Adios, Holly

On May 23^rd, after a joyful celebration at the Mak House and tearful goodbyes in the apartment and at the bus station, Holly moved back to Texas. It was a really hard goodbye, after sharing a room for the past four months and living life together here. Holly is one of the sweetest, gentlest people I know, and I learned a lot about humility and serving others from her. We miss her soooo much!

These are some pics from Holly’s goodbye dinner. Check previous posts for more pictures of our adventures together!

Worship Team

Not having a musical outlet in my life has been the most frustrating part of living here for me. Well, that is no longer the case! I recently joined the worship team at New Life Church, an English-speaking church in Sosua. I sort of joined on a whim – Dustin, who leads worship, said, “So when are you going to sing with us?” And I said, “Um, how’s next week?” So now I am playing keyboard and singing with four guys. Yes, for those of you who have analyzed the gender distribution of chapel bands, I am the token girl. But I play keyboard, so it’s a little better… Let me tell you, this band has been a stream in the desert for me, and the guys I play with are great! I leave rehearsals and church feeling refreshed and fulfilled. Music is POWERFUL! Because of how much I am encouraged by being in the worship band (and because we have met some wonderful people there), Lauren has agreed with me that we should call New Life our church home – she’s such a good, loving, supportive roommate!

The Bible is full of commands to "sing a new song" to the Lord, to sing joyfully, to sing God's praises, to declare his love and goodness in song, to proclaim - when you sing, other people hear you! May God always fill my heart and mouth with new songs of praise. May he truly be my song.

The LORD is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. Exodus 15:2 (Also Isaiah 12:2)

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Psalm 40:3a (read the whole chapter - it's one of my favorites!)

Blenders

I have never really appreciated blenders as much as I do now. We bought a blender in the fall, and it has become a staple appliance in our kitchen! This week I used it every day, some days twice! The thing is, it's so hot here, anything you can make with ice in it is wonderful! My favorite thing about the blender, however: you can run a blender off two car batteries (our inverter). Also, the blender uses more power than the washing machine. Food for thought, or a picture of the ridiculousness that is Dominican washers!

So, for your reading pleasure, here are our favorite things to make in our blender:

FRAPPUCCINOS! These trump everything else. I could have a frappuccino every day (maybe I will this summer, hmm...). Frozen coffee (it takes some forethought), milk, hot chocolate powder, and a dash of hazelnut creamer.

Smoothies. A close second to the frappuccino. Frozen fruit - usually strawberries - and yogurt. Plain and simple. Sometimes we add a little vanilla whey protein powder.

Hummus! Yep, that's right. We eat hummus in the DR! At least once every two weeks we have hummus wraps with fresh veggies. Mmm! Our hummus recipe: 1 can of chickpeas/garbanzos, 1 clove of garlic, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup lime juice (they don't have lemons here). We also make black bean hummus.

"Frostys" Milk, ice, and hot chocolate powder. It ends up a little thinner than a real Frosty, but still delicious! A good option for when we didn't plan and don't have any frozen coffee.

Lately, thanks to Katy, frozen Chai tea lattes! (Think Caribou style.) This is like a frappe, but with chai mix, milk, and ice. Mmm good.

Please send me any delicious recipes or food ideas that you like to make in your blender!

Vacation!!!!

One Tuesday evening, Lauren, Holly, and I were sitting around talking about how we would like to go to the southeast coast - Punta Cana, La Romana, etc. One of us got the brilliant idea to go there for a vacation before Holly left, so we decided that we would go on Friday (three days later)! We made reservations for the resort, for the rental car, for taking off work, for a different resort when the first one didn't work out... anyway, every 5 minutes or so that week someone would say, "Guess what? We're going on vacation in ___ days!!!"

We did just what the sign told us to - "Conoce tu pais" means "Know your country." We also drove through the national park Los Haitises, which is gorgeous and looks like Jurassic Park! (Don't worry, I drove to the resort while they drank their Presidentes!)

Friday afternoon we got in our not-so-trusty little Fiat rental car and headed south. It took about 6 hours to get to our resort in Bayahibe. And from that point on, all we did was relax! We layed on the beach, layed by the pool, ate a lot of delicious food, drank some delicious drinks, read magazines to catch up on about 6 months of American pop culture (we didn't miss much!), took hot showers and got dressed up, went to a hilarious Michael Jackson show, and loved on each other. Sunday morning we drove a little farther to Punta Cana and layed on the beach there for a few hours before returning to our resort. Our bosses graciously gave us Monday off last-minute, Robin offered to cover Lauren's class (thank you!), and we got to stay an extra day!

The beautiful resort we stayed at. Don't you wish you were there?

We loooove the beach! Especially a new beach we've never been to!

The best part of the weekend was getting to make beautiful memories together just a few weeks before Holly left. I am so glad we went - I love Lauren and Holly dearly!

We also loooove each other and having fun together!

Reminder: You can click on the photo collages to make them bigger.

Mom and Dad visit! (aka Catching Up, Part 1)

I am going to do my best to catch you all up on what has happened in the past, umm, 2 months, has it been? To start with, on April 1, Mom and Dad came for a wonderful 10 day visit! We spent a day in my apartment and Montellano before we became real tourists. Then we went to Santo Domingo, the capital, which is full of colonial history - Christopher Columbus's sons' forts and houses, the oldest cathedral in the Western Hemisphere, botanical gardens, and (drumroll please!) the Dominican Republic's first IKEA! It opened a few weeks before we were there, and I pursuaded Mom and Dad to take me. It was like a little taste of America. Or Sweden.

Colonial Santo Domingo! It's fun to be a tourist sometimes! Old catheral, Columbus's fort, and me with some gargoyles. Also me sitting in the chair where the king/general/lord/whoever was in power would sit to hear audiences. There wasn't anything saying not to touch it...!

The orchids at the National Botanical Gardens were beautiful! Mom especially enjoyed them. We also saw the Japanese garden (Dad and me on the bridge).

On Easter morning, we went to Resurrection mass at the old cathedral. They had a choir! Not only did they have a choir, but they had a GOOD choir! And they sang the Hallelujah Chorus! I almost cried. Really, I did - that was the first time I heard classical music not coming from my ipod in this country. A surprise blessing from God on Easter morning.

Molly joined us in the capital for a day, then we went up to Jarabacoa to stay at the YWAM base and do the kinds of things Molly does in Jarabacoa. Waterfalls, relaxing, playing games, eating good Dominican food...

Jarabacoa! Waterfall hike complete with suspension bridges, and Mom and Molly trying to look secretive while we play Clue.

Finally, to top it all off, we went to a lovely resort in Cabarete for a few days. Air conditioning, hot water, beach, drinks of all kinds, activities, and just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. It was really great - thanks Mom and Dad! I took Mom and Dad out to school for part of a day so they could see where I work, what I do, meet Jessi, and meet the boy that they sponsor. It was fun to show them my life here. We also hit up La Tienda, the art co-op across from my school, for some souveniers and floating coconut candles (if you live in Quakertown, look for them in the pool this summer...).

A visit to school - Mom and Dad met Brayan, the boy they sponsor; we visited with Jessi; we walked through the village; and we went to La Tienda.

What we did all day: lay on the beach! I also got some early birthday presents (Glee dvds!) and we watched some kitesurfers do crazy tricks.

And what we did at night. We clean up pretty well, huh?

So that's the short version. I'm sure if you ask my parents, they would love to share stories with you about their time here! It was such a blessing to see them and for them to see the beautiful people and places that fill my life here.

A Whoopi Goldberg lookalike!

Part of what has kept me busy the past two months has been taking a good, smiling picture of every child at the school. This is a much harder task than you would imagine. Out of 215 students, on any given day there are probably about 180 in attendance, so you never know if the kid you need to take a picture of is going to show up that day! Then, once you get them to school, you have to get them to smile! But I am proud to say that I have an official Spring 2010 Update Photo for all but one student at the school!

When I saw this little girl for the first time, I thought to myself, "She looks a lot like Whoopi Goldberg!" That suspicion was confirmed by Jessi, Lauren, Holly, Katy, Molly... what do you think?

Long time no blog...

Sorry about the lack of updates over the past month! It has been a little crazy around here, with Holy Week, my parents visiting, my roommates' family members visiting, a women's retreat this past weekend... and now only 3 more weeks of school! I will gather some thoughts soon, but for now, just some prayer requests:

• for energy and perseverence these last 3 weeks of school, that I would find purpose and passion in my teaching and be filled with love for my students
• for summer - we are already well in the midst of planning and preparing for interns, teams, summer school... pray for logistics and pray for hearts
• for the school - thanks to a generous donation, we were able to start working on the cafeteria expansion again - pray that the money would continue to come and that the cafeteria would be done soon. Also, looking forward to the summer, pray for the construction that will happen then, as we hope to build four new classrooms!
• for my community as summer is a time of major transition, staff leaving, staff coming, programs changing, students changing...
• for wisdom as I look at some "next step" options for grad school
• that God will send another Kids Alive missionary to the Care Center this summer or fall