Thursday, December 2, 2010
The Journey A'nt Over Yet....
Bein stranded in the airport is so much fun!!!!!!! Not really and actually it was about the last thing I wanted to happen. Especially in New York which feels so close to home. They set me up with a hotel and thats where I am now after about 4 hours of rebooking everyone's flights, that was painstakingly sloooowww. Ended up getting to the hotel at about 3 A.M. But the coolest part and I would say almost ironically so was that I was able to help a couple that speak no English get their flights rebooked and getting to the hotel and things like that. I am taking them back to the hotel too. Just ironically cool that I would be able to help people with my Spanish that i have just learned for 4 months right here in the states! thats it for now. my flight is at 2:15 hopefully i will see you guys soon and my flight won't change... but who knows!
Friday, November 26, 2010
5 Days! WHOA!
Hello to all! Hopefully I should be able to say that in person to most of you in a week or so! Now I can only think of when i was here and having some really tough times in August and September, I never thought the time of my departure would come so fast. And now that its here, I am torn, I want to come home, but I don´t want to leave this place and all the friends, students and family that God has given me here. I realize that from today forward I think my life will always be split between here an the U.S, I will never forget the experiences nor the people that I have had here. Everyone is already asking me when i´m coming back to the DR. I can only leave them with the answer " cuando Dios quiere" in English " when God wants". Because clearly I want to return, but we don´t know what God has in store.
So whats new? What have I been doing the last few weeks? Glad you asked, I am really trying to aprovechar (make the most of) my time that i have left here.
Randy and I went to Saboneta about 2 Sundays ago i think, we went to a famous cave there and hiked around and inside of it for the afternoon. It was tons of fun, but there were tonssss of bats, which mad it interesting but still fun. After the cave we hopped in the lake to clean up. We headed back to San Juan on Randy´s motorcycle, but there was a police stop on the way back, I wasn´t concerned until Randy told me he didn´t have his papers. He left his wallet at home because he new we were going to hop in the lake after the cave. So we got off the motorcycle and we could see that they had already confiscated and put a few other motorcycles in the back of the truck. I knew we were sunk, I thought for sure we were walking back to San Juan ( still at least 10 miles out of the city). Randy finally managed to talk one of the officers into letting us go because he told them he had to take me to church. The officer was catholic and told us if we were lying, that we were gonna burn in hell. We weren´t lying, but needless to say we booked it out of there. Thank God! But what a great story huh?
Other than that I have been finishing up my classes and giving my end of the month exams. None of the students want me to go which is pretty funny and cute. But i am going to miss them too. I am sure there will be enough tears shed in the next few days (yes i do cry, and tears of others of course).
There are a lot of things on my mind right now like re-entry to the states is going to be a doooosy. In all honesty I definitely feel a lot more Dominican than American right now. I may have adjusted too well here. So please pray for that, and take it easy if it takes me a little bit to get used to things at home.
As I mentioned a little bit before, its funny how now I am more reluctant to want to go home now. Its like i knew that this day would be tough back in August, but i could never really imagine it. I guess that is the irony of life, in August i couldn´t wait for december to come, now I am reluctant to leave.
Trying to summarize this trip for you guys at home is really going to be tough, how can I 4 months in a different culture which most of you don´t really understand? How can I tell my church all the things that God has done for me in my time here? How can I tell you about great friends and people I have met here? To you they will just be people in a photo. I have my journel and my blog tolook back at to help explain when people ask, "so how was your trip?" but still that is going to be really tough. For these reasons and others I feel like for a while I will be just as much of a misfit for my first wek or so in the states as I was here for the first month. Please pray for that as well, that God will give me the words and the wisdom to share what He did for me here in this country.
This will be my last post here in the Dominican, who knows maybe I will write another while I am in the states. Thank you all so much for your faithfullness in prayer! I know it has helped me through every part of this journey. Well I am off to finish this week of sorrow and goodbyes and then i´ll see you guys at home :). I´ll leave you with this list of things I made, its a list of praises and things that I have learned here. I am sure there are more but these were the ones that jumped out at me:
1- Patience and perserverance: whether in my classes, with the language or just being here for 4 months I have definitely learned patience and perserverance.
2- Reliance upon God for everything: When you are in a country alone for four months without friends, family,with a different language, a different culture, teaching English when you know nothing about teaching English, you learn that you had better rely on God for everything. Pray that this will not change for me back in more of a comfort zone in the states.
3- Humility: Learn a language and you WILL be humbled!
4- Responsability: sometimes I feel a little old being a teacher here, but teaching is a big responsability and God has taught me a lot through it.
5- Not taking things at home for granted: Things like running water (That is all drinkable!) Hot or Cold, always, whenever we want or need it. Electricity, once again always, whenever we want or need it. There are a lot of other little things that i could add to this list.
6- Hospitality: I have learned a whole new kind of hspitality here in the DR and I think it will forever change how I treat guests.
7- Health: God has blessed me with incredibly great health, besides a few sniffles and a sore throat I have been healthy as a horse. Praise God, because we all know it could have been a lot worse.
8- Finally praise God for this opportunity he has given me to come to this country! I know all too well how hard it is for the Dominicans to enter the states, there are many who want to go but can´t financially.
En Cristo nuestro Señor,
Danito
So whats new? What have I been doing the last few weeks? Glad you asked, I am really trying to aprovechar (make the most of) my time that i have left here.
Randy and I went to Saboneta about 2 Sundays ago i think, we went to a famous cave there and hiked around and inside of it for the afternoon. It was tons of fun, but there were tonssss of bats, which mad it interesting but still fun. After the cave we hopped in the lake to clean up. We headed back to San Juan on Randy´s motorcycle, but there was a police stop on the way back, I wasn´t concerned until Randy told me he didn´t have his papers. He left his wallet at home because he new we were going to hop in the lake after the cave. So we got off the motorcycle and we could see that they had already confiscated and put a few other motorcycles in the back of the truck. I knew we were sunk, I thought for sure we were walking back to San Juan ( still at least 10 miles out of the city). Randy finally managed to talk one of the officers into letting us go because he told them he had to take me to church. The officer was catholic and told us if we were lying, that we were gonna burn in hell. We weren´t lying, but needless to say we booked it out of there. Thank God! But what a great story huh?
Other than that I have been finishing up my classes and giving my end of the month exams. None of the students want me to go which is pretty funny and cute. But i am going to miss them too. I am sure there will be enough tears shed in the next few days (yes i do cry, and tears of others of course).
There are a lot of things on my mind right now like re-entry to the states is going to be a doooosy. In all honesty I definitely feel a lot more Dominican than American right now. I may have adjusted too well here. So please pray for that, and take it easy if it takes me a little bit to get used to things at home.
As I mentioned a little bit before, its funny how now I am more reluctant to want to go home now. Its like i knew that this day would be tough back in August, but i could never really imagine it. I guess that is the irony of life, in August i couldn´t wait for december to come, now I am reluctant to leave.
Trying to summarize this trip for you guys at home is really going to be tough, how can I 4 months in a different culture which most of you don´t really understand? How can I tell my church all the things that God has done for me in my time here? How can I tell you about great friends and people I have met here? To you they will just be people in a photo. I have my journel and my blog tolook back at to help explain when people ask, "so how was your trip?" but still that is going to be really tough. For these reasons and others I feel like for a while I will be just as much of a misfit for my first wek or so in the states as I was here for the first month. Please pray for that as well, that God will give me the words and the wisdom to share what He did for me here in this country.
This will be my last post here in the Dominican, who knows maybe I will write another while I am in the states. Thank you all so much for your faithfullness in prayer! I know it has helped me through every part of this journey. Well I am off to finish this week of sorrow and goodbyes and then i´ll see you guys at home :). I´ll leave you with this list of things I made, its a list of praises and things that I have learned here. I am sure there are more but these were the ones that jumped out at me:
1- Patience and perserverance: whether in my classes, with the language or just being here for 4 months I have definitely learned patience and perserverance.
2- Reliance upon God for everything: When you are in a country alone for four months without friends, family,with a different language, a different culture, teaching English when you know nothing about teaching English, you learn that you had better rely on God for everything. Pray that this will not change for me back in more of a comfort zone in the states.
3- Humility: Learn a language and you WILL be humbled!
4- Responsability: sometimes I feel a little old being a teacher here, but teaching is a big responsability and God has taught me a lot through it.
5- Not taking things at home for granted: Things like running water (That is all drinkable!) Hot or Cold, always, whenever we want or need it. Electricity, once again always, whenever we want or need it. There are a lot of other little things that i could add to this list.
6- Hospitality: I have learned a whole new kind of hspitality here in the DR and I think it will forever change how I treat guests.
7- Health: God has blessed me with incredibly great health, besides a few sniffles and a sore throat I have been healthy as a horse. Praise God, because we all know it could have been a lot worse.
8- Finally praise God for this opportunity he has given me to come to this country! I know all too well how hard it is for the Dominicans to enter the states, there are many who want to go but can´t financially.
En Cristo nuestro Señor,
Danito
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
LAS PHOTOS!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
LAS PHOTOS!
I am SO happy about this picture! I saw this guy and his shirt while I was walking around the market. It took me a few minutes to register what his shirt meant. Once I got it i knew I had to go hunt him down and ask for his picture! He was glad to pose for me! Hope you enjoy the picture as much as I do :D
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Long Weekend...
What a crazy and long weekend I had! Thursday I took off classes and went with a group to a very small town way up in the mountains called Montacito. It was about and hour and a half drive in the back of a pickup truck. It was one of the most beautiful drives but also one of the scariest of my life, we´re talking way off the beaten path here. When we got to the top I immediately realized that I had lost my wallet! NO!!!! About five minutes later I realized that I had lost my phone as well! That should give you an idea of how bumpy and rough the way up was. I was pretty upset, we sent a dude on a motorcycle to look but he didn´t find anything. We told everybody to look and looked ourselves on the way down, but to no avail. Montacito was gorgeous! Once I was able to forget and stop worrying about my lost stuff I was really able to enjoy Montacito. The group I went with was doing an out-clinic type thing (similar to what we did with our group that first week waaaayyy long time ago) and I was able to help translating for one of the Doctors. It was fun to be able to use my Spanish for something useful, and it was funny because while I was translating one of the translators was sitting doing nothing, but I asked him for help if there was something that I didn´t understand. About lunch time I asked a couple people from the group if they wanted to go for a walk, so we went. It was a really neat little community, hard to imagine living up there though! We found guava, passionfruit and oranges to take back and eat. The oranges were one of the strangest things I have ever eaten, they were extremely sour first and then extremely bitter after the sour. It was like eating a lime then it turned into something more bitter than grapefruit. Really quite a fuel for the senses! Olvis one of the translators told us you don´t eat those and he went out and found us some really good oranges. Natives, they are always right! We went down the mountain, and I stayed with the group until they got ice cream that night. Something very cool and unexpected happened on the way to dropping me off at my house here. The group put together some of their own money to give to me before they left since they knew I lost my wallet. Of course it wasn´t the actual money but the act that really gripped me. It was maybe one of the first times I have experienced charity like that in such an unexpected way.
After a long day thursday I got up at 530 on friday morning to head to Santiago. I ended up sitting next to my baseball coach guy who i hadn´t seen for several weeks, so that was interesting. I definitely noticed that Santiago and the drive to Santiago was a lot more lush then San Juan and the south side of the island. I got into Santiago at about 12:30, took a taxi to his school and met up with him. I only knew Drew through Tammy Leinbach so it was a little bit awkward staying with someone I didn´t know much about. But it all worked out. I did know that Drew was a teacher so I was formulating idea in my mind that his work and his school must be similar to where I am teaching. Let me tell you I was dead wrong and so were my assumptions. I started talking to the secretary and she immediately spoke to me in English. Turns out the whole school is taught by North Americans and everyone in the school has to know English because that is the language that the teachers teach in. I soon realized they inside of this school and even in Drew´s life and the life of the teachers at that school that they had constructed pretty much their own U.S.A world in Santiago. I had to make sure i realized that this wasn´t wrong just very different from where I had come from, I was used to being the only American engolfed in Dominicans. So it was an experience for me. Friday night we went to an Aguilas baseball game, which is the pro team in Santiago. Unfortunately, most of the good players that come down to play from the MLB weren´t there yet. But it was still fun, and it was funny to notice some differences between a game there and in the states, like selling grapes and apples and fried cheese is a little different than in the states.
Saturday morning we left to go to a place called 27 charcos (in English 27 waterfalls) which is pretty much the best kept secret of the DR. Its about halfway between Porta Plata and Santiago. There were no signs or anything just a road that we got dropped off on from the bus and had to walk half a mile or so to get there. We payed about 500 pesos each (15 bucks-ish) and hiked up to the 27th waterfall, from there we jumped, slid, and hiked down the waterfalls. Explaining it doesn´t really do it justice, there are some picttures on facebook for those of you who want to look there. We had a waterproof camera that we were able to use. It was incredible and I will never ever forget that experience! The pictures don´t really do it justice either but it shows a little bit of how cool it was, Drew is gonna post a video of me jumping off a waterfall about 30-40 feet or so, its pretty sweet! well thats it for now! thanks for all your prayers! Only a month left! Crazy! And I know its gonna fly too! I´ll see you guys soon! don´t forget about me! ;)
En Cristo,
Dan
After a long day thursday I got up at 530 on friday morning to head to Santiago. I ended up sitting next to my baseball coach guy who i hadn´t seen for several weeks, so that was interesting. I definitely noticed that Santiago and the drive to Santiago was a lot more lush then San Juan and the south side of the island. I got into Santiago at about 12:30, took a taxi to his school and met up with him. I only knew Drew through Tammy Leinbach so it was a little bit awkward staying with someone I didn´t know much about. But it all worked out. I did know that Drew was a teacher so I was formulating idea in my mind that his work and his school must be similar to where I am teaching. Let me tell you I was dead wrong and so were my assumptions. I started talking to the secretary and she immediately spoke to me in English. Turns out the whole school is taught by North Americans and everyone in the school has to know English because that is the language that the teachers teach in. I soon realized they inside of this school and even in Drew´s life and the life of the teachers at that school that they had constructed pretty much their own U.S.A world in Santiago. I had to make sure i realized that this wasn´t wrong just very different from where I had come from, I was used to being the only American engolfed in Dominicans. So it was an experience for me. Friday night we went to an Aguilas baseball game, which is the pro team in Santiago. Unfortunately, most of the good players that come down to play from the MLB weren´t there yet. But it was still fun, and it was funny to notice some differences between a game there and in the states, like selling grapes and apples and fried cheese is a little different than in the states.
Saturday morning we left to go to a place called 27 charcos (in English 27 waterfalls) which is pretty much the best kept secret of the DR. Its about halfway between Porta Plata and Santiago. There were no signs or anything just a road that we got dropped off on from the bus and had to walk half a mile or so to get there. We payed about 500 pesos each (15 bucks-ish) and hiked up to the 27th waterfall, from there we jumped, slid, and hiked down the waterfalls. Explaining it doesn´t really do it justice, there are some picttures on facebook for those of you who want to look there. We had a waterproof camera that we were able to use. It was incredible and I will never ever forget that experience! The pictures don´t really do it justice either but it shows a little bit of how cool it was, Drew is gonna post a video of me jumping off a waterfall about 30-40 feet or so, its pretty sweet! well thats it for now! thanks for all your prayers! Only a month left! Crazy! And I know its gonna fly too! I´ll see you guys soon! don´t forget about me! ;)
En Cristo,
Dan
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
By the Numbers
Hi all! Thought I would start off this post by giving you some numbers that are pretty incredible and have shocked me as well. I have been here about two and a half months, ten weeks and five days or seventy-five days. Its crazy to think that its been about nine weeks since the team left and 8 weeks since Peter left. That feels like a year ago to me now. So much has happened since then and whenever I go to the guest house its like a vague memory that I stayed there for a week.
You want more numbers? I thought so. I´ve taught Seventy-one classes to one-hundred fifty-three students and I am still trying to learn all of there names! Thats all i have as far as numbers, hope you enjoyed!
Classes have been going well, Iam learning how I have to give the students some kind of grading system, which has been a little bit challenging trying to figure out the process.
I have made a new friend who has been really great. For those of you who were here, his name is Randy, and he is Margo´s son. I´ve been hanging out with him and getting to know him. Last night he taught me how to drive his motorcycle. Don´t worry mom! I went slow and it was safe. Not too much different then a bike really. I think he and I are going to go fishing sometime and do some other stuff. Maybe hunt for snakes to cook them up and eat them. So needless to say I am very excited for the opportunities i might have to do with Randy.
I visited his youth group and tonight I am going to help teach them the dramas that we did with the team when they were here. Please pray for Randy as he is a new Christian and I want to be a good friend for him. Also please pray for the dramas that i will be teaching them, just that they would beable to understand me and that everything would go well. I Think thats it for now, I´ll try to update on a more weekly basis. Hope all is well at with everything. God bless!
En Cristo,
Dan
You want more numbers? I thought so. I´ve taught Seventy-one classes to one-hundred fifty-three students and I am still trying to learn all of there names! Thats all i have as far as numbers, hope you enjoyed!
Classes have been going well, Iam learning how I have to give the students some kind of grading system, which has been a little bit challenging trying to figure out the process.
I have made a new friend who has been really great. For those of you who were here, his name is Randy, and he is Margo´s son. I´ve been hanging out with him and getting to know him. Last night he taught me how to drive his motorcycle. Don´t worry mom! I went slow and it was safe. Not too much different then a bike really. I think he and I are going to go fishing sometime and do some other stuff. Maybe hunt for snakes to cook them up and eat them. So needless to say I am very excited for the opportunities i might have to do with Randy.
I visited his youth group and tonight I am going to help teach them the dramas that we did with the team when they were here. Please pray for Randy as he is a new Christian and I want to be a good friend for him. Also please pray for the dramas that i will be teaching them, just that they would beable to understand me and that everything would go well. I Think thats it for now, I´ll try to update on a more weekly basis. Hope all is well at with everything. God bless!
En Cristo,
Dan
Friday, October 1, 2010
A Day In The Life...
So i know what you have all been thinking, what is a normal day like for Daniel? Don´t fear, thats exactly what i´m going to tell you.
Well since I don´t have classes in the morning I have the luxury of being able to sleep in. For this I am very grateful! I always have breakfast here, which is a meal I usually skip at home in the U.S. After breakfast, I usually have my quiet time. Then depending on the day, I might read or plan my lessons or wrestle with Amos. When Larys and the two other boys return from school, we eat lunch, which is the largest meal of the day here in the Dominican Republic. After lunch, I head to the school to teach my classes. I always walk there, everyone thinks i´m crazy but i really enjoy the walk. Its about a 15-20 minute walk from the house to the school. Once At the school I head to my classes, one day i have one class another day I have three, all the other days I have two classes. If I have a break between classes or once I am done with classes I usually head to the library to help our Raquel ( the librarian) and also to practice Spanish with her. I also help her with her English. Sometimes I will also help the other teachers with their classes or with their English. We´re usually headed back to the house any time between 6-7 P.M. After we eat dinner the activities really depend on the night, sometimes its watching TV, sometimes its talking to friends in the street, sometimes its reading, sometimes its planning lessons or playing uno with Amos. Thats about it really, not every day is like this, sometimes there are English classes that I go to or other activities. I´m sure things will probably change with Frank and Juanita here now.
Speaking of Frank and Juanita, I just got back from visiting them at the guest house. It was great seeing them and talking with them. hopefully i´ll be able to go over there to be a part of some of the things the groups are doing. It was nice talking to Juanita, someone who obviously understands a lot about adjusting to this culture and learning the language.
Sunday I recited four verses in the night service. I forgot a little bit of parts of them and slipped up because I was nervous. Oh well. And Tony got the whole thing on video haha. I can´t really think of anything new, please keep praying for me! Thank you all, Dios le bendiga!
En Cristo
-Dan
P.S. The spell check is set on Spanish so sorry if there are a bunch of typos :)
Well since I don´t have classes in the morning I have the luxury of being able to sleep in. For this I am very grateful! I always have breakfast here, which is a meal I usually skip at home in the U.S. After breakfast, I usually have my quiet time. Then depending on the day, I might read or plan my lessons or wrestle with Amos. When Larys and the two other boys return from school, we eat lunch, which is the largest meal of the day here in the Dominican Republic. After lunch, I head to the school to teach my classes. I always walk there, everyone thinks i´m crazy but i really enjoy the walk. Its about a 15-20 minute walk from the house to the school. Once At the school I head to my classes, one day i have one class another day I have three, all the other days I have two classes. If I have a break between classes or once I am done with classes I usually head to the library to help our Raquel ( the librarian) and also to practice Spanish with her. I also help her with her English. Sometimes I will also help the other teachers with their classes or with their English. We´re usually headed back to the house any time between 6-7 P.M. After we eat dinner the activities really depend on the night, sometimes its watching TV, sometimes its talking to friends in the street, sometimes its reading, sometimes its planning lessons or playing uno with Amos. Thats about it really, not every day is like this, sometimes there are English classes that I go to or other activities. I´m sure things will probably change with Frank and Juanita here now.
Speaking of Frank and Juanita, I just got back from visiting them at the guest house. It was great seeing them and talking with them. hopefully i´ll be able to go over there to be a part of some of the things the groups are doing. It was nice talking to Juanita, someone who obviously understands a lot about adjusting to this culture and learning the language.
Sunday I recited four verses in the night service. I forgot a little bit of parts of them and slipped up because I was nervous. Oh well. And Tony got the whole thing on video haha. I can´t really think of anything new, please keep praying for me! Thank you all, Dios le bendiga!
En Cristo
-Dan
P.S. The spell check is set on Spanish so sorry if there are a bunch of typos :)
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