those relationships?  What about being completely satisfied in the Lord?  What about "the joy of the Lord is your strength"?  I realized I was sitting around waiting for someone or something else to fill the space and time that the people who moved back to the States had left empty.  I wasn't taking initiative to build new relationships or to do things that were healthy and fulfilling for me.  I was putting unrealistic expectations on the people who are physically present with me.

Wow.  Those were some hard thoughts to come to terms with.

As always, however, God is faithful, and he didn't just convict me.  My mind spun for four entire days - raced at about 10 million words a minute - and then, last Friday morning, spun itself out.  My thoughts stopped, and my mind and heart were overwhelmed with God's presence, joy, and peace.  I felt a surge of energy - not just physical, but emotional energy, too.  God suddenly gave me the desire to initiate new relationships and try new activities.  I claimed my wholeness in Christ and my fulfillment in him.  And, as cliche as it sounds, I have lived differently over the past week.  I've done some things that we don't usually do here (like going to an international food festival), but more than that, I've gone through my normal, day-to-day activities with a new perspective.

The best way I can describe it is to say that I feel like I got my life back in me.  A renewal of life.  A renaissance.  And for that, I am grateful.

I want to share some quotes from my devotional book, Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young.  The daily devotions are written as if God were speaking to us - I often feel like they were written speaking directly and specifically to me!

When your energy fails you, do not look inward and lament the lack you find there.  Look to Me and My sufficiency; rejoice in My radiant riches that are abundantly available to help you.

Your future is in My hands; I release it to you day by day, moment by moment... I want you to live this day abundantly, seeing all there is to see, doing all there is to do... Each day of life is a glorious gift, but so few people know how to live within the confines of today.  Much of their energy for abundant living spills over the time line into tomorrow's worries or past regrets.  Their remaining energy is sufficient only for limping through the day, not for living it to the full.

breakthrough

The kindergartners had a breakthrough this week!  Yesterday after school, Antonia told me that the kids were sitting in class, chanting their Beginning Sounds chart (oso, oso, o o o; avion, avion, a a a... all the way to Washington, Washington, w w w), when suddenly one of them blurted out, "Wendy, Wendy, w w w."  And thus began phonemic awareness!  They have figured out that their names start with sounds - that the chart actually means something in real life!  And they figured it out on their own!  It's now their favorite thing to do during class.  They chant the names and beginning sounds of all their classmates.  They might be the only kids in our whole school who understand that the name Maria's first sound is mmm, not ma.  I am so proud of them!  And so excited for what this will mean later on in the year - phonemic awareness is a critical skill in learning to read!  (Insert one of Lauren's BAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH screams here for added excitement!)  I'll have to take some video of them and post it so y'all can share in my phonics-nerd excitement.  And see/hear how ADORABLE the kids are when they're learning!  Praise God!

school is in session!

We made it through our first month of school!  The teachers are doing a great job, the kids are settling in, and learning is happening!  Praise God!  Because of the public school schedule, we won't be able to take a class of four-year-olds like we were hoping, but we have plenty of work focusing on kindergarten, first grade, and second grade!  Dalexi, Antonia, and Dudu have really stepped up to the task of everything that I have asked them to do - they've been willing to make lots of crazy changes to the way we do class, the way they teach, the way we discipline, everything.

An unexpected change to my job (already, I know...) is that I am once again teaching first grade.  This year I'm co-teaching with Dalexi.  We have 18 little guys; I teach phonics, reading, and handwriting through the Rod and Staff curriculum and workbooks for an hour each day.  Then I get them settled in their centers, supervise center time, and help them clean up.  Dalexi teaches the last 45 minutes of class, teaching math, helping the kids do their public school homework, and reading them a story.

I LOVE teaching.  I love being in the classroom with the kids.  I'll take teaching over office work any day, even on the days when the kids are out of control and I almost lose my voice by the end of class.  They have stolen my heart - all of them.  It's been fun to get to know their little personalities.  And we've managed to learn all 5 vowels so far!  I'm looking forward to starting reading groups during center time soon and being able to work more individually with them.

Please keep praying for us as we continue in the school year.  Pray for continued energy, wisdom, and creativity for us teachers.  Pray that God would open the minds of the kids to learn to read and their hearts to learn about him.  Pray that we will show God's love in every interaction we have with the kids.

Here is a link to the photo album of pictures from our first few days of school.

Here are my first graders.  So cute!  They bring me lots of joy with their precious smiles, hugs, and yelling "prooooofeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" (that's really how they yell it!)  Remember to click on the picture to make it bigger.

Mom and Dad's visit!

For the second time since I moved to the DR, my parents came to visit me!  Unfortunately, their flight was cancelled due to the hurricane, but that wasn't about to stop them!  They rented a car, drove overnight to Pittsburgh, got new tickets, and got on a plane at 6:30 am, arriving in Puerto Plata only an hour after their cancelled flight would have arrived!  Now THAT's dedication.

We had a great visit together!  We stayed in a lovely condo in Cabarete (a treat for me!), went to my favorite beaches and restaurants, and went out to the village to see the school and shop at La Tienda.  We rode public transportation - they were great sports and even rode motorcycle taxis!  Dustin and I played a show the night they got in, and then led worship at church the next morning, so my parents got to hear me make lots of music while they were here!  It was fun to introduce them to my friends, show them the changes at the school, and of course sit on the beach or swim in the ocean and talk.  I am so grateful for my parents and for how they continue to love me, bless me, and guide me.  I'm grateful that they want to visit me here and that they want to understand my world - even trying to speak some Spanish!

Here are some pictures (the only ones, actually, that we took while they were here - oops!) from our snorkeling morning!  We had beautiful weather their entire trip!

extreme classroom makeover

The last two weeks have been prep weeks for the teachers at the Park Care Center.  We spent three days at a wonderful teacher workshop in Jarabacoa, then dove in to prep our rooms for the year.  I'm coordinating early education this year, which means I'm overseeing/responsible for 4 grades in 2 classrooms with 2 teachers and 2 teacher's aides.  We're totally recreating our early education program this year - new curriculum, new classroom setup, and new schedules that include circle time, read-alouds, and learning centers.  So we had a lot of work to do!  When we arrived at school last Thursday, our first day of prep, this is what the classrooms looked like:

The school carpenter was in the process of sawing apart, reinforcing, sanding, and varnishing two walls of bookshelves so that we could use them in the classrooms.  After finishing the bookshelves, he sawed the metal legs off some old desks, somehow got the desktops off, and built new desktops for them.  Those old desks are now tables for two in our preschool/kindergarten classroom!

This Thursday, the furniture was finally done, the whiteboards were hung, and the games and manipulatives were divided between the two classrooms.  We had a LOT of fun moving bookshelves and desks, decorating the rooms, and setting up the learning centers.  Preschool and kindergarten kids have art, books, phonics, construction, and "casita" (imagination/house) centers.  1st and 2nd graders have art, books, phonics/writing, construction, and math.  Now the rooms look like this - quite a difference!

The 1st and 2nd graders start school on Monday.  The classroom is ready, the teacher... will be fine.  He's feeling a little unsure right now, which is fine, so I'll spend lots of time in that classroom the first few days.  But I'm confident that once he gets into the routine of how the schedule works, how the lessons laid out in the curriculum book work, and how to use the discipline system we agreed on, he'll be more than fine!  The younger kids will start later in the week, as we still have lots of work to do to get the teachers familiar with the curriculum.  (For anyone interested, our 1st and 2nd graders are using Rod and Staff, and our little guys are using Estrellitas.)

Please keep praying for us as we start the school year!  I've talked with the teachers a lot about how we're learning how to do this together.  What works, we'll keep, and what doesn't work, we'll get rid of and try something else!  Pray for wisdom for me as I learn how to empower the teachers.  Praise God for the changes we're making, that my boss is on board with everything!  I'm so excited about what this year holds!

immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!

At the end of summer program, we award prizes (packs of cookies!) to the top four or five students from each class.  These are kids who have done the best both behaviorally and academically throughout the summer.  This summer, a miracle happened!  As the 2nd graders were being called, my coworker Ruben read three names, and then paused.  He made sure he had everyone's attention, and then dramatically yelled, "And for the first time ever, making history... JULIO!!!!!!"  Everyone screamed and cheered and clapped!

Julio* has been in 2nd grade for three years now.  He is a fighter.  He has a reputation for always being in trouble, and he probably spends more time in the office than any other kid at the Care Center.  I personally have been physically attacked by him multiple times, including having rocks thrown at me and being scratched with staples!  The staff of the Care Center has been praying for him daily for years.  The director has talked with him, with his siblings, with his mother.  And finally, this summer, God got through to Julio.  He finally made progress in learning to read.  He only got in trouble a few times in the 5 weeks.  He smiled because he was actually happy, not because he had just beaten someone up.  I am SO grateful that his teachers chose to acknowledge his change!  When they called Julio's name, he walked up on the stage and got his award full of pride.  Everyone made a big fuss over him, telling him how proud they were of him and how wonderful it was that he won for behaving well and learning a lot.  When the kids were dismissed, his face was still glowing with pride and happiness in his accomplishments!  I am praying hard that he continues to let God work on him this year and that he is motivated by his success this summer.

That's what my work here is all about.  That's what Kids Alive is all about.  Creating environments where kids meet God.  Teaching them about and demonstrating God's love, grace, and compassion.  And then sitting back and watching transformation take place.  Transformation that can only come from God.  What a testimony to the staff and kids of the Care Center to see that God loves and changes even kids who it's sometimes tempting to give up on.  I am overwhelmed by God's persistent love, that he never gives up on Julio, and that he never gives up on me.  I remember that while it may not be as visibly drastic as the change in Julio's life, my life has been transformed as well.  And I am mystified that an all-powerful God who controls the universe is intimately involved in the lives of each one of us.  Wow.  I pray that Julio will continue to be a reminder of these things on the days when it doesn't seem like transformation is taking place in Caraballo.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!  Amen. (Eph 3:20-21)


*The child's name has been changed.

random thoughts on despedidas

(warning: this blog is a little of a hodgepodge...)

Summer is a high turnover time in the missionary community, and this summer was no exception.  In the last two months I have said goodbye to three summer interns, four missionaries in Montellano, two Kids Alive missionaries, and my dear roommate Lauren.  Wow.  I have also said (more temporary ) goodbyes to my sister Molly, who was here for the summer and to several people who will be back in a few months.  In less than two months I will say goodbye to another two Makarios missionaries.

Goodbyes (despedidas) mean parties.  We threw four goodbye parties for Lauren - with our church, with our ladies' Bible study, with our Dominican friends, and with the Mak staff/Montellano gringos.  Lauren and I also took a goodbye vacation to Santo Domingo for a long weekend and had a final roommate dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.  Amidst all that, however, the strongest feeling we had was of gratefulness and amazement - God has done incredible things for us here in providing community.  Instead of sadness, we were struck by the ways God has blessed us here.  Even as I returned home to an empty apartment after Lauren left, I walked in the door and was overwhelmed by the truth that God is good.  That's one of the foundational spiritual principles we studied at missionary training, and I have clung to it this summer.  And now, a few hours after taking Molly to the airport to return to the US, I am still clinging.  Even if I don't feel it in the moment, I will declare God's goodness to me, and I will praise him for whatever it is that he is doing to my life this summer!

I don't have much insight yet into how God will use all these goodbyes.  Right now they mostly feel hard.  My home, which is more a group of people than an apartment, is now scattered across the US and the DR.  I will have a new roommate soon, but home, my place of stability and security, is changing.  I have to trust that God, as my unchanging Rock, will continue to be where I find my true home.  I also have to trust that my will is often not God's will, and that his will is always better.

A scripture that I have read and reread the last few weeks is Psalm 116:7 - "Be at rest once more, oh my soul, for the Lord has been good to you."  Rest.  Peace.  God's goodness.  Pray with me that I will return to my rest, and that I will find that rest only in the Lord.

A song that I have listened to over and over:  Thy Mercy, My God by Sandra McCracken.  Listen to it and read the lyrics here.

I'll leave you with some pictures from the goodbyes, too, because a lot of fun memories have been made!  (And because blog without pictures is boring, right?)  Clockwise from the top left:  Lauren with the Dominican Makarios staff; our last beach day together; roommate goodbye dinner (which we had despite a national transportation strike!); goodbye party with church friends; Molly and I enjoying our sister goodbye night at a resort; Lauren and I enjoying an audio tour of a colonial fort in Santo Domingo; snorkeling together with the underwater camera!

Uganda!

Finally... I'm blogging about Uganda! My parents, sisters, and I spent three weeks visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousins who have lived in Kampala for the last two years. It was wonderful to spend time with my family, having fun adventures together for a few weeks. We went on two safaris to Murchison Falls National Park and Kidepo National Park - INCREDIBLE! I felt like we were in Planet Earth or, as my Dominican coworkers love, Animal Planet. We saw lions, elephants, hippos, rhinos, crocodiles, chimpanzees, giraffes, zebras, buffalo, antelope, antelope, and more antelope! The week we spent on safari was a week of marveling at God's work. His creativity - who would have thought of a warthog, honestly? His beauty as we watched the sun rise over the Nile and set over the savannah. His power in the sheer size and strength of hippos and elephants.

I had a lot of sweet time with the Lord during those three weeks. He was gracious in revealing himself to me in new ways through not only the animals, but also the people and culture of Uganda. We visited churches, shrines to martyrs, a refugee center, a children's rehabilitation center, the US embassy (what trip is complete without that, right?), and went to a cultural night of Ugandan music and dancing. I also spent a lot of time just sitting on a porch at my aunt and uncle's house, reading the Bible and journaling.

I don't have many cohesive thoughts or stories from my time in Uganda yet, because when I got home, summer hit full force in Montellano. So instead of stories, I'm just going to link to my photo albums - they sum up the trip pretty nicely. (Minus the 48 hours of travel each direction... did you know the Amsterdam airport looks like IKEA?)

There are two photo albums, more or less chronological... enjoy!

One: eating grasshoppers, brother lions, sunrise on the Nile...

Two: baby lions!, rhinos, culture.

Last Day of School

 

Tuesday, May 17th. The last day of school 2010-11 at the Park Care Center. It was a day of mixed emotions. I am so proud of my first graders! I am amazed at the growth I see in them and the work I have seen God do in their lives. Six of my eight students can read books, but all eight of them know they are loved and important. They came to me as the "reject kids," kicked out of regular first grade for either slow academic progress or bad behavior. I watched their confidence skyrocket, watched their behavior problems lessen and even disappear, and watched the "girl who doesn't know anything" become my best reader. They learned how to read, do puzzles, and treat each other kindly. They memorized "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and have multiple favorite books. They learned to enjoy learning - that is worth more than any specific skill I could have taught them.

I am also amazed because I know that none of that happened because of me! God has used me in incredible ways and worked despite my weaknesses and inexperience this year. When I couldn't, he could, and he did. He has taught me so much about myself this year, not the least of which is that I love teaching! Like any other first year teacher, I've had my share of mountains and valleys this year, but God has proved himself faithful, constant, and more than sufficient. He gets all the glory for everything that happened in my little corner of the cafeteria.

I also felt a deep sadness, saying goodbyes today. I said goodbye to my kids, though only for a month. I said goodbye to having my own class. I said goodbye to teaching for a while, though I will spend time in the classrooms next year.

I think back to September, when I thought I would be doing one-on-one reading tutoring, and then was handed eight 6-year-olds. I felt so overwhelmed and inadequate - I had no idea what I was doing, and they didn't even recognize their names! Now, although I will be the first to say that I still don't have that much of an idea what I'm doing, I see progress and growth, and that excites me

Today we celebrated the end of school by playing the best review game EVER. I wrote syllables on marshmallows (non-toxic markers, don't worry) and threw them at my kids. They read me the syllable and then got to eat the marshmallow! We also sang the songs we've learned for every letter. (I say we because I learned as much about phonics as they did this year!) Then we watched a slideshow of various days of class throughout the year - the kids LOVED seeing photos of themselves and their classmates. I told them how proud I was of them, cried a little, gave them their artwork that had been decorating our corner all year to take home, and sent them on their way.

As I look back over the year, I can't help praising God. He has done marvelous things for me, and I am glad! Thank you for praying for me and my students this year!

Medical Adventures

Twice now I have had to go to a doctor of some sort in this country. Both times have been slightly hilarious because things here are so different than they are in the States!

Incident One:

In preparation for my trip to Uganda, I needed a Yellow Fever vaccine. In the US, this is how it goes (I think!): You schedule an appointment with a special travel doctor. You have your doctor's appointment, and you get the vaccine, which is HIGHLY controlled by the CDC. You then pay an exorbitant amount of money.

Here's how it works in the DR: I told my boss (a Dominican) that I needed a Yellow Fever vaccine but didn't think they had them in this country. He makes a few phone calls and the next day tells me they'll have the vaccine within a week. The next week, I show up at school and my boss tells me, "Hurry - they have the vaccine but you have to get there before 9:30!" (It's now 8:30, and the doctor is 45 minutes away.) One of my coworkers drives me and my boss's wife to the Health Center in Puerto Plata, where I see benches upon benches of people waiting to see a doctor. We walk right past all the people waiting, up a set of stairs, into a small office where there are two women sitting. My boss's wife introduces me, I show them my passport, they draw the vaccine - I don't see the vial, so I assume it's for Yellow Fever! - and shoot me up. Then they refuse to record it in my yellow book, giving me instead a Dominican yellow book, still validated by the WHO or whoever it is that validates yellow books. I think/hope/pray that they have written down all the necessary information so that they let me into Uganda when I arrive. We walk out, back past all the people, get back in the car, and go back to school. The whole thing took less than 5 minutes. You may notice I skipped the part about paying an exorbitant amount... I did not pay a cent. Vaccines are free in the DR - who knew?!

Incident Two:


I have now had the "gripe" (generic term for cold/flu/allergies) for almost 3 months. My head is full of nastiness, and the past few weeks I've had this lovely cough. After emailing with a friend who is a doctor, I decide to get a chest x-ray. I go to school this morning and tell my boss I need a chest x-ray. He goes and gets the same coworker who drove me to get my vaccine and tells him to take me to such-and-such doctor near his house. We get to the doctor's. I walk in and tell them that I've been coughing a lot and would like a chest x-ray. They write down my name (misspelled, of course) and my birth date and that I'm getting a chest x-ray. Then they charge me 600 pesos - about $16.25. The doctor takes me back immediately and does the x-ray. I sit in the waiting area for a few minutes until the image is ready. Here, if they read the x-ray for you, they charge you more. I figure, I have a friend who's a PA - why bother paying more than $16.25 for an x-ray?! I get the image, the doctor tells me I'm "malita" (a little sick) - no kidding! - and we're on our way. I ask my coworker if we can stop at a pharmacy so I can get some meds. At the pharmacy, I decide not to pay a ridiculous price for Singulair, not even for the slightly cheaper generic. I call my PA friend to find out what the Dominican version of Albuterol is, ask for it, and for $6 am the proud owner of an inhaler. No prescription, no ID, nothing. I love this country! My coworker then drives me to the Makarios school so my PA friend can read my x-ray. She diagnoses me and prescribes two other meds, which, thanks to the generosity of North American teams, she has ample supplies of. I am now adequately medicated in an attempt to get rid of my sinus issues and my bronchitis before I leave for Uganda in 5 days.


Moral of the story: good people to have in your life are bosses with connections, coworkers who will drive you around, and friends who are doctors. I WILL conquer the gripe.

What I'm Listening To

I don't buy very many albums. Recently, however, I have made two very worthwhile purchases. Folky, singer-songwriter, good harmonies, a little edgy, lyrics-that-make-you-think kind of music. So here's a little glimpse into what I'm listening to these days!

We Don't Belong by Sara Masterson. Sara and I sang in Concert Choir together at Wheaton for a few years. She lives and performs in the Chicago area. I haven't decided yet if I prefer this album or her EP, Hale Street Sessions. They're both great! www.saramasterson.com

Barton Hollows by The Civil Wars. This duo sounds like the Appalachians (I can see my 20th century music history teacher cringing as I write these words!) and has a more raw sound - it's just their voices, guitar, and piano. Again, great lyrics and great harmonies. Dustin and I cover the song Poison and Wine off this album, as well as their cover of Billie Jean. I'm excited to hear more from this band! http://thecivilwars.com

Jesus died for our fish

One of the wonderful things about being a first grade teacher is that my kids say hilarious things pretty much all the time. Recently, we've been talking about Semana Santa (Holy Week) and why we celebrate it, and our conversations have provoked some serious laughing fits on my part! Here are some snapshots into my conversations with my kids.

Me: What happened during Semana Santa?
Kids: Santa comes and brings us presents!

Me: What did Jesus do during Semana Santa?
Kids: He died on the cross of horse! (Caballo, horse, is pretty similar to Calvario, Calvary - I'll give them partial credit for that one!)

Me: That's right, Jesus died on the cross. He died to take away our...
Kids: Fish! (pescado, fish, is VERY similar to pecado, sin)
Me: Um... (laughing) no, no, no, Jesus died to take away our SINS. (this is where I launch into a phonics lesson and we read the words pescado and pecado a few times) Jesus died to take away our sins and give us life...
Kids (finally!): eternal! (they got it!)

Even when we're not talking theology, my kids are pretty great. On Wednesday we were learning the letter Z, which makes an s sound in Spanish.
Me: We know lots of words that start with z! Who is the character on Dora the Explorer who starts with s-s-s and always steals things from us? (I was going for Zorro, the Spanish name for Swiper.)
Kids: SATAN! (at the top of their little lungs. They did eventually figure out it was Zorro.)

Later that day, we were reading The Little Red Hen and talking about how we should help other people.

Me: Should we help our friends? Kids: Yes.
Me: Should we help our neighbors? Kids: Yes.
Me: Should we help everybody? Kids: Yes.
Kids: Except Satan. We can't help Satan. That makes God sad. That's a fish. (refer to previous convo!)
Me: That's right. We don't help Satan. But we help other people. Why do we help them?
Kids: Because if we don't help them they won't give us bread. (Completely logical conclusion, since that's what happens in the book, but not quite the universal application I was going for!)

Moral of the story: I love my first graders. And if you come visit my class, they will say hilarious things for you, too - all of these happened on one day while we had a visitor, who got to laugh along with me!

So as you think about Good Friday and Easter, pray that God will help me get it into my kids' heads that Jesus died for our sins, not our fish!

Big News!

It's time. After much anticipation, hours of writing (I had to cut a lot out!), and a week of waiting for snail mail to arrive at people's homes, I can finally post my latest update letter! This letter is a summary of the last year-ish here in the DR. It will clue you in about my work, friends, church, and life in general. But most importantly, it announces my big news:

I am staying in the Dominican Republic until May 2012! This is an extension of my original commitment, which would have ended this July. My letter explains what my role at the Care Center will be next year. (Yes, that's a ploy to make you read it instead of being satisfied by this little blurb!)

Click on the images to enlarge each page. If you didn't receive a paper copy of my update but would like one, or would like to receive my (occasional) email updates, please let me know! Thanks for reading!

Learning the guitar.

It's been a long time since I learned a new instrument. (I think the last one was probably the English Horn in 11th grade...) Over the past 6 weeks or so, however, I have been teaching myself to play the guitar. A work team that came in January left extra strings, picks, etc. I asked Alberto if I could have some, and he said yes. So I now temporarily own a dark blue acoustic-electric guitar! This guitar had been sitting in a gig bag (soft case) in our team house for, um, a few years, I think - the first chord I played broke a string, they were so rusty! Luckily, I have a few guitar playing friends, so I got it restrung and started practicing.

My reasons for learning the guitar were as follows:
1. I've always wanted to be able to play guitar.
2. It's much more portable than a keyboard, even the dinky little Casio sitting in my apartment.
3. Somewhere along the line, I got bit by the stereotype bug. I mean, you're not a good missionary unless you can play the guitar, right? Doubtful, but that crept into my mind anyway.

My goal in all of this is to be able to lead worship when we have work teams here this summer. We take them to the beach for an evening of worship, debriefing, and brownies at the end of their week here, and while singing a cappella is fine, singing with a guitar is better!

Learning to play guitar has been an interesting challenge. The physical part - building callouses (which I'm still in the process of), putting my hand in awkward positions, getting my wrists to adjust... I've had a few painful days. The mental part - memorizing chord positions, reading lyrics and chords simultaneously, thinking ahead to what the next chord is and how I need to move. The frustrations of a pianist learning the guitar - I'm used to being able to play any chord I want, being able to play in any key I want, having a pedal to sustain the sound while I move my hands... I'm limited right now to about 10 chords, and I certainly cannot play in any key! Also as a pianist, especially an injured/recovered one, I know my hands pretty well. So when my fingertips hurt or even just feel different than they usually do because of my baby callouses, my gut reaction is to panic - what's wrong? I have to remind myself that I know why they hurt and that it's ok!

Learning the guitar has also been really good for me. It's reminding me of humility and what it's like to learn a completely new skill, which is what my first graders experience almost every day. It's reminding me to have patience with myself and to appreciate the skills I do have - I'm so grateful that I can sit down and play the piano - it seems so easy compared to the guitar! It's teaching me discipline in practicing again - I feel like I shouldn't have lost that only a year and a half out of a conservatory, but if I go a few days without playing, my fingers pay the price! I'm challenging the musical part of my brain again. I'm learning to listen to songs differently as I try to pick up strumming patterns. I've noticed the last few weeks at worship team practice that I can look at Dustin's (the guitar player) hands and (sometimes) know what chord he's playing! Amazing! I'm also spending a lot more time worshipping God - most of the songs I practice are worship songs. And it's fun to look up songs I've been listening to and be able to play them. It's also fun to hear Lauren, every once in a while, tell me that it sounds good - my parents, when I practiced piano, would often yell from the kitchen during a pause, "Sounds good, Em!" A fun little nostalgia moment and a new appreciation for what my parents put up with raising three musical daughters!

So that's what I've been up to in my free time. Any words of encouragement, song requests (ha!), cheater chord tips, etc, send them my way!

Burning Sugarcane

Here was the view from school on Thursday:

The culprit? Burning sugarcane. Acres and acres of burning sugarcane. Molly and I drove on a motorcycle through the fields of burning cane that afternoon - I felt a little like I was in the forest fire part of Bambi!

On a more serious note, the burning cane is an indicator and reminder of why life is the way it is here in Montellano. The sugarcane factory in Montellano used to be the sole source of employment for Montellano and the surrounding villages like Caraballo. After the government privatized the factory, it went bankrupt and has been shut down for 8 years or so (from what I've been told). The result is a town that has the feel of an old mining town in the US - no jobs, people walking around in a daze because they still think the factory might open, men sitting around playing dominoes all day, idle because there literally is no work. Awhile back I journaled about it:

      They're burning the sugarcane tonight. I saw the telltale column of brown smoke today, and now, in the dark, the red haze. I have not, nor do I think I ever will, gotten used to the sweet smell. The smell of unemployment. Of poverty. Of empty wallets and empty bellies. The smell, the ash, the smoke - they should be coming from the factory, not the fields. But the factory sits idle, empty, rusting in the salty humidity. It sits in the center of town as if to mock the people, a constant reminder of what used to be and an unfulfilled promise of what still could be. Rumors fly, year after year, that someone in an air-conditioned office far away wants to reopen the factory. But feeding Haitians and employing the poorest of the poor is hardly a profitable venture. No one wants to buy sugar from Montellano. So they burn the cane. They burn it out of anger, desperation, indignation. And with it they burn a piece of their hope for the restoration of the factory, of jobs, of life. What else can they do?
      While they burn, I contemplate. My blessings, my fortune, that I was born in the "right" country. The country that my neighbors dream of, yet equally the country whose policies are forcing those same neighbors to burn the cane. So what do I do, torn between my privileged citizenship and my new-found solidarity with my neighbors? I don't know. But tonight, I will join my neighbors in falling asleep to the smell of burning cane, dreaming that the smell is coming from the factory, and praying that someday soon it will.

Valentine's Day

I threw my kids a Valentine's Day party, which in Spanish is "The Day of Love and Friendship." We memorized part of 1 John 4:8 - "Dios es amor." (God is love.) We made a special butterfly craft out of different sized hearts. We played with pink playdough, and we ate pink cookies on special heart napkins. The kids each made two valentines with our memory verse on them; they chose a classmate to give one of their valentines to and took the other one home to give to a family member. They each also got a Dora the Explorer valentine from me! We learned the letter c, because in Spanish C says 'c-c-corazon' (heart) - the perfect phonics lesson for Valentine's Day!

(Remember to click on the picture to enlarge it.)

Troop DR

In keeping with my "last day of the month" blogging... These are the lovely ladies I share life with here in Montellano. Bible studies, early morning prayer, and, of course, just plain fun! Friday night Erika planned a "Troop Beverly Hills" party for us! The men picked up pizza for us and then left to do something manly, leaving the Mak house to us. We ate pizza while we made badges for our "Troop DR" sashes. Everything from Best Smile to #1 Auburn Fan to slightly embarrassing reminders like Best Popcorn for a girl who once tried to pop popcorn in an uncovered skillet! We had so much fun being crafty together and encouraging each other! Then we watched Troop Beverly Hills, which I had never seen and thoroughly enjoyed, while we ate... wait for it... GIRL SCOUT COOKIES! Yep, that's right, all the way in the DR - thanks, Sharla! We discovered some regional differences in cookie names (Samoa vs. Caramel Delight, Peanut Butter Patties vs Tagalongs) but in the end decided the cookies are delicious no matter what you call them! We had also planned a bonfire and s'mores, but we had so much fun badge-making that we ran out of time. So we saved the marshmallows for another night - hopefully soon!

Columpios!

 

Everybody loves the swings, right? And everybody loves Wander, right? So while I make you all wait in eager anticipation for a recap of Holly's visit and an exciting update (coming soon I promise), here are some pictures of Wander on the swings at recess the other day. I couldn't resist...