Random Pictures

These are my friends and past-graduates from Anija, Alma Mia and Maria Rebekah. Maria Rebekah lived at the Ark for many years, attended Anija, and has now graduated from high school last year. She wants to study to become a dentist. Continuing her education is possible through sponsors and scholarships through Kids Alive. Alma Mia did not finish school past going to Anija, which is very typical here in the Dominican Republic. I heard a statistic that about 5% of Dominicans graduate from high school.

Here is a picture of students lining up in the morning when the bell rings. There is one line for girls and one line for boys for each grade. One of the Directors, teachers, or students pray, the students say the 5 Respects (Respect God, Respect yourself, Respect adults, Respect others, and Respect the property), and then sing the Christian Hymn and National Anthem.

Here I am with Elizabeth. Elizabeth is one of our many students at Anija that have sponsors who help pay for her education at Anija. I visited her house in a barrio that is close to the Ark. Her house consists of basically one room with sheets hanging to form a 'bedroom' or two. I noticed the roof was made of tin with little holes in it. The next time it rained a lot I thought about her (and many others) and how water was probably coming through the holes in the roofs.

I'm with Indiana, who lives at the Ark and is a third grader at Anija. Every last Sunday of the month, the Ark holds a church service on-site so that any parents/relatives who are still in the picture can come for the day, starting with church, having lunch together after, and spending time together during the afternoon.

A Dominican Baby Shower

A few weeks ago I went to a baby shower for Kenia, a teacher at ANIJA. I arrived at the baby shower at 6:30pm, the time stated on the invitation. I should have known better. Of course the majority of people didn't arrive until 7 or 7:15pm. For the first hour and a half we played a lot of games. Some games included feeding another person baby food while blind folded, putting a balloon under your shirt, bending down, and trying to untie your shoes, and guessing how many squares of toilet paper fits around Kenia's belly. Throughout the party, food was served three times. It's known that in the Dominican culture, once the food is served, people will leave. So at this party there were 2 or 3 designated food servers that came around while the rest of us remained seated. Lastly, presents were opened after guests had started to leave whereas in the US, presents are one of the main focuses of a baby shower. I felt like I was watching a 5 years birthday party as the women were so excited about what they bought Kenia that they started opening the presents themselves and then showing her. I really enjoyed the party and felt like I have the opportunity to connect with the teachers from ANIJA outside of work.


There were lots of decorations and even a 'diaper cake'!


The mother-to-be, Kenia, and myself.

It took a few tries but I finally got a silly face out of my friend/fellow teacher.

Representing the North Americans at the party were (left to right) Marcie, Erica, Sally, and myself.

A Few More Pictures, Prayer Requests, and Praises

Here is a picture of some of the houses at the Ark
(KAI orphanage in Jarabacoa). Each house has
enough space for up to 10 children. There are currently
68 children at the Arc, twelve new this year!

Here is a picture of a couple of my students working
in groups with a team from the US.

All the kids LOVE having teams come. They are
all smiles :)

I am with one of my good friends, Michel. She is the
8th grade teacher at ANIJA. She was very welcoming
when I arrived and is patient and helps me with Spanish.
I started tutoring her in English this week.

Please pray for:
-Guidance and wisdom for future plans
-Finding a prayer partner
-Learning and understanding Spanish
-Building friendships
-My role in helping with sponsorship
-Helping with volleyball

Praises:
-Good trip home for my gramma's funeral
-I feel very blessed for the house I live in
-God has been faithful in giving me patience with my classes

Learning about the DR

A few weeks ago I went to a conference held here in Jarabacoa at the Young Life camp with 3 other Kids Alive missionaries (who have all arrived within the past year). The weekend conference was all about the Dominican culture. We talked about the history of the Dominican Republic, family structure, the use of time, culture shock, clothing, and many other things. There were about 24 of us in all as people came from several cities throughout the DR. A couple of things that were made clearer to me were greetings, clothing, and friendships. I've been greeted with a simple "hola," with a hand shake, and with a kiss on the cheek but I never knew which one was normal. Come to find out that I should let the Dominican take the initiative if I'm meeting the person for the first time. If I know the person, it's more normal to greet with a kiss on the cheek. I also learned about clothing and appearance. Dominicans take pride in their appearance and 90% of the time look 'put together' and professional. And I see 75% of women wearing heels or other very cute and dressy sandals. That explained why teachers at ANIJA (all the classroom teachers are Dominicans) usually wear some sort of dress suit every day. Needless to say, the fact that I have lived in running clothes for the last 8 years does not help my fitting in in this area. Since the conference I have tried to make more effect at looking nicer for work and other outings. Something else that I brought up was making friendships with the other teachers at ANIJA. The first few days at ANIJA I didn't feel very welcomed by the other teachers and I found out that that is a normal behavior for women here. Also, specifically at ANIJA, teachers are used to having Americans come in, stay for a year or two, and leave so they have learned to somewhat guard themselves from getting to close to us. This made sense to me and I learned that I need to be the one to approach the teachers and make an extra effort to start friendships. I have already seen a difference within the last week and am enjoying my new friends!
Here are a couple of pictures from our formal night at the conference.

Myself, Whitney, Erica, Meredith, Amanda, & Rachel. These girls teach at Doulos, at all English speaking school about one block from Anija.

Myself, Marcie, and Jenilea. We are all missionaries with Kids Alive.

Dogs!

This is Rosita. She was found by our neighbors (who are also missionaries with KAI) digging in their trash. Marcie is allergic so my roommate Jenilea brought the puppy to our house. The puppy was only about 5 weeks old and not in good health. The original plan was to take the puppy to the veterinarian and leave her their but after Jenilea gave Rosita her a bath and played with her there was no giving this puppy away!

This is my roommate Katie and her dog Feliz. Katie got Feliz back in January when she lived in another house and after a few months Feliz disappeared. Katie thought Feliz was gone for good until the day after Rosita entered our home. Another fellow missionary family in the same neighborhood called Katie saying that a dog wandered into their yard and they thought it was Katie's (they had seen the dog several times before). So after missing for 4 months, this dog shows up and Katie is 100% sure it is Feliz.

So now, after never having a dog in my life, we have two!

Pico Duarte!

Here's a little bit about my trip up Pico Duarte.

The youth group of the church I attend (Nueva Vida) planned a trip to hike up Pico Duarte, the tallest mountain in the Caribbean, and about 2 days before the trip I was asked to go as an extra leader. Of course I said yes and received permission to miss teaching on the Friday of the trip. We left at 5:30am Friday morning and started the hike around 8:30am. There were about 30 students and 5 adults in all (many of the kids in the youth group also attend ANIJA). The first day we hiked 11 miles, taking lots of breaks along the way. Groups naturally formed as everyone walked at a different pace. I was designated as the leader for the first group. The hike was challenging in different ways. Besides being physically challenging through the length of the hike, being hailed on (most of the kids had never been in hail before), and hiking in the dark (most did not have flashlights), I was challenged by the language barrier. I love to encourage people (especially when exercising) and the only encouraging phrase I knew how to say in Spanish was 'Good Job!' which got a little old after saying it for the first 2 hours of hiking (I still said it anyway:). I also tried having conversations with the other leaders and kids throughout the trip and would be stumped at times when I didn't know the vocabulary or couldn't understand the person I was talking to. After a long day's hike we were so glad to reach the shelter. The shelter had a big room for everyone to sleep in, bathrooms, a place to cook food, and a fire pit. We had several mules bring up the food, water, and sleeping bags. On Saturday we hiked to the top of Pico Duarte, which was 3 miles. We enjoyed the view at the top and then hiked back down to the Shelter and took Saturday afternoon to rest. Each night we had a devotional time where the conversation was always flowing (even though I didn't understand all of it at times). Sunday we got up early and hiked down 11 miles. I am so proud of every person that went on the trip as I don't think these kids knew what they were getting themselves into and had not trained physically for a hike like this. Although they were tired, they encouraged each other and helped one another by carrying others backpacks and taking one's hand to help them up or down the mountains. My favorite parts of the trip were being outdoors and seeing God's beautiful creation. I also enjoyed running down one of the last sections of the hike.

Here are some pictures from the trip.

Early drive to the base of Pico Duarte.


Stopping for a little break.


Along the hike.


This is a picture of the group I lead on the way up.


We made the 14 mile hike up to the tallest mountain


This is the shelter we slept at both nights during the hike.


Luisa is a graduate from ANIJA and asked me to take lots of pictures so she could send them to her sponser. She is currently attending Doulos, an all English speaking school.


The whole gang.


I felt like I was on top of the world!


Just a little glimpse of how grand God's creation is.

Gramma Bailey has gone to be with the Lord

I'm glad I got to see gramma before leaving for the DR.

This was at gramma's 90th birthday party a couple of years ago.

I'm so grateful to have had gramma Bailey in my life for 23 years. I will miss taking her shopping at Mervyn's and going out to eat at Mexican restaurants with her. She was such a loving gramma and I'm glad to know that she has passed away peacefully and is with the Lord.
Please keep my family and I in your prayers as I will be making a trip home for the funeral.

"Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints." Psalm 116:15