It's all coming to an end

Tomorrow is our last day of our program. In reflecting back, it seems like we just started. As we look at leaving in less than a week, it seems like we just got here and although I'm looking forward to some of the comforts of being in the US I don't really feel ready to leave.
For the five weeks that we have had our summer program we have had very few days in which it has not rained. When it rains, we get a break from the heat. It has not rained for the past two days and the humidity and heat are a strong force to be reckoned with. Nonetheless the kids still have to walk home and sometimes the kids ask us to walk them home. The past two days and then again today we have walked all over Monte Plata taking these kids to where they live. Every time I see the homes of these children and meet their families I understand them more. When I see what little they have I wonder how they can be such happy kids. Then I realize poverty does not define their lives, it is only their situation.
As we walk to the neighborhood where a lot of the kids live, we walk past our first grade teachers house so she walks with us as well. When I started the journey today of taking home the kids after school I thought it was one of our normal journeys but I had been told that Leidy (pronounced Lady) the teacher that walks with us and her mom were going to make us lasagna for lunch but for some reason it didn't click in my head that we would be eating lunch with them today until Leidy's mom was cooking lunch and I asked the intern if we were eating lunch there. I like lasagna a lot so I was excited to eat it and also blessed by these women. However, I'm not a big eater, I'm more of a snacker but today I was a big eater. As we came to the table to eat I approached with fear and trembling knowing that the amount of food that would be on my plate would be a ridiculous amount and I was right. It's a good thing I like lasagna. With much effort, I ate everything that was on my plate. After finishing, Leidy said, "I'm very happy. You know why?" I said, "why?" she responded, " Because you actually ate today!" I responded, "Yes, I ate more than I have in the last thee days combined." which was actually a pretty accurate statement. Her mom came out a couple minutes later and after seeing I had finished asked if I wanted more to which I responded no. She had quite the shocked look on her face and I'm still not sure if she actually believed that I was full. What I loved even more about being there was that we still had two of our students with us and instead of just taking them home where they would probably eat a lot less, they were invited to stay for lunch as well. I love seeing how Christians here take notice of the needs around them and meet them. I see them living out the idea of seeing Jesus hungry and in need and meeting those needs in the way of meeting the needs of the least of these (Matthew 25:31-46).
Yesterday as we were walking back to our house after walking the kids home we walked past some kids playing in the dirt. One little, shirtless boy looked up and I realized he was one of the kids from the school who hadn't been there for a while. As he realized it was us walking he came running and gave me a big hug. He was so excited to see us. We asked him where he had been the last couple days and made sure he was going to come today. He showed up today with a big smile on his face and with girls sandals on his feet. Some of the kids started laughing because his sandals were pink and my heart broke a little as I wondered if those were the only shoes he had. Even with the kids giggling he had a smile on his face and despite what his home life is like, he still had a reason to smile.

Monte Plata, Santo Domingo, Jarabacoa, Santo Domingo, Monte Plata all in two days

This past Thursday we had our teachers over for a delightful dinner of French toast, eggs, and salami. Coming from a place where most people know that syrup and sugar and fruit and other yummy sweet things accompany french toast, I made the assumption that our Dominican teachers would know as well. Imagine my horror as I watched one of the teachers grab the bottle of ketchup meant for the eggs and salami and begin pouring it onto her French toast. Thankfully I was able to stop her before the bread had been destroyed completely. It was really good to have all our teachers together outside of the classroom and just have time to hang out and talk. They all seemed to really enjoy it and we were glad to have an excuse to make French toast.
We had intended to go to bed early on Thursday night because we had to wake up early the next day to take a bus to Jarabacoa to meet up with the rest of the intern group. However, we had yet to pack anything for our weekend trip. As we began packing and getting everything in order the Dominican girl we live with Nadelly and our Dominican houseguest for the week from the orphanage Ysabel came in and started talking with the girls. I knew it was getting late but I didn't realize how late until I looked at the clock and saw it was already past midnight and we still weren't completely ready for our weekend trip. Finally sometime between one and two in the morning we went to bed.
We had a very short night's sleep as we woke up at six the next morning to leave by seven for the capital to take a bus to Jarabacoa. The night before we had been told by Juan Pablo who lives at the school that he would be taking us to the capital. We headed down to the school around seven and I was surprised to see Juan Pablo wasn't waiting for us. A couple minutes later a very tired looking Juan Pablo came out of his house and asked us what we were still doing there and why no one had come to pick us up yet. I was even more confused and starting to believe I had misunderstood something in our conversation the night before. A couple minutes later Juana called him asking him why he had yet to come to the orphanage to pick up the jeep so he could take us to our bus. He was suddenly much more awake as he got on his motorcycle and headed to the orphanage to get the jeep. At around seven thirty we left for the capital. After being on the road for twenty minutes he turned to me and asked me if I knew where the bus station was to which I responded, no, I thought you knew. To which he responded no I don't know. So I asked him if he would like to call someone to get directions. He then began laughing and told me he was just joking and that he knew where the bus station was...kind of. Once we finally made it to the capital and through the morning traffic I realized we had been driving for quite a while. Eventually he turns to me with a mildly concerned look on his face and says, we are not lost yet, which was then followed by him pulling over and asking a street vendor where we needed to go which was the followed by a u-turn (which a sign on the road said not to do) at the next intersection. Emily, one of the interns, found this entire adventure humorous and at random points we would hear her in the backseat laughing. As our bus' departure time grew closer and closer I was not having the same response. We did make it to the bus station in time to get our bus and soon were on our journey to Jarabacoa.
We had a great time in Jarabacoa getting to spend time with other interns and share experiences as well as hanging out with some of the missionary families. Probably our favorite thing was the hot water that we had to take showers after a month of cold showers. We were even able to hike to some beautiful waterfalls. They told us it would be a difficult hike but I had done the hike before a couple years ago and I didn't remember it being too difficult so I decided I could do the hike in my flip flops. I was wrong. About a quarter of the way through the hike up with the rain coming down and my feet slipping everywhere I made the decision to do the hike barefoot. I decided having hurt feet was better than falling off the path and dying. My feet and muscles were pretty sore after that but it was a good adventure.
On Saturday we went from Jarabacoa to the capital to tour the colonial zone which is their more historic part of the city with many tributes to Columbus. I have been there multiple times now so it wasn't all that exciting but it was good to spend some more time with the other interns from other sites. We then got to experience the joy of taking public transportation back to Monte Plata which included riding the metro and then a very crowded bus sitting next to an open window as rain poured in, but i was happy to have a seat and not have to be one of the many standing crammed together in the aisles. By the end of it all, we were happy to get back home and go to bed. The lack of sleep from the previous two weeks finally caught up to us and we were happy to have our first true day of rest on Sunday since we got here.
All in all, things are going really well here. We have seen a lot of behavioral improvements in students and seen them become active learners in the classroom. Even in our afternoon programs with the older kids we have very few behavior problems which is surprising at times having seen some of these kids as trouble makers during the school year and also at camp. I definitely see God clearly working. Pray for God to continue working in these kids and softening their hearts.

the most American thing we know how to do in Monte Plata is eat pizza

Describing this past week with words seems near impossible. This past week we had EBDV, which is the Dominican form of VBS. When you think of VBS you most likely think of games, crafts, snack, etc. When I think of EBDV, my first thought is chaos, but chaos is hardly an appropriate description. EBDV covers a span of two hours of every afternoon for a week with between four to five hundred kids ages five to eleven in attendance. It starts with song time, then moves to game time, which involves a select few of the crowd actually playing the game, but includes the screaming voice of every member of the crowd cheering for their team. Then they move into a time of Bible verse memorization and after that a Bible story time and then they split up into smaller groups by age and by smaller group I mean twenty kids at the least but can mean eighty. Most of my time is spent walking around and telling kids to be quiet or sit down. It is a lot more exhausting than it sounds. I found myself wondering why so many kids would want to come to a hot church and be forced to sit quietly for two hours. I asked the Dominican girl that lives with us why she thought so many kids came and she told me they come because it's EBDV. I did not feel like that answered my question but day after day more kids came and memorized verses and heard the Gospel. In my American mindset I viewed the week as pure chaos but the kids saw it as a place they wanted to be and after thinking about it more I realized many of these kids don't have anything else to do. In addition to the EBDV in the afternoon there was also one at night for kids ages twelve and up. We decided it was best not to participate in this since were already doing the school program in the morning and EBDV in the afternoon but there were an additional two hundred kids there. Pray for these kids that heard and saw the love of God in this past week.
After a long week we were feeling pretty tired on Saturday, so we had a day of fun with our Dominican teachers at a local waterfall. We did a lot of swimming and then some relaxing in attempt to prepare us for Sunday which was the final and craziest day of EBDV.
Today we were supposed to begin our first day of volleyball week with the older kids but it's been raining all day so we waited for the kids to show up for a half hour but none came. Another half hour later we were told there were kids waiting for us. They had showed up an hour late and it was raining so we decided playing volleyball might not be the best decision so instead we played soccer in the rain. We got pretty wet and when it rains the basketball court that we play on gets really slippery so we had quite a few falls but the kids loved it. We had to take a little break in the middle because the lightening was getting too close but once it passed the kids were more than ready to start again. After they left we decided to celebrate our country's independence day we would do the most American thing possible in Monte Plata for a reasonable price and that was pizza. We decided since we were already wet we could go in the rain to the local pizza place. We did not however realize that it was only five in the evening and it was raining which meant the pizza place would most definitely not be open. We were made aware of this as we walked up to Oliver's pizza and saw all the doors were closed. We headed back to the school to wait a while longer and attempt to go again. At around six we headed back in our wet clothes because it was still raining. As we approached we saw the lights were on and the doors were open. We went in and ordered our pizza and were told it would be at least a half hour and to come back later when they would be ready. We also needed some drinks so we went to the local grocery store to get some pop. As we were about to get there it started pouring rain, so we entered the grocery store dripping wet. After almost wiping out as I entered the store we bought our pop and much to the dismay of those in the grocery store returned to the pouring rain. It was also lightning and thundering so we decided instead of walking to the school from the grocery store we should run. As we got closer and closer to the school the streets were more and more flooded with very nasty looking water. The street in front of the school had also flooded so we had to walk through the river that was now flowing in the street to get into the school. It continued to pour until the flooding in the street was above the knees of the average person. The lightning got pretty close to the school and the thunder was so loud it was natural form of fireworks for our fourth of July celebration. Since the street had flooded in front of the school there was no way for us to get our pizza until after the water had gone back down. Once the lightning and thunder had moved on we went out to watch people attempt to drive there motorcycles through the flood. There were quite a few that killed their motorcycles halfway through and had to deal with the shame of everyone watching them as they walked their motorcycles through the rest of the water and then attempt to restart them. After about an hour we were finally able to leave the school to pick up our pizzas. It was still raining and we were still in our wet clothes. It was very funny seeing the looks on the faces of the people as we passed them for the third time in our soaking wet clothes with one of the girls carrying a closed umbrella (we had brought it to protect our pizza). When we walked into the pizza place the guy that had taken our order had a shocked look on his face. He seemed quite surprised that we had actually returned. Needless to say he had not made our pizza so he asked if they could deliver it to us so we walked back to the school once again passing the same people without anything in our hands except our closed umbrella. Finally at eight o'clock our pizza finally arrived three hours after we had began our adventure. It was still raining and it continues to rain but we enjoyed our delicious pizza as we celebrated the fourth of July.