The Thanksgiving Feast

For thanksgiving most of the JCS staff went to the Speciale's (my friend Karen's) house for a HUGE thanksgiving feast. These pictures don't do the fun, chaos, food, laughter, full bellies and sweet fellowship justice, so I might have to post some more later. But here is a taste.



For various and assundry reasons this is the first time that JCS has done an open invitation to staff and families for thanksgiving. It was a blast! It was so nice to get to hang out with the Dominican teachers who I don't normally get to talk to. School can be so rushed and the language barrier really inhibits conversation when you are in a hurry, so having some time to just be goofy and hug on and compliment and smile at and ask about coworkers was such a great blessing to me. There are moments even in the crazy chaos that exists in our lives here where I feel that we do get to touch a piece of heaven. Thanksgiving was my first of these moments in a weekend that was full of them.

when 7th graders steal my camera

they take pictures...some quite funny:

or

and these are the culprits:

the day the propane went out at mi casa

so, i was standing over my two burners and the oven which were lit and thinking wouldn't it be funny if the propane ran out the night before thanksgiving while we were preparing our feast....

in hindsight, funny is not the word i would use. here's the puppy responsible: (ours is the grey one in the back.)

the bike

well, we were able to purchase our bike. it is used, it is a yamaha, and thankfully it was less than we expected. thank you, thank you, thank you to those of you who helped us with this purchase. i have driven it twice (just around the neighborhood) and realized a very important thing: we don't really have 'roads' here...i mean, there are roads, but they are almost all dirt. i learned to ride on concrete or asphalt and it is not nearly so slippery as the roads here. so, i dropped the bike tonight. no biggy, just embarrassing. i was going about 5 miles an hour and hit the hand brake instead of the foot break and slid out the back tire. live and learn. (for those of you concerned i have been faithfully wearing a helmet on both of my expeditions unlike this pic where i drove it down to the end of the drive and back.)

because the bike was less than anticipated, Rachel and I out of gratitude want to put some of the balance between expectation and reality toward purchasing a moto for Clarissa (ser previous posts). We are working on raising money towards this end among our friends here. please pray that God will direct us and that we will best know how to help Clarissa and her family.

again, THANK YOU!

A trip to a waterfall

Here is a photo album of our trip to the waterfall (Salto Biaguate I think). It was a beautiful perfect afternoon. On the trip was: Rachel, Jessica, Christy Elmer, Dylan and myself. It was about a half hour ride to the falls, and the ride as well as the destination was gorgeous.

oh by-gosh by-golly!!!

karen: hello
christina: hey, sometimes they get things right, even in opposite land!
karen: why? what happened?
christina: they are leveling out the road in front of our house!
karen: no way!
christina: way! I even got pictures!
karen: well can you send them to my street?
christina: *uproarious laughter*
I had to call Rachel out from her room to come see! It is so amazing!
She was like, "what's going on?" and I squealed,
"they are evening out the potholes! Now when we get out bike we
won't have to drive around them!!!" YAY!!!!





(I am pretty sure the drivers of that huge piece of machinary thought I had lost my mind,
but it IS a big deal when they get things right around here. I didn't even know the government
possessed such an impressive piece of equipment. I guess I thought they leveled things by
dragging a shovel off the back of their passolas!)

Katie Fluth's Party Extraordinaire

Wednesday night Katie (the PE Teacher & daughter of JCS's director) and her roommates hosted a costume party. Jessica and I just thru on some 'ethnic' looking clothes (our decision was rather last minute)& enjoyed our time at the party getting to hang out with other adults, play some silly games, eat some fantastic food and enjoy being out of the house after days of rain. Here are some glimpses:

Noel is not a Christmas Carol

We arrived for staff meeting yesterday morning just like we would any Monday morning and had devotions, prayed and walked outside to start organizing the mass of children...but there wasn't a mass...there were about 40 kids. At about 8:10 they announced that schools across the country had been closed due to the tropical storm which was (and had been) dumping rain in abundance. Some would say that there was a flood falling from the sky. It poured all day yesterday and we lost power for about 4 hours (which might have happened any day, rain or no). Things certainly are wet. Extreme amounts of rain means water shortages. "What?" you say. That is right, folks, this is opposite land! Thankfully, our house is on well water, and as long as that doesn't go dry we are fine. Those who are on city water can expect to be water-less for about a week as the city water supply fills with mud whenever there is this much rain, so they just shut the whole city water system off. We checked our cistern yesterday and it seems fine, but we did order 4 huge bottles of drinking water just in case.
Most of the time we have been pretty comfortable inside. It is cooler because of the rain, though a little humid. (Alright, alot humid...it takes about 20 matches before you can get one to light because the boxes are so damp from the humidity in the air.) Clothes don't dry so well in this weather either so we will rejoice when the sun re-appears, but I have to say that other than being a little damp and a little muddy most of the folks we know here are doing just fine. There are some houses along the rivers, etc. that have been evacuated because of the rising waters, so please pray for those families, etc. As far as I know school should be back in session tomorrow. We have next monday off also, so I am truly truly thankful for the time to catch up, rest, study my spanish and get organized. I was really needing a break, and God has provided some wonderful time for me to think, relax and accomplish things that normally I am too busy to do. So, maybe while Noel is not a christmas carol...for me it has been a song of praise.

My kingdom for a moto...

My roommates and I decided when we first got here that we would try to live for a while without transportation; the exercise would be good for us. What we have found out is that time is our biggest restraint, not a lack of energy or desire. Additionally, we live a little ways up the mountain from town, and carrying groceries of any heft (laundry detergent, dog food, milk, yogurt, flour, sugar) is very tiring. We do fill our backpacks, etc. but still feel about ready to call it a day upon lugging up to the house the things we have purchased in town.

Sometimes we are invited to parties, dinners, bible studies, and other events that we cannot get to. Church is very difficult, as we have to come up with a ride. Anything that needs to be done after dark is impossible...walking after dark here is really not advisable...especially not up the Avenida as it is pitch black for a few hundred feet. All this to say, we really need some transportation.

We started really praying about it a month ago, and immediately someone donated 13,000 pesos. Since then we have received an additional 1,200. We are still about 10,000 short, however; 10,000/32 is $312.50 in U.S. I am asking if anyone would be willing to commit to $50.00 toward this end. When I leave, I will not retain the bike...I will donate it the teachers here, so you would not only be helping me out, but also future teachers. Please consider donating toward this cause. The information for tax deductible donations is to the right of the posting. (Contact info, shipping info, etc.) We are hoping to make the purchase in the next two weeks, so we are praying fervently that God will provide for this need, as He has already shown He is faithful to do.

Thank you for your prayers and gifts toward the fulfillment of this need!

mi perrita dominicana

Because one favorite topic of my blog is the puppy, here is a pila update.
If you click on the slide show a little options menu pops up. The little white square-ish chat looking icon on the left will show you the captions. Have fun!



This is Pila & Mona playing the other night when I was trying to get some work done. I had been sitting on the couch right beside them getting bumped until I got up and got my camera.