ANIJA Sleepover!

What a special night the sleepover was for the 5th, 6th and 7th graders who came to the summer program at Anija. The fact that hot dogs, chips, smores, popcorn, and even more food was provided made it a great night for these kids, and man can they eat! The kids really enjoyed watching movies, taking pictures, straightening hair (one of the interns brought her straightener), and having pillow fights. Here's a few pictures from the night!

Arriving at Anija for the sleepover!

We even had a bonfire!

I was teaching the girls how to make silly faces...

...and was successful!

All the kids LOVE taking pictures!

I fell asleep within the first 10 minutes of the (first) movie. Can you find me squished between all the girls? They ended up watching movies until 5:30am!

Last Week of Summer Program

Here are a few pictures of the final day of summer program. Kids started the day by showing their parents all the crafts and activities we did in our classrooms. Then everyone went to the cafeteria where each class did a little presentation for everyone. Then the kids went outside to play water games with a work team while their parents stayed inside for another recap of the summer and to announce prizes the kids had earned.

We finished learning about the Armor of God.

Lots of parents and family came to see all the kids had done over during the summer program.

Kindergarten acted out the Three (Seven) Billy Goats Gruff.

Our little Haitian kids sang a song.

They were so cute! (P.S.- lots of them still need sponsors!!)

Third grade presented what they learned about planets.

Week 4 of Summer Program!

This week we read and did activities with the book, Madeline. We also continued learning about the Armor of God. This week was the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation.

Hanging with the girls :)

Ephesians 6:13

Summer Program Week 3

I can't believe we are already more than half way done with summer program! This week went well with little drama in the classroom, Gracias a Dios (Thanks to God)! This week we continued learning about the Armor of God during Bible time and learned about London while reading the book, Katie Visits London. We did various activities involving being kings and queens, choosing which places we'd like to visit in London, and make double deck buses out of juice boxes.

Some activities included making a soldier with the Armor of God, a crown, a double deck bus, practicing writing sentences in the workbook "Where I live," and coloring a worksheet that says, "It's always time to be KIND."

Some of the kids with their gaints soldiers with the Armor of God.

Katie Visits London was a little too long for me to read in Spanish so I sat with the kids this week as we listened to Ruth read the story.

Week 2 of Summer Program!

We are learning about the Armor of God this summer. This day we made belts of truth!

This week's book was The Three Billy Goat's Gruff

I thought it was ironic that we had 3 goats outside our house this week...

We learned about sequencing, what happened first, next, and last.

We had a fun time acting out the story!

No one wanted to be the troll so I volunteered.

We used a chair with a sheet over it as a bridge.

Here's a video of one of the groups performing. *No kids were hurt while doing this :)

First Week of Summer Program

The first week of our summer program is done and if you've read my previous post, you're probably wondering if I've gotten my pasola back. Well, I haven't. Our Field Director has been in contact with the owner of the pasola (a former missionary who left about 2 years ago) and after looking in several places for the title we still haven't found the documents. Please keep praying for this situation and that I could at least get my rain jacket and pants from the seat of the pasola (we aren't actually sure where it is... Jarabacoa, La Vega, Santiago...?).

As for the first week of classes, things went pretty well. It's quite different teaching kindergarteners than 3rd-8th graders but it's a nice change. Having Ruth in the class has been so helpful! This week we read and did activities with the book, "Peter Rabbit." The first couple of days we didn't have enough activities to do but I'm planning on having even more "fillers" next week. One of the best parts of the week was on Thursday when I sat with the kids as they listened to Ruth read Peter Rabbit and three or four of the kids wanted to sit by me.

Another part of my job this summer is tutoring a couple of sixth grade boys in math, finally something involving math! We've been reviewing the multiplication tables and practicing taking your time to do problems correctly. The boys seem to actually be enjoying it!

Thanks for your prayers as always. Please pray for the next week of summer program, for my transportation situation, continuing to raise financial support, for my daily time with the Lord, and for missing my friends and family. Have a wonderful weekend!

Some of our students working away.

We had a special snack of Pringles (we needed the cans for a project).

Jeff is one of the boys who came over from Haiti after the earthquake. He has been doing great in my class and he got "Student of Week!"

The Bible verse for the week was Romans 6:23.

Here are some of the projects we did this week.

We learned about gardens while reading Peter Rabbit. We made a graph of all our favorite vegetables. The most liked was potatoes!

Summer Schedule (and lots of pictures)

Bare with me, I know this is a little long but it's a good update :)

I can't believe another week has already gone by since I blogged last. Here's a little recap... I have really enjoyed being on a different schedule compared to the school year. At the beginning of the week my roommate Jenilea returned from a visit home along with 16 summer interns. The interns were all in Jarabacoa for training for the summer programs and are now dispersed throughout our ministries in the DR. There are five girls here in Jarabacoa and three of those are with me at Anija.

Taking the interns out to eat on Friday night for pastelitos!

The interns checking emails and watching a movie at our house.

Before our two days of official training I helped with other preparations, organizing binders, etc. (stuff I like to do). We had 2 days of training where all the people involved with our summer programs at all our ministry sites came to Jarabacoa. It was really neat to see everyone! Then we spent a couple days preparing our classrooms and reviewing materials for next week.

Training with the Directors of each site before the two day training.

Anija summer program teachers.

Michel, Shawntel, and myself at training.

I will be teaching kindergarten ("preprimario" in Spanish) and I'm really excited! I will be the main teacher and will have a Dominican helper whose name is Ruth. She speaks a lot of English so that's nice for our communication. Then in the afternoon I will be tutoring 5th and 6th graders in math! Yay! I don't have any materials or anything so we'll see how it goes... I will also be helping with one other class in the afternoons but I'm not sure which yet.

My classroom for the summer!

We are studying Europe.

Ruth is helping me this summer. She graduated from Anija and use to live at the Ark.

Here's what my week will look like during the summer.

First, we have summer program Monday through Thursday. Fridays are preparation days. We begin the day with devotions at 8:30am. The younger kids from the community come to Anija at 9am and end at 12pm. We will all eat lunch at Anija. We start the older kids program at 2pm and it ends at 5pm. Tuesday nights we have Bible study with the interns, Thursdays night I'll be having dinner with whatever work team is here to give a sponsorship talk, Friday nights are date nights with the interns, and Saturdays are some sort of fun adventure (hiking, waterfalls, etc). I'll also continue tutoring a couple people in English as well and I'm hoping to spend a little time out at the Ark, maybe playing soccer with the kids on Fridays.

A couple of the kids that live at the Ark. It was so good to see them after being gone for almost a month!

Last night's sunset.