My New Home

I have officially made it to my new home. What a long journey it has been! I apologize that it took me so long to post my first message to you all, but we do not yet have the Internet working in my apartment. Thank God for friends who share wireless! So much has happened so far that it would take me forever to give a complete recap of my first week, but I will attempt to give you the highlights. Thank you so much for your prayers, for your interest and follow up, and for your patience with me as I have been slow in communicating!

On August 4th I arrived at Indiana Wesleyan University (not far from where I just left a few months ago) and had the privilege of meeting my new SCS family for the first time. It was exciting to see all the new faces and to get to know them over the short week that we were together at IWU. While at IWU, we took a class for teaching English Language Learners which will be extremely beneficial since practically all of my students will not speak English as their first language. It was a fun class with great teachers and it was really nice to get to know all the other new teachers before we moved down to the DR together. We were all very anxious to leave and arrive at our new homes.

For the most part, traveling went off without a problem (we left on August 9th). We all made all of our flights, even though we had a 10 minute layover in Chicago (always a bit stressful), but luckily we all made it on the plane with time to spare! Our luggage, on the other hand, did not. :) Of the 20 of us who flew down together, I was one of 4 or 5 who arrived in the DR with all of my luggage. So, lucky me!, I have still never lost my luggage in all my travels to obscure parts of the world.

Friday night Megan (my roommate - she teaches 3rd grade) and I got settled into our apartment. We were very blessed because we moved into an apartment that was already fully furnished and had most of the comforts of home. Many of the other teachers live in new apartments and have very limited furniture, or in some cases none. The school even had some food in the kitchen for us to tide us over until we were able to go grocery shopping. Saturday we took a tour of the school, went shopping, and a few of us went out to dinner and a REALLY good burger place.

Sunday was my favorite day here so far. I was really able to experience more about the culture and the beauty of this country! Each new teacher was paired up with a host family connected with the school (our Dominican staff, such as secretaries, kindergarten teachers, aids, etc.). Megan and I were paired up with Sandra, the director's assistant, who is pretty much in charge of everything at the school. :) She took us to her home church in the morning, and it is a Spanish service so she translated it all to me. I really need to work on my Spanish! (Quick note to Kristin Goldman, we sang a few of the songs that you always played on your phone and I thought of you!) The service was very good, but very long. It started at 10 and went until about 12:30 or 1:00. (Dad, if anyone ever tells you you're longwinded, they haven't been the the DR.) The message was very good and I really enjoyed the service. After church we went back to Sandra's house and ate Dominican-style tacos, and afterward we went to a place called 27 Waterfalls with the youth group at the church.

Now, when Sandra called us Sunday morning, she asked us if we wanted to go "see" 27 waterfalls with the youth group. She told us to pack water shoes and things to get wet in, so I think we're going hiking and we may be walking through some waterfalls. Well...I was only kind of right. We got to the place and they hand me a helmet and a life jacket. I'm thinking "WHAT are we Doing!" Well...we did kind of go hiking, but we also went swimming and climbing up ladders, and sliding down natural waterslides and cliff jumping (very small cliffs, no worries, I was safe)....and it was probably one of the coolest things I've done in my whole life. Because we got there later in the day, we only got to slide down or jump off of 7 waterfalls, but someday I hope to go back and do all 27.

Yesterday we went to the capital, Santo Domingo, and applied for our Dominican residency. Lots of funny stuff happened, but it was probably funnier for those of us who were there then for you so I'll spare you the stories. Today we spent our first day in our classrooms getting ready for school. I will have to tell you more about my classroom and the school later, but this is already longer than it should be. If you made it this far, then I admire your endurance.

When talking to another teacher (my hotel roommate at IWU), she shared with me a verse that really touched my heart as a very appropriate verse for the year. Romans 12:12 "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer."I ask that when you pray for me, you will ask that these things be increasingly true in my life, and that I would focus on these words as I go through my ups and downs.

Once again, I thank you for your prayers and your constant support and encouragement. During my short time here I have been repeatedly assured that I am in the middle of the Lord's will for my life here in the DR. Praise the Lord, for He is SO GOOD!