Just What I Needed

Just what I needed... a little getaway.

1/4 pound of stress each week (x) 104 weeks = ... too much extra weight.

I hadn't realized how much I had been putting on myself. I didn't see all the little extra things being that big of deal. It wasn't until we landed in DC and hopped in the back of Melody's mini-coup convertable (with the top down, wind blowing in my face) that I realized that this was just what I needed.

I needed a chance to be somewhere with zero responsibility, no one calling me, and no one who knew me. It was the breath of fresh air and R&R that we needed.

We stayed with Melody and Adam in their cute town house like 4 blocks behind the Capitol building (amazing location). We had some time for ourselves to get out and be tourists, and we had lots of time with them catching up, getting to see them in their environment, and we got to attend the fairwell party that Melody put on for Adam. It was wonderful to see Adam's family again and meet some of Mel & Adam's friends.

Our trip to DC happened to be on a very busy weekend. There were hundreds of tourist and kids on school field trips walking around. It was not only the Cherry Blossom Festival, but some kind of "Kite Festival" as well. There were all kinds of parades, tents, booths, carnival rides, and people.

To the clicking sound of many cameras getting their visual proof of being a visitor in DC, we stood at the feet of Thomas Jefferson. Behind him on each side of the walls were snippits of remarkable things that he had once said.

Here is where Jefferson stands - looking across the basin towards the White House.


We walked through the Franklin D. Roosevelt twice once as the sun was setting and the second with a bike tour we took. It's a very calm (and for the most part) quiet place where one can silently think, read quotes, and see importants moments through his presidency captured through art or staues.

Josh & Vicki's favorite type of food = Mexican food. Our dinner was amazing!



Eternal flame in Arlington Cemetary

On my top 3 three things to see, the White House was number one. It might sound silly, but I've wanted to see it for a long time, and with my own eyes.

World War II memorial.

Vietnam War Memorial.

Bike Tour! Adam, Mel, Josh and I took a bike tour after church on Sunday and had a really nice time. The sun finally decided to grace us with its presence. It was a 3.5 hour tour, covering 3-4 miles, and we visited 8 memorials.

Melody and her boys!

We're at the Jefferson Memorial but the Washington Monument is behind them.

Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial at night

My favorite building - The Capitol Building. The morning/afternoon/evening when congress was in session debating the new budget, we were running, walking, or driving past the building. We even got to see with our own eyes the light in tower (which only shines when congress is in session). It was fun to be around the capitol on such a big day.

Josh and I took a tour of the Capitol Building and here is a glance at the rotunda. The center painting is George Washington sitting with 13 women... and I wasn't listening to why it is that way b/c I busy taking the photo... so you might have to wiki that.

Standing at the Lincoln Memorial. The Washington Monument is radiant isn't it? And lit up next to that is the Capitol Building... my favorite!

Our trip was amazing. We had the best time and even with seeing a lot, I felt like it was quite relaxing. I returned to the DR feeling refreshed and renewed and ready to take on the rest of the year! The trip to DC was just what I needed.

Life through a lens

Over the past month I've had several different oppertunities to practice with my camera in different settings. So I'll tell a little story with each photo which will capture a little bit more of my life here. The following two photos are of my co-worker and friend Caroline. She recently had her first baby, James, here in Santiago, DR. He was born in late January. Caroline used to work in one of our women's centers but has been taking a break to be a mommy.

We take our teams on an excursion while they are here. Salto Jimenoa is my favorite waterfall excursion, it never gets boring to me. I was just there on Saturday and practiced this particular shot with my camera. I think it's a success - the point was to get the water to look silky.

This little red flower here is actually a weed - and I've had several sprout in an empty flower bed in my back yard. They don't do much more than this... I think they offer a certain charm of their own.

Camera Duty! Because we currently don't have a full time staff memeber in our media site, I've been filling in there over the past 2 years when we need to have video/photo presentations prepared for our teams. Last week I spent quite a bit of time out at one of our pre-schools and got a chance to play with and help the kids in class. The little girl below told me that I was her "special friend" for the day and she wouldn't let me out of her sight. At snack time she unexpectedly shoved a chocolate muffin in my face... not my mouth. In class I listened to her confirm with her fellow classmates that eating glue is not good for them. She then followed this profound statement with telling her friends that she had chicken-goat for dinner the night before, which then sent her table of little munchkins into a fit of laughter. I love listening to little kids... they say the most awesome things!

This little boy attends the same pre-school with the little girl pictured above. He's sitting in the little pirate ship-sand box (donated to the school by friends of ours) contimplating where to sail next in his world of imagination. I had been sitting next to him listening to him spout off all the different places he would like to go. He was taking this choice very seriously.

This is our friend Eric, who just finished up the volunteer program. He lived with us for 2 months and has now returned back to the states where he is going to begin fundrasing as he will be returning for staff. He asked me to take some pictures of him for his prayer card. It was perfect for me because I needed some experience in taking these types of shots, and it worked out for him because it was free... and if I don't say so myself, it turned out quite good!

Home Remedies

Word of advice: if you tell a Dominican that you have "gripe" (Dominican Spanish for "sick") then it is 100% guaranteed that they will tell you what to eat or drink to cure it... and everyone has a different "definite" cure.

This morning I was at the height of my flu while talking with my friend Alberto (he works as a teacher at one of our schools). He immediately caught on that I was sick and told me that I needed to drink "te de cebolla" (onion tea). I gave him a look of disgust and verbalized my thoughts by saying I was trying to get healthier. He laughed and told me that I needed to try it and that he would make for me if I would drink it. I figured I didn't really have anything to lose, so off he went to find the necessary ingredients: onion, sour orange leaves, and cinnamon. I was happily surprised that it tasted wonderful (although a tad sweet from the heaping amounts of sugar Josh added to it). With pleasure I drank the full glass of onion tea, which, if nothing else, made my throat feel much better.

It's days like these when I just love being in the Dominican Republic!

Here are some pictures that I took a few days ago... remember my new year's resolution of taking more pictures? Well these aren't anything special, they're more my experimental pics... but I had a lot of fun!

March 13th...

The picture above is a sample shot of my new hobby... photography. I'm not good yet, I'm still learning. However this flower just bloomed the other day in my yard, and I felt it was worthy of being a model for my "trial pix" portfolio.

Someone once told me to keep a journal of all the differences that I experience between my new culture in the DR and American life. I worked at it for about 3 days before succumbing to busyness which led to forgetfulness which then led to misplacing that "journal" which in my world really means "piece of paper." I've never thought of that lonely, college ruled piece of paper until last week when a college student pursing missions asked me about some of the differences, great and small, that I have encountered in my time living abroad. I sat there for a few moments trying to recall them. My mind ventured to that list I had once upon a time created. I stressed my brain hoping that some image would appear in my head containing words with which to answer his question... but no success. That journal will forever be lost.

Throughout the rest of that evening I looked back over my two years here working to replay any and every funny, strange, difficult, and confused moment I have had. I laughed quietly to myself as fond memories flashed through my mind's eye... our first encounters with cockroaches, consecutive days of limited cold water for shower taking and washing dishes, my first time having a conversation in Spanish and knowing ALL the words that were said to me. The night that Diamond - our first dog as a couple - passed away. Our first day in our new office... no bug spray needed!

From there my mind swept to how I feel like I belong here... how I don't feel different, I feel Dominican. I don't compare the two cultures anymore. The US is one place with it's own identity, and the Dominican is it's own place with it's own identity.

With that said, I have some items in my house here that up until my life here, I never had. Here we have an abunance of different types of bug killer underneath the kitchen sink (killer for cockroaches, wasps, ants, mosquitoes, etc). In the bathroom we have at least 6 bottles of sun screen on hand (SPF 15 for Josh, 30 & 50 for me). We don't have any electrical units which need constant electricity (besides our fridge) because up until 2 months ago we've never had a generator. When it's cold out, we wear everything we own because we don't have heaters. We also have a fly-swater per room so when the careless wasp, bee, flying beetle, or grass hopper flies in, we can take care of it quickly without have to run around looking for the swatter.

Shower in the yard?

Last night we took out the leaders of the team we are hosting to the local road-side stand, Dominican fast food dining called Pica Pollo, and we didn't get back home until after 11:30pm! This requires an exclamation point because our bed time is between 10-10:30. Because of this late night adventure, the team leader gave us a very special gift... sleeping in! He told us that he would run the morning activities and told us not to come in... SO NICE! So we got to sleep past the usual 5:30am wake up call and didn't roll out of bed until just before 7am.

All was going well until I turned the shower on to find a slow trickle of water. While this isn't an unfamiliar experience (the public water gets turned off Thursday afternoons through Friday evenings every week), I knew that it was still early on in the week... the water control people surely wouldn't turn it off this early on in the week... right? So I walked out of my room into the living room and looked out into the yard to find a fountain! A fountain that shouldn't exist.

The water spicket in the yard was spewing water all over our yard. I ran outside with my dogs following at my heals. Lucy ran up to the lake we had developing in our yard and barked at the gyser to "protect" me from it... she's so great! After about 3 minutes of securing all the joints (and with Josh's muscels and sharp mind) we were able to finally stop the flood. Needless to say after we were done, we were pretty wet. But we had a nice hot shower... so it was all worth it.

Awe... the wonderful things about foreign culture life.

Resolutions & Adjustments

Goal: to lose weight
Method: attend gym
The #1 news year's resloution each year.

I have never before made a new year's resolution. I have always thought them to be the number one unkept promise made nationally (maybe even globally) every year - and therefore never felt the need to participate in a global failure to myself. This year, however, is different for me as I have a number of personal goals and therefore am embarking on a new journey! I am walking the road greatly traveled and am going to make my first new year's resolution: take more pictures!

I have a beautiful camera and love to use it but because I don't know how to use it well, I don't use it. So thanks to my friend Michael Martin, I have basic photography books volumes 1-3 and am hoping to get through them all before June. If I succeed, you will be able to see my accomplishment here on the blog!

Adjustments, it's the one thing you can be told about a million times but until you experience it yourself, you can't fully understand. Though we've been going through transitions and adjustments our whole lives and a lot since we moved here (every time we go back and forth from the states) it's always a different experience and usually throws me off a little. Since arriving back here there is the usual time difference (4 hours), culture difference, and, oh yeah... language difference! Last year after we returned back, getting back into Spanish was much more difficult than it has been this year thankfully. But this time the cultural and convenience difference has been the more difficult adjustment. For example, things closing around 6pm... like the vegetable market. Or on Sunday's the big supermarket is closed and smaller one didn't have any non-broken eggs. What can I say besides "welcome back!"

Things are going very well here, we are for the most part adjusting well. Today was great; our first work day since being back, and that has really helped with adjusting. Last night was the first thunder and lightening storm since being back - those are always really fun. And the days have been beautiful and sunny!

Thanks again to everyone for your love and support.

A Few Moments to Spare

The past few months have just flown by, but when I look back and try to remember everything that has happened I'm blown away! So I will break it down to bullets points.

The first week of October we hosted a team led by the future director of SIDR and his family. With them they brought a small team of doctors. I had the priviledge of driving them around to various locations where they ran clinics. One day Fernando (our SI doctor) told me that we'd be driving to a community really far away, and up a road that nobody else wants to drive. Well, me having a love for driving, welcomed the "road less traveled". Which I quickly discovered WHY it is the road NOBODY travels. We weren't exactly driving like this... (see below photo).

But we were driving like this... only up a mountain - through a dried up river bed... NOT to be confused with an actual road.




I had the time of my life... but I would be lying if I didn't tell you that there were one or two times where I thought... "there's just no way!"

The week following that team, we took our semester abroad students out for 1 week to Santo Domingo and the national park. This part of the program is to focus on history and culture. There are many highlights from this trip - basically the entire time! But possibly the scariest thing I have ever gone through in my entire life happened during this trip. One of the students participating in the program has a sever allergy to peanuts. She had been doing a great job with being careful but in a foreign country where packaged food doesn't necessarily give all the disclaimers can be dangerous... as we found out. One afternoon she had an allergic reaction to a cookie. We were 20 minutes outside the nearest town. She carries an epi-pen which buys her time to get to a hospital. We spent the following 2 hours rushing in and out of clinics (with medical personel attempting to help, but not with confidence) while trying to get back to the capitol where we could (should we still need it) receive better attention. Finally we were able to get the treatment we needed and she was in the clear. Meanwhile, while this was going on, we had another student who suddenly had food poisoning and was vomiting out the window all down the freeway! Crazy!

Shortly after we returned from that trip, my family arrived for some family-fun! My highlight from that trip was just sitting around playing games... "Catch Phrase" to be exact. We played boys vs. girls and the girls won almost every game!

Since my family has left we have been back to focusing just on the semester students. We have unfortunately had to cancel our trip to the Haitan border do to the cholera outreack and issues that have come about because of that - like the rioting, etc. But we're having an amazing time serving and ministering too the 15 students that are here.