Wednesday

I didn't have time to write last night but wanted to let you all know that you are well. A few team members are fighting colds so we ask for prayers for health and that the germs wont spread to the rest of us. We were able to pass out the gifts to the ANIJA kids yesterday. They were all very grateful and had a lot of fun! We are going to have a special dinner with the Ark kids tonight and give them their gifts. It should be lots of fun.

Tuesday

Tuesday February 10, 2015

I want to take a few minutes to paint the scene that I’m currently surrounded with while I write this entry. I am sitting in the living room of our team house with the front door wide open to the porch. The breeze is warm and I hear the buzz of insects, the crunch of truck tires on the gravel road, the roar of moped engines, the occasional intrusion of loud merengue music blaring from a passing truck, and the clank of bamboo shoots that are taller than the house waving in the wind across the street. Some of the team is sitting out on the front porch chatting with Karen Green who joined us for dinner tonight.

Another fun-filled, energizing, tiring, loud, chaotic day at Palo Blanco is under our belts. Jason and Chris Bennett finished up work on the guard house at Palo Blanco. They even installed a metal louvered window for air circulation. As they finished their work the Skim Ice man pushed his little freezer cart by the school gate and Chris Bennett purchased a bunch of cherry and apple skim ices (which are equivalent to flavor ice popsicles) to share with the team and some lucky children.

Jenna, Jason, Chris Russell and Rachel went on some home visits this afternoon. We walked past the houses closest to the road (which tend to be the nicer homes), down a little muddy foot path to some small shacks. At the bottom of the hill we encountered two Haitian children who were approximately 2 and 4 years old, by themselves. There was a fire burning in the outside kitchen (which was a little wooden lean-to) and no adult watching out for the children’s safety. We learned that it is not uncommon at all for children to be left alone to fend for themselves for the day. Many times children as young as 6 are left at home to care for infants while their parents are away – often without any milk or supplies to feed the baby. This reality makes the importance of a school program, such as Palo Blanco, much more evident. At Palo Blanco the kids are given a uniform, fed nutritious meals, educated, and taught about God’s love. We are all so thankful for this program’s existence and humbled to play a small part in the ministry and these kid’s lives.

Well, that is all I have for now. The team is going to head up the hill to Pizza Pepperoni for a snack and some WiFi. Good night all!

 

 (Neil's David Ortiz mural at Palo Blanco)

(Tyler helping Andy with his art project.)

(Chris Bennett finishing up work on the guard shack. Chris Russell is really just watching. )

Pictures!

 (Dinner at Delicias Columbiano's on Sunday night.

(Rachel and Maria at church)

 (Carmen taking Jason down in an arm wrestling match)

 (Daniella and Jenna)

(Coralma, Chris, Destini and Janna at the waterfall.)

(Underwater picture of Teresa at the waterfall)

(Richard and Chris W)

Monday

February 9, 2015 – Monday

I thought I would start off today’s blog with a few things we are thankful for. 1) We haven’t seen any cockroaches yet. 2) We haven’t been served chicken feet in our rice and beans yet (although I have to say that I’m dismayed that Jason has put in a special request for them!). 3) Carmen’s cooking is just as good as we remember!

On our way to our first day at Palo Blanco School this morning we stopped to exchange our money. It is always fun to hand over $25 and get 1000 pesos back. We feel like the Dominicans are getting the raw end of the deal on that one!

We did quite a mixture of activities at Palo Blanco today. We had a Valentine’s Day Party for one of the older classes. Chris Russell decided to be a scientist and did a fun experiment with hydrogen peroxide, yeast and dish soap. The ingredients were poured into a tall plastic bottle and the combination caused a foam to grown uncontrollably and spew out of the bottle. The kids were taught that God’s love grows exponentially just like the foam in the experiment. The kids were also able to work on an art project under the instruction of our resident art teacher, Neil and decorate a cookie with frosting and sprinkles.

Jenna spent hours playing with the kids on the playground being followed around like a mother goose and her ducklings. The kids fell in love with her quickly and were sad to see her go at the end of the day!

As anyone who spends much time in the Dominican Republic quickly learns, plans change by the minute and it is important to be flexible. Our initial plan for the day at Palo Blanco went out the window before we even arrived. We learned that the mother of the gatekeeper had unexpectedly passed away in the middle of the night. Her daughter-in-law is one of the cooks in the kitchen and many of her grandchildren attend the school as well. In the DR the majority of people have no money for embalming and the body is not sent to a funeral home. Because of this the burial must take place within 24 hours of death. The entire school was shut down early so that the staff could go to the family’s home to pay respects. The body was laid on ice in a casket inside the home where people could come and pay respects. It is custom to stay with the family for hours and often times wail loudly to express how much you love the deceased. The cultural and socioeconomic differences in how the family and community responds to death is, in many ways, a stark contrast to our customs in the U.S. – but the grief is still the same.

After leaving Palo Blanco we headed to the Ark for recreation time before dinner. It was pouring rain so we spent much of the time under the porches of the homes hanging out with the kids and house parents. When the rain let up many of us went down to the soccer field to watch a very muddy, messy soccer practice.

Dinner was a special treat as we were joined by Vic and Leslie Trautwein, some of our favorite missionaries. This couple is an amazing blessing to Kids Alive, this country, this community, and to each of us as individuals. We were blessed to listen to how the ministry has grown as well as to hear updates about their four children.

Tomorrow is another day at Palo Blanco with more parties, projects, and playtime. It is time to head to bed and get some sleep because the roosters wake us up early! (Oh wait, it is after 10pm and I am hearing at least 5 roosters already. I think they are a little confused about their job!)

 

Sunday

Sunday, February 8^th

The day to see the kids finally arrived!  Even though we didn’t get picked up until 10:00a.m., we were all wide awake and raring to go by 8:00 (did I mention we were excited?!) 

We went to the Ark Orphanage where we enjoyed worshipping with the kids and house parents at the orphanage as well as other local families and missionaries who came to join us.  We enjoyed familiar music in worship (in Spanish) and loved watching such a variety of people and ethnicities joining together to worship our awesome God. 

After service, we returned to the team house to enjoy a home-cooked Dominican meal consisting of roasted chicken, beans and rice, arepita (fried yucca), and a carrot/raisin salad. Upon finishing the meal, we returned to the Ark where we were able to take a number of the kids to the local waterfall.

 

 We had to cross four fun swinging bridges before reaching the water.  The water was quite cold (I know, I know, you’re in Indiana where the water is literally frozen so what are we complaining about here where it was 85 degrees today!). Jason, Chris and Jenna were brave enough (or dumb enough depending on how you want to look at it!) to jump in with the kids.

 

After dropping the kiddos back at the Ark, we headed back to the team house to get cleaned up before we headed to one of our local favorite restaurants. It is called Delicias Columbianos and had a variety of delicious foods such as empanadas and papas.

 

The evening ended with us working on preparing supplies for the 10 classes we will be teaching this week at Palo Blanco.  The school is in the poorest area of Jarabacoa.  We will be doing a lesson, craft and snack with nearly 270 children this week. Whew! 

 

More pictures and stories to come. Thanks so much for all of your support and prayers! We are feeling them!

Team 2015 is on the road!

It is 2am and we are officially on the road to O'Hare airport in Chicago. The roads are clear and most of us are too hyped up to sleep on the trip. A big thank you to Sheena Tallman and Mike Clemons for meeting us at the church to pray for us before we left. Thank you to Steve Dils for being graciously roped into being our driver. We appreciate your prayers throughout our trip. So you can pray for us by name I am listing our team members below.

Chris Wert
Chris Bennett
Chris Russell
Rachel Russell
Jenna Minier
Neil Boston
Keith Miller
Tyler Hager
Jason Mavis

We are excited to love on some kiddos and show them how crazy God is about them. Let's get this party started!

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!