So we have just completed our first week of summer program. With that things have dramatically become busier over the past two weeks. A week and a half ago I left with four other Dominican girls and Ramon (Dominican missionary) for Jarabacoa for summer program teacher training. There I met our two new interns Shaina and Jennifer. It was a fantastic time in Jarabacoa attending what I think has been the best summer program training yet and getting to connect with some people that I had met when I interned in Jarabacoa. I also got to meet all the interns and speak English a lot. All in all it was a good two days. The day after we arrived back we met with all the teachers that are working with us this summer to go over the curriculum and prepare for the next week. After getting everything ready in the classrooms and spending the weekend inviting the kids to the summer program and making many copies, we felt somewhat ready for the coming week.
Monday started our summer program. We had around fifty kindergarten through second graders. We started it all off with a chapel service where we sang some fun songs and talked about Ephesians and Paul. Our Bible theme for this summer is put on the armor of God, and we're very excited to see how it goes. It was great seeing the kids ready to learn and enjoy themselves. This summer I am not teaching I am "co-directing" as Rebekah calls it. Pretty much I make copies, take kids home, and teach in the classroom if there is a need. I like what I am doing a lot because when I take the kids home I get to see their homes and where there from and meet family members. I also like being able to play with the kids and enjoy time with them without being in the classroom. We had prepared for this week to be difficult with a lot of discipline issues since that was the normal experience of the summer, but aside from a few kids having to be sent home because they could not behave the kids have been great and listening and learning. In our daily devotional time with the teachers we talked about how we saw God moving and it was great to hear how God was moving not only in the students but also in the teachers. What is even more exciting is that one of the students who was expelled from the summer program last year after a couple days has only been sent up to the office once, and not only that but other than one day she has been on the list of excellent behavior for three days in a row. We are so excited to have her in the program and to see her growing. There are still many more weeks in the sumer program but we are praying that she will be able to continue in this way and stay in the program.
Not only did we have summer school this week but we also had the church's VBS (picture above). With 450 to 500 kids in attendance daily (even though it was raining) we came home every night pretty worn out. Most of our time at VBS was telling kids to sit down and to stop talking, but there were 450 to 500 kids daily hearing the Word. There was also a youth VBS in the evenings which we didn't go to, but we are hearing of how God moved in that and how He changed lives through that. It was a very exciting and draining time, and thankfully Saturday morning allowed us to catch up on some sleep.
After the week of madness, we went up north yesterday for a wedding of one of the guy's here in Monte Plata. It was my first time at a Dominican wedding and it was very very unique. There were probably fifteen girls involved in the wedding each representing a different thing and doing little dances down the aisle. In typical Dominican fashion the wedding started two hours late, so Rebekah and I spent some time working on a Rubic's cube which we have now solved multiple times. It was a very pretty wedding and a lot of fun and thankfully the rain held of so we didn't get drenched outside during the ceremony.
This next week we continue with our summer program in the mornings and we'll probably be going out to the orphanage in the afternoons to do stuff with the kids and then this coming weekend we will be going to Jarabacoa to go rafting and we are taking the eighth grade and high school graduates from the orphanage with us, so we are very excited since this will be the first time any of them have done this. Also at some point during the week we'll be taking one of the houses with us out to a waterfall for some fun.
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