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.
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