This week was supposed to somewhat be a week of vacation or calm before the storm of the summer program, but it seemed to be a pretty busy time. This past weekend (Thurs. Fri. and Sat.) we went to a conference in the capitol featuring John Piper, Miguel Nunez, and some other pastors from the Dominican Republic. It was a great time of hearing men of God speaking on very important topics as well as seeing the large number of Dominicans in attendance and coming together and being built up in the faith as well as worshipping together. It turned out to be a long weekend. On Thursday we were there for half the day, then on Friday again half the day although our plans were changed a little when a hose on the car broke on our way to the capitol meaning we had to get that fixed by a kind stranger on the side of the road and then take it to a mechanic in the capitol to make sure everything was okay. After that though we were able to make it to the conference. Then on Saturday we begun our day at 5 a.m. which for me is far too early for anyone to be waking up, but we did and thankfully I was able to stay awake the whole day, which some others had some troubles with, but we were very much spiritually encouraged that day. It was really great to be able to take each day different people with us that were either in the youth group or leaders in the church, and we hope they were encouraged by their time there.
After a busy weekend we still had church on Sunday, and then after church we pretty much ate lunch and all took very long naps. On Monday Nadelli and Rebekah went into the capitol to apply for Nadelli's passport, which has been a long time in the making since they first had to get her a birth certificate, which is difficult since she wasn't declared and her parents are both dead, but in a month she will finally have a passport (a Haitian passport although she has never been to Haiti, but it was the only way it could be done). On Tuesday we went back into the capitol to do some dress shopping for the girls for dresses for a wedding coming up in the next couple weeks as well as some paint to paint the exterior of the house here. Rebekah and I had high hopes to finish the painting of the house in two days. After one day we realized that would not be achievable. On Wednesday we painted the inside of the porch and the ceiling. Then on Thursday Rebekah and I headed out to Jarabacoa to help get some things ready for next week for the training for the summer program. I did some fun coloring and mosaic making, which will be used for examples to show how the crafts are supposed to look. I also ended up staying up until 3 a.m. laminating over 150 papers that are for each of the sites and will be passed around from one classroom to the next. The laminating process took a long time since the machine is a basic laminator where you have to put sheets of plastic around the paper and then put that in a cover and then send it through a machine that melts it one at a time. The next morning we woke up at 7:30 a.m. so I was pretty tired, but we started working again and since the continent focus of the summer program this year is Europe I spent the morning drawing maps of Europe until the power went out. That left us with not much to do, so Rebekah took a nap and then we got back on the road to make the drive back to Monte Plata.
Friday afternoon we had planned to take naps, but that did not happen, so we headed out to church that night with mints in Rebekah's purse, which we sucked on throughout Friday night church to stay awake. It worked and we headed home to finally get a good night's sleep. We got to sleep in this morning and then we spent the rest of the day painting the house and we were able to completely finish the porch, so now we just have the other three sides of the house to paint, but we're hoping that will be an easier task than the porch.
This next week Rebekah heads out to Jarabacoa again for the summer program's directors training and then on Wednesday the Dominican summer teachers and I will be heading to Jarabacoa for the teacher training and then we'll all be back Thursday and the summer program begins the following Monday, so things are going to be getting pretty busy pretty fast.
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