i love jaibon.

I figure it's time for a random update blog :) so here goes...

As my last blog mentioned, my parents were here a couple weeks ago. It was great! My parents, along with the parents of most of the other leaders came down for what we affectionately deemed "family week." We loooved showing our parents around where we call home!

Last week, I spent time finishing some last minute things before craziness starts with all of the spring break weeks here. I finished all of my literacy modules... lots and lots of lesson plans... who would have thought I would still be lesson planning after graduation?!

Last week I tutored the five oldest kids at the orphanage in Monte Cristi. We did M&M math, percents, graphs, ratios, probability, and all those other things you can tie in to eating candy :) My brain hurt after trying to teach all of those things in Spanish, but it was fun!

I am in love with two little twin girls at the Monte Cristi orphanage, named Ari and Arianni. They are three years old and full of spunk that makes them seem years older than they supposedly are. The other day we were tossing a ball to Arianni for a good hour with each person having to say, "ready?" The person receiving the ball had to say yes before you were allowed to throw the ball. It was great :)

Last week we had several "rain days." Equivalent to those snow days that everyone is having in the States, just not quite as cold :) When it rains, it basically shuts down the whole town because the roads are made of dirt and when dirt gets wet... it turns to mud! And lots of it. We had a couple of adventurous days filled with trecking through puddles and sinking in mud while hoping not to fall... it was hilarious.

I moved to Jaibon (the other orphanage) yesterday! I will be here for 5 weeks and I am sooo excited. I just love it here so much! The past two days have been great and I enjoy every minute that I'm here. The boys that live here are great and so full of life and joy. The women who cook here make my day every day. I love spending time with them too. So now my days consist of leading groups from high schools, churches, and colleges. I wake up early to fresh coffee, reading, and conversations with Jaqueline, Betsaida, and Fefa. We work and teach all day and eat the best food I have ever had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At night, we have activities with the boys who live here and have become a part of my family. The days are filled with many "Oh Jaibon"s because things always happen unexpectedly, but it's the beauty of living here. I see God in smiles and creation and conversations and sunsets. Cows and goats are herded past our common area daily and we eat food made from completely natural ingredients. The older Dominican women melt my heart and crack me up all the same time. God is good. He is beautiful and faithful and I am so thankful to be here.

I love and miss you all so much! And that's the truth :) Come visit :)

becoming dominican...

In Dominican culture, it's customary to get very dressed up for any sort of special occasion. The special occasion last Saturday was the arrival of our parents. When the Dominicans that we live with found out we were going to the airport to pick up our parents, they told us that they would fix our hair for us... which if you do not know, is an all day process :) Here are a few pictures that document our day full of hair straightening... who knew I would spend more time here on my hair than I do in the States!


Shortly after breakfast, they rolled our hair and put them in these ginormous rollers with strict instructions to be outside in the sun so that our hair would dry faster. This is Elizabeth, Carolina, and I sporting our rollos.


After some partial air-drying, you get stuck under this ancient beauty chair where air gets blown on the rollers and you kind of resemble someone from the Simpsons. Your head is pretty much stuck to the dryer and it's kind of nerve wracking since the kids are slinging soaking wet laundry over the electrical cords. But hey, it's all part of being a Dominican :)

Next, they wrap your hair around your head, bobby pin it down, and put a net over top of it to keep it in place. You wear the "tubie" the rest of the day until you leave for whatever occasion you are going to. For us, we were given orders not to take off our tubies until we were on the bus and headed to the airport.

And the end product is EXTREMELY straight hair! It was great to be able to run our fingers through soft, straight hair once again. Saturday was great and full of stick straight hair and patiently awaiting the arrival of our parents at the aiport.

It's all just a part of becoming Dominican :)

love them.

This morning we went in to Dona Nena, a local elementary school, to teach English. Most of the younger kids at the orphanage go to school there so it was tons of fun to see them looking all grown up in their school uniforms! I'm amazed at how fast they are growing up... it feels like they should still be babies, but yet here they are learning simple English. It's crazy!

Joanni... lookin' so big in her uniform!

Luz Maria peeking out of her classroom.

Mineli, covering up her toothless smile!

Carmelito.