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...