a few photos

this is a photo of the little cafe that is on the school property from one of the classroom windows. kerrie and i spend a lot of time on the upper deck and enjoy being outside while we plan classes.

the first weekend i was here i watched adriana's soccer game and this was my favorite of the photos i took there.

projects from the first classes with the first and second grade.

caberete beach where i spent last weekend.

last tuesday i stayed and took photos of kerrie's ballet class and the shoes that were just recently donated. the classes are serving as an awesome ministry offered after school at doulos and open to anyone in the community. there are lots of younger girls there on tuesday afternoons getting to dance that would otherwise not have the opportunity to.

what i learned from kindergartners

the best part of my day at doulos yesterday was watching the kindergartners weave through cones set up outside on the basketball court. there were two lines and they were doing a variety of relay races around cones. and it wasn't just that they were ridiculously cute, and some uncoordinated as they attempted to dribble a ball, but it was the way they encouraged each other. every single kid in each line would begin chanting the name of the teammate performing the task until they returned when they then would begin cheering for the next teammate to go. no matter how fast or slow, how successfully or unsuccessfully their teammate was doing they continued to encourage them along. what an awesome picture of community.

last weekend

last weekend we had a four day weekend so i had the opportunity to travel to the beach. i left friday morning with brock, sara, keith & kerrie, tim & whitney (all wonderful people who work at doulos). it was a beautiful couple hour drive through the mountains to get to caberete beach. we went to the beach friday, saturday, and sunday and enjoyed the ocean, beach volleyball, hunting for treasures, and sunshine. i ate sushi for the first time on friday night and saturday we were joined by jess (who works for students international in jarabacoa) who helped whitney, sara, and kerrie prepare a delicious multi-course thai dinner. we left late sunday evening and played a rendition of 20 questions where we took turns asking a question and then each person in the car had to answer. it was so good to get to spend time with new friends while enjoying a few days at the beach. i then had a chill monday before going back to school on tuesday. it's been really nice to not have an entire week of school since i arrived here and to just ease into the schedule.

better late than never

better late than never. i'm starting a blog about my time here in the dominican republic. last spring i began looking at doing an internship with doulos discovery school knowing that my former young life leader kerrie was moving here to teach art. after a lot of work figuring out things with my school in order to receive credit i finally bought plane tickets in november. i left the morning of january 10th slightly nervous but more excited than anything about all that God had planned for the next three and a half months of my life. here are the first couple emails that i sent out prior to creating this blog that tells about my first week here.
-------------------
1/12/2011
so i'm finally here. i made it safe to the dominican republic after a day of traveling on monday and an unexpected stay in miami monday night. after experiencing the blessing of spending monday night and tuesday in miami with my dear friend lindsay elliot's dad, step mom and new baby brother, i boarded the plane for the final flight of my trip. i'm realize now that although the delay in my travel came as a surprise, God was already teaching me day one about being patient and trusting that He is in control and will provide.

i was met at the airport by shelly and jonathan ramm who both work in the office at doulos discovery school where i'll be doing my internship. kerrie and keith were supposed to be picking me up but kerrie had spent most of tuesday at the clinic as she was sick with food poisoning. shelly and jonathan still took me to kerrie and keith's house to stay for my first night and it was so good to see both of them and to talk to kerrie and catch up before going to bed.

today was my first day and i'm beyond excited about everything that i learned. i primarily had a day of "orientation" where shelly showed me around the school and explained a lot about how things work here both at the school and the dominican culture. brittany is another intern here at doulos this semester and we're sharing a room at rosario's home. she is a grandmother and has a granddaughter, adriana, who is my new little sister. she's very good at both spanish and english and is helping me to learn it as well as communicate with rosario.

and i haven't even mentioned yet that brittany and i were both at saranac, a young life camp, in the summer of '09. she was an intern and i was on work crew. she met her fiance there that summer, matt, who was also an intern and it's funny because that's where i met john. just funny and awesome that God happens to cross our paths again.

i'm really excited about the community here at doulos and all that God has planned for the next three and a half months of my life. i know it's far greater than anything i can imagine.

1/17/2011
i had a wonderful birthday here in the dominican. my day began with a hot shower which are sometimes hard to get here. then my new roommate brittany and new little sister adrianna made me "frosted flake" treats. they don't sell rice crispies here so they improvised and used frosted flakes instead. then i attended a church service at la vid (the vine). it was awesome to here everyone worshipping in spanish. even though i couldn't understand fully what they were saying just knowing they were worshipping God was enough. and after church most of the people from the doulos staff came over and we all ate lunch together and celebrated my birthday. i can't believe i've been here less than a week! i feel i already know so many of the people here so well and it's because they don't just work together but they do life together. such an incredible blessing to be part of this community for the next few months.

today kerrie and i traveled to and taught the second grade and first grade classes. with second grade we painted on cardboard with mud and charcoal and with first grade we glued tissue paper to fish. both were messy projects but lots of fun. kerrie inherited the "art cave" (that's what her and i call it) which has i think a limited supply of quite a few random things but it's not well organized. her and i are planning to go through everything in the near future and organize it all which will help determine what we actually have to work with.
----------------
and there you have the start of my adventure here. even more has happened since then but that will be for another time...