Week one

Yesterday marked one week that I have been in Monte Plata. I arrived last Wednesday very excited and very tired. We went to dinner at the director of the school, Debora's home. I had stayed up all night since we had to leave for the airport at 2:40 in the morning and it just seemed pretty pointless. We were going to go to church after that but I had them drop me off at the house because I could barely keep my eyes open. I slept from eight that night until nine the next morning.
After finally waking up, I went down to the school and was happily greeted by many smiling faces of the kids at the school all calling out "Betania" as I walked past their classrooms. I spent most of that morning talking with Debora about the upcoming summer program. This summer I am the director of he summer program. As I started talking about it and planning it with Debora, I realized how much responsibility I was taking on and started getting pretty nervous. At the end of my time with Debora she asked if I had any doubts and I told her about my nervousness but that I know that God has placed me here in this capacity and I just need to trust in him. As I was telling her that, I was telling that to myself. After sitting down and actually planning things out I'm feeling more and more comfortable with my role here.
When I first arrived here, there was a missionary here, but she left my second day in and won't be returning until after I leave. That left me and Nadelli (18 year old girl) in charge of the fort and all that is involved with that.
As I have been here, I have many experiences that would never occur in the states. The first of which was eating goat. We were invited out to the orphanage for dinner one night and Juana was so excited because she was cooking goat. Since I am such a picky eater, I was hoping I had misheard, but as it turned out I had heard correctly and found myself that night with pieces of goat meat on my plate. I ate it and it tasted like turkey but I'd rather not have to repeat that experience.
I've become very good at killing Mosquitos there seems to be quite an abundance and my new blood seems to be all they desire. They especially enjoy my feet which I especially do not enjoy. Despite the mosquitos and the many mosquito bites I have been sleeping really well. That is except for when I wake up in the middle of the night to what's sounds like someone breaking into the house. It really is not someone breaking into the house but rather the rats that have taken up a residence in our ceiling running around. I have been told they don't come down and I haven't seen one yet but I keep my window s closed and door shut at night so they can't get in if they do decide to join us in the house.
In the afternoons, I have been going out to Casa Monte Plata, the orphanage, to work with one of the kids Karin on her reading and writing. I am amazed by the changes I have seen in her from when I first arrived here three years ago. When I first met her she was extremely quiet and terrified of anyone she did not know. She also couldn't even identify the letters of the alphabet or sounds or count beyond twenty. She rarely ever wanted to sit and learn. Now she is reading and her favorite subject is math. When I go to work with her, she is excited and when she finishes reading a book she looks at me and smiles and says "finished" so proud of the few English words she knows. The other day I was working with her for probably about an hour and I thought it would be a good time to stop, so I told her she could go play an she looked at me and asked if we could do more. I was so surprised by her eagerness to learn and was happy to work with her. Aside from her changed desire to learn she is just happy always with a smile on her face. When she found out I was directing the summer program, she went to ask if she was going to be going to the summer program and came back with this huge smile on her face and told me she was going to the summer program and gave me a huge hug.
After I work with Karin, I spend the rest of the afternoon with the kids playing and having fun and then eat dinner with one of the houses. The other night at dinner the house mom just started pounding on the table and out of no where the kids just joined in with their own rhythms. It was fantastic and hilarious. The kids were just enjoying themselves and laughing. It was such a great moment.
I've also been playing basketball with the boys at the orphanage. I'm usually very cautious about my ankle after it's past injury a couple months ago. Its usually pretty sore after but I haven't damaged it yet.
I think this has gotten long enough so I will end it here.

It's saturday? Wait it's Sunday now since there was no Internet yesterday

I have been in Monte Plata for five days now. Coming down I had absolutely no idea what was in store for me. I got in late on Monday night and spent the night in town being reaquainted with the sounds of roosters and dogs and motorcycles at all hours of the night. School doesn't start until next week so everyone is still enjoying their vacation time. The kids from Casa Monte Plata (CMP) take their own vacations to visit family members but not all of the kids have family members to visit so they usually end up staying at the school or Ramon and Juana's house. In order to give these kids a real vacation a group containing these kids and Juana's family and others from the church went out to camp. When I arrived the had already been there for a few days. So after my night in town we headed out to camp. There was a work group there from Westminster so they were occupying the cabins so we stayed at the top of the property in a little house consisting of two bedrooms with bunk beds and a hallway in-between. The kitchen and bathroom were outside. There was not enough room for everyone inside the house so the boys all slept outside in tents. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and playing volleyball and basketball and a bonfire at night. I also had the wonderful experience of eating pheasant for the first time. I dont plan on repeating that experience. I really enjoyed the relaxing time and getting to reconnect with the people here. We left the next day to come back into town. CMP was still on vacation so we had the two youngest members staying with us in the missionary house. It was fun having the two little boys with us and the adorable smiles they constantly had on their faces. We took the boys back yesterday to CMP since the rest of the kids are coming back today. So now it is just me Melissa (missionary) and Nadelli hanging out and getting Melissa settled in since she hasn't been here long. We went to church last night and when we got home we stayed up telling stories and laughing until midnight. In an attempt to explain what a hillbilly is I ended telling the story of how Luke burned his leg and had everyone laughing. Today another group is arriving from New Jersey and they will be staying at CMP since there is a leadertreks group here from Wheaton academy. We have youth group tonight and then church tomorrow and school starts Tuesday. It's definitely going to be a busy time.

Week two of camp

Today I killed a snake. Well I chopped a snake in half with a broom and we had to get a boy to crush its head. I heard Nadelli screaming so I ran outside to see her throwing rocks at the ground after asking her what she was doing she pointed to a snake slithering around on the ground. I had been told that there were no poisonous animals on this island but Nadelli told me the snake could kill and I didn't need to be convinced anymore so I grabbed the broom and hit the snake in between Nadelli's throwing of chunks of cinderblock. It began to climb into a little hole at which point I started hitting it harder and eventually severed part of its body. Nadelli then took off to find a boy to crush the head of the snake. She soon came back with one of the boys who live here as security and a baseball bat. The whole while Alba was hiding in her room watching from the window. The boy pulled the snake out of the hole as Nadelli quoted Genisis 3 about crushing the head of the snake and screaming. After a couple tries the boy crushed its head with the broom stick. It was a fantastic welcome home after camp.
The second week of camp was completely different from the first as we were dealing with older girls but it was wonderful. This camp I really connected with the girls in my cabin. We shared the Gospel with them daily and God gave us many opportunities to build into the lives of the young believers although none of the girls in my cabin accepted Christ there was a definite openness and changes in the lives of all the girls believers and unbelievers. Tonight at youth group all but one of the unbelievers were in attendance. Be praying that these girls come to know Christ. Also be praying for the young believers that they could have someone to guide them and disciple them. We talked a lot about salvation and that it's not just some prayer you say so you don't go to hell it's a decision to give your life completely to Him because you are a sinful person in need of Christ and His love. The Gospel is preached so much here but many times people say a prayer out of fear and after a while we find out they really weren't saved and they really didn't understand God's love. We had the chance to speak about what it really means to be a Christian.
In the evenings we also had our big group gatherings in which the Gospel was shared and we did dramas and sang. In one of the dramas I was Hannah Montanna and it was hilarious. I had two body guards wearing sunglasses and raincoats with ear pieces and salami as guns. The girls went crazy screaming and everything. It was a lot of fun. We had a family from the States who are originally from here and the mother spoke for two of the evenings. She did a really good job speaking about self-esteem and having an identity in Christ and then about purity and leaving behind the pleasures of this world and having Christ guarding us from the nastiness of this world.
This week I was the Romans coach and I really enjoyed it. It was great to see the captain and how she has really grown and become a really good leader. I also saw fantastic teamwork and putting others before themselves which last year was very minimal, but the girls are growing and God is working.
I came back with some fantastic wounds as well. I have a bruise on my leg from falling while playing freeze tag the length from the tip of my thumb to the tip of my pinky. I also have a cut on my foot from falling while playing basketball in the rain. It's not that big of a cut but in the middle of the game I was surrounded by twenty girls who lifted me up off the ground and carried my into a massive mud pit, then I went to the river which was dirty because it was raining to get some of the mud out of my clothes and my hair. As a result the little cut on my foot became very infected and is very swollen. I'm taking some antibiotics and cleaning it daily so hopefully it will get better soon.
I go back to the states on Wednesday and I'm glad to be going home and seeing everyone there but it's going to be hard to leave.

Camp week one

I have spent this past week in wet tennis shoes with fifty 8-12 year old girls and whatever other Dominican wildlife there is(rats, lizards, tarantulas, etc) bathing in river water which has its distinct odor or the rain. The things that were wet at the beginning of the week are still wet because of the consistent rain and lack of sun. With all that this week of camp was absolutely fantastic.
I was a counselor in cabin 5 which is the cabin with the oldest girls at camp. We spent a lot of time laughing and enjoying ourselves and by the end of camp almost all of them were saying they didn't want to go home and there were even a few tears involved. I was surprised by that because so many of them were daily complaining about being sore from the previous day's activities and being tired.
For three days straight it rained throughout the entire day. It made it a bit more difficult to do our activities and we had to do some creative changes like switching the afternoon competition from softball to hockey inside the cafeteria with benches making the sides of the court and using the top of a five gallon water jug as the puck. We also spent part of that day having an arm wrestling tournament. It turned out to be one of the best days.
With all the rain it was also really cold (mid-seventies) but I was really happy I had brought my sweatshirts because I wore them daily or at least nightly. In thw nights we had all the campers together for some singing and Bible time and dramas, one of which included me pretending to have lice and having butter put into my hair as the "cure." I would say that I will never do that again but we're doing the same skit this next week, but at least I know when we will me doing it so I don't have freshly washed hair destroyed by butter.
In each of these nights the Gospel was presented. We also had devotionals during the daytime that also had a clear Gospel message and throughout the day we were giving many opportunities of teachable moments. One afternoon after lunch during rest time one of the girls in my cabin who is a Christian came up to me and said "Bethany Glenys wants to become a Christian so I told her to go talk with Juana but she's scared and wants to talk to you" so i called her over and I was a little nervous because I wanted to clearly explain what her decision meant and make sure that she understood but my Spanish isn't perfect, but I was reminded that God is not restricted by me or my knowledge. I prayed with Glenys and she accepted Christ into her heart. We went and talked to Juana to tell her what had happened and get Glenys a Bible. Seeing this happen was huge because most of the time I didn't think any of the girls in my cabin were even hearing what was being said in the nights, the teachable moments or in devotional time, but God was working and He still is. Be praying for Glenys that someone will come alongside her and disciple her and also for the other girls who heard the Gospel.
Camp was definitely exhausting and difficult even getting back to town was difficult as we had to send the cabins one by one to cross the river since it was so high from the rains that the bus couldn't get through. In the end everything worked out and there is no place I would have rather been.
Tomorrow starts our second week of camp with the older girls and I'm hoping to get some sleep today so I can be well rested for that. Be praying for the kids that will be coming that they will have open hearts and also that the rain would hold off for a while and that if it doesn't that we would have rejoicing hearts in all we do.

Two months

It seems crazy to believe that I have been here for almost two months. It's really exciting as I'm seeing relationships grow and different changes in different kids that are clearly a testimony of God's work in their lives.
This past week has been yet another busy one. A friend of Rebekah's came down for a visit which meant increased activities. On Wednesday we took a trip out to a waterfall to do some swimming only it had been raining nearly everyday so the water was pretty high and pretty dirty which caused some of the Dominicans with us to stay out of the water, but those of us that entered had a great time getting cooled off in the water.
On Thursday we decided to go into the colonial part of the Capitol and spend some time learning about history since Rebekah's friend is a history teacher. We ended up getting a late start so by the time we got there things were starting to close but we got to spend some time in an old fortress and weapons museum there.
On Friday the interns and I headed out to the orphanage to make playdoh with the kids. It was the first any of them had done this so we first had to explain that we weren't making food but playdoh and then the kids were amazed at how it all came together and then had fun playing with it.
Saturday was one of my favorite experiences I have had here because we got to take all the kids from the orphanage who were graduating from eighth grade or high school to Jarabacoa to go rafting. This was the first time any of them had done this and everyone of them enjoyed the time rafting and laughing together. I fell out of the boat at one point but was very quickly pulled back in by the guide but even that was fun. It was a day that the kids said they would not forget.
Sunday we went out to the orphanage for our fourth of July celebration and ate hot dogs and had a bonfire and roasted marshmellows. It was a great time of fellowship and playing with the kids. It was especially fun to see some of the kids and the changes in them from the first year like Karin who was very shy and untrusting and seeing her now not afraid of new comers or talking with people and there is definite trust that she has with the others around her now. Also Gabriel who had made some bad decisions and got in with the wrong crowd at school and seeing now how he's left that behind and now has a sense of gentleness about him as well as an innocence. Both of these kids are not Christiains but God is softening their hearts and working there. Please be praying for these two kids to come to Christ.
Today I spent some time talking to one of the students in our summer program. He had hit a girl in his class and had been sent up to the office. We've had a lot of trouble with this kid and we have to send him home at least once a week. We found out last week that his dad had been abusing his mother and sister and then in talking with him today he told me that his mom had abused him. Normally he would be sent home for hitting the girl as hard as he did since he's a danger to the others but he really did not want to be sent home and knowing what is going on in his home life we decided to keep him at school in the office until school was over. It was a harsh realization what these kids are going through but it is very much a reality and there really are not forces in place to come in and investigate and help the kids if needed like we have in the states. Be praying for this little boy and the others in our program that they can be cared for well but also that they can find salvation. I shared the Gospel with this little one today and the Gospel is being shared daily with these kids.
I seem to have gotten an outer ear infection from water being in my ear after rafting this weekend. It was causing me a lot of pain but it felt better today although there were still moments of pain and I still can't hear out of it. Along with that I picked up a cold from one of the kids out at the orphanage on Sunday so my sinuses have been a little overwhelmed. On Friday we are going put to Jarabacoa for the weekend and there are missionaries there that are doctors or nurses so if the problem with my ear persists until Friday I'll have them take a look at it and hopefully get some medicine. It is not too bad all in all. I was able to play a game of soccer out at the orphanage with older boys and my ailments were pretty much forgotten during that time aside from the coughing and sniffling. Things are going well. I leave for camp midweek next week and I am excited for that to start. I will be returning home in less than a month now and I don't think I'll be ready for it.

Jarabacoa, summer program, vbs, weddings....

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.

I have been here a month

I have now been here for just over a month and it doesn't seem like it has been that long, but I have been enjoying my time here so much.

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.