Power surges and other updates...

Sorry to friends and family for not staying in touch over the last week. Often times the hurricane season brings a great deal of power issues throughout the island. On Wednesday we experienced our first power-surge which left us with a blown modem and telephone (for our Vonage line). It looks as though we may have another modem on Tuesday, but that is probably a VERY optimistic bet. As for new phones, we are hoping that we can buy phones in Jarabacoa within the next few days but in reality the phone will do us no good without a modem.

Though this happened on Wednesday, we are very encouraged by this past week. We were able to start Spanish lessons, complete our first full week of school, have a number of Dominican staff members over for dinner, meet a number of "new" people in our travels around Jarabacoa, and take our first trip to Santiago where we bought a number of different items that we are unable to buy in Jarabacoa (and that are way cheaper in Santiago!). Possibly the most exciting part of the week was finally getting a number of pieces of furniture in our house. On Friday afternoon the financial director of the school brought to my attention that a woman who has lived in the D.R. for a while was selling most of the items in her house. We were able to buy a number of pieces of furniture (the best being a 8 person table so that we can entertain more!) and plenty of cooking supplies. Praise God for providing those things! We are feeling as though we have taken a huge step in adjusting and settling into our new home. Thank you all for your prayers in this area, they are definitely being answered...

School has been great! It is tough adjusting to teaching all day (Laura is a pro at it, but I am dead by the end of the day!). The kids are lively and fun, which makes every class more exciting. Though there have been a number of adjustments to teaching here, we are both enjoying what God has called us to do here. I have had some time this weekend to think about some things that I would like to do with the students outside of class and have been throwing around the idea of a prayer group made up of students from the school who dedicate time to praying for the students, teachers, and families of the students. I would also like to start opening our house to more kids from the school, so you could all pray that I find the proper and fitting ways to have the students into our home.

Hopefully I will write again sometime soon... If there are any emergencies you can call 1-608-531-1972 which is the phone for the teachers who live next door...

New addition to the Stanley family...

First Days of School...

Laura has been enjoying her 5th grade class and the two math classes (6th and 7th) that she is teaching. The students that she has are energetic and fun which makes class more exciting for her (sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad). I will let her tell everyone more about it soon... I am teaching her how to blog within the next few days...

I have really been enjoying my classes as well. I teach a wide range of students from 5th grade to 12th grade. The students have been incredibly responsive so far and I have enjoyed how excited they have been about being at the school and especially in Bible class. I have been getting to know them over the last few days and have just started into some material that I created for the beginning of the year. I am patiently waiting for material for the classes but it has yet to arrive (the perfect prayer concern for those of you who want to lift up something specific regarding our ministry!). Teaching all day is definitely hard to get use to. I am use to being a student and now that I have to stand in front of the class all day I am pretty burnt out. My feet and knees have been slowly adjusting to all the time spent standing in the classroom.

After a frustrating two weeks of trying to cook meals here we have been able to finally find some things that are easier to make and that are hometown favorites. We have eaten plenty of french toast, pancakes (which was a completely different journey because it is incredibly hard to find baking powder here!), pizza (which is expensive to buy already made but really cheap to make here), and baked chicken. The school also has lunches available everyday for 60 pesos (under $2 US) and they are pretty large and filling (lunch is the largest meal of the day here). Laura and I have been buying one meal and sharing it while also cutting up some fruit and veggies to supplement and this has been working our great! Few people are able to eat with their spouse everyday at work!

We have been really thankful for the Dominican Republic. We have been pushed out of our comfort zones a number of times even in the last day (mice, art gallery, school stuff) and it is truly helping us to grow as people and followers of Christ. The language learning is coming along slowly but surely and we were actually complimented for our comprehension today and that compliment will go a long way! Continue to pray for the school, and one student specifically, who I will call Mary for privacy sake, who has been struggling to "find" God once again. Pray that Laura and I would have the words to say and the boldness to say them as we seek to help kids grow in their faith in Christ. We love you all... Zephaniah 3:17

House Guests...

I am glad that neither one of us are afraid of lizards because they are EVERYWHERE! They are great because they keep the bugs at a minimum...

Our House (the outside...)

This is the front of our house, we are the bottom unit of this place (our gate is half way open)...



This picture shows all of the beautiful palm trees that we have all around our house (it saves us from a lot of noise and dust)...



A different view of the front of our house...

Laura had her toenails painted this morning and she was quite proud of them (for a cost of around $1 US)...



This picture shows the road leading up to our house and it also gives you a idea of the type of security walls that surround many of the nicer homes in the area... Some sure to enjoy their privacy but it also keeps the dust down and the noise out...



This is one of the main roads in the area that is actually paved, this is the part that is right down the street from us...

Around Jarabacoa #2

As you begin to walk into the town of Jarabacoa...



There are a few amazing trees in the area and most of them have parks that have been created around them, here is an example...



Here is a pic showing the mountains that surround our area...

Around Jarabacoa

Here is a picture of what people refer to as the "ant hill" because it is always so busy... Also in this picture is what I like to call the "Jarabacoa Walmart" known by the locals as "La Cancha"...



Better pic of La Cancha, notice all the motor bikes...



Ok, now this may take a second to explain... Since most Dominicans do not have televisions and some not even a radio, they think of inventive ways to advertise to a wider audience down here. They create these massive speaker systems and drive them around town with ads blaring for various companies. On the weekends you can hear these well into the night...

We have phone and Internet!

We now have internet and unlimited long distance calling to the U.S.... Feel free to call us whenever, we would love to hear from you... Here is our phone number once again: 1-612-605-1137...

Anniversary Pic

Two Wonderful Years Together...

More Pics...

Here is a pic of our stove, notice that it is a bit smaller than the ones in the U.S....



We went out to a pretty nice place in the area and this cat joined us for our meal, having animals around seems to be common wherever you are...

Some Pictures

Here is a pic of our first meal that we made in the D.R. (it looks way better than it actually was...)

Settling In...

We are still waiting for the modem and filter (D.R. thing) so that we can have internet and phone access. I have been told that we will be getting all that we need sometime today. Sorry to family and friends for not calling but we have not had access to a phone since last Friday. We will talk to you soon and we miss you...

We are still settling into our new home. We absolutely love the people who we are renting from. The landlord loves the Red Sox and has cable so Laura and I watched a game with him a few nights ago. It has been a blessing to have such nice and helpful people. They only speak spanish so there is a bit of a barrier but luckily their grandson has been in town and he has been incredibly helpful when we need to communicate things that we do not know how to say. Jordanni has been our translator for our local phone service, and his grandparents, and there have been several times where I don't know what we would have done without him.

Our 2 year anniversary was yesterday and we enjoy dinner at one of the nicer places in town. We were a huge plate of meat, rice, and salad, with the meat all coming straight off of the grill. We have not eaten very much meat since we have arrived and so last night was quite a treat. We followed it up by some ice cream, which was good but not as good as ice cream in the states (I can tell this will be one of the things that we will really be looking forward to having once again!). We also ran into a group of Americans (who stick out like sore thumbs) while we were out, in addition to our landlord's family and another teacher at JCS. It feels good to run into people who we know while we are going around the town.

We also started teacher training yesterday and it is going well. It is mostly on interacting with people from another culture but it has been helpful to do this training with other Dominican teachers. We have had plenty of laughs and time to learn names, which Laura and I have been really intentional about doing.

More updates to come...

Storm and Power...

Last night was a crazy night. First of all, we are realizing that it gets dark much quicker here than it did in Minnesota. It is completely dark by around 7:30 here, which also means that it is very bright by around 5:30 in the morning. With that said, we experienced our first extended power outage since we have been in the D.R., luckily we had brought a flashlight with us and my computer provided a pretty good light for us as well (candles and lanterns are high on our priority list right now). I just continued writing a response paper, while Laura studied Spanish under the light of the mag-light that we brought. We passed the time (around 3 1/2 hours of no power) by doing work and listening to episodes of the Office on my computer. The storm, which was most likely not the source of the outage (rolling blackouts are normal throughout the whole island), was pretty powerful. It was thundering and lightening for around 3 hours with heavy rainfall as well. It actually made for a relief from the outside noise of the scooters, dogs, cats, roosters, and motorcycles, so we were able to sleep far better than we have since we arrived here.

We are also officially moved into our new house. We will send pictures once we have internet (which could come today or next month) at our own house. The place that we have is actually right down the street from the school, far closer than we were thinking we would be. Because we are so close to the town and the school, we are thinking that buying a scooter may not be as pressing as it was when we lived on the other side of town. Right now we are trying to get a hold of furniture for our house because currently we have our bed, a table, a couch (I just got it this morning!), and four chairs. Furniture is not cheap here, and people don't do garage sales like they do in the states (that we can throw a $3 sticker on a dresser shows how wealthy we really are, but that is far another post some other time). We are going to buy some furniture and have a gentleman make some other furniture for us, which is a priority because we want to have a house that is welcoming and where we can have people over on a regular basis.

Laura and I had lunch with a young guy whom I met the last time I was visiting the D.R. Revani is the worship leader of a local church and an amazing man of God. We will be meeting each week for a devotional time and to talk about ministry while I am here in Jarabacoa. I felt honored that he sought me out for this, and I am excited to spend more time with him over the next year.

More updates and news to come...

August 1st Update

Laura and I were able to find a house less than 24 hours after landing, which is a huge blessing. The house is only a half of a block away from the school and has plenty of room for guests (pictures will be posted within the next couple of days). We looked at the house that we were originally thinking that we would be renting and to be honest, I am glad that the lady raised the price and made it so we were no longer interested! I like the house that we are renting a lot more because it is brighter inside, bigger, and it is also far less expensive! So praise God for that! We should have internet and phone within a few days because the school has an account that it will be moving over to us, making service far quicker than if we were a new account. Tomorrow is the official "move-in" day for the apartment and the school has bought us a new bed and will also be providing a refrigerator, washing machine, and some random pieces of furniture.

We spent some time today looking through boxes of supplies and materials in Laura's classroom for this next year, trying to decide what she wanted to keep and get rid of. We really enjoyed this time of preparation, as it was a taste of what we will be experiencing over this next year. Laura enjoyed it up until the time that we ran into a few cockroaches in the boxes of books (her comment was, "It took me a while to get use to spiders... I don't know about these..."). I won't have a classroom this next year, since the middle school and high school teachers move around to the kids, so I enjoyed seeing Laura's classroom come together. Laura might even give me a small table and a shelf to use in her room!

We have been blessed to stay with Daniel and Teresa Peterson since we have been in the D.R. They have exposed us to a lot of Dominican food and have taken us places to have a few new experiences, among them being a trip to the vegetable market and the furniture store. At the furniture store we made our first purchase in the D.R., a large fan! Not only do fans cut down the outside noise (which is ridiculous at times!) but it also provides a continual circulating of air throughout the night. After the first night without a fan it was of high priority to purchase one ASAP.

We will be sure to send some pictures out within the next few days, and even try to do some video stuff (if you are lucky!). We love you all, and hope to hear from you soon...