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!