These past few weeks were definitely busy! I feel like I’ve literally been away from the house for 10-12 hours every day. But God is faithful and we’ve accomplished SO, SO much!
One day, we were in the middle of class and one of the girl’s moms showed up with a friend in a taxi. They came to take the girl and send her to the capitol with the other lady to basically be a slave. I’m assuming that she was probably going to receive money for this. Thankfully, Wilkyns was there and told the mother that, that would only happen over his dead body. The girl didn’t want to go and the mom finally said that since Wilkyns said no, she couldn’t go. Unfortunately, this has already happened to one girl before Wilkyns found out about it. A few emotions hit me right away. At first, I was angry that a mother could do this to her own daughter. Then I was sad that this girl doesn’t have an amazing mother like I do. Third, I was happy because this girl was saved. This girl still has a hope and a future because of what God is doing through the school! Pray for situations like this that are happening all the time apparently.
A team from Mt. Vernon Church in Mississippi arrived Monday evening. Some of the team helped us teach the kids. I know my kids were excited to practice their English on new people! The guys finished parging the kitchen so that we could prepare for the next team coming to install a water system. One of my favorite parts of their trip was going with the team to deliver letters to the kids from their sponsors. They loved the letters so much, especially when a picture was sent along…such little things mean so much to them…just another reminder of how blessed we really are. It felt so good to know that other people love my kids and are praying for them, just like I am. One of the ladies that came was a special education teacher. She shared so much with Jen and I, so we’re hoping to change up a lot of things to see if we can get some better results. I’m excited to start using some of her ideas! We also worked on Wilkyns’ house for a day pouring columns. One night, we went down to the new park and showed the kids version of the Jesus Film! It was so nice to hang out with the team and just talk like friends. This church has been an amazing blessing and I’m so thankful for their commitment and hard work!
The day after the first team returned to the US, another team came from the First Church of God in Defiance, Ohio to do more work at the school. This team worked so hard and we got so much done! We painted the kitchen inside and out.
A new pad was poured to put a water tank on. Trenches were dug and pipe was laid to run the water line to the kitchen. A water purification system was installed.
Also, they brought a bunch of books to start a little library!
And we finally have WALLS to separate our classrooms! Although I am a little sad to be moving away from our “Little House on the Prairie” type school, I am SUPER excited for the kids to finally be able to hear me since pronunciation is pretty vital when learning a new language! During the week, I helped paint some, but most of my time was spent covered in concrete, staring at a block wall. I’m not really sure how I was deemed qualified, but I somehow had more experience laying block than most of the people working, so I was put to work making my own walls! (Big thanks to Jim Ellison for teaching me how to lay block when we were building a church in Ecuador a few years ago, and of course to my dad for teaching me a little bit of everything it seems!) It was so cool to be able to do that and know that soon I will be hanging my posters on my own walls! It was funny to see the Dominicans reactions when they saw me working…most were shocked. One guy said he was going to get me to help him build his house! After this week, I was physically worn out but emotionally uplifted. This team was so awesome…it reminded me of my first mission trip.
We got word that Jen’s Dominican mom passed away after suffering from tuberculosis and its’ side effects for a long time. Jen went to the house to be with the family and said it was one of the hardest things she’s been a part of. The family was mourning as if they had no hope, even though they are Christians. The next day, Jen, Kylie, and I went back to the house. This was my first experience with death in this country. They put the coffin in the kitchen of the woman’s house. Everyone came to pay their respects and many people sat outside to show their support for the family. The hard part was seeing the daughters crying out for their mother, waiting for her to get up out of the coffin. They took the coffin across town to the graveyard and a bunch of people on motorcycles and a few vehicles followed behind very slowly. As they went to lower the coffin into the hole that her own son dug, the daughters began to cry out once again, trying to open the coffin and clinging to it. Then they started throwing rocks in to fill the grave right in front of everyone. The daughters just kept repeating, “so many rocks.” That was one of the hardest parts I think. The experience was very different from American funerals. It was way more drawn out and seemed harder on the family, especially since the coffin was kept in the house. They didn’t have the chance to grieve privately either because people were with them 24/7. Even though it was extremely hard, I am glad that I could experience this. We have been very fortunate that we haven’t had to deal with this more.
Last week, Jen, Wilkyns, a bunch of kids, and I were busy cleaning out the school and painting the new walls. Our hands were so sore and I’ve never been covered in more paint in my life, but they’re finally painted! We started hanging a few things back up. Still have a ways to go, but it’s functional for now!
I was getting just a little jealous of the snow that some of you guys were getting last week and then I remembered that my Aunt Janet and friend, Miss Diane, had sent me some instant snow, so we had a little taste of winter here in the Caribbean! We even had a snowball fight with Ricardo!
Holidays are always interesting overseas…here you get sweet beans and hair extensions for Easter! The beans are actually good and have cinnamon and carnation milk and a few other things. They even make a sweet bean flavored ice cream! And then even the little girls had hair extensions and fancy braids and beads. I didn’t recognize a few of my girls at school!
Something else I had to laugh at was the three machetes sitting in the corners of the classrooms! Loving that we don’t have the same regulations and restrictions that I had in the US!
Hard to believe that it’s April already. I probably only have a little over two months left here…time has really flown by fast. We still have a lot of work to do in that time…can’t wait to see how much the kids improve at school! Keep praying for everything! Currently, we are praying for more people to help teach English at the school next year. We’re asking for a 9 month commitment to make things easier on the kids and the other teachers. Also you must be self-supporting. You will have opportunities to experience a variety of mission opportunities including a surfers outreach, youth groups, radio station, evangelism, medical, possible trips to Haiti, etc. If you or someone you know is interested, please contact me for more information or if you have questions! This has been an amazing experience for me and God definitely stretched me through it all. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone, you won’t regret it!
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