"Back to school. Back to school."

Each morning I wake up to the lovely sound of "AGUACATE!" I jump out of bed, grab my pesos, and run out the door to buy myself an avacado. Now these are not your average American avocados. These are huge and dirt cheap, usually costing a mere 10 pesos, and thirty-five pesos equals a dollar so you do the math. This fine Sunday morning I woke up to a different noise. Every now and then trucks packed with veggies and fruits will drive down the streets, while the driver with some type of speaker system yells out what is in the back of the truck. There have been times when one of my friends and I will walk past, and the driver will start whispering sweet nothings into the mic...creepy. Anyways, this morning I woke up to a truck driving by, and the guy was not only singing, he was rapping about what he had in his truck. The only line I could make out was something like..."Con que? Con huevos! Con que? Con huevos!" It was great. I was almost tempted to buy something from him, seeing how much effort he put into it. Oh the Dominican Republic.

School starts tomorrow!! I keep wanting to sing Billy Madison's "Back to school. Back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm not a fool. I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight. Ohhhh, back to school. Back to school. Back to school. Well, here goes nothing."I could not be more anxious about this school year and all the new students we are adding. Memo could not have said it better when he said, "Mom, you tell them if we don't start school soon, I am going to a different school." What a cutie. Last year we had two classrooms, fifteen students each. This year we have four classrooms; therefore, we have a total of sixty students. Aye yeye! My work is cut out for me. I will let you know how the first week goes!

It's my party (...and i'll cry if I want to)

This will hopefully be my one and only venting blog...like i said, hopefully. I have not done this before, but I feel like I need to once to get this past week all out so I can get out all my frustrations and then move on. So all that to say, if you are wanting to read something light and fluffy, you should probably go ahead and well, stop. I know as a Christian and missionary I should remember the typical phrases like "time heals all", "God has a plan for you", "you need to see the positive side of things", and so on, but like David in Psalms, I think I have every right to talk out my frustrations and grievances, and am able to ask God why things are the way they are. The past year or more I feel like He has continually taken things from me (not in death), whether family, friendships, or ones that I love that have affected me. I always think of that song "Blessed be the name of the Lord. He gives and takes away." It has been one of the hardest years, at the same time, one of the best, seeing where He has placed me in this country with all of these beautiful kids to love on. And that is where I begin...
The electricity in the town I live in has been for the majority of this week turning off. They do this to save money, but it usually happens during the day when we are not home so it is not too bad. Well this week they decided to do it at night too, and let me just say, it is the pits. Like I have already told some of you, no electricity=no fans=sweating=high pitched buzzing mosquitoes biting me during the night=no sleep. I know that sounds extreme, but really I am not exaggerating. The lack of sleep has been giving me migraines in addition. I knew (obviously) that Wednesday was my birthday so I just looked forward to it and knew no matter the circumstances regarding sleep and so on, this day would make the week. Like every Wednesday, I knew I would visit Chichigua with Robin because it is my favorite thing to do (moreso visiting Memo and my lil baby Wilson) so of course I would do my favorite thing on my birthday. It started off great! I woke up to a Happy Birthday sign on the floor with balloons, and then when I was walking to work with Ashley, all of a sudden, Anne, Kim, and Lauren started running after me with silly string and another happy birthday sign. It freaked me out, and I am positive the Dominicans living right there thought we were crazy gringas. After work, Robin and I left for Chigs where I was first greeted by crazy Memo and his huge smile, which I absolutely love. It is one of those smiles that makes you smile right back no matter what mood you are in. He wanted me to hold him so I did, well until he accidently rolled in chicken poo, and then I said no...ew. I am determined to call him chicky poo now :). Anyways, I am playing with Memo while Robin is talking to the mom of one of our students, meanwhile I am so antsy to go visit Wilson and love on him obnoxiously. As I am thinking this, Robin looks at me and says, "Kendall I have something not good to tell you." I reply with "What? Is Wilson not coming back to school?" "Worse." "He moved." "Yes...to Haiti." Crushed. For those of you who keep up with my blog, you know that Wilson whom I call Weeson was one of my students who I wanted to take home with me everyday. He is one of the most precious boys I know and would hug me everyday before he left to go home (seen in the first picture of this blog). I cried a lot that night, yes I know, on my birthday, and have on and off since (hence the title...I actually said that to Anne when I got to the Makarios house for my birthday dinner haha). The lack of sleep this week and then Wilson leaving have been a bad combo for me physically, mentally, and emotionally. One of my Dominican friends came over this morning, and he asked me if I was sick haha awesome. You know you look wonderful when someone asks you that. But back to Wilson, I feel like I invested so much emotion into that child, and he was just taken from me. I pray every night that the Lord would place a man of God in Wilson's life that would lead him to love Jesus, and I pray that the Lord planted a seed in him by the love the Lord gave me for him. I am confused as to why now, but I know the Lord is teaching me. To end on a positive note, I randomly went to Chichigua last week and held him the whole time like I mentioned in my last blog, and as you probably saw from my two pictures in the blog. To see him one last time when I could have stayed home that day and waited till this Wednesday makes me want to thank the Lord every time I think of Wilson. When I left Chigs that day I remember holding him, telling him goodbye, kissing him on the cheek, and him giving me a kiss back on my cheek. I set him down, not realizing that was the last time I would ever see him. Adios Weeson...love you soooo much and will painfully miss you.
Depressing blog, I know, but thankfully I have Jesus who still loves me despite my frustrations, big and small, and continues to show me grace. I know for a fact that He will answer the questions I have, He will continue to reveal himself and his character in new ways this year, and will continue to heal my heart from this whirlwind of a past year.

Primera Semana de Regreso

"The first week back" for those of you who do not speak spanish, and it was a great first week. The beginning started out a bit rough. I had that typical missionary feeling that most missionaries get going out on the field. You long to just have the normal, comfortable American way of life with friends and family close by, but at the same time you know this is where you are suppose to be, where God wants you. I had a wonderful summer in Dallas and in Austin, and therefore naturally it was hard to leave, but I knew once I got back here and back in the routine, I would fall right back in love with it. So this week...
We went to Santiago Monday and Tuesday, which is in hour away from here. We had lots of team time and went to a museum to learn about Dominican history. I went on a tour through an area of the La Aurora cigar making factory, pretty cool huh? http://www.miamicigarcompany.com/miamicigar/aurora/home.htm. He explained how they are made uniquely, being just as good as Cuban cigars, except La Aurora's has more variety. The guy we watched make some had been rolling cigars for 30 years! talk about monotonous. After watching that, Ashley and I walked together through the museum and at one point decided we wanted to take silly pictures. Little did we know, there was a security guy walking around making sure no one did that. After we took a couple pictures, one specifically of me kissing a cardboard poster of a Dominican man, the security guy came around the corner. I had the camera in my hand, and as he walked up, Ashley told me to hide it. Well I could not simply put it in my bag because that would be too obvious so I decided to hold it on the side he could not see, and as he circled around me, Ashley would tell me which way to turn (the benefit of speaking another language than the country we live in) and eventually we just walked away. Of course he followed us the whole rest of the time. You can only imagine how silly and immature I got during and after that, trying not to laugh every time he would pop up. Ashley thought we should take a pic of him, but we decided with better judgment not to.
Wednesday I went to Chichigua for the first time since I have gotten back, and it was sooo great to see the kids. I saw Memo first, and he immediately jumped in my arms for me to hold him. Not going to lie, that felt great! I kept holding him for about 10 minutes until, well, some of you can probably guess who I saw...Weeson! (Wilson). I handed Mems over to Holly and picked up Wilson. He had just woken up and was a bit groggy, which I love because that is when he just likes to sit in my lap or just let me hold him. I have been a bit sad lately because when some of the girls went to ask the parents who was coming back to the school, Wilson's mom said he was not going to. I will get back to this later.
Thursday and Friday we planned for our staff/parent meeting we were going to hold on Friday. We put a meeting together of what we should say, and then went out to the three villages to tell the parents and other parents who have kids that do not come to the school. We were a bit worried that we would not get a full roster because we are now going to have four classes with a total of 60 kids. Knowing some kids might not come back, the thought crossed our minds that we would come short... oh ye of little faith. The room was packed with parents! And...Wilson's mom came to sign him up! yay! We gave each of our speeches (yes I did speak to the parents in Spanish. I was super nervous, and Cristina decided to let the parents know right before I spoke that I am learning so they need to pay attention more when I spoke. For those who know me well, you know that I have a huge fear of public speaking in my own language let alone a second language. At the end of the meeting, we got a full roster and even had a waiting list! The Lord is so faithful. This is when it hit me why I am here and why I love doing what I am doing. By the way, I will now officially be a teacher's aide for four teachers. crazy talk. I will switch rooms after each day so that I can go take notes of each student to see how they are progressing week by week. Even though it may be kind of stressful, I cannot wait to get to know the students individually and of course be with my old students again.
Alright, love you guys. And yes, the picture at the end is what you think it is, but no worries, I did not eat it. Bleh.

And the adventure begins again...

So I am sitting here knowing I should write this blog about Colorado and my arrival in the Dominican Republic, but all that is really going on is me looking around my room at all the stuff laying around, in and out of my suitcases, thinking about the stuff that I need to go get that will organize everything, and the books that I need to read for work...dang multitasking. But I will conquer my one track mind :). For those of you that do not know yet, I will be living in an apartment with three of the girls I worked with the last time I was here: Ashley, Robin, and Cara. I have the room that is suppose to be an office so as of right now there is no closet, storage space, or...a door! haha it really is not a big deal right now hopefully I can rig some kind of pole/curtain thing to make a door.
Colorado. I left August 3 for a three week training program called SPLICE at Mission Training International right outside of Colorado Springs. Beautiful! There were beautiful mountains by us, the Santa Fe Trail to walk on, and an ice cream place down one end of the trail...you know I hit that up several times throughout the trip. I always forget how wonderful Colorado is especially during the summer when the temperature is perfect. Anyways, we spent three grilling weeks of learning about ourselves (conflict, stress, rest, etc), our team, and how we are going to handle the culture when certain situations differ from the norms of our American culture. One of the simulations we had to go through to see how we handle stress went a little something like this...We showed up for the morning session, and the two men in charge put us in two groups. Once I got in my group, I was led with my group to a small dark room with a wooden box inside about 8 ft long and 5 ft wide that all 22 of us were suppose to fit in. Once we got inside we had to close the door, only getting air from some small holes at the top of the box, and there was a track playing that sounded like bombs, gun shots, and airplanes flying around. Now I know reading this does not quite get the feel across, but standing in this box, sweating in pure darkness, and realizing that some of these people will be in this situation in their country made the situation very real for me. We had to make deals with this man who was the enemy, and one of the deals failed so a guy who had gotten caught was "shot." That was it for me...thankfully I kept calm and scratched the back of the girl crying next to me haha. So not me. Like I said, this was to show us how we handle stress, and what I got out of it was that I sweat, I am quiet, and I try to calm others.
I got back from Colorado on the 21st and had a week at home. It was so much fun hanging out with my family and with some of my friends, but the time went by too quick. I had a lil bday party with the family, went and saw mamma mia second row with my dad, and had a going away night with my friends (thank you so much to those who came :) ). I left yesterday for the DR with a full day of traveling, and when I got here, Robin, Anne, and Garrett picked me up at the airport. When they brought Robin and I to our apartment, I walked into my room, and Robin had made me a little welcome home present. So sweet, especially since I was a bit tender when I first got here. The night was sooo crazy...sike. I unpacked some of my stuff that I could, went to get pizza with Robin (Katy I know you will appreciate that), and then we watched Sense and Sensibility.
Well that is it for now. We have three weeks of workshop stuff for the school, and then school starts on September 21. Hopefully I will have some time to go see my kiddos this week. I miss them so much, especially lil Weeson (Wilson). Love you guys and miss you already. Email me anytime to let me know how you are doing, or even if you just have a prayer request I can pray about. Peace out.

Months of the Year...Dominican Style

Ok, so I know I did not write many blogs my last few weeks plus this one is a bit late, but it is definitely worth looking at. Here we go...
The last week of school ended on a Wednesday, which was May 20, and then Thursday and Friday were set up for an American dentist to come and pull our students' teeth. During the Thursday morning period our preschoolers played in the classrooms and waited patiently, either reading books or running around like little kids do. I do not know why I got the urge to do this, but I was sitting with Ricardo and decided to record him singing the Months of the Year song on my camera.

As you can see, Ricardo still needs some work on his speech, and well, just knowing what the months actually are. He is only three so no worries. I have a year to work on that boy :).
After Ricardo, Estiven decides it is his turn. This boy is a smarty; therefore, his singing skills were perfecto.


Now Regina has caught on to the lil game and decides it is her turn. Ricardo wants to watch so he sits at the table by her. While she is singing, watch her face and Ricardo...


All I have to say is I was trying not to laugh, and of course I failed. So wrong of me...oops. We always call Ricardo the school thug, and well he definitely lived up to that name in the video...awesome haha. Next on the list is Ambiorix who got too ADD to finish and just wanted to destroy a book and me.


That was the last of the videos. Hope you enjoyed! cuz I know I sure did.
As you all probably already know, I am going back to the Dominican Republic at the end of August for a year. Crazy talk I know, but I loved it that much and miss my kiddos. This will be my last blog till September so until then, adios!

Funny Stuff

All the pics in this blog are from hanging out in Chigs on Friday with Lubi (Robin).


So I don't have much to say about this last week, but I will leave a few tidbits for you...

i have at least 22 bites on one arm from mosquitoes...not counting the rest of my body. Those lil suckers are everywhere.
My cobrador (the man who opens the door to the gua gua and takes your money) this morning had a groomed unibrow. It was almost as if he penciled in the middle part because he thought the uni looked good.
Katy and I ate lunch with Wilson today, who works at the airport, and he gave us the lowdown on DR airport security. Several times workers have tested the security, and here are two of the stories he told...A girl filled out one of those lovely sheets we all love about her information at the airport, and she gave a guy's name on the name line and said her destination was "the batman cave"...she got through. Second story. A man went through the metal detector with a gun in one pocket and a cell phone in the other pocket. The detector went off, and he pulled out his phone and said that was why it went off. They said okay and let him go. Awesome. All that to say, come visit me :) haha.
So I couldn't be any more immature than I already am, well maybe. Saturday night at church this girl got on stage to do a choreographed dance. Now, it is not like I was expecting this awesome performance, and let me add that I was kinda hyper that night with Katy. Throughout the whole dance, I had to do one of three things: bite my straw (I had some juice from Luis' colmado), bite my lip, or think of something sad. I knew if Katy, Robin, Cara, or Ashley even dared to look at me, I would lose it. I survived not offending the church, well until Katy turned to me and said, "We will be dancing like that tonight at home." I lost it. Silent laugh of course. And yes, we did go home and do some of those awesome dance moves.

Stand by Me.Ben E. King

I once complained about the rain...big mistake. Did you say steak? (That one is for you Kelly) The hot hot hot weather has finally begun. We are sweating constantly, which in a way makes me feel better because I am not the only one now. haha, gross. Walking up the hill one day, Katy and I were talking about the constant sweat, and then we immediately both started day dreaming of snow cones and how wonderful it would be to have one. If you have seen the snow cones in the DR, which I am assuming you have not, you would know not to even think about going there. Recipe for a some kind of parasite, having no idea where the ice or the sketch sugar juices come from. And since I have experienced the sicky part of living here, I would rather not test my limits. Despite the hot weather and the sweatiness it brings, this week has been my best week in the DR when it comes to looks. I do not mean this in a prideful way, moreso humorous. I have gotten the most hisses, "you are beautiful"s from random muchachos on the street, and a sweet serenade from a cobrador. The best was Friday when I was waiting for Katy in the colmado. This lady came up to me and asked if I spoke Spanish and asked if I was Canadian. After Katy told her no, she said, "tu eres gordita." Katy then responded with a confused look as did I and said, "Tu eres gordita??" For those of you who do not know, gordo means fat...just lovely. Thankfully, Robin and Rachel told me later that it did not mean anything in a bad way. It meant curvy in a good way. Gordissimo is fat in a bad way. I love this country. So Katy and I came home to a puppy on Monday at the house. His name is Miles, and he is half terrier and half lab. He is a cutie, but the picture above is what we came home to. At times I think I start to grow attached to him when I walk outside, and he yawns and comes up to me all lazy and calm. I pet him for awhile and then go back inside feeling bad about not spending more time with him. Then there are the times I walk outside, and he is jumping high up in the air and scratching my legs while attempting to bite my hand (out of playfulness of course). Like Katy says everyday, "He's just being Miley." haha love it. Though we do love him, Miles is leaving soon because our landlord says he cannot be here. I guess you could call it a failed attempt at replacing or covering up our true love for E-Shadow, one of the school dogs who apparently has now "got the mange" according to Katy.



This week since Cristina was on a mission trip, Cara had to teach in my class so she could not have her usual class time. Instead we did recess with the both classes for about thirty minutes. Naturally, the little kid in me was all about it. The first day I sat under the gazebo with the girls and let them braid my hair. Instead I ended up with a side pony, compliments of Neifi and Escarlet. As this was happening, I noticed a trend in our kids pretending like they were pregs. Wilson and Luis Fernando both came up to me with a ball in their shirt at two different times pretending to be preggers. Then at the end of recess I looked over and saw the funniest sight. Wildania was laying in the grass with a ball in her shirt. Marta and Yery were acting like doctors helping her give birth while Raidi was standing by her super confused as to what was going on. Anyways, it made me wonder how many of these kids have actually seen a pregnancy go on in their villages. Awesome. Pics are below for your amusement...


Sweet victory...Katy and I went to Pancho Mateo Thursday because I told Sili I would come to play basketball again with him. Ernesto and Felipe came to the school on the Chig guagua so I brought them along with us. Marta and Manuela walked with us, and it was too cute because Marta held the bottom of my shirt the whole way there while we had some intense convos :) (Note the pic below) When we got there, we decided to match up me and Ernesto against Sili and Felipe. Knowing that Chichigua does not have a basketball hoop, I was not surprised when Felipe gave up after one shot, and Ernesto double dribbled his way through the game after a kid named Alfredo took Felipe's spot. Alfredo was a skinny short lil dude, and when Sili asked him to play, I turned to Sili and asked, "Is he good?" and he just goes, "I don't know." Little did I know that Sili was playing it cool until Alfredo schooled me to the hoop. Silly, silly Sili. Ernesto and I eventually beat them despite Ernesto's double dribbles/traveling. I then proceeded to play Sili and won...ok I know I sound awful since he is younger, but I let him win the week before, and he bragged about it all week. He came to school this Friday saying, "Mucha suerte", which obviously means I have to win again this next week to show him what's up. So as you all know, or I guess I should say should know, the Mavs and Spurs are now playing in the playoffs. We do not have a tv at the house, and I have never wished for one, well until...now! If you have ever seen me in the past years watch the Mavs in the playoffs, you know how crazy (possibly a bit of yelling at the tv) I get during these games and how much they mean to me. Yes I know a lil dramatic, but really I love my basketball. I decided I would watch the first game online. Well, that was unsuccessful since Espn will not let me watch it from the DR so I try to listen, which was just as unsuccessful as the first idea; therefore, I am watching the animated play-by-play. Awwwwesome :(. To add to the effect, Katy and I decided to jam to some jock jams while I was watching. Yes I do have Jock jams on my ipod, thanks to Brookis. Go Mavs!...sorry Timothy. One down, three more to go. Side note: Baby G could possibly be born in time while the mavs are still in the playoffs...get out those Mavs converse I gave him Brooke and Jim :). They better not be in the trash!
Sorry for the longest blog eva...I am a rambler...plus I have not blogged in oh say hmm about a month so I thought I would make it doubly long :) love you guys!