A Few Pictures From My Visit Home

Mrs. and Mr. Westergard

Kristen and Megan

PLNU girls!

Captain Hirst (I worked for Capt Hirst and his wife in San Diego for 3 years)

Kids Alive Missionaries in the Dominican Republic

Here's a group picture from our Kids Alive retreat last weekend. These are all of the missionaries that work within our nine ministry sites in the Dominican Republic. I included where each person lives behind their name. And as you know, I work at Anija in Jarabacoa so I also wrote 'Anija' so you can see who the people are that I work daily with.

From left to right:

Top row- Leslie and Vic Trautwien (Jarabacoa), Craig Rowley (Constanza), Brian Veen (Jarabacoa), Kyle Bradley (Constanza), Paul Cooper (Jarabacoa-Anija), John Breul (Jarabacoa- Anija)

Middle row- Rebekah Holbrook (Monte Plata), Jenilea Jamieson (Jarabacoa-Palo Blanco Care Center), Emily Jameison (Caraballos), Me (Jarabacoa-Anija), Libby Rowley (Constanza), Marcie Cooper (Jarabacoa), Sally Breul (Jarabacoa-Anija)

Bottom row- Jessi Dixon de Veras (Caraballos), Leona (Jarabacoa- Palo Blanco Care Center), Jan Burkey (Jarabacoa- Palo Blanco Care Center), Ann VanderMolen (Jarabacoa-Anija), Jeff VanderMolen (Jarabacoa)

Missing- Bill and Juliana Hansen (Jarabacoa- Harmony Home), Kerry and Milagros Dougan (Jarabacoa- Anija)

English Class with the Haitian Boys

Amazed they understood what to do and that they were actually doing it!

Notice that he wrote all the colors upside down. That's the way he was looking at my paper so that's how he copied the words.

The boys with their tutors. Thanks Funa and Shawntel!

Here's a little clip of English class this week.

Home Visit Update

This weeks home visits were a little different than normal. Over the past several weeks I have gone with each of the teachers who do home visits so they know what kinds of questions they should be asking, what types of things they should be observing, etc. As the school year is coming to an end and as I'm heading to the States for a visit in 10 days, we still have a lot of home visits to do in a little amount of time. So this week, all of us went out to do home visits. Together we must have visited over 20 students this week! Here are some pictures from the visits I went on.

During this home visit out in a campo (outside of Jarabacoa), there were lots of kids that lived nearby running around and they all treated me like an American! Most people in town see Americans (missionaries, tourists, etc.) semi-regularly but it was like these kids had rarely seen a white person. One of the girls couldn't stop playing with my hair, another kept saying "americana" to get my attention, and they all ran beside me and held my hands when we were leaving. It was so cute!

A Few Fun Activities

Here's a few random pictures...

Jessica, Maddie, and I ran a 12K in Jarabacoa back in March.

Boy was it a different experience, starting with our plastic numbers. So there wasn't really an official starting time. You were just suppose to be ready to go around 2:30pm and wait until they blew a horn (it actually started at 3:30pm). The course went through Palo Blanco, where we have one of our Care Centers. Apparently, it's known that the kids and even adults not only throw water on you but literally soak you by filling 4 or 5 gallon buckets with the nasty water running beside the road and throw it on you all at once. At one point I got hit with water from every direction and was carrying at least 5 extra pounds of water on me. Then of course I started thinking, "man, I know some of that water went into my mouth... I hope I don't get a parasite!" Also, they didn't block off any rodes so coming back into town I was running (dodging) motorcycles, cars, etc. I also saw one guy in the race get on a motorcycle only to be dropped off aways ahead of me (I caught up and passed him). The outcome- I got 3rd place for the Women and won a t-shirt, a trophy, and 2,000 pesos (about $60).

Anija staff took a day trip to the beach last week. We all crammed in this bus (of course it didn't have air conditioning) to ride 3 1/2 hours to the beach.

Sosua Public Beach.

What a difference experience I had going with 30 Dominicans and being one of out two white people.

A few weeks ago we had a Kids Alive Women's Retreat in Cabarete Beach. We had a great time relaxing, getting pampered, eating delicious food, enjoying the beach, and engaging in fellowship with one another. Can't wait until next year!

I had a great day celebrating my birthday. I started off my day by making mango pancakes for breakfast and had a few Dominican friends over along with Jenilea and Erica. In the morning I taught 5th-8th grades and most of my classes went well. Home visits were cancelled so I got to go home and skype with my mom, sister, and Megan (who asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding!). Then I went for ice cream with a close friend and fellow teacher Michel. And for dinner a few other missionary friends and I went out for a nice dinner at Rancho2Rios. I had imported steak and it was WONDERFUL! I also enjoyed many happy birthday wishes, cards, and even a few presents!