Last Week in the DR!

Well, today was the day we moved out of our host families, which means my trip is coming to an end. We have one more beach trip before we leave the DR, but one week from today I will be at home in freezing cold Michigan with my family. While I am sad to leave, I am excited and ready to go home.  

Over the last couple of weeks, I haven’t had the chance to update you all on what has been happening. It’s been a time of parties and wrapping up, especially in our ministry sites. There have been some really fun events, but also sad times as we’ve had to say goodbye to Dominican friends and missionaries. Here are a few pictures to show some highlights from the last few weeks.

The winter season has arrived! It is significantly cooler and a lot of rain. I have been wearing a fleece sweatshirt and a light jacket. Even though it’s still in the 70s every day, our bodies are so used to warm weather that we think it’s cold- not really sure what’s going to happen when I get back to Michigan and have to become reacquainted with snow.

On a recent trip to “La Sirena,” a store similar to Walmart, Nikki and I were very excited to find “semi” American food! While I have gotten used to Dominican food and really like it, I still miss American food and can’t wait to enjoy it soon!

The semester students were invited to help serve at Students International’s Christmas party this year. It was hosted by the administration for all of the workers of SI. In all there were about 90 people there.  Hog roasts are a Christmas custom here in the DR, and we had four full hogs to feed all the people. It was so good!! I got the opportunity go to and see the pigs while they were roasting (this photo is about 2 hours before they were eaten!).

Sunday night we experienced a true Dominican cultural event: a baseball game!! Dominicans love their baseball. Our team, the Aguilas had a really bad game until the 8^th inning when they were down 7-0, and they came back and scored 7 runs in that innings. Unfortunately, the other team scored in the 9^th inning and won.  Nikki and I enjoyed the game because we got ice cream (actually Yogen Fruz-frozen yogurt) from Bon, my favorite ice cream place here!

This picture is from our preschool’s Christmas party on Tuesday night; this is the class I have been helping in this semester. The kids had a great time performing songs, wearing angel outfits, and the parents loved seeing their kids.  It was a fun night for all!

These last few weeks have been a good time of finishing up work in my ministry site, and hanging out with my host family, the team, and missionaries. I’m really looking forward to coming home soon, but right now I’m super excited to go to the beach for a few days and relax!!

Birthday Weekend

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve shared what’s happening here in the Dominican Republic, so I thought I’d share some pictures from my ministry site and my birthday weekend when  my mom came and surprised me. Pictures can show and explain more than words!

The teacher I help, Carolina, and some of the precious little ones I get to spend time with at my site.

 

Julia, a student from Lift who spent two weeks with us, and I reviewing the alphabet with the students

 

  My mom’s favorite part of her day at my ministry site: seeing the kids sit on “half tires” in the ground and brush their teeth. Some of the boys made it a game by trying to spit their water through the fence and hit the chickens on the other side.

Marjory, an adorable three year old at the preschool

 

View of Jarabacoa from up in the mountain

 

Fresh fruit and vegetable market in town

 

 

Picco Pollo- the “fast food” restaurant of the Dominican Republic. We always eat fried chicken strips with really good sweet and sour sauce and friend green bananas. So good!

My mom was only here for three days, but it was a great time catching up with her and letting her see my world!

The Beginning of Ministry Sites

Last week was a great week trying to get accustomed to ministry sites. I am working in a preschool in “El Callejon” with some really great ladies. From nine to one the kids are there for class, and we are still trying to figure out what our days will look like after the kids leave for the day. One day we helped clean and organize the school, another we talked with one of the teachers for the afternoon just getting to know her, and some afternoons we don’t really do much of anything. This has been interesting for the Americans at the site because our work ethic is “to do” all the time, when that is not how Dominicans normally operate.  Luckily, we were warned about this before we started and were kind of expecting it.

Friday, a group from New York arrived and will be staying for two weeks.  They are students our age, who are participating in a semester long, leadership program. For the next two weeks, we will be having students from that team with us at our ministry sites, and we will be working as “go-between” people for the students and missionaries at the sites.  We had a great time last night getting to know them at a “Culture Party,” where we learned to dance the Merengue, played a fun game called “Don Ramon,” and tried Dominican “delicacies.” It’s going to be great working with them, and continue to get to know them!

A Short Update

Well, I am on my seventh week here in the lovely Dominican Republic! The last two weeks has been a whirl of fun, exciting adventures. Last week we spent the whole week on “Travel Week,” exploring the country. We started in Santo Domingo, the capital, visiting a lot of museums and learning about the history of this place. Then we drove two and a half hours to another part of the island where we stayed in a “jungle resort” in the middle of nowhere. We went on a nature walk, explored caves with pictographs, and relaxed at the beach. While the museums were not really my thing, I LOVED the time at the beach.
We got back to the base on Saturday, rested Sunday, and Monday we started a ministry class with a professor who came to teach us from Bethel. It was a great time learning about missions and God’s view of missions. I really enjoyed it! This class was in preparation for our ministry sites. We were supposed to start sites today, but in Dominican fashion, we were delayed until Monday. The Dominican government decided with the hurricane and all the rain we are getting, that there would be no school today. Since half of us are going to be working in preschools that are closed today, our team leaders decided we would just wait until Monday to start.  (Side note: the hurricane is not here, we are only having rain from it- we are safe. J)

So, on Monday I will be going to a preschool in “El Callejon” (a little community in Jarabacoa) to work for the rest of the semester. We will be focusing on building relationships and ministering to the missionaries who are site leaders in these places. I am really excited to see how God uses this site to impact my life!

*Brittini

Holiday Weekend

This week went so fast! It was wonderful! Monday was a holiday celebrating Saint Mercedes, so there was no school. The Catholic churches celebrated by having services in the evening for nine straight nights, then ended it with a big party. My family is not Catholic so we didn’t actually partake in any of that, but we did go to “La Confluencia,” it is kind of like a strip mall, on Sunday night. Originally we went just to get ice cream and let my little brother Darrell (who is full of energy) play on the playground, but when we got there it was packed with people and tons of horses, there to celebrate the holiday, I guess. Darrell LOVES horses, so naturally this was very exciting for him. He just sat on one horse, not even riding it, for probably fifteen minutes and was very content.  After, we got ice cream and Darrell got to play.

 

For dinner, we went into town and ate at the “Dominican McDonalds” Picca Pollo. They serve deep fried chicken and fried green bananas (very healthy J). After, we visited our grandma, Anna and aunt, Elizabeth. We got to sit on a couch. This may seem like a very trivial fact, but our house doesn’t have a couch, so Edith and I have come to really appreciate couches.  This time out was our first time going anywhere with our family, other than t church, so it was a big deal for us.

 

There is some speculation as to why we went out with our family that night, but one theory is we were being bribed to work the next day.  When Edith and I were first told about this, I misinterpreted that we were going to be have a family party on Monday and I was quick to agree because I was excited, but later in the night when I asked Edith about the arrangements I realized it was a work project. I won’t lie and pretend I was excited about this at all! It was going to be my one day off and I had to work; I had a terrible attitude about it. But Monday morning, as I was doing my devotions, I decided that I was going to chose to have a good attitude about it.  After all, my family is sacrificing so much for us by housing us this semester; the least I can do is help them. So I went down to breakfast and devotions with the small work team including Daniel’s boss, Paul and a couple from the states that was here to celebrate their first anniversary. We painted the front of the house and dug some holes to put beams in to start a “galleria” (porch) on the front of the house. We had a great time, and I even had fun! They worked the rest of the week to complete the project.

 

I haven’t really mentioned any aspects of life in the DR that I’ve experienced this far, but there are a few different things I would like to share.  First, it has taken some time to get used to not flushing toilet paper, but instead throwing it in a trash can (this is common in other countries). There have been times when I accidently throw it in the toilet and get mad at myself, then I realize it’s not that big of a deal they just don’t have the water pressure that we do in the US and they don’t want the toilet to get clogged. Second, “motos” (motorcycles or mopeds) are very common. Because cars are expensive, a lot of people use motos to get around. We found out one morning that they also use them to transport and move their things. For instance, we saw a moto with a guy holding onto and balancing a love seat behind him on the seat.  Another time, we thought there was a piano on the back of one, but then realized it was a big wooden box that is used for bread. We have a competition to see who can find the biggest, longest, widest, or tallest thing on the back of a moto. The reward is a mango smoothie from Brent. Lastly, it is not unusual to see life stock out in the road or out in the open. One morning, Edith and I were on our way to Josh and Vickie’s house and we found a huge cow in our path. We were surprised and freaked out! When we felt it was safe, we speed walked past it. When we rounded the corner, we found another lying on the ground under a tree like a dog would. It was so bazaar!
 

 

(This is actually the second guy we saw with a love seat; the first time no one had a camera, but we kept talking about it.  So when I saw this I was SOOO excited!)

                I hope from my stories you can tell I’m having a wonderful time here! It’s been a great time of learning, team building, and fun. One more fun story! On Tuesday night we were walking out of the base. About to get in Brent’s SUV, I said I missed his truck because we could ride in the back out in the open. Brent told me the SUV had a sun roof so I could ride with my head sticking out if I wanted to. So I decided I would just do it to experience it while we were driving in the parking lot of the base. I stuck my head out, doing the princess wave. He saw that I was taking this pretty seriously so he told me if I did this all the way to Josh and Vickie’s house and said, “Hola!” to everyone I saw he would buy me a chocolate bar. Well, I saw this as a dare and really wanted chocolate so I took the challenge. Now, we get enough looks anytime we go anywhere because we’re American so it was hilarious to see people’s reactions to a white girl sticking her head through a sun roof, saying hola in a really weird way, and waving like she was royalty. By the time we stopped at the colmado (a very tiny store), I had tears running down my face from laughing so hard and having wind hitting me in the face! These are the kind of things that make a great trip, awesome!

-Brittini

Saturday in Santiago

Another week has come and gone. This week went super fast! Spanish classes were hard; we almost “conquerored” pronouns! Who knew they could be so frustrating, but I think I’ve finally got it!

Today we went into Santiago and visited one museum and a monument. The museum, Centro Leon, was showed us a lot of the history behind the Dominican culture. I really enjoyed it (I’m usually not really a museum person, so this surprised me). But the best part of the day by far was lunch at McDonalds!! All week I have been asking about a McDonalds and there isn’t one in Jarabacoa, but there is one in Santiago. So with my persistence, we got to enjoy it for lunch today! Aside from the burger meet tasting a little different and having mayo, lettuce, and tomato, the meal was just like the states, except that my fries were actually HOT!! This made me very happy!

We also got to go to a “Dominican Walmart” called La Sirena and get some essentials such as peanut butter, a Spanish-English dictionary, and shaving cream.  Altogether it was a great day in Santiago!

-Brittini

Life in the Beautiful DR!

This week, we started our “new schedule” including school, homework, and team Bible studies.  We moved in with our families last Saturday and spent the first two days only with them (no “team” time). For Edith (my roommate) and I, it was a great first weekend. We didn’t really do a lot, but it was nice to just get to know our family and the area we are living in. We are very fortunate with our house; we have our own room and a bathroom that is only used by us. These rooms are separate from the house (about it like a second floor) and are only accessible by an outdoor staircase.

Sunday we went to church at 3pm. It was quite a different experience than church is usually primarily because I didn’t understand any of the message. The pastor spoke very fast and had a Puerto Rican accent which is different than what I’m used to, but by following the screen and looking up the verses in my Spanish-English Bible I got the jist of it, and I really enjoyed the music.

Monday we started Spanish classes, and they are difficult. We have about two to three hours of homework every night. So we spend our mornings doing our homework while everyone is at work or school. Then we have lunch with our family, take a quick “siesta” (and I will say this is great!), then head to the Student’s International Base for a little bit of internet/team time before class starts at three. We get done with class around six then head home if it’s a Monday, Wednesday, Friday or go to Josh and Vickie (our team leaders) house for Bible study. One change I’m trying to get used to is eating dinner around eight or nine rather than at six; it’s difficult!

On Saturdays we go on excursions with our team. Today was our first; we went to the river to go “creeking” (hiking in the creek). Our short trip of walking down river to a stop where a woman was going to prepare lunch for us, eating lunch, and walking back was slightly longer. We got to the spot at Los Higos and floated in the river and jumped off rocks (I only did this once because I was totally freaked out! lol). Then we just chilled in the sand until 12pm when we were supposed to eat. But the woman never showed up. We called her and were told to meet her at the bridge. The problem was we didn’t know where the bridge was. So we continued to walk in the river for another hour until we came to some Dominicans. We found out from them that the bridge we were going to was in the opposite direction that we were going. We realized we would have to go all the way back to the spot we had started from in the morning (probably two hours) to get to her. We decided instead to just go back to Los Higos and have someone pick us up and drive us to go get lunch. But when we got into the town of Los Higos we found the woman who had cooked our food so we ate that food!

This week has been great and I can’t wait to see what other adventures I will encounter this semester!

-Brittini