United States

Just enjoying some of the finer parts of the US! We've been to Starbucks, Walmart, the waterslide...and have seen the tulips coming out! There are some really great things about being back!

Um, where am I?

So we arrived at our Kids Alive conference in Wisconsin yesterday. This is what we woke up to!!!! I don't think my sandals and skirts are going to be enough.

Manitos Limpias

If nothing else, we have clean hands at school now! We have started using hand sanitizer before meals (breakfast and lunch) at the school. I'm hoping to see less colds and flus, fungus, and all sorts of things they are spreading around. I was able to go through the classrooms and talk to the kids about germs and parasites and diseases and why we were doing this. It's so great to be a part of things moving forward, growth, change...I hope this makes a difference for the kids too!

Dentist visit

Yesterday definitely counts as one of my favorite days here! We had the opportunity to take 5 kids to the dentist for the first time. Everyday I get kids in the office with mouth pain, and after having a look inside their mouths I just see teeth that are rotten and missing and rough. Well we're about to change those things because we now have a dentist that wants to see ALL of our kids!!! It was incredible taking the kids out yesterday, spending time with them in a new setting, and knowing that we are really and truly meeting their needs. We go back next week to work on their teeth again...some had up to 9 cavities. The dentist also wants to come regularly to our school to check and work on each kid, so we're starting to look for and try to get a hold of dental equipment and supplies. It's amazing to be apart of the changes and growth that is happening. I love, just love, these kids!

Huh?

So our gua-gua is a little dirty, not uncommon when you drive through the cane fields everday. The kids often use the outside as their drawing board, leaving all kinds of words and pictures for us. But the other day I just couldn't stop looking at what they had written. John + Rachel = (heart). Why's that weird? John's my brother, Rachel is his wife! I don't know where they pulled these names from and why (they're not Dominican or Haitian names), but it's good to know that my brother and his wife should be in love for a long time!

Mmmmm!!!

Ever cooked 250 hot dogs? We did!!! Saturday we had a Field Day and hot dog lunch afterwards with the kids and a work team that was here. It was a special day with the kids and the team, fun to see everyone enjoying their time together. I love the opportunity we have with teams to share our kids...it is so amazing to see the connections that are made and the bonds that can happen in just a few days. That is one of the many joys of this job! And hot dogs...another perk!

Santo Domingo

On Monday, Candace and I made a trip to Santo Domingo! My mom's friend Ron, from high school, was here visiting for a few days while doing some training with the Coast Guard. We got on the bus in Puerto Plata for what we were told was a 2.5 hour trip. 4 hours later we stepped off the bus in Santo Domingo and were greeting by what seemed like North America. There were skyscrapers and lots of people and shopping malls...and the best part of all-Taco Bell! Nacho cheese Chalupas made the 4 hour journey worth it alone! So we walked through the city down to the boardwalk for about 2 hours and met up with Ron. It was great to see him again and to feel so welcomed, like we were high school friends!! We're definitely looking forward to our next trip to Santo Domingo when we can spend more time and see more of the city...and Taco Bell again!

Juancito

Little Juancito doesn't have anymore fevers, no more AIDS, no more hunger, his cough is gone and he's talking all the time. Juancito died yesterday and so today I am thankful that he is free from all the things that hurt him here...that makes my heart hurt a little less . I am glad he got to be with his family during these days and am reassured that not taking him in was the right decision as I know how advanced his illness was now. It's another reminder of the fragility of where we are and the things that surround us. I wish it could have been better for Juancito, that he could've had the right treatment, the right care, the right everything, but those are things I can't change. I'm thankful for his little monkey hugs and cuddles that made my days better and know that he's having a better day today free from all his hurts. (See post from March 2 for more info on him)

Easter

I'm still American and I like to dye Easter eggs. Yesterday we had friends over and colored Easter eggs in the afternoon. It was hard explaining exactly WHY we dye Easter eggs, I had to make up some story about the Easter bunny and leaving eggs around for the kids to find and then realized...I don't know why the bunny is leaving eggs...you're right, it makes no sense at all. Anyhow, we had fun dying eggs though and then had a dinner of them aftewards! Some traditions I'm just not willing to let go of!

Safari day

It was Semana Santa (Holy Week) this past week which meant lots of outings and hanging out. On Saturday, 31 of us piled into a Safari truck and went to the river then to the church retreat for the afternoon. It was an amazing day! We brought a big lunch of rice and potato salad and swam in the river, sang songs in the safari truck and got to spend time together!

The family photo

Dear Mom,

I LOVE getting mail from you, it is what I look forward to. Your notes, mail from home, treats...it makes my day. Just wanted to let you know though that I probably have enough family photos for the moment. It's just that I have one in every room, every classroom, the kitchen, bathroom, the ceiling, and the fishtank and I'm running out of places to put them! I love that you include a photo with each mailing, it makes me smile to open the envelope and see yet another family photo! I love you.

Jessi :)

Santiago sleepover

I went to Santiago on Monday night to stay with one of my friends from Montellano. Perla is going to university there now and so I got to see her new apt and roommates, friends and university. It was a really nice time to be with her and she was so proud of it all.

And then I became more Dominican. Perla put my hair in a "tubey" which is wrapping your hair around your head to sleep at night. This keeps their straightened hair straight for the next day...obviously something I was in need of. Still fun though, even if my hair was the same as if I hadn't tubey'ed.

Ojo Rojo

I got pink eye. Itchy, red, burny, eyelids stuck together like a newborn baby kitten. It's gone now...a few days of antibiotic drops sorted me out. I'm glad.

Classrooms, Phase 1

We are officially growing! We now have 6 classrooms ready and being used (1 still as an office). The school is beautiful and it seems to change overnight. It's nice to look back at the photos of what we used to be like before we had 231 kids! The expansion continues as we are into construction on the next 2 classrooms, then hoping to get a basketball court, a parking lot, eventually an office block...and then go upstairs on the classrooms for a total of 12 rooms full of kids (maybe about 500-ish!) Big dreams but it'll be here before we know it.

Bathrooms

Hard to believe how far we've come!!! How easy it is to forget that we used to just be one building of 4 classrooms. Here's a look at the befores/afters of our newly finished bathrooms!

New bathrooms have 3 stalls in each boys/girls side, 3 sinks, 2 showers, running water, the boys get a urinal...it is AMAZING!!! What a difference this will continue to make for us.

Little man

My life has been changed forever by a little guy named Juancito. He's 5, maybe 6-no one seems to really know. He likes to cuddle. He holds on like a little monkey. He throws really good tantrums. He doesn't speak to white people. His eyes are amazingly big and beautiful. He wears the same clothes everyday. He has a horrible cough. He always has a fever. He is extremely malnourished (under the 3rd percentile on all my charts). His mom died of AIDS 2 years ago. He tested positive for HIV after that.

He breaks my heart because I want to help him and don't know how. Is it more of a help to leave him with whatever family and structure he has or to try to meet his medical and physical needs by bringing him to our house? He's extremely sick right now, possibly due to AIDS, so is it better to have family take care of him? Do we risk taking him in during his last days...days he could have spent with his family? But what if he is just sick and needs some intensive care that we could offer him? His dad said that today he's so sick he's refusing food.

It's all so hard to take in. It's hard because I want to take him in. I want to make it all better and my heart hurts because I can't make it better. I can't make him better. I can't take his AIDS away or his cough (TB??) or his fevers. I hurt because he must feel miserable. I hurt because he doesn't deserve this. Oh, little Juancito, what I would do to just take it all away.

I tell these stories not to dramatize life here, not to publicize the bad, not to take advantage of these kids, but to open eyes to another world. A world where HIV positive kids can go for years without receiving any medications because they aren't sick enough. A world where the realities of death and poverty and sickness and hungry kids are in your face daily. A world I have come to love and embrace and a world that continues to challenge me. It's a world that, even with the hurts, I am thankful to be a part of.

Birthday

The BIG birthday has come on gone...I turned 28 on the 28th, in year 2008. Candace sorted out an amazing taco dinner and birthday cake with friends!!

Flowers

Are these not the most amazing flowers ever??!! Birds of Paradise are about the weirdest and coolest flower, huh? Alberto (Dominican dad) came over with a huge bouquet this morning-I ended up with two vases full of flowers!

Wildlife

Just a little moth that flew into the house the other night...and stuck around for a few days. The problem with these things is that they have bodies-like a real body with arms and legs and they make loud fluttering noises when they fly. I'm glad he's gone.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

These people make my days brighter.

We took a trip to the beach the other night and got to sit and chat and enjoy one of the great parts of the Dominican Republic...the beach.