Rain, Rain DON'T Go Away!!

As you can see, I have put a little twist on the good ol' children's song "Rain, rain go away!" That is because here in the Dominican, rain is a blessed event! It has been raining pretty heavily off and on for the past three days, and I am LOVING it!! It has rained here before, but this is the first time that the rain has actually made the weather feel cooler....by cooler, I in no way mean jeans and sweatshirt weather (it is currently pouring buckets and I am wearing a sundress and flip-flops, feeling quite comfortable!), but I definitely don't feel like I am dying of heat stroke just by walking down the street!

Along with the rain, another blessed event has occurred here in the DR, and that is the arrival of Mister Joshua Prince!! He got here last Wednesday, and it has been so much fun to show him where I'm living, what I am eating, how I get around everyday, and of course having him get to know my wonderful family here! Mi familia loves "Josue" (that's how you say Joshua in Spanish...Mi mama attempted saying "Josh" the first day he was here, but the attempts proved to be futile ;) ) He comes and sits in my classes everyday with me and gets to go to my family's daycare with me after school for lunch and after we usually tool around town or go back to my house and sit on the front porch (seeing as that is the coolest place in my house!) I think Josh may be seeing that his girlfriend is a little tougher than everyone may think ;) He has gotten to brave the elements with me, experience the common occurence of sickness here (we both have colds right now :/), eat the sometimes questionable food (we had sweet mashed platanos with ground beef the other night!), and the plentiful bugs (one kept Josh up the second night he was here...hehe!)

This past Saturday we went to the prettiest beach I have been to since we've gotten here!! It is called Playa Grande, and it was a three hour bus ride away, but the drive was definitely worth it! The sand was beautiful and soft, the waves at the beach were actually substantial (unlike all of the others so far), and the water was cool enough to be really refreshing! We also decided to be adventurers and made our way out to these sharp rock formations where we had to go through little rock tunnels that filled with water when the waves came in and climb onto rocks that were entirely too sharp and had sea urchins hiding in the most clever places! Looking back on it, it probably wasn't the most intelligent decision I have ever made, but it was SO MUCH FUN!! It just goes to show you, sometimes a little risk is a good thing :)

We also got to go to a Dominican wedding on Saturday night, and it was another interesting experience! The culture is so different here, so why wouldn't the weddings be radically different too?? I just feel as though not as much pressure is put on the event itself here, so it is completely fine to show up over an hour late (as we did) because it is safe to say that the ceremony probably won't start until two hours after it is scheduled to start. No worries if you do happen to show up while the ceremony is actually starting because you can just walk down the aisle as the bridesmaids do to get to your seat (yes, that actually happened!)When the ceremony finally does start, because it is held in the same place the reception is, they decide to cut the work in half and just have everyone sit at round tables to watch the ceremony. Round tables are much more conducive to socializing, so it is not uncommon to hear people making polite conversation DURING the ceremony. Although a little unorthodox to me, the weddings here most definitely follow the laid back Dominican style of things!!

So, I am definitely enjoying the time that I get to spend here with Josh, but I will admit that the days are seeming to move quite a bit more quickly while he's here, which I am not a huge fan of :/ But once he leaves, I will be over half-way done with my stay here!! Can you believe it?? I sure can't!

Mi Semana!!

This past week has been so full, so as to not give you all a novel to read, I'm going to list the things that made this past week wonderful!

- The government finally decided that picking up the trash would be a good idea, so after three weeks of trash piling up, my street is finally clean again :) Which means the streams of black ickyness on the sidewalk are also gone!!

-The APU group has made its way to Tony Roma's (yes, there is one at one of the shopping centers here!) at least three times this week after school because they have a big screen where they are playing the World Cup! (I am apparently now a futbol fan as well..who knew?)

-I made friends!! Last week I played with all of kids on my street for about three hours...they loved playing with me because I have "brazos largos" (long arms!) so I can throw the ball really far (yes, these children are small, so their version of far may be a wee bit exaggerated) Anyway, now whenever I walk down the street, I hear "Amiga! Amiga!" and then little kids come running out of who-knows-where to come give me hugs :)

- On Friday night I went with mi hermana and my friend Saleena to watch Prince of Persia (still so interesting to me that we go to movies here that are in English with Spanish subtitles!) and then we went to get Yaroa, which is an extremely popular street food in Santiago...it consists of french fries, layered with a mixture of beef and chicken and onions, followed by a slice of melted white cheese, followed by ketchup, mayonnaise, and more cheese...I know, the epitome of healthy! And written down, it actually sounds pretty gross...but it was SO good! My stomach didn't really appreciate it the next day, but it was worth it ;)

-On Saturday, our group got to go out on our own for the first time, and I am so very glad we did! We took a guagua (a big bus stuffed with people) out toward Puerto Plata and stopped at a place called 27 Charcos, which is twenty-seven waterfalls that you get life-jackets, helmets, and two guides in order to climb up and then either jump of or slide down!   I wish I could explain the beauty of this place...we only did the first seven waterfalls, and just those were absolutely breathtaking, and so much fun! We would walk through the water with huge rock walls rising high above us on either side, and then be pulled, pushed, or climb up through these relatively small, yet incredible waterfalls...such a great experience!!

-When we left the Charcos, we were standing on the side of the road waiting in the BLAZING sun for a guagua, and there was NOTHING! Luckily, there was a big red truck that the 11 of us were able to jump on the back of, and he actually caught up with a guagua, so we could jump on and make our way to the beach for the rest of the day :)

-Here in the DR they have something called "Dia de Los Maestros" (Teacher's Day)...it is at the end of the year, and teachers all receive gifts from their students...and when I say gifts, I mean gifts!! Mi mama is a teacher, and her bed was filled with clothes, jewelry, bath sets, and stuff for her house...it looked like Christmas! The next day, mi mama came in my room and said she had something for me...She then proceeded to give me this beautiful little pearl bracelet she had gotten. I asked her if she had gotten it from one of her students and when she said yes, I told her that she should keep it for herself, which she responded to by saying that the bracelet looked liked me and that she loves sharing with her daughters...I almost cried! I found out that every time mi mama gets gifts like that, she makes sure to let mis hermanas and her friends look to see if they like anything so they can have it!!

-On Sunday, one of the APU girls saw a group of white people in her church, which is pretty out of the ordinary here, so she went over and introduced herself. They ended up being a group of graduating high school seniors who came for a week to visit with their Spanish teacher who has family here...True to the Dominican spirit, they invited all of the APU group over that night for fried platanos and salami, and we ended up staying for hours just talking about everything we have experienced so far :)

-Last night, mis hermanas, mi cuñado (brother in law), and I got home before mi mama and papa... that of course meant that it was our duty to put on bachata and merengue music...this led to my older sister and her husband teaching me how to dance the bachata...which of course led to my two hermanas and I dancing in the kitchen for hours while making dinner, dripping sweat (because between the already hot Caribbean air and the two burners on the stove going, we had created a sauna in the kitchen!) Honestly, one of my best nights here so far, and one I will never forget :)

This week makes exactly a month that I have been here in the Dominican, and, needless to say, this has been quite a week!! And I am bound to have another wonderful week ahead of me, seeing as Josh is coming to visit TOMORROW!!! YAY!

All my love from here in Santiago :)

Random...

I have no actual point in mind while writing this, but I don't want to forget all of the random things I see and experience everyday, so I shall enumerate them here:

- I can safely say that I have never seen a man walking through a school campus with two chickens under his arm...until today!!

- What are the odds of getting into a concho next to the same man that had given you his number a week prior?? Awkward!!

-Have you ever been barked at by a dog...staring down at you from the roof of its house?

-I didn't know that they had tornadoes here in the Dominican Republic, but apparently one decided to knock out a main power line yesterday, and we were without power for 10 hours!

-The sides of our street are currently piled with everyone's household trash because apparently after the elections the syndicate decided that public trash pick-up would no longer be on the docket of "priorities"...

-I now am a mosquito killing master! The little buggers don't stand a chance with me...unless I'm sleeping...then they get me back by attacking my legs... 

 

-As I was walking home from school, I got tickled by the fact that a chicken and rooster were just hanging out on my street!

-Now that the guagua has officially stopped functioning, I get so touched by the fact that my papa walks to the daycare my mama works at everyday so he can walk her home.

That's all I have for now...I know there are so many more things I see everyday that shock me, surprise me, make me laugh, and touch me more than you could know....but as of now, that is all I can remember!!

Love you all...xoxox

Ahorita!!

If you were to look up the word "ahorita" in the dictionary it would say something along the lines of "right away; at this very moment". In the Dominican Republic, they definitely do not use this definition!! Here, "ahorita" literally means anywhere from a half hour to about two hours...You can imagine my shock the first day when my papa told me we were leaving "ahorita". I grabbed my stuff and started to get my shoes and he just looked at me rather perplexed. I have definitely learned my lesson!

As I have mentioned before, time is very different here than it is at home. Here, the focus is much more on the event itself as opposed to the exact time it begins or ends. When my papa tells me that we are leaving for church exactly at 9, I know that we will be leaving at 9:30 at the earliest (it takes time to finish eating the breakfast that is made every morning, get the car to actually start, and lock the three different gates/doors leading into our house!)

This past Wednesday I went to my first Dominican wedding (I say first because I have two more that I am going to get to go to!) The wedding I went to was scheduled to start at 3...We left our house for the wedding at 3:40...At first I was nervous that we would be late , and then I realized the ridiculousness of my nervousness! The wedding didn't end up starting until 5:15!! No one waiting for the wedding to start acted as if the waiting were anything out of the ordinary. When it did start, it was quite an event, with an entire sermon embedded in the ceremony! The reception consisted of dinner and cake (no dancing :/ because here, it is very embedded in the culture that Christians don't dance) Even with the simplicity of the reception, we didn't end up getting home until around 10pm!! 

Time definitely is not in any way the focus here, which takes some getting used to, but it is also teaching me the beauty of not really needing to run life by the hands of a clock :)

Don't Drink The Water!!

I think every single person hears this when going out of the country into a developing nation...it is like the number one rule in any savvy traveler's guide! One may think "Anyone dumb enough to drink the water after they have been told explicitly not to deserves to be sick!" To that I reply, "Well, what if the person drank the water on accident??"

This past Sunday was "El Dia de Las Madres" in the Dominican, so once more, to all you mother's in my life...Happy Mother's Day!!!! (again!) Needless to say, Dominicans are big on friends, family, and food! So, we had a bunch of people over to our house to have a big lunch after church. One big difference between here and home is that on Mother's Day at home, mom's are not supposed to lift a finger...they are to be served and taken care of! Here, every single one of the mom's was in the kitchen working on something for the day's meal. That meant that someone other than my mama made the drinks for lunch. I'm guessing that this woman had never gotten the memo that in our house we take all water and boil it before we put it in a pitcher in the fridge to drink it. This woman decided that she would make things easier by skipping the middle man and putting the water straight from the sink into the pitchers of tea and water! That leads me to my current dilemma...I thought it tasted sorta strange on Sunday and on Monday and Tuesday when I was drinking the same leftover tea and water, I had a nagging suspicion that something was amiss...today, I am paying for it!!

Moral of the story: When the collective "they" tell you not to drink the water...DON'T DO IT!! 

And we walk!!

Here in the DR, a family is very lucky to have one car. My family is one of those lucky families!! As a result, we often go and pick up my tia, cousins, family friends, and anyone else who needs a ride whenever we go to school, church, the grocery store...any outing really! If you can't tell, a car (known as a guagua here) is quite a precious commodity! Unfortunately, last week the guagua started giving my papa problems...He would be ready for work, dressed in his suit and tie, and the car would just not start. Instead of getting upset or cursing the car for not working, he would simply go to a neighbor's house with a huge smile on his face and ask for a jump...Eventually, this plan failed him because on Sunday the car refused to function any longer. Mind you, my papa is the pastor of the church...instead of kicking at the car or complaining about being late, he calmly called a taxi and on our way to church found (or rather made) the opportunity to talk to the cab driver about Jesus. My papa is honestly one of the most joyful and patient people I have ever met and he always gives all the glory to Jesus for his demeanor. Whenever I ask him if he's okay about this whole car situation, he always says "All of my problems are in God's hands. Why would I be upset?" (in Spanish, of course ;)  And whenever I praise him for being so joyful he says, "It is our job to be joyful at all times!" My family and life in general here are sure teaching me a lot!

 

Because of this car situation, I have taken quite an affinity to walking...EVERYWHERE!! My friend here and I needed to go to a certain store to get her phone fixed and to get calling cards, so we walked...5 MILES round trip!! So, needless to say, I better have toned legs by the end of this trip! Honestly though, I am finding such an appreciation for the things I take for granted at home all the  time...like having a car so I can go wherever I want whenever I want (you think through "little outings" a bit more when you know you'll be walking the whole way!)

Luckily, my papa took the guagua to the mechanic today, so I think we'll have a working car tomorrow!

Back Home!!

You may be thinking...what on earth?? She's only been gone two weeks and she's heading back home already??No, I'm not back home in the United States... sorry if I got any of your hopes up! Hehe :) 

I actually just got back to my Dominican home today from a little trip to visit the capital of the Dominican Republic (which is Santo Domingo, for those who don't know...don't worry, I didn't know before either!) Anyway, it was nice to get away for a little while with the APU group and go exploring because Santo Domingo is a bit of a busier, more centralized city than Santiago. I also just loved having full days!!

When drove down on Thursday morning at 6am, fitting the total 14 people into two mid-sized cars...we have definitely gotten close (and by that I mean physically close!!) on this trip!! (luckily, the ride was only 3 hours long ;)  ) Anyway, we got into Santo Domingo and we went straight to a church where a nursing mission team from APU had set up a mini clinic where people from the city could come and tell the nursing students about their ailments, then get medication that the mission team had brought with them. I actually got to work at the table where they were giving out medicine, translating for the people, telling them the directions for when and how to take the medication!! It was the coolest feeling to actually be able to do something helpful with my language acquisition! I also got to play with and talk with a ton of the BEAUTIFUL children that were there, and that obviously put such a huge smile on my face :)

That night we stayed at a cheap hotel near to the beach, and I have never been so thrilled with my accommodations before!! I got to take a shower with RUNNING, HOT water...ahhhh!! AND the room had a wall unit air conditioner!! Oh, the simple pleasures in life :)

The next day, we went to a beach called Boca Chica that had the gorgeous, white sand and bright blue, crystal clear water...the fun part about this beach too is that there was quite an adventure to be had! About a quarter-mile from the beach (in the ocean) was a grove of trees/mini island that you could swim out to...I was feeling adventurous, so that is exactly what I did with a small group of people. We got out there, and I wish I could explain to you what it was like! There was shallow water we could stand in and fish would just come up an nibble at my toes, and on the forest/island there were parts of the ground that looked like they were moving, and when you looked more closely, you realized that there were actually a bunch of little crabs running across the ground (one of which I actually got the courage to let run around on my hand!) There were also lizards...and a rat, which was maybe not the most pleasant thing to see :/ (how it even got there beats me!) Along with the adventure of being out the island, we ended up meeting a 22 year-old guy named Peety who actually is from Port Au Prince, Haiti and came to the Dominican to finish studying after the earthquake...Not only are there no schools for him to study in right now, but his house was also flattened...while his father was inside. So this boy lost any current prospect for a job there, his home, and his father...yet he was smiling and laughing and showing us around this island! I was blown away not only by God's hand in nature but also at the resiliency he can create in the human spirit (We found out that Peety is a Christian and he kept saying "Gracias a Dios" for the fact that he was in the Dominican and able to study...it was incredible!)

That night, our group went to this boardwalk area by the beach with food places and some live music...and although going to the discotecas here is against the rules because of school policy, we just decided to create our own in the middle of the sidewalk!! We had so much fun dancing with one another...laughing hysterically an drawing far too much attention to ourselves :) It started to downpour (because that's what it does here...randomly and out of the blue!) and I just stood in the rain, loving where I was at in that very moment!

This morning we went to a museum that I think is just dedicated to artifacts from different countries all throughout the Americas (sometimes it is quite difficult to decipher these museum tours when they are conducted in Spanish!!) Afterward, we went to this national park called Tres Ojos (The Three Eyes), and I was again blown away by God's handiwork!! It was this collection of three partially underground lakes that were surrounded by trees and vines and cave walls/ stalagmites...I again wish I could explain it better, but no words could describe the beauty of this place!

Then we started back on our 3 hour ride back home in our overstuffed cars...When I got back, mi mama was sitting on the front porch with mi tia and some family friends...She jumped up when I walked up and started telling me how much she missed me (for the 3 days that I was gone!) I walked in my room, and she had put a brand new, beautiful comforter and pillow on my bed...I went out and told her how much I loved it and she just told me that it had been done "con mucho amor" and that she was hoping I would like it. Then she heated up a dinner she had made for me...It was nice to come home :)  (Mommy at home, don't worry!! 502 Oak Knoll will always be my home, but it is so nice to actually be settling into this second home of mine in the Dominican!)

While I have been having such a nice weekend, God is still hard at work in me!! It's funny because he is having to work so hard to get this mentality of "working" out of me! When I was surrounded by the beauty of what he had created, I started getting discouraged about the fact that there is no way I could possibly say the right words to him or approach these works of his hand with enough reverence... But I think that is what he is trying to teach me... "Just being" and appreciating his creation for what it is and him for he is is enough. I will never in this lifetime be able to fully comprehend the greatness and majesty of God, nor will I be able to ever "do" enough to express the proper amount of awe or gratefulness... But that is okay! I need to look around, be grateful, thank my God, and then...JUST BE! While I would like to have all of these lessons he is trying to teach me "down pat" by now, I have to realize that I must be patient with this learning process...and it has only been two weeks!! I think I have a bit more time to let God work in me what he so desires to...

Well, I think I will stop now that I have given you all a novel to read!! Again, I so appreciate the comments of encouragement I get from you, and the prayers you all have been sending up are more appreciated than you know...God is doing a mighty work, and I have all of you to thank for helping me through this process!

Mucho amor to you all...xoxoxoxo