Reach Out and Teach: A Little Excitement!

It feels like we’ve been in the DR for awhile now, but we hit the 2 week mark yesterday! So many things have happened, yet progress still seems slow on the major projects. We’ve measured up for the doors and windows for the school. Next week Shawn, another missionary, and some Dominicans are hopefully putting the roof on. After that we can hopefully start the school in some form! I can’t wait to finally meet the kids and figure out how this is all going to work out.

I got my bike last week! It’s a lot different than what I’m used to though. My bike at home is 600cc’s and this one is only 100cc’s…I’m missing the power a little! I’ve already had 2 kids on the back at one time. All the Dominicans stare and point not only because we’re American, but also because girls normally don’t drive bikes here…they’ll soon learn that I’m not a typical girl! The day that we went to buy my bike started out not so well. Wilkyns was supposed to come get me and take me shopping. Well, he showed up here on someone else’s bike because his was stolen in town that morning :(. Made me more nervous than I already was. Fortunately, we found a great deal on a used motorcycle and Shawn, Jen, and I bought Wilkyns a bike the same day I bought mine! I’m gonna admit that it was hard to say goodbye to that money, but God has been showing me over and over that He provides and that I can’t rely on money and the things that I have. The cool part about this story is that after his bike was stolen, Wilkyns went home and was just thinking, “Praise God.” And that was before we gave him money to buy another bike…if only we could all have faith like that.

I’ve been getting restless around the house, so I started a new project today…we’re going to have a garden! Shalom and I started pulling weeds this morning. We needed a hoe and rake to prepare the dirt, so I drove my bike into town with Manuel (my first trip without following someone else!!) and we got our tools! When we got back, the Dominican boys found some yucca (potato-like root) that we’re going to cook up for dinner. We’re hoping to grow TOMATOS :), peppers, lettuce, sweet potatoes, onion, potatoes…whatever seeds we can find! I cannot wait to get some fresh vegetables!

Above: Our “garden” before starting. The boys found us some yucca!

Random things in life:

I finally saw the girl that I sponsor on Saturday! She saw Jen and stopped walking and Jen called me out. When she saw me, she gasped, put her hands over her mouth and headed straight for me! So cool that I can be a part of that!
We eat a lot of rice and beans and we have an avocado tree in our back yard! Manuel climbed super high up into the tree and we picked 8 of them today!
Pray that we can figure out why our power isn’t working correctly. It’s been really hard to get things down with the radio station especially.
Also pray for our Spanish…it’s getting better, but it’s still hard to understand people when they speak at their normal speed.
We took a nice little break at Playazul, a small beach that we had to ourselves)…amazing what God has created for us to enjoy!
Wilkyns and I are going around Thursday to talk to the families that will be attending school.