Finalmente

Two blogs in one day. crazy stuff. It is worth it though to read both the one before, and then this short one. This one is only to say...

I FINISHED HARRY POTTER, finally!!

I suggest everyone read all seven books because they are wonderful (especially if you have someone like Robin by your side who has read them already and gets excited every time you finish each book, wants a recap, and then watches each movie with you after). Sad to be done. But now I need a new book or series of books, so if you could email me some suggestions, that would be great. Ok? Thanks.

"Ff" es para Fiesta

Johan and I have been making an alphabet book with our kids, a letter each day where they can associate the letter with a picture of something that starts with that letter. Last week we were going over la letra Ff so they colored a flower, and then we decided to have a Fiesta with our kids after lunch before they would go home, ya know, hype them up on sugar and caffeine and then send them off with their parents. We went to La Sirena the night before and bought stuff to make cake, princess and transformers plates and cups, and balloons. They each made their own Fiesta hat to wear during the party because I was too cheap to buy them party hats, plus the ones in Sirena were ghetto.
After lunch, Johan took the students to the front of the school to distract them while I taped all the balloons up in the room and cut the cake. Once I gave the okay, he brought them back, and well, it was time to partay. They all jumped up and down and gave many bullitas, and then sat quietly waiting for their cake because Johan and I threatened them with no sorpresas if they did not obey :) love it when that happens. We sat a piece of cake and a cup of coca cola in front of them and yelled go. They all scarfed the cake down quickly and then asked for more, and this is where the point of my blog comes in...
I looked at their cups and noticed that no one was drinking their coca cola, but hey let's get serious, who from Texas says coca cola or soda. We say coke right? for everything. So naturally I say to the kids, "Todos, beban sus cocas!" No one drinks. Some kids turn to look at me, and Johan immediately goes, "Kendall, that is not what you say...you say refresco! You just told them to drink their cocaine." Awesome.

I am so Dominicana...

...ya right. But no joke, sometimes it just happens.

Almost everyone here drives a moto (like a motorcyle). I am a bit late in talking about this, but maybe because I wondered if my mom would read it and freak out. Last Thursday I went to Caraballo to talk to the lady who use to take care of Marleini and Wilson. Johan took me on his moto, and on the way back he stopped on the road and told me to take over. The road from Caraballo to Pancho Mateo is a long dirt road surrounded on both sides by cane fields...in other words, it is pretty much deserted. Of course I freaked out and told him no, but he is Johan so he kept insisting. Well, I did it. I scooted to the front, hit the gearshift with my left foot, and then accelerated (all with the help of Johan). So when you accelerate, it either goes smoothly or you jerk, right? Well I popped a wheelie and was driving at the same time. haha. It was hilarious! I could not stop laughing but would not let go of the accelerator so we were swerving side to side, like when you first ride a bike and cannot ride it straight. I had to eventually stop because we were both laughing too hard, and I could not focus. After we stopped laughing, I tried again and actually drove for awhile. Johan of course had to help steer for a few seconds here and there so we would not fall off the road. Success...or in my mind it was, seeing how I can be such a weenie sometimes.

Next on the list...I learned how to dance bachata and merengue. I have always thought I could not dance worth anything, but I actually did ok. I did much better dancing salsa (thank you random Tridelta meeting when we learned how to salsa).

Last but not least. My spanish. It still is not great, but I am trying. Robin is teaching me, and it helps so much seeing it visually. As you know from my last blog, I am co-teaching with Johan. I get to hear Dominican spanish on a daily basis. If you do not know anything about spanish here, well, it is ghetto, and they call it Dominican not spanish. Anyways, today I called a kid over, and Johan looked at me and said, "Whoa, you sounded so Dominican." Awesome. Not only did I get complimented for my accent, I got complimented for my Dominican, haha. One step closer to being a Dominicana :)

Feliz Dia de San Valentin

The same week I found out Weeson and Marleini left, I found out that one of our teachers, Cristina, who is Dominican, was moving at the end of the week to Santo Domingo and would be no longer working with us. I have been working with Cristina for the past year, and she is amazing. Despite the fact that we do not speak the same language, we still built a relationship and worked so well together. Somehow she just got me, and I understood her. It was sad to see her leave, but I know the Lord has amazing plans for her. She is one of the strongest women who is more passionate about the Lord than any other person I know. I cannot wait to hear what the Lord has planned for her next...on that note, because she left, my job has changed. Obviously we had to fill her spot as a teacher so her kids could keep coming to school. The teaching staff got together, and in the end, we decided that Johan would take her place as the new teacher, and I would co-teach with him. We sat in Cristina's class together on the last day to watch her style of teaching but really just had a day o' fun. I mean come on now it was Valentine's party day. So there you go! I get to co-teach with mi hermanito. So far it has been nice, and I haven't killed Johan yet...well at least not yet :). The picture above is a picture of me, Cristina, and Johan, and below is her class we are taking over.
As a side note, one of my favorite things about working at the school is when you have breakthroughs with kids. Some kids you can tell need space and time to warm up to you so you give them that space, and then one day they all of a sudden smile at you, say your name, and give you a hug...or a Valentine in my case (or maybe four). Not only do I love the breakthroughs, I also love building on my other relationships like with one of my favs Memo. He called me his hermanita, which means his little sister. Let's just say it made my day for sure. Love that boy.

Here we go again...

Today the Chichigua kids came to school, and guess who did not show up...yes, Wilson and Marleini. The kids said they left yesterday with their mom. I went after school to Chichigua with Robin, and we found out that it was true. Magi, who has been gone the past couple weeks and left the kids with one of the ladies in Chigs, came back yesterday, grabbed the kids, and left. The lady who has been taking care of them was not in Chigs today so I am going to ask her Thursday where they went because no one else knows. I once again am saddened by the situation, seeing that they were finally back in Chigs and back at school with all of their friends. Please pray for their family, that I can figure out where they went, and for me as I am hurting all over again. I already miss my lil Weeson but at the same time have to keep reminding myself that God is in control.

Love

When I think about the past couple weeks, the word "rough" comes into my head. I know it is just one of those exhausting times when I need to remind myself of the reasons why I love being here instead of focusing on the negative, so that is what I will do...
*I love my lil baby Weeson. It is my absolute favorite thing when I pull up to Chichigua, and Weeson comes running out of nowhere and straight into my arms. He has the cutest giggle and sometimes just loves to be held.
*I love Wednesdays in Kim's class when I get to sit by Memo and joke around with him. Memo is probably one of the strangest kids I know but at the same time so hilarious in my opinion. The other day we brought him, Ambiolix, and Bernito over for some popcorn, juice, and a Michael Jackson dance partay. Afterward, we stuffed them in the back of Negrita, and took a cute pic.
*I love Dido. Dido is the mom of one of our students, and she is by far the coolest mom in the DR. Robin and I like to sit and chat with her at least once every other week. She likes to paint our nails so this week mine are purple.
*I love the friends the Lord has blessed me with while I have been here. My roomies are incredible. I could not have asked for a better living situation (no worries Katy, I still miss you!). Also, I have a hermanito named Johan...he is pretty cool I guess :).
*I love the neighborhood I live in. Everyone knows everyone, and I feel so safe. In addition, I live not too far from the beach. I have always been a beach girl growing up so it is nice to know that on the weekends, when I need to get away and rest, it is super close.
*I love playing basketball in Pancho Mateo with Sili and Cacito or in the multiuso...who said girls can't keep up :). Every Saturday morning, I walk to the multiuso where a bunch of boys are playing basketball, and I just hop right in. I usually get the "oh man, who is this girl", and when I make my first shot, I love the looks on their faces...ok not gonna lie, a lot of the time I play horribly.
*I love Nelissa. She is one of our new students who lives in Pancho Mateo with her grandma. I do not know what her grandma is doing right, but Nelissa is one of the funniest and sweetest little girls I have been around in this country. She has the softest hands that Kim and I like to hold while she is at school.
...and there you go! I could go on about the many things the Lord has blessed me with here, but those are some of the things I thought of first.

Mi Viaje a Haiti

It has been almost a week since we got back from Haiti, and I have not told anyone how my trip has been...sorry about that. I just needed some time to process everything. With that said...

We left last Friday early in the morning and got to Dajabon where you cross the border. As smart as we are, we did not remember that Friday is market day at the border, and so there were thousands of people going back and forth between the DR and Haiti. Cara and Rachel got all the passport and car stuff figured out (paying the DR entrance fee of $25 and the Haitian fee of (drumroll) 1 measly dollar), and after a total of four hours at the border, we were on the road to Cap Haitien to help Chris and Johanne. To sum up Cap Haitien, it is dusty and crowded, full of friendly Haitian men and women who are constantly on the go. Not once did I feel unsafe or feel like anything was chaotic.


Saturday. At this point, we had already found out from Johanne about her trip to Port au Prince, that they would not release the kids she wanted because of security reasons and just in case family members were still alive. As you may have already seen from the media, people started stealing kids for trafficking; therefore, unless you have Haitian papers, you are not allowed to take any kid for any reason. Johanne took us to an orphanage her and Chris use to work at. Of course we fell in love with all the kids, and the sweet thing was all the kids were leaving within the next few weeks to be adopted. When you are at an orphanage, you end up leaving wanting to take every kid with you, but it was nice to be able to play with them and know they are going to some loving parents. After this, we visited the church Chris is building then went to the hospital in Milot. The school across the street was turned into another area to bring refugees into...this is where the hardest part of the weekend was for me. I saw a man who had had his arm amputated and a room full of kids who were hurt during the earthquake. I walked into the room full of kids, and immediately tears started to come. I knew I needed to hold them back, but it was so hard when this little girl smiled and started playing with Ashley despite her circumstance. What a sweet moment.


Sunday. We took all of the supplies to the house Chris and Johanne bought for the orphans. The supplies consisted of 50 foam mattresses, sheet sets, cups, plates, bowls, silverware, shoes, towels, 50 bags we made before we left, toothbrushes/paste, and so on. We set up the house, doing all the dirty details, so that it would be ready whenever kids would come.

Monday. We ran some errands and went to the Haitian market in town. We needed to find more sheet sets for the beds, and Ashley took pictures we had to get developed of the house set up so Chris and Johanne would look legitimate.

Tuesday. We headed out early morning to come back home, feeling like what we needed to accomplish was done, and that when they receive orphans, we could possibly come help them get everything situated and meet the precious kids. Crossing the border was no problem at all...once again we paid nothing on the Haitian side and $10 on the Dominican side.

Sorry if this was a very abrupt description of my trip, or maybe too long, but if you have any other questions or are curious about something, feel free to ask me! Overall, the Lord completely had His hand over the whole trip. Everything went perfect, and the cars made it there and back despite the horrible roads in Haiti. Gracias a Dios :) As for the Makarios team, we are waiting for the right timing to help as a team. Makarios is doing what it can to get supplies to different areas still, so feel free to continue donating if you can.

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