spirit mountain

the last weekend john was here, now forever ago, we went to manabao and hiked up to spirit mountain with keith, kerrie, and katie, their friend visiting. spirit mountain is a coffee farm that sells coffee to benefit doulos. they have a few trails up to a nice campsite complete with a gas stove and covered platforms. after getting settled at the campsite we all hiked to a waterfall. that evening keith cooked up some delicious chili. and of course we made smores and had some good old campfire conversation. the night concluded with a game of uno. sunday morning we ate pancakes and spent the majority of the day just hanging out at the campsite reading, napping, enjoying the quietness of the mountain and the warmth of the sunshine.

service week mural

doulos has a service week once a year in the spring where all of the students in the school work together to serve the community in a variety of ways. wednesday and thursday were spent at the batey doing art projects with the children there and putting in a see-saw and tether-ball. on friday of service week john and i traveled with the high school art class to barrio blanco, a local public school. the students had been working to paint the mural they designed in class for the school’s library. already having done two days of work, friday was the last day for the mural to be completed.

batey trip

the 5th graders traveled to a batey, a community of haitian immigrant workers living on a sugar cane plantation. john and i went with them and were there the wednesday and thursday he was visiting. john last semester did a lot of research about life in the batey for a paper he wrote. there is a lot more to the story behind the lives of these people and where and how they live. i'm not going to begin to try and explain everything i felt and experienced there. instead i'll let these photographs tell the story.

 

photo by john

 

photo by john

photo by john

time with john part one

brit and i left in the afternoon on friday, march 4th to pick up john and matt, her fiance, from the airport in santiago. after returning to jarabacoa they met rosario, virginia, and adriana and got a quick tour of doulos. that evening we enjoyed dinner at colombianas with friends from the doulos staff. matt and john then got settled in at brock's new house.

saturday morning john and i traveled through the mountains to cabarete beach with leah, robyn, amanda, and her friend nora who was also visiting. the day was spent taking naps in the sunshine, playing in the waves, making sandwiches and cutting pineapple on the beach. i also randomly ran into a friend from high school, rachel keller. what are the chances of being within fifty yards of each other on the same beach in the dominican republic on a random saturday!? i found out she is studying abroad in santiago and hopefully we'll get together sometime while we're both here. sunday we went to church at la vid and then went to a waterfall with amanda and nora. that night we played games, one of my favorite things, at amanda and leah's casa.

monday and tuesday we spent at doulos. john helped kerrie and i do paper mache projects with the 1st and 2nd graders. it was a messy but so fun. we also taught 7th grade and did an introduction to their study of caves. we transformed the art cave below the stage into a taino cave and led the students through by candlelight to observe the "cave art." sadly i didn't think to take a picture of this until after we had cleaned it all up. tuesday afternoon john helped leah and i take engagement pictures for matt and brit. here are a few of my favorite ones. 

i also asked leah to take a few pictures of john and i since we have so few together. brit played with my camera and got some really good ones. this is maybe my favorite one.

wednesday through friday of the week john was here was service week. the students at doulos go out into the community to do a variety of service projects. so more about that maybe tomorrow.

more to come

so it's literally been almost a month since i posted anything. i've been blessed to have visitors almost constantly the entire month of march. john came and visited me from march 4th-15th which of course was awesome. nothing like having the second longest amount of time we've spent in the same place be in the dominican republic. he left just last tuesday morning giving me just a few days rest before my mom and my sister, sarah, arrived friday night. so over the next few days i'd like to write about all that john and i did while he was here as well as what my mom, sarah, and i've been up to. and of course i'll be putting up pictures which is always exciting and something to look forward to. so more to come soon!

student artwork

each week more artwork is being done by the students at doulos. here are some of the results.

 

 carton caterpillars by kindergarten

 butterflies by 1st grade

lounging lizards by 2nd grade

symbols in grids by 3rd grade

 

 fauve inspired paintings by 6th grade

prints by 7th grade

sidewalk chalking by high school 

there's a little preview of all the fun projects kerrie and i have been getting to do with students.

santo domingo

last sunday brittany and i traveled to santo domingo with rosario and adriana. we didn't really know what to expect but we were certain it was going to be a fun filled adventure. we took the bus there and then spent the day with some of their family. we visited the colonial district where columbus' brother had a house that's now a museum. neither of us ever really knew what was going on or what was happening next throughout the day but i was reminded how blessed and thankful i am that brittany is here experiencing all this with me.  here are photos from the trip to santo domingo.