"Around me when I look, His handiwork I see; This world is like a picture book to teach His love to me." -Jane E. Leesen

It has now been 8 weeks. Feels like it has literally flown by, and hard to believe that my time here is halfway over. AND its hard to believe that it's fall and almost October. Surely doesn't feel like it. Perhaps its because the weather never changes here and I'm still wearing sandals and could be wearing shorts everyday. Ok I take that back the mornings have gotten a little cooler. I am now getting (not having) to wear a light jacket in the morning for almost a whole 30 minutes until it starts getting hot again.

Moving on. Since it is the 7th week of school I feel like I am finally getting into the groove of things with my classroom and my kids. Don't get my wrong, the language barrier is still a definite struggle, but I am getting to know my kids more and more each day; getting to know their little (or BIG) personalities, their likes, dislikes etc. The process took a little longer than usual considering it takes a while for me to actually have a conversation with them. But last week I had full responsibility of the class, and it was well....challenging. I guess that's what it feels like to be a teacher ALL.DAY.LONG. By 4 o'clock I'm ready to go to bed. We have been learning about family and community these past couple weeks. That of course has been different because I've had to learn about how their families work here and how the community works. Last week we went on a tour of the town, like a little mini field trip.



Like I was saying...we went on a little field trip where we walked through the town to see what kind of places we saw. It as actually really fun, and I feel like it really did work in helping them see their town and learn the places in English. All in all, I have slowly been able to appreciate the little things during the day. Like when a student speaks in English, or when I just sit back and watch them do the crazy things that kindergartners do. Or when ever 5 seconds they are saying my name.."Ms. Leah . Ms. Leah. Ms. Leah. Watch me take this bite of food." or "watch me swing on this bar." or "Ms. Leah. Watch me...." then they have to think of something that they can do for me to watch because they didn't actually think about it before they said my name. I'm pretty sure my name gets said 74 times a day. It could very well be more. Highlight of the day: I watched one of my students, Frayluis, play soccer today. It was so precious. He told me this morning that he was playing today because I went a couple of weeks ago to watch him and he must have liked that. Sidenote, Frayluis never finishes his lunch, so today I was sitting with him and I told him that he has to eat all of his food or else he won't be strong for soccer. Let's just say he ate all of his lunch today. So I went and watched him play a game, and by game I mean it was really practice, but that's what they call their actual games since their so little. He is the ONLY kindergartner that plays, and quite a little guy. But let me tell you, he was in their with the best of them. I loved every minute watching him play and every time he would kick the ball or just on occasion he would look over and smile and me and make sure I was watching it. It was quite a good moment.

The rest of this week is dedicated to Outdoor Education Week where we are learning about interdependence. So it should be a fun and different learning environment not only for the kids but for me too.

Now on to life outside of school. Well Thursday the DR had a national holiday. Not quite sure what it was, but it was a day off of school. I slept in, played a little ultimate frisbee for the first time. I would like to say that I did make a touchdown, goal, whatever you call it in ultimate frisbee AND I assisted a touchdown. Thank you very much.

This past weekend Jarabacoa celebrated their 151st anniversary so there was this big carnival/festival/concert going on. I didn't actually make it to the concert but I did reap some of the benefits. Cotton Candy. Yes cotton candy in the Dominican Republic. It was quite a delightful little taste of the States.

This weekend was kind of a music filled weekend. On Friday we went to this church/youth group thing with one of Maria's granddaughters named Vida (yea it means life. kinda neat!). So we talked about going like a week before so we didn't know if she would remember or not. She told us she would send someone to pick us up at 7:30 on Friday. So 7:30ish rolls around and we assume that she's not coming, so we are still in our sweatpants and tshirts. Well we were wrong. Some guy comes walking in our house looking for something. In his slowest Spanish as possible he tells us he's looking for "dos americanas." He was clearly talking about Robyn and I. So we change quickly and hop in the back of the truck with Vida and her sister. It was such a fun experience and it kind of felt like I was back in youth group in the states.

Saturday during the day Robyn, Melinda and I went over to our friend Ciara's house to hang out, make lunch, use wireless, wash laundry in a washing machine, and drumroll please...take my 2nd warm shower since I've been here!! Although there was only warm water for about 3 minutes, it was perfect nonetheless.


Saturday night we went a concert that was put on my YWAM Jarabacoa called "Siguelo" which literally means "follow it." When its translated it kind of loses its effect, but you get the idea. Basically it was a REALLY fun night of dancing and listening to different artists. It was a mix between rappers, dancers, a girl pop group kinda thing. Granted they were all in Spanish I caught some of the translations with a little help. Just when they worship here they worship so freely. Just dancing and jumping around and i LOVE it. I really feel like I'm in my element. The Lord was evident for sure in this place.

Sunday after church some people went to this fabulous place called the Jarabacoa River Club. It was kind of like a country club, and it had 5 pools that overlooked the river. I took some pics because I cannot do it justice. It of course started pouring down rain later that afternoon so the Club told us they were going to have a Karaoke contest. But of course, only use Americans participated, and yes I did in fact sing Karaoke for the first time. Robyn and I sang and danced to the incredible song by Whitney Houston, "I Want To Dance With Somebody." We unfortunately didn't win, our friend Kim, who is a phenomenal singer won, and her prize: a Sangria that tasted like old fruit.


As for Sunday night. Sunday night has quite a funny story. I'll try to make it short. It all started with Melinda. Melinda goes to a Catholic church here and has 1 friend that she likes to say hi to that we met during the first few weeks that we were here because he was helping out one of the other staff members up at the school. So every week Melinda always gives a friendly hello to him because she knows him. Innocent right? You would think...except for the fact that all the while Melinda thinks it's an innocent friend thing because she has a boyfriend, but he is thinking differently. So last week he asks her if she likes ice cream and of course she says yes because she likes ice cream! Easy answer. When she comes back from church and is telling us this story, myself and other teachers are wondering if she realizes that she has just been asked on a date. She clearly has not caught on. Oh, Melinda. So we tell her to just bring some friends on this so called "date" and everything will be good. So this Sunday rolls around and the plan is to go get ice cream. Nothing more. Nothing less. We will go and leave in 30 minutes. Well, since he knew that Melinda was bringing 2 friends, he conveniently brought 2 friends as well. And well you can fill in the rest. It so conveniently becomes paired off into couples. We are all trying to carry on conversations with each other when we don't speak the same language. Basically I hit it off great with my guy. We're going on another date, and I'm seriously considering getting married and living in the Dominican Republic for the rest of my life.....
JUST KIDDING. Mom, I know you just freaked out just then. Only a joke. Don't you worry. Oh and might I add that my guy, despite being a good looking guy, was at the ripe young age of 18. Lucky me. But seriously it made for a pretty funny story and experience.





Last thing. I have become quite a reader since I've been here considering I have no internet and no tv when I go home. So far I have read Harry Potter 7, The Glass Castle (really recommend that one), currently reading The Time Travelers Wife and Crazy Love, and my Bible study group is studying out of the book Devotional Classics, which is also a really amazing book!!

So...I will wrap it up since its getting kind of long as usual. But again, thank you, THANK YOU everyone for your prayers and encouragement. You can email me whenever you want at LeahD09@gmail.com. I love getting emails. The Lord is working in ways I have never experienced before. He is trying me in many many ways, but I know I will look back and say it was worth it. So my prayer request would be that I can see what he is teaching me NOW. I know I will have to learn some things by reflecting, but I don't want to miss anything he is showing me now while I'm here. I really feel like I will be home before I know it. It's bitter sweet really.

I miss everyone and love each of you!

P.S. Check out Melinda (melinda-dr2009.blogspot.com) and Robyn's (rbinthedr.blogspot.com) blog if you would like to get other perspectives on life down here. Also they might update their blog a little more often than me. But I do still put pictures on facebook if you want to check those out!

Life moves fast...

*First view of the Cabarete Beach*

So it has been a while since my last post. I apologize but school has really been picking up and my internet time seems to be getting shorter and shorter everyday. But a lot has happened in the past couple of weeks so I will try to catch you up the best I can. :)

Like I said on my last post, we went to the beach a couple of weekends ago and it was magnificent! We went to a place called Cabarete and it was very different than any beach I have been to. We stayed at this really nice condo called The Nanny and our house was HUGE! It was so wonderful to have semi air conditioning and I took my first hot/warm shower since I’ve been here, and if I hadn’t been so sunburned when I probably would have appreciated it more haha. There really wasn’t that many people on the beach, especially where we were because we were a tad bit out of town. Friday night when we got there, after gawking over our place that we were staying at, we walked down the beach to go to dinner. We literally got to eat right on the beach! All of the restaurants were very honeymoonish…I don’t really know how to describe it. But they all had these couches and chairs that sat really low to the ground. It was really like something you see in a movie. I splurged on a really good drink called a Cabarete Iced Tea..i decided to be a little touristy that night. It was soo yummy, and the liquor was made locally and had like 5 different leaves (or whatever you make liquor with)…I can’t remember what the waitress told us exactly haha. But the next morning we got up and went to this little quaint breakfast place called Dicks and it was like having breakfast in the states! Afterwards we headed straight for the beach and had a VERY full day in the sun. And if you have seen my pics on facebook you will see that I for sure did get some sun! Yikes! That Caribbean sun shows no mercy my friends! For dinner that night, on of the other teachers, Daniel, went to culinary school so he cooked us a delicious meal! It was such a great night hanging out with everyone and getting to know everyone a little more. Sunday morning, we got up and went to the beach once more, despite the sunburn. I mean I had to get my fix of the beach as much as I could. All in all it was a fabulous weekend, and I recommend Cabarete to anyone who goes to the DR! haha

Last weekend, we hiked to another waterfall. I won’t go into too much detail because they probably all sound the same to you guys. But this one was just as great as the first! We had to trek through the river to get to the waterfall so it was a little challenging at times. And for everyone else who has longer legs that I do it was a little easier for them to climb up on the rocks, whereas for me I had to basically rock climb up the rocks at times. Totally worth it. Beautiful waterfall yet again. I’m sure there will be more to come.

This weekend a group of about 20 of us went camping at a place called Manaboa. This is where Chad, the husband of the couple that started Doulos, has a coffee farm. The first week of staff training that I missed the rest of the staff went to learn all about the coffee farm and such, so I was excited to finally see it. The hike up there was quite exhausting and a little longer that what I was expecting. It was my first camping trip that we had to carry all of our food and sleeping bag and such up to the campsite. I felt pretty legit. So now you guys can’t say I’m not outdoorsy. But of course the view was spectacular as usual. I spent the first part of the afternoon laying in the grass, reading my book, then took a nap in the grass, then reading a little bit more. It was perfect. We took a pretty good hike, about an hour long, to another waterfall. It was like another little secret adventure because the trail wasn’t really well cut out. The water was freezing as always, but very refreshing after the hike! That night, was probably one of my favorite memories from the trip thus far. One of the guys brought his guitar with him, so after dinner we all sat around this big campfire and sang. We sang some fun songs Hootie and the Blowfish, and the song “Drift away.” Then we sang some worship songs. We sang for probably like 2 hours. It was just a beautiful time. I wish I could capture it and describe it to all of you, but I guess that wouldn’t have made it as special. It was just a wonderful, special time not only with the Lord, but with the other staff. Just he sound of voices praising the Lord with no noises from the city or anything, was irreplaceable. It was just a quiet, much needed refreshing weekend.

My classroom has been going pretty well. I am teaching a little more. There of course have been many challenges, but it keeps getting a little better day by day. I know its not going to be an overnight process with these kids, or even with myself so I am just praying for God’s strength. And I really am just overwhelmed with everyone’s blessings and prayers. I cannot tell you what they mean to me. Just getting various emails from you guys and little messages of encouragement, means more than you think. Really. So thank you. This week we are finishing our unit on Emotions so we are visiting the hospital tomorrow and bringing them balloons because we want to make people that are sad, happy! Haha. Then on Tuesday we are going to the ancianos (elderly home). They came up with the project and came up with a way to make money. This past week they had to clean houses for donations just around their house or their neighbors house. They had to learn to make money to get there, so we could bring the ancianos cards, and hugs and bring joy to their day. I am really looking forward to taking my first field trip with my kids. Lets hope its not disastrous. Haha.

A few extra highlights from the past few weeks:
-Had a kid in my class give me the finger. Yikes. I don’t think she exactly knows what it means, but she got in a tad bit of trouble.
-I get lots and lots of kisses everyday….and I love it! On Friday one of the girls was eating a sucker and then gave me a little kiss on the cheek and I think she left a little behind of my cheek. O well. :)
-We’ve had a few more run ins with the rat. The new score is me: 4, Melinda: 3, Robyn: 5.
-Had ranch for my first time in what seems like forever! One of the teachers found some for me and bought it for me. Not as good as Chilis ranch, but it’ll due
-New favorite snack here: Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. It will probably get me through the next few months.
-Going into my 6th week of living in the DR!

Thanks everyone for reading my blog again. Congrats if you read this far; I know it was kinda long this time. Check out my pics on my facebook if you haven’t already. I am much better at putting those up than updating my blog haha. Love each of you!