Independence Day and the Palms

        I have been continuing to go out on Saturdays to a batey called Concho Primo and just recently I was thinking about how much has changed and what progress I have seen since I first visited last year in April. The kids are better behaved and attentive while Michael or Nicole are teaching the lesson (for the most part J ). Before we were having problems with them talking during the story or constantly walking in and out of the room, but now they will sit there focusing on what is being said. Sometimes, if they are acting out, we ask them if they want to leave and they instantly correct behavior because they don’t want to leave! Also, the Dombrowksy’s and Nicole have developed a good schedule for us to follow every week that makes it easier for us to control the kids and gives us an opportunity to follow up with the children, asking them questions about the lesson. The boys and girls are learning and memorizing bible verses and well as recalling the stories we have discussed and at the same time having fun singing songs and doing silly crafts! Nicole and Annie have even made some progress with the women in the batey, which is huge, by doing some homemade crafts with them. On Saturday, they were able to pass out the necklaces they made that week and we all noticed how much more open the women were to us and were excited about their necklaces. One woman even asked what they were going to make next! I am really just a very small part of the ministry in Concho Primo, but I am excited to help out in the little ways I can and praise God for the work He is doing there.

            February 27^th was also Independence Day and that meant tons of flags and celebrations! On Wednesday, we had the wax museum at school, which is when selected students from each grade come dressed up to school as a specific famous Dominican. They have to memorize a little speech about the person they are portraying and two times during the day classes and visitors can go outside and listen to them as they share.   Then on Thursday, I got to watch the parade from outside my apartment as all the schools in San Pedro had selected students to march down the main street in our area (Calle Independencia) carrying flags, banging drums, or doing a little choreography. Later in the day, I went over to school for a church picnic where we were able to play games, swim or just chat. It was a very relaxing day and it was exciting to be able celebrate the country’s independence for my 2^nd time!

            The school has been changing so much (in a good way) and we have many prayer requests. One is for teachers for next year. We are in desperate need of teachers for the following year. Currently, the school is looking for teachers for 1^st grade, 5^th grade, 6^th grade. So if you know anyone, let me know! Secondly, since our school is growing every year, we have run out of space again and our administrators are currently looking into several different options and would really appreciate your prayers about this financial strain. Thirdly, if you can pray for the students, that they would not only grow mentally, but also spiritually, including those who have currently not placed their trust in Christ.

Its beginning to smell a lot like sugarcane!

These past couple of weeks I have been really excited to see my student’s progress in my classes, especially with my 6^th graders. As stated before, I am reading the Magic Tree House books with them and they absolutely love it!!! They cannot wait to read the story and because I pull their vocabulary from the chapters we are reading, they are able to see it in its context, thus they are doing fantastic on their vocabulary. This past week they all scored a 100 percent on their vocab quiz!  Not only that, but we are working on answering comprehension questions from the story and they are able to understand and correctly answer the questions, which is a huge improvement from the beginning of the year. Another 3^rd grader of mine is doing really well in my group and whatever vocabulary we go over, she has got it all nailed down perfectly a day or two later. So this week, we are going to try to join the rest of her classmates for a few days as a trial run to see if she would be able to go back into the regular classroom. My 2^nd graders are even making some progress and have been able to read and identify the nouns in a sentence, as well as get the basic understanding of simple sentences. We still have a long way to go, but it is progress! We also have officially celebrated the 100^th Day of School here and how else would you celebrate except for having all the kids come in that day dressed up as old people! It was adorable to see all the kids come in dressed up and acting like old people for a day, even some teachers got into it too! 

100th Day of School!

All my 6th graders scored 100!

It is also that time of the year when they are harvesting the sugarcane at the factory and San Pedro and so it is not uncommon to smell the sweet aroma in the air of the sugarcane being cooked, which I personally love! One of my roommates likes to say that it smells like burnt marshmallows. But on the downside, there is also this weird poop smell at certain times (usually around 5:30 or 6), which is apparently the smell of the “cleaner” they use and the ash from the sugarcane plant that at times overwhelming when you see remnants of it around your house on the counters and floors. In fact, you have to make sure you are almost always wearing sunglasses when you are on a motorcycle this time of year or else you might end up with something flying into your eye and trust me you would be surprised how big those pieces of ash can be at times! But it is all worth it when I think of this beautiful country that I get to live and serve in and I love this time of year when I get to see the Dominicans working so hard out in the hot fields (thinking to myself how horrible and taxing their job is), harvesting the cane and seeing huge trucks shipping it to the factories, something I would never to get see in the US. 

On Saturdays, I have been going out with a missionary family (The Dombroskys) and a close friend who worked at the school last year (Nicole) to a batey called Concho Primo that’s land is officially owned by a Sugarcane company and is there for those who are working in the fields. On Saturdays, we go out and we do a little kids’ club with the little children living there called “Ninos para Cristo” (Kids for Christ). This past week we had a fantastic turn out with a bunch of kids and they all really seemed to enjoy it. There was even one boy, (who usually just leaves if it gets to boring for him) who said that he loved the club and when asked what his favorite part was, he said “Todos!” (everything). It is so great to see the kids excited about the club and learning more about God. We usually sing songs at the beginning and then have a little puppet skit used to focus the kids on the message of the lesson for the day, then there is the lesson, and after that we break up into three groups and do our memory verse and a craft along with the kids. This week Nicole taught them a new song, Quien es el rey de la selva? (Who’s the King of the Jungle?) and they absolutely loved it and kept singing it the rest of the day and doing the motions! 

Getting ready to begin

Games afterwards

Singing and dancing to Who's the King of the Jungle?

Back to the Caribbean!

I made it safely back to the DR, just before the next “polar vortex” hit, so that has made me rather happy. I was definitely not a fan of the cold weather while I was home in New York, although it has been rather “cool” here as well (getting into the low 70s at night). I jumped right back into my routine at school, teaching the very next day after I had arrived. Thankfully, my students must have missed me or something because they were very well behaved and it was an easy first week back. Also, I have been very thankful to have more supplies for my students and they love them too. My sixth graders, although they are very low at reading and comprehension, love the fact that we are reading a Magic Tree House book and this week have been asking me several times if we are going to read some more of it. One student even wrote down the title, so she could go home and ask her parents to get it for her in Spanish and English. For the younger kids, I was able to bring back little file folder activities that I made with Velcro stickies to practice basic phonics and grammar things, as well using them to spell out our vocabulary words for the week. My students definitely prefer these over boring worksheets. They even like the fact that the new dry erase boards have different color borders, so they can choose which one they want! The school has also changed a lot since I have been back and we now have a newly organized library and computer lab. My first week back was also the missions conference for my church here in the DR and the speaker was really good. Eliseo Gomez was the speaker and he is a missionary in Spain who is originally from Mexico. He challenged us to live an extraordinary life, one dedicated to God, where we make it our primary goal to know and adore our God.  My first week back I was also able to be blessed and go to a local sugar cane village called Concho Primo on Saturday and work alongside with some of my missionary friends as they are starting up a new kids club there. I had been there a few times last year and I was so excited to be able to return and see the kids again, some of the kids even remember me.  And for only 5 pesos I was able to buy a little tube of ice cream one of the little girls was selling and so far I haven’t gotten an amoeba from it! (we weren’t really sure what type of water they would have used)

Here a couple pictures of my students who got a 100 on their vocabulary tests. 

Two of my 6th graders, Johanny and Elian

Rosmary in 3rd Grade

3rd graders with a short vowel file folder

Women's Conference at IBEM

This past October, our church had their annual Women’s Conference. I think this might have actually been the first women’s conference that I have ever gone to and I really enjoyed it. Women from all over came to the conference. Not just the women from our church but from other churches in San Pedro to La Romana, Santo Domingo and even Santiago! Our speaker was Damaris Carbaugh and she was not only a good speaker (at least from the Spanish parts that I could make out), she was also a really good singer and did a mini concert for our church the next night. I could see her passion for the work and encouraging others to dive into the Word as well. She spoke to us about God’s grace giving us peace. She also urged us to get into the Word every day and soaking it up. The real thing we should be concerned about is the inner condition of our heart and we can nurture it by growing closer to God and staying in His Word. She spoke from the book of Philippians which happens to be my favorite book in the Bible, even though it is usually very convicting as well. For the small group sessions, I got to enjoy I was able to learn how to make a simple necklace, how to deal with your children from a Biblical manner, how to teach child Bible stories/lessons and make it interesting and doing sign language to Christian songs. 

 

Singing together at the start of the conference

 

Our speaker, Damaris Carbaugh