Friday

Today was Dia de Amor – Day of Love, more commonly known to us as Valentine’s Day. Everywhere we walked there were street vendors with little carts full of roses, sunflowers, lilies, and other flowers. The kids at ANIJA school were all decked out in red and pink. Many of the little girls wore frilly dresses and tiny high heeled shoes. Since so much love was in the air, we took the opportunity to do some lessons with the kids about the greatest love of all – God’s love! In one class when Chris R addressed the class and began by saying Buenos Dias (good morning) the entire class of kindergarten students, as if on command, promptly stood to their feet and in unison chanted Buenos Dias back to Chris. The kids have been taught to stand in respect when addressed by an adult!

The kids enjoyed decorating paper hearts and making fruit loop necklaces. Many kids used the method of string one fruit loop then eat one fruit loop as they worked on their project!

                                                           (Isn’t this little girl a beauty?!?!)

 

 

                                 (One of the kindergarten classes working on decorating their hearts.)

                        (Keith helping some of the preschool kids make their fruit loop necklaces.)

In the afternoon we got to take the kids that were receiving gifts from their sponsors to the chapel for an art lesson before handing out their gifts. The kids were called to the front one by one to get their gift and every time the gift was handed to them the other kids chanted in Spanish “That’s so cool!”.  

Those of us on the team that have sponsored children at ANIJA got to take their kids down the street to Bon for ice cream. The unanimous favorite flavor was chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate!

 

 

 

    (Chris R and Rachel with Estefania, Dahiyanna, Angelica, and Arlin, enjoying some ice cream at  Bon.)

 Next, we loaded up the van and went to have lunch and play with the kids at the Ark for the final time this trip. Again, we were served beans and rice with chicken. When we asked we found out that for breakfast the kids eat a d of bread and chocolate milk for breakfast every day They are home from school by 12:30p to eat lunch which is always beans and rice. Sometime there is chicken, pork or beef in it. Sometimes it may have broccoli or teyote (a local starchy vegetable) in it, but it is always beans and rice. Then in the evenings the kids are served another piece of bread and chocolate milk before bed. The menu very rarely changes!

                              (Lucas and Franklin having some fun during play time at the Ark.)

                                            (Randy and Genesis hanging out at the Ark.)

(Soccer practice takes place every day at the Ark.)

After we said our goodbyes to the little friends we made this week we went back to the team house for dinner, packing, and preparing to leave in the morning for our day at the beach. Some of the packing was done by candlelight since the power went out for the second time of the day. We made one last hike up the hill to hang out at Pizza Pepperoni before calling it a night. We will enjoy one day at the beach to unwind and process our experiences from the week together and will then get up early and head to the airport to begin the trip home!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

The morning started a little earlier today. Chris R and Chris B were crazy enough to get up at 5:2am to go with Emily, one of the missionaries, on a four mile run. A group of about 60 people run together every Thursday and the Chris’s figured out quickly that there are pros and cons to running in the Dominican Republic. The pro is the amazing mountain view and cool mountain breeze. The con is that there are just a few more hills in the Dominican Republic than in Indiana!

We got to Palo Blanco before the students this morning so that we could share in devotions with the staff. Chris led us in devotions using The Story curriculum that CCW is going through right now. We sang praise songs (in Spanish and English) while we each did water color painting of creation. Some of us were more artistic than others but everyone gave it their best shot!

 

(Chris and Chris show off their artistic side during devotions this morning.)

The rest of our day went much like the day before. We threw Valentine’s Day parties for the remaining classes bringing out total to 13 classes of parties in two days. Thanks to all who donated stickers, construction paper, glitter glue, etc. The kids had a blast!

 

 

When we were cutting out the paper hearts in preparation for the kid’s crafts one evening at the team house, we said that we shouldn’t cut out brown or black because they weren’t fun colors. Lucas was insistent that one little kid may really love the color brown and insisted on cutting one brown heart. We made sure that Lucas got his own decorated brown heart today from some of the girls!

 

 

 

(Aww, isn’t he so cute?!)

 

And Randy, who openly proclaims that he is not a kid person was caught dancing and having a good time with the kids today. He claims that he has no choice with all the kids around but we all know he is enjoying them!!

 

 

(Nice moves Randy!)

While most of our team has been busy throwing parties and doing construction at Palo Blanco, Neil has been busy over at ANIJA school painting a mural.

(Didn’t Neil do any awesome job on this mural?!?!)

We left Palo Blanco a little early because we needed a little bit of time to do some shopping! So all of you wives that were left behind at home, hopefully your husband bought you a souvenir since I gave it away that we went shopping! As usual we wiped out the shelves of coffee and vanilla at the store!

Tomorrow our schedule will change a little bit as we will get to spend the morning with the kids at ANIJA. We will be eating lunch at the ARK orphanage and will have some time to spend with the kids there as well before we pack our bags to leave for our beach day on Saturday.

Wednesday

 

Well, if anyone needs a party planner our group is now proficient! We threw eight parties today at Palo Blanco for kids ranging from 1^st – 6^th grade. We were a few days early for a Valentine’s party but the kids didn’t seem to mind it since they got to enjoy cookie decorating, arts and crafts, and a Bible story lesson about God’s crazy love for them. Our team also learned something from the kids today. We learned that it is possible to pile sprinkles two inches high on your cookie in order to maximize sugar consumption! I’m sure the teachers loved us sending the kids back to class on such a sugar high and the cafeteria workers will surely be finding remnants of pink and red sugar sprinkles in the crevices of the concrete floor for months!

 

 

(Carol helping the kiddos with their Valentine’s craft.)

The Dominican lifestyle is much more relationship based than in the U.S., so lunch breaks tend to be longer to allow for rest and community. During our long lunch break we ate plates of rice and beans (surprise!) and potato salad and then played on the playground, joined in a game of baseball, or even took a siesta (nap) under a tree.

(I guess the secrets out now about who was the one napping under the tree!!)

 

                                                              (Chris loving on Arianny during recess.)

(This little girl loved playing with Rachel’s hair and getting hugs!)

(Lucas found a friend to swing with!)

 

(Chris R's playground buddies)

 

While most of our group polished our party throwing skills, it is only fair to mention that Chris B, Tyler, Keith and Lucas continued on with the construction project today. Their day consisted of a lot of shoveling and moving dirt for hours on end and completing more work on the sidewalk that is being poured. Not the most glamorous work but so vital to the care center!

After the rest of the team left for Palo Blanco for the day, Neil and Lucas stayed behind to run baseball practice for about 20 boys.

(Neil giving the boys some pitching pointers. How do you say curve ball in Spanish??)

The evening at the team house finished up with another delicious meal prepared by the amazing Carmen. We dined on Dominican beef stew (served over rice of course), fried yucca, and fresh papaya and pineapple. We were joined at dinner by the wonderful Vic and Leslie Trautwein and their daughter Chase. Vic and Leslie have been missionaries to the DR for the past 12 years and have so many stories and so much wisdom to share. They are such a joy to be with!

 

Tuesday

It was fun to start the day at ANIJA (Kid’s Alive school) to watch the flag raising ceremony. The daily ceremony includes the Christian Anthem, the Dominican National Anthem, and a prayer to start the day. Two of the students get to raise the Christian flag and the Dominican flag and then the kids are off to class.

(The ANIJA students all lined up and ready for the flag raising ceremony.)

After the flag raising ceremony we geared ourselves up to start sweating again and headed back to Palo Blanco. We mixed concrete and mortar and continued to lay block for the leach field and pour a sidewalk leading up to the bathroom. I think today was even hotter than yesterday and we were dirty and soaked with sweat within an hour of starting. Carol earns the prize for the best farmers tan for sure!!

 

 

 

(Rachel is trying really hard to ask Radimes (Rah-di-mase) a question with no translater and lots of sign language as Carol offers no help!)

Half of our group got to go on a home visit to Leanny’s home. Leanny is the sponsored by Carol so it was fun to get to go see her home. Leanny lives in a wood slat home that is actually quite a bit nicer than many of the homes in the area. Randy compared the home to being about the size of his garage and was amazed by the number of half-dollar sized spiders climbing the walls. The home had a stove but the team learned that it isn’t functioning and is used as a storage unit. Leanny’s home does not have running water and they use a community bathroom that is just a toilet sitting over a big hole in the ground with no plumbing. Many of the families in Palo have buckets that they use to collect water in on one specific day of the week. The buckets are typically the family’s entire water supply until they collect again next week. Lucas said that seeing the home was quite a culture shock.

(The outside of Leanny’s home.)

 

 

(The kitchen area inside of Leanny’s home.)

 

Recess time with the kids at Palo Blanco is always a blast and Lucas continues to be a favorite among the kids!

(Lucas playing with the kids on the playground.)

We got to pass out some of the gifts to the Palo Blanco kids and will continue to pass them out throughout the rest of the week. It was fun to see the kids walking around the care center proudly clutching their gift bags.

 

Tomorrow we will be putting on a big Valentines day party for the kids at Palo complete with a cookie decorating station, art projects with Neil and story time with Chris R! Now, it is time to start cutting out about 300 paper hearts to prepare!!

 

 

 

Monday

Whew! I am writing this blog 9:40pm and we are all very thankful that the electric and power came back on in the house so that we could take showers. We played hard and worked hard and sweat a LOT…..and then came back to the team house to no electricity which means no water and ten smelly people.

Ok, let me back up a little bit. Our day started out at Palo Blanco care center, with a quick stop to change dollars into pesos on the way. The guard in the money changing booth with the huge gun is actually quite friendly!

At Palo Blanco we learned that our construction progress for the week was to help build the leach field for the new bathroom on the trade building. This involved lots of mixing mortar in piles on the ground, lots of filling buckets with dirt and lowering them into the huge pit, and lots of laying brick and cutting rebar. Needless to say we are a little worn out and have some sore muscles…..and sun burns! And let me tell you, no one is complaining about the sun burns since we heard that it was 12 degrees in Goshen today!

 

(Chris B, Lucas, and Mishael (a Dominican worker) laying block.)

(Randy and Tyler cutting rebar.)

 

Of course we managed to get in lots of time with all of the rambunctious kiddos! Everywhere we turned there were shouts of “Americano, Americano!” from hopeful brown-eyed kids trying to get a piggy back ride, someone to play tag with, a baseball partner, or someone to go down the slide with. Lucas was a favorite on the ball field with the boys and was in his element throwing the ball around and doing drills.

(What a beautiful view behind the Palo Blanco ball field! Notice the CCW sponsorship banner on the backstop!)

(Lucas and Neil playing "pepper" with some of the Palo boys.)

 

After we left Palo we headed back to the team house (and didn’t shower!) and gathered up the gifts for the Ark kids. We went to Jeff and Ann Vandermolen’s (missionaries) home and enjoyed (ham and corn pizza was a popular choice), jumping on the trampoline, playing volleyball, getting an art lesson from Neil, and passing out gifts. The kids anxiously waited for their name to be called so they could get their gift bag, get their picture taken, and see what goodies their padrinos (sponsors) sent for them. Once the gifts were passed out chaos ensued and the volume in the room rose considerably as the kids proudly showed their gifts to their friends. What a fun night and such  privilege to get to be the ones to hand out the gifts!

(Neil giving the art lesson to the Ark kids.)

 

****And now we would like to ask you all to join us in prayer for an urgent need that arose this morning as I am posting this blog.**** A young, 15 year old girl from Palo Blanco went missing last night and is thought to have been abducted. Carnaval, a festival that is centered around a lot of evil spirits, is going on and it is an especially scary time for this young girl to be missing. Please pray for her safety and quick return!!

 

Sunday

Saturday night we arrived at the team house at about 11pm after a long and tiring, but mostly uneventful day of traveling. We started the travel day at 3am with a drive to Chicago, caught a plane to Charlotte, caught another plane to Miami, a third plane to Santiago, and an hour and fifteen minute bus ride to the team house. Boy was that a long day!

Sunday morning was pretty low key. We had a short orientation and then headed to the Ark orphanage for a little bit of play time with the kids. We had the privilege of eating dinner in the homes with the kids and man can those house moms cook! We enjoyed heaping plates of rice and beans (are you surprised?), chicken, fried bananas, and some other food that I don’t remember the name of and we don’t have anything like it in the US (but it was yummy).

 

A waterfall hike with some of the sponsored Ark kids was next on the agenda for the day. The kids all jumped into the back of a pickup truck (with a few of the team members) and followed our van to the waterfall. We bounced over dirt roads with potholes big enough to swallow the van and made our way to the grassy parking area where our vehicle was “guarded” by a weathered old man with a machete and a guard Chihuahua for a few pesos. We enjoyed the spectacular view of the mountains surrounding us as we hiked down the narrow trail to the waterfall. About half of the kids and adults were brave enough to actually swim and the rest played in the sand, took pictures, or soaked up the sun. (Yes, we actually got hot enough in shorts and flip flops outside to sweat a little bit!) These moments being carefree and silly with the kids are the times when bonds are formed and hearts are sealed together and we absolutely love it!

 
(We are never quite sure what is going to be in our way in the road. Today it was a herd of cows.)

(Chris Bennett with his sponsored girl Indiana and Carmen, sponsored by Chris and Rachel Russell. I'm not sure why they look so worried!)

We left the waterfall we got ready for the evening church service. The church now meets in a small church building with uncomfortable wooden benches and lots of ceiling fans to circulate the humid 85 degree air. For anyone who thinks our hour long services are long, you should try sitting through a 2 ½  hour service on hard benches!  As always the praise and worship music in Spanish was beautiful and the enthusiasm of all the people singing helped us enter into worship with a new fervor.

After hugs goodnight from the Ark kids we loaded the van again and headed to Columbiana’s for dinner. The Columbian food was delicious but found it quite interesting that instead of after dinner mints we were served after dinner Hall’s cough drops. Apparently is a common custom around here.

(Dinner at Columbiana's)

Monday morning we will start our first day of construction at Palo Blanco. We will be starting construction on a new bathroom for the woodshop/sewing/computer building that we helped to build over the past two trips. I have no doubt that the day will also be filled with numerous “hola’s”, high fives, and hugs from the sweet kiddos at Palo Blanco.

Now, it is time for a few card games before heading to bed. We are going to need our energy for tomorrow!

And we are off!

Well it is 3:40am and we are on the road to O'Hare airport to begin our journey to the Dominican Republic. We have to give a few shout outs as we start our trip. Thank you to Glen Miller for getting up in the middle of the night to drive us to the airport. A huge thank you to Karen Hanton for coming to our rescue when we locked the keys in the van we borrowed from her at 3AM. Not exactly a nice warm night to be drug out of bed on! We owe you big time. We would appreciate your prayers throughout our journey. Pray for our hearts to be broken in a beautiful way by God's precious Dominican people. Pray for our team to provide tangible proof of God's love to the community in Jarabacoa with the work we will be doing. And pray for health and safety of everyone on the team during our trip.

Team Members

Chris Bennett
Chris Wert
Chris Russell
Rachel Russell
Keith Miller
Carol Fields
Randy Landis
Lucas Miller
Tyler Hager
Neil Boston