Continuing to develop relationships...

This past Monday was officially the last day of the first quarter of school. It is still hard to believe that the time has gone past so quickly. Our grades were officially due by Saturday but I was able to complete and submit all of my grades by Monday, which made this week a lot easier for me! Laura was able to finish most of her grades early, so neither one of us had to fight any other teachers on Friday for computers (which there are only three of in the school for teacher usage). Report cards are officially handed out this week, so pray that kids who performed well would be encouraged and that those who didn't perform well would be optimistic about what they can do throughout the next quarter. We will also be having parent-teacher conferences throughout this week, so pray that we would be able to properly communicate with parents and students.

We were able to spend a great deal of time with a number of people throughout this week. Since we have move here to the D.R. we have had dinner on almost every Tuesday night with Daniel and Teresa Peterson (the director of JCS and his wife), along with their little boy Jeremiah. This week we had another couple join us and it was great! Jake and Kyla, who I spoke of a few weeks ago, joined us for our Tuesday night dinner and it was great to have several young married couples together for dinner. We even got to play some "nerdy" board games after dinner because Jake is a huge fan of many of the games we brought down here from the states. Jake and Kyla also shared with us that they are expecting a little one in the near future, which they are incredibly excited about!

On Thursday we spent dinner with the couple, Juana and Ramon, who we are currently renting our apartment from. They have been an absolute blessing to us since we have moved here and we always love getting together with them because they only speak Spanish which forces us to have to use our Spanish. Ramon is quite a master with chicken and for dinner he spent 4 hours slow cooking several whole chickens for us (necks, feet, and all!).



I had my first roasted chicken neck, which wasn't bad but the spinal cord is something I am not use to eating around! They make us a ton of fooding including "Dominican potato salad" which has beets, and potatoes in it, and also boiled yuca, which is a type of root that tastes very similar to a boiled potato in the U.S. Below is a picture of Juana and Ramon...



The chicken was so good! We were also able to spend some time with another middle aged couple that is currently living with Juana and Ramon, whose names are Milagros and Augustine. We may actually start working with Augustine on our Spanish and we may be teaching him English as well (a clean swap, which we need because we lost our Spanish teacher this past week... she is simply too busy with two young kids, which we completely understand).

We also had Robert and Alida over for dinner on Friday night. We have spent a great deal of time at their house watching sports the past few weeks, so we figured that it would be nice to invite them over to our house. I cooked tostadas for them, which is becoming the meal that we cook for new dinner guests. We spent some time getting to know how they came to know one another and they have a sweet story about how they developed there relationship over the years with one living in the U.S. and one of them living here in the D.R. At the end of our dinner date with Robert and Alida, I was invited to go golfing with him in the morning (Who knew there was a golf course here!).

We'll just say that it has been a while since I last golfed, and you could tell! It was a beautiful day, in the upper 80s with a slight breeze, so it was perfect for walking 9 holes. I managed to shoot par on the 9th hole which is about all I will admit to scoring on any of the holes throughout the day. It was a blast to simply be out on such a peaceful course where we saw only 3 other golfers in the 3 hours that we spent there. You can check out the pictures on our picasa website...

The end of the first quarter

It is hard to believe that we have been teaching at the school for 10 weeks now (not counting teacher training). Laura and I have been reflecting on how we have grown as teachers and people over the last quarter and we are excited for a "new start" with the new quarter. Laura has been noticing over the last few weeks that as a fifth grade teacher she is in charge of teaching content, but possibly the most important part of her job is teaching the kids life skills that they will take with them throughout their lives. This week will be full of preparing final grades and even a day of teacher training, so it should fly past. Thank you to all who have been praying for us, your prayers have definitely been effective...

We have had another great weekend with friends here in the D.R. We had several of the other American teachers over for dinner on Friday night and shared a great deal about the things we have been thankful for over the last quarter of school. I shared that I have been thankful for the 6th graders, for their continual obedience, hard work, and respect throughout the first quarter, they are a class that I look forward to being with each day. I also shared how thankful I have been for the younger kids at the school. Since beginning to coach soccer for the 1st through 3rd graders, I have been able to interact with a number of the kids who I don't teach throughout the day. During break I have been regularly receiving hugs from the kids that I coach, and though I don't need constant recognition to keep going throughout the day, each little hug and display of affection is encouraging to me. Laura was reflecting on her thankfulness for a new start with the coming of the new semester, as she has been able to change the classroom around and implement some new ideas in her classroom, which has all been afforded to her because of the upcoming semester. Laura was also able to share with the group how much Brooke, a fellow teacher, has challenged Laura to become a better teacher through new strategies and insights that Brooke has offered to her. Many of you know that it is easy to talk about the negatives of the workplace when you get together with colleagues, but we were able to focus mostly on the things that we have been blessed and positively challenged by throughout the first quarter.

We have also made new friends with our neighbors across the street from us. A few weeks ago Laura and I were invited to the unveiling of a new business venture in Jarabacoa and we decided to go to simply meet some new people. At this "unveiling" we were able to meet Robert and Alida, the couple who are starting this new motorcycle tourism business. Over the past few weeks we have spent a great deal of time with Robert and Alida. Robert has an international football package and a video projector, so we have been able to watch some football at their house (which I will be doing this afternoon!), which has been a good dose of home for even Laura. Last night we watched the Red Sox pulled even in their series with the Rays, which was great to see! Robert has been coming to the D.R. for a number of years (he is 56 years old), and his wife was born and raised here in the D.R., so they are a fun couple who come from very different cultural backgrounds and they have only been married for around 6 months (which is how long they have been living in Jarabacoa). We went to Santiago (40 minute drive north) with them last Saturday and had our first big Dominican family meal since we have been here. Worth noting also is the fact that they have two awesome dogs, with the one being a 6-month old great dane (makes me want a great dane some day!).

I think that the most exciting news of the week is that Laura took part in her first art exhibition this weekend (you can see the pictures on our Picasa website). It is actually a "benefit" exhibit for the local eco-tourism organization in Jarabacoa, and the theme was "mountain birds." Last night was the unveiling of the exhibit that will be open for the next few weeks, and half of the proceeds . It was an incredibly fun social event and allowed us to see a number of Dominicans that we have been able to meet since being down here. Jarabacoa is a fairly small town (around 20,000 people), so there were a number of people who we recognized from our travels around town. Americans "stick out like sore thumbs" here in Jarabacoa so it has been good for us to go to the social events of the town, because it shows people that we really care about the town and that we aren't afraid to meet others even though language is a barrier at times. One of Laura's paintings was even placed at the top of the stairs leading to the exhibit, so it was the first painting that people saw as they walked in! It is experiences like this that have been making Jarabacoa feel more like home every week that we have been living here.

In addition to grading this week we are looking forward to having the 5th graders over on Thursday night, and we will be having dinner with another American family that we met a few weeks ago while visiting the restaurant that they own. And by the way, GO BILLS AND RED SOX!

An eventful 24 hours...

Every Friday I coach a team of around 20 kids ranging from 1st to 3rd grade without any assistants and this has been quite an adventure to say the least. I have found that the older kids want to just play "bunch-ball soccer," while the rest just want to do something active. The biggest problems comes with the kids actually listening (I can't blame them though! They are little kids!) to me when I try to tell them what we are going to do next, I have a blast with them but have lately been feeling that the older kids are growing impatient with having to deal with all of the little kids. Keep this situation in prayer, that God would provide someone to help me with the kids and that the kids would have fun no matter what happens in practice.

After ending practice and getting home around 4:30, Laura and I got ready for the 6th graders to invade our house for most of the night. We ended up having a blast with them (as you can see from the pics on our Picasa website)! I found a bunch of silly games for us to do throughout the night and they loved them! The biggest hit happened to be the "Cucumber Slide" where you cut a cucumber into slices and you race someone to see who can move the slice of cucumber down to the opposite side of the table first. The catch is that you can only use your nose to move the cucumber down the table! The kids got a big laugh out of the game, especially when Laura and I raced one another (and I won!). These parties have been amazing for connecting with students. This is the third class that we have had over to our house, as we have hosted the 7th graders and the 12th graders at other previous times. I especially enjoy it as a Bible teacher because these kids get a chance to see me in and out of class, hopefully being challenged by the way that Laura and I treat each other with Godly love and respect at home.

So now comes the not so bright and happy story about the last 24 hours, I have to admit at this time that those of you who have a hard time hearing about cruelty to animals should probably not read the following section.

Before I get into this story I have to provide a bit of background. People simply do not treat animals with the same about of love and care as they do in the states. Whether they are cats or dogs, they are often seen as more of an annoyance than they are seen as beautiful animals. People often toss rocks at animals, throw them in the river to drown (especially females puppies because they are more expensive to care for), or simply beat them constantly. It is a sad reality here in the D.R., but I can regularly hear people beating their animals throughout the day. With this said, animals do often cause serious issues here in the D.R.. With such a strong number of strays, they are regularly causing accidents (with many of them causing the death of the animal and the driver) and they eat other people's sources of food (chickens, etc.). It is nothing like the animals that simply run around in the states, you can count on seeing stray animals most everywhere you go.

With that said... I had the duty of proctoring Saturday school this morning, which is for students who have had two or more late homework assignments throughout the course of the week. Once I had gathered my supplies for the day (my teaching manuals and papers to grade), I quickly ran out of the door and headed toward school, and as I stepped out of the door, I witnessed my first animal/ motorcycle accident since being here in the D.R.. We live at the corner of an intersection that has a number of "blind" spots, as there are a number of high walls around most of the corners. A dog (a rare one with tags around his neck, which immediately showed that this was no stray) strutted out into the intersection when all of a sudden a guy on a motorcycle came flying threw the intersection, hitting the dog and flying off of his bike. The dog was alive but in a great deal of pain (definitely something was broken) and the guy was actually able to get up (it looked like a broken arm) and pick his motorcycle off of the ground. This is where the story turns as has left a terrible image in my mind throughout the day. The motorcycle rider, who was obviously going too fast in the first place, grabbed the PVC pipe from a young boy who was headed to work and decided to see in everything was alright, and the motorcycle rider began to beat the dog with the pipe, not killing it but further injuring a dog that was in far worse shape than the motorcycle rider had been. I have to admit that I have ever experienced such cruelty to animals in my very short life, but the images from this morning have been racing through my mind throughout the day. The hatred that the man had in his eyes toward that dog is like no other hatred I have ever seen a person have against a defense-less animal. After beating the dog several times the motorcycle rider simply grab his bike, with his one hand, and began to walk up the street, leaving the dog to struggle half way down the street eventually laying on a grassy part of the curb right off of the road. Some of you may be thinking, "Why didn't you do anything?" and I can only answer that I was honestly scared, scared for the life of the dog and the motorcycle rider but most of all scared by the hatred of this man who beat a severely injured dog. The story doesn't end with the dog simply dying, but actually with co-worker noticing the dog and contacting the owner who rushed the dog to the local vet. I am not sure what happened to the dog, but it was a messed up situation, and one that I hope I won't have to witness being done to a human or a dog. It was one of few moments in my life where I have seen true anger flowing from the depths of a person... Sin is not pretty...

6th Grade Party Pics

Copy and paste link in navigation bar to view: http://picasaweb.google.com/StanleysDR/6thGradeParty?pli=1&gsessionid=RRts2VtVCPmL7ph1kJiXPg#

Our recent day trip and life these days...

A typical weekend for Laura and I tends to be spending the majority of either Saturday or Sunday doing lesson planning and grading, while spending the other day relaxing or spending time touring Jarabacoa. This past Sunday, since we go to church in the late afternoon, we took a taxi, along with a few other teachers, to one of the large waterfalls in the area. Apparently this waterfall was featured in one of the Jurassic Park movies, though I am not sure which one of these movies. We spent several hours exploring the lower part of the falls, climbing over enormous rocks and even swimming in some of the little "pools" at the bottom of the waterfall. It was a blast! I have seen Laura smile that big few times in my life, it was great. The area that we are blessed to live in is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to...

On a side note... I talked to a friend the other day from Minnesota who said it was 39 degrees outside, and I simply responded that we had a low of 73 for the day and a high of 90... suffering for Jesus...

Laura and I enjoy being social people which translates to eating meals and getting together with other on a regular basis. It has been a blessing to meet a number of new people (Americans stick out like sore thumbs down here) here in the Dominican Republic. Yesterday we had a couple, Jake and Kyla, that we met a few weeks ago, over for dinner at our house. He currently works for Youth Life doing logistics for those visiting the D.R. through Young Life, while Kyla works at the other Christian school in the area. It was a blessing to spend some time with another married couple who are within a few years of our age. They even happen to be huge fans of Settlers of Catan and Bang! (two nerdy games that Laura and I really enjoy)

Laura and I have another busy weekend coming up as we will be hosting 16 of the 6th graders at our house on Friday and then having dinner with another student's family on Saturday night. I know that I have really enjoyed the time spent with students outside of class. We have been able to form some great relationships with the kids through hanging out with them outside of the school grounds. Pray for patience through Friday night with the kids and pray that they would really enjoy themselves.

Laura and I are currently getting ready to go into town for ice cream (it's actually ice cream that they mix fresh fruit into... yum-yum...) , which is our reward for each scoring 100% on our Spanish vocabulary quiz for the week (35 words each week and we both have to get them correct to go for ice cream!). We love you all and would love to hear from you soon...

The cat that fetches...