The Beginning

So I arrived in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic on the third ready for my new adventure...
Sharla (my director) picked me up at the airport along with my other two roomies Katy and Ashley. Katy and I are the newbies, but Ashley has been here since August, which is extremely helpful that there is someone learning with me and someone who knows exactly what they are doing. We drive up to a neighborhood, which in this area, is one of the "wealthier" ones, and immediately I absolutely love our house. We were greeted by Ann and Garrett who are married and are very sweet. Before I could get anything out, she greeted me and said before I got here, she called me Kellogg for some reason so while I was here, she would continue to call me that. At home, I already have a hundred nicknames so adding one more did not bother me naturally. I live on the second floor on the top bunk in a room with Katy and Ashley, and when I look out my window there is a mountain, and this oh so beautiful mountain, like I have already told some of you, reminds of Lost. I therefore have the privilege of thinking I am on the show...well at least a little bit. Okay ya so I am a dork, but if you know me well, you already know this about me. The beach is about a 15 minute run from the house, which I will hopefully take advantage of because from afar the beach looks absolutely beautiful.The bugs here are not too bad like I thought they might be, but I did find a huge spider in the house a tiny bit smaller than the size of my palm, just scary. I was taking care of the twins at this point (Sharla is adopting Haitian twins Isaac and Jacob who are almost three years old) and had to pretend like I was not scared, but I was terrified. I just walked out of the room with them so as of now it could be in my bed...

This week is just suppose to be orientation along with taking care of the twins so I am not in the school much yet. My official job is being a nanny for the twins on Monday/Tuesday, helping teach Wednesday/Thursday with a Haitian lady named Cristina who only speaks Spanish, and Friday either babysitting or school. One of the biggest prayers I can ask from you is to be able to pick up on the language asap. I know it will take time to learn most of it, but in order to teach with Cristina I need to pick up on the gist of what she is saying. All that to say, I am super nervous about working with her, but I know the Lord will provide. Another reason why I need to learn certain words is also for transportation purposes. I am able to ride in a taxi, gua gua (van), or motoconcho (motorcycle). Besides the motoconcho, you are packed into the taxi or gua gua with many others, which can make for an uncomfortable sitch. The second day Katy, Cara, and I went to the bank in a gua gua where I had to make myself extremely flexible to fit while the man who took the money hung outside the van door barely holding on. You can only imagine how many people were in there. On the way back, we took a taxi that already had three people in it plus the driver. You can use your imagination once more :). Tonight we are going to watch the Texas game at a restaurant on tv. I love sports so this will be a nice little break for my brain since it is fried from all the information I have received thus far. Sorry for those Aggies reading, who think I am betraying you, but I had to swear that I would cheer for the Longhorns...I was always a 2%er anyways plus everyone here I am with went to UT. Well this is officially my first blog I have ever written (sorry for those grammar freaks out there, but if you read this, get use to my frequent mistakes), and there are more to come! Love and miss all of you, and thank you for your prayers and encouragement!