.First Day on the Job.

July 12, 2011:

Ready to work.

Today was our first day on the work site. I could not believe how exhausting this work was. The first thing we did was form a 'brigade' line to pass a huge pile of cement blocks up on to the roof (3rd story). Once we got in a rhythm, it wasn't too bad - swinging them helped. But when people would switch out to take a break - it took awhile for the new people to get into the swing of things.

Moving in the cement mixer.
*Note: we still did a lot of cement mixing by hand*

The Dominican guy next to me kept trying to talk to me which was really frustrating because I could only understand a couple words. I couldn't even guess what he was saying. Finally, there was a break in the line and he could use gestures. He was trying to tell me that I was strong and a good worker. I just smiled and thanked him.

Working in the brigade line.

After we finished moving all the blocks up to the roof, we then were ready to start with the buckets of cement. And that lasted all day! Load after load. We worked hard from 9-12, with short, staggered water breaks throughout the day. Then we ate lunch (sandwiches and chips) in shifts. We may have each sat down for about 10 minutes, which really was not long enough. The plan for tomorrow is that we each get at least a half hour.

This is how the classroom floors looked when we started.

They built frames for the cement.

After lunch we just kept moving buckets. For awhile I got out of the brigade line and helped Jim. He had a really long piece of re-bar, with one end bent like a cane. So he lowered the hook end down, someone hooked a bucket on - he brought it most of the way up and I grabbed the buckets off for him. We were only on the second floor at this point, but it was really hard. The bucket line sent up the cement to fill the bottom 4 inches or so of cement, and the buckets we lifted had the thinner, top coat of cement for the floors. After awhile I ended up down on the ground, lifting the buckets to put them on the hooks. This too, was exhausting. Lifting bucket after bucket full of cement over my head was tough.

Putting buckets on the 'hook'.

Kid's Club went good for the Tennessee group today. They said there was about 100 kids that showed up. The only problem was - they left their suitcase of crafts on the bus, and that drove to Santo Domingo, so there was no crafts for the kids today. But overall, it was an exhausting but great day. Tomorrow is my groups turn at Kid's Club. I hope it goes well!

.A Day Off Before We Start.

July 11, 2011:

Today we weren't able to serve because the country was on strike (angry at their government). But apparently this is a scheduled strike and work will continue, as normal, tomorrow. So this morning we did cross cultural orientation (CCO) and some other team building activities. The first thing we did was cut different pictures out of magazines that represented us, who we are or things from our past. Once we cut them out and glued them on to our posters, we had to split into groups of 3-4 (of people we didn't know) and tell them why you chose the pictures you did. I was in a group with one of the Pastor's from Tennessee, Steve, as well as Steve Berg and Karen Subah. Both of whom I 'know' but I learned more about them through this activity.

The next thing we did was count off by fours. Then we split into groups and had to come up with various greetings, and mannerisms for our 'cultures'. Each group was a different culture (defined on a handout) and then we had to intermingle - acting in character.

In short:
Group 1: Jerks (my group)
Group 2: Humble Servants
Group 3: Too relaxed and laid back
Group 4: OCD/frightened of the unknown

We had a lot of fun with this one. Thinking that we were above the other groups was a fun roll to play because some of the girls got really into it. I guess not that we were 'above' them - but we needed everything to be perfect and none of them could do things 'correctly'.

The last activity we did - we split up into teams of 6-7 people and were given a bag of legos. They were only blue and yellow and all different sizes. Each team member had to take a minimum of 6 pieces. We had five minutes to talk about our strategy. Then one at a time, each group member could go up front and look at a model of 'a person' that was built out of the exact pieces we were given. Once the team member came back, we had to construct the person without talking! This was extremely hard. Especially since we had a 10 year old and a 6 year old in our group.

We saw many strategies - some people tried to write down where each piece went. Which was hard when you only had one minute to study the model. Others brought a camera to take a picture (which didn't always help). Finally, at the end, they allowed one team member to speak. We wrote "White Flag" on a piece of paper and surrendered! Some groups finished, some came close. We barely finished the mans legs! It really was a tough task.

By now it was lunch time. We had soft tacos and french fries. Then at one o'clock we left for a house down the road. Rumor has it, it was the vacation home of the brother of a man who owns a Professional Dominican Baseball team. (Did you follow all that?!) Regardless, this place was amazing! At the top of the hill was a big gazebo with a nice pool table and about 12-15 huge rocking chairs under it.

The 'Gazebo'

The Rocking Chair Circle

Down the hill was a baseball field, a basketball court (with a volleyball net), a soccer field and a huge 'natural pool'. I didn't know what a natural pool was. It was basically a fairly big stream that they must have dammed off at one point and covered the sides with concrete and rocks. They also made steps and a little 'island' that you could sit on where the water would only cover your legs. The water was pretty deep in the middle - it came above the men's shoulders. At the far end of the pool there was a waterfall and the stream continued around the property. It looked like a lot fun. I didn't swim. I was going to play basketball, but I forgot my sneakers at the camp. So I stuck to taking pictures and chatting with Jim.

Isaiah was in heaven :)

We stayed at this place for a few hours and came back to the camp around 4:30. Dinner was at 6.
Dinner: Rice and beans with beef and broth on top, Carrot and potato salad, Avocados, Plantains and Bread.

After dinner, Daniel, leader of World Servants in the Dominican talked to us about why they choose the communities they do, to work with. He also explained that 24 years ago - an American, had to show him how bad the poverty was just 30 minutes from his house. He said that there are parts of the D.R. that are very rich and do not even know the needs of their country. There are also others who know, but don't want to do anything about it. Their government allows the wealthy people to give up to 5% of their income to charity without being taxed - yet on average they give 1.5%.

That's really heart breaking to me. Especially after our home visits. One of the ladies asked us to pray for her daughter's health as she just had an 'attack'. It's terribly sad to think that people could help kids like her and help her get medical attention, yet they choose not to.

After Daniel spoke the FBC Group got together on the "basketball court". (It's basically a pavilion with a portable basketball hoop). we did power claps for good things that happened that day. Then we threw together an impromptu worship set. We sang 4 songs a capella. It was really awesome.

I can hear a lot of chaos in the dining room from the safety of my magnificently mosquito netted bed! But I think I may call it a night. There's only half hour until the generator goes off and we're about to have a thunder storm for the third night in a row. Thank you Jesus for giving us a break from the heat at night!

.Lots of Little Kids and a Church Service.

As soon as we got off the bus near the church, there were swarms of children! They were all so cute and very welcoming. The girls immediately started teaching everyone clapping/rhythm games. I was about to take a picture of a little girl, Maria, who had pulled Maddy aside to teach her, away from the group - when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and there were three little boys standing there smiling. "Un foto?" They wanted their picture taken. It was so cute!

3 little cuties! :)

Maria teaching Maddy a rhythm hand game

I knew the one who had tapped me on the shoulder must have 'drawn the short straw' as he sort of backed away after he did it. But I insisted he get in the picture too and I could see that he was really happy. I then showed them on the screen, the picture I had taken. This is their favorite part. I just wish I could print some of them out so that they could keep them.

After taking a few more pictures of the kids, I saw Sandy pick up one of the little boys and sort of swing him up over her head. That was ok once, but then she had a rotating line of about four

little boys who all wanted turns - over and over and over again. Jim came over to help out. It looked exhausting - but it made for some great photos! :)

Sandy and her little man (who did seek her out at Kid's Club later that week)

Jim tossing them higher than they thought possible!

After a few more minutes of playing we all headed inside the church. All the locals - once again - got up and offered us their seats. I sat near the back - right next to the door - as people were filing in. All of a sudden I felt a tiny little hand on my neck. The cutest little boy was behind me and I could tell that he was trying to tickle me. So - I attacked! He giggled and laughed so hard. I could not understand what his name was, but I asked how old he was and I must have been close to speaking 'real spanish' because he held up three fingers. He was just perfect.

Once church was about to start they called all the pastors up front. Joelle was not in the building yet, but Pastor Matt went up. During the service there were a few worship songs with lots of drums and clapping. Then a group of young girls did a dance that they had prepared. As DeLise (World Servants leader) welcomed everyone and introduced what states we were from - she stated that we had four pastors on the stage and that we would be hearing from 3 of them! Preaching on the spot. No pressure. I think the Pastors from Tennessee may have been a little more ready for this as they have been down here several times before. Regardless, they all did awesome.

Pastor Matt's turn to preach.

The home visits and Kid's Club were the things that I were least looking forward to on this trip. I am definitely a behind the scenes person and the manual labor is much more my style of service. But I survived the home visits, and after seeing many of the kids today - Kid's Club might not be to bad.

A long bus ride back to the camp. An hour that seemed more like four. But hey! No getting off for hills this time!

Dinner: Chicken, mashed potatoes with a broth/gravy, cucumbers and vinegar (?), a carrot/raisin salad, bread and a cookie. Oh! And breakfast this morning was "oatmeal" and freah fruit! ~Pineapple~ Cantaloupe ~Watermelon~

Bread and Queso Blanco (white cheese)

Lunch: PB&J or Ham and Cheese sandwiches and a bag of chips.

Ethan would be surprised at all the new things I'm trying. Some of them I like and some I choke down because that's what there is. So much for eating "pourage and bugs" like Ethan said I would be. (Though when I saw this mornings "oatmeal" - I was beginning to wonder).

.Home Visits.

Sunday, July 10:

There was so much more that I didn't have time to write last night. I was racing the clock, trying to get as many things on paper as I could before they turned off the generator at 10:30.

Just driving around today (and from the airport yesterday) has been pretty surreal for me. I can not wrap my head around the fact that this is real life here. It looks like something from a movie. Houses made with scraps of metal and small chunks of wood. "Running water" that consists of a PVC pipe running along the side of the road with no pressure behind it. I have seen several brooms that are just a stick with a large hand-full of grass/weeds tied around it, at one end. Our lives are so different. Yet, they are so content. They are happy with what God has given them. And I complain when I get water in my basement! I act as though the house is falling down around me - I take advantage of flipping on a light switch - washing my dishes indoors - throwing all of my laundry in a machine that will do all the work for me! Not to mention, I can drink the water that comes out of my faucet.

We were able to visit three homes today. Each family that allowed us to visit was more than generous! They wouldn't let us help with anything. And they wouldn't stop until there was a chair for each of us to sit in... even if it meant that they stand.

The first family we visited.

The second lady we visited, Ana Franchesca, offered us bananas as we were leaving. We were told in the beginning not to accept any food or drink that was not packaged. (This was because we were not sure exactly where it came from and they didn't want anyone getting sick). I felt terrible turning them down! And at the same time, I wondered if I would have even offered them, if I was in her position. To offer complete strangers food, when you really can't afford it and you have five kids of your own to feed - Amazing! If I could only be half as generous.

Maddy, Erika, Ana Franchesca, Isaiah

The last house we visited was a couple that had four daughters. They ranged fro age 17 to 1 1/2 :) The two middle girls attended the school that we would be working on. This family had a radio playing inside and while we were talking Michael Jackson came on. This made me smile. It's just crazy that so many, many miles away and in very different lifestyles we could like the same things!

The last couple we visited and their four gorgeous daughters!

Once we were done with our home visits we were supposed to wait at the school for the others to get done with their visits. We had quite a bit of time left before we were supposed to leave for church so four of us decided to go for a walk around town on our own. As we were leaving, Pedro, one of the translators, sent two little boys with us. They were Pastor Thomas' sons, Christopher and Christian.

Christopher, Yemi, Angela, myself and Christian

They were very good tour guides, even though they spoke no English. They took us to a few different places. They showed us where they make the cement blocks that we would be using for the school project later that week.

Christian, Christopher and Yemi at the 'Block Factory'

We walked back just in time to make the bus for the ride to church (which we had to get off of twice for to go over speed bumps and hills). We saw so many people swimming and sitting in the river on the way. It was very hard not to jump in with them. It is so humid here!

.Travel Day.Part 2.

More from my journal entry on Saturday, July 9:

On our way to dinner that first night, Joelle pulled Serenity and I aside to let us know some new information that had come up in their leader's meeting. Apparently on Monday, the whole country was going to go on strike! That meant that we would not be able to leave the camp that day - and a huge change of plans. They don't feel that it will be safe, as there could be rioting - they could stop our buses, etc. (They are doing all of this in protest of their government). So, this change of plans means no day off. No beach, no markets, etc. This was a really tough decision to make just minutes after arriving. So Joelle, just wanted some prayer - understandably. After everything was said and done, that is obviously what we decided to do. After all, that is why we are here.

Kitchen and Dining Hall building.

Dinner that night:

Rice with corn, pork (?) and the occasional crunchy thing in it :P

Broccoli and Cauliflower in some sort of white cream sauce

Some type of fried cornbread

And a roll.

The food was ok, I didn't love it. But as long as it stays similar or gets better - I'll survive. Plan B: Granola Bars - lots of them.

We had a quick orientation after dinner, where the entire group learned about our new (and still tentative) schedule. I mean really - how do they know this 'strike' will only occur on Monday? Won't people still hate their government on Tuesday?! So, we'll see how this goes.

Schedule thus far:

Sunday - home visits, church

Monday - Camp Day: team building exercises, learn more about the culture, worship night

Rest of the week - Kid's Club and Construction :)

View of the mountains from our camp.

.Travel Day.

I've decided that I will just share the things that I wrote in my journal throughout my week in the Dominican Republic. So the following is from Saturday, July 9.

Today was our travel day to the D.R. I got two hours of sleep last night and we were at the airport by 4:00am. There are 30 of us going from First Baptist. Checking in was tricky as "the machines go slower if a lot of people are checking in for the same flight, at the same time." -- That makes sense for group check in, right?!

Anyway, we had a three and a half hour flight from Minneapolis to Miami. Once we landed in Miami we had a little less than an hour layover to feed all of us. So we stationed Matt, Jim and Joelle at three different restaurants so that the rest of the group could choose one of them and they would pay. It surprisingly went rather smoothly. We all took our food back to our gate so we would be there in case they started boarding. We had plenty of time.

Our next flight was shorter. Maybe an hour and a half. They gave us customs paperwork to fill out on the plane. I don't know why but I wasn't expecting to have to fill out paperwork. Once we were off the plane, going through customs was surprisingly easy. They just checked our passports, stamped them (yay!) and kept the line moving. Once we had made it out of the airport I was hoping that our 'travel day' would soon be over. But, we still had a three hour bus ride ahead of us! We all piled on to two buses (We were now combined with a group of 20 from Tennessee). We also had one luggage truck following us with all our gear.

Riding the bus was definitely an interesting experience.

**TRAFFIC WAS TERRIBLE**

I have never seen such chaos. But, to our drivers credit, he was amazing! So much horn honking and close calls. He held his own.

The roads in the city seemed fine. Three lanes going one way - just way to crowded. But the further out of the city we got - the worse the roads were. We turned off a main road onto a road that was nothing but potholes. The next road was more of a rough cobblestone road. On this road, most of us had to get off the bus so that it could make it up a small hill without bottoming out. Once the bus made it up the hill and we were all back on board, not far down the road, we made one last turn. This road was the worst one. It looked like an off road trail! This was the road the camp was on. We twisted down the road a little and we were there!

Walking up the hill so the bus could make it.

There was one large building as sleeping quarters (women on the first floor and men upstairs). The other building was the dining area and the kitchen. We arrived at about 6:45pm. More than 14 hours of travel. Everyone was sweaty and exhausted. But, we still had to unpack the truck. As we were doing that they announced that "If we didn't bring our own mosquito nets - they had some that we could rent". Huh. Mosquito nets? An item that was not on our packing list. Excellent!

So Joelle decided to rent one for each member of our team. We each got one and then we were confronted with another dilemma - how do we hang them up in our 100% (and extremely humid) cement room? We tried throwing them up with duct tape, but they had fallen down by the time we got back from dinner. We needed another plan. As Joelle and I walked back into the 'dorm area' we saw someone else's mosquito net that was still hanging. It looked like they had shoved a string up between the cement blocks in the ceiling. We asked how she had done that, and found out that it was actually a wire coat hanger that she had found under the bed. I thought we had it! I was going to go out into the woods and looks for small sticks that we too, could stick between the cement ceiling blocks! Joelle quickly changed my mind... She said it was far too dangerous to go our into the woods at night. They apparently have spiders that size of dogs in the D.R. (I may be exaggerating a little, but I don't think so) :P

Joelle, was thinking... what could we use?.... Finally she came up with it.... "Bobby Pins!"

It was brilliant! And for some reason I had packed tons of bobby pins! I even questioned myself as I was packing them. Thank you Jesus!

But that's what we did. We used some string, so that we could still tuck the mosquito nets under our mattresses and used the bobby pins to hold the string up near the ceiling. It was amazing! We felt like MacGyver!

"We owned you, mosquito nets!" - Joelle Hassler

.La Represa.

We got back late last night from our trip to La Represa in the Dominican Republic. There is so much to tell you all about! I didn't have service to post anything while we were there, but I did journal and will probably share most of that with you over the next few weeks. But until then, you can listen to some of the lessons that we learned as a team here.

.Pack Light.

Well I did it. I got it all to fit! This is packing light... right?

Luckily, that is not all mine. We have three huge suitcases packed full of awesome craft supplies for the kids to do. We are off to La Represa in the morning. Which is really in 5 hours and I should totally be sleeping. But I am rather excited and have decided to eat ice cream and paint my toe nails instead!

I will not have service and will not be able to post while I'm gone. But I'm positive I will have lots to share when I get back! Talk to you in a week! :)

.Leavin' on a Jet Plane.

On Saturday I leave for my first ever mission trip outside of the United States. Actually (other than the Canadian side of Niagara Falls) it will be my first time out of the country, period. I'm quite excited and a little nervous at the same time. But, I went through the agony of getting shots for this trip, so there's no turning back now!

At a crisp 4:00 in the morning on Saturday 30 of us will be at the airport, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to board our plane! We are heading for La Represa, a small town in the Dominican Republic. There we will be doing some construction work on the school, various skits, crafts and story telling with the kids as well as some home visits. I'm very anxious to see how God works through our team. I don't think I will be able to do any posting while we are there, so I will take lots of pictures and come back with many stories to share, I'm sure.