puerto plata- this is just the beginning :)

8.5.08

the internet has been out at the makarios house since I got here so I have no idea when this will actually be posted.. anyway- the first two days in puerto plata have been wonderful. I knew before I came that everyone here is really great but they have blown my mind! brief re-cap of the first two days in puerto plata:

day one-
breakfast at jim and teresa’s. jim and will drove me to puerto plata. i met anne boon and kate krone- aaamazing women.. i unpacked for like 30 min (i don’t have much) and we ate lunch. anne and i had an orientation meeting and then ran into town to pay rent, go to the bank, and buy phone minutes for anne. OH! and to get to town i got to ride my first moto (motor bike taxi thing- sweet!). after errands we bought fresh cut-up fruit from one of anne’s favorite vendors and hung out on a little ledge for a while. when we got back to the house we had a meeting with all the staff and i got to meet everyone!! let me tell you- these people are incredible. i am sad a lot of them are leaving in a couple weeks..

after the meeting they had a welcome dinner for me! the interns and kate krone made amazing fajitas, guacamole, and bean salsa.. we ate up on the roof and hung out for while.. fun!

day two-
we have prayer mornings with all girls every tuesday/thursday so we woke up at 6:30 and everyone met in our room (mine, laurin rennell’s, and kate moorhead’s room) at 7. such a great way to start the day. after prayer we ate breakfast and left for the beach! robin, camille, and weston (who have all been working at the school with kate m, cara, and christina this past year) met us there after picking up a TON of kids from the afternoon classes at school. we played for hours on the beach- what a perfect way for me to introduce myself (and re-introduce to some) to the kids. they are all so beautiful and they crack me up! it made me even more excited about school! names will be tough though- camille was helping me today but I might need some prayer for that one. the beach was also perfect for workin’ on the espanol. prayers there too please ☺ ..after bananas, crackers, and recreos (oreos) for the kids, we jumped in one more time and then they left in the gua-gua and we walked back to the house.

after lunch at home, we rode the public gua-guas (anther first for me!) to a dirt road where we hopped on motos that took us to chichigua. chichigua is a hatian batey where many are cane farmers. about 1/3 of our kids in school are from chichigua. i love that the relationships with the kids goes far beyond school; we visit their communities and really get to know their families and friends. i am encouraged to see how relationships go far beyond student-teacher; there are genuine friendships and understandings beyond any created relationship. it is inspiring to see how kate, robin, anne, and the interns love on the kids and how fun it is for the kids to see everyone. i love it and can’t wait for more! kate (roomie kate) showed me around the batey and we chased kids, played, and visited families. i ended up taking a boy on piggy-back down to a covered area where i talked to some of the teenage girls and held the sweetest baby. ooooh it was wonderful.

the motos came back and we left for home again. after chilling out a little bit we got ready and went to a restaurant, “taste”, for the krones’ goodbye dinner. kate, andy and the 4 girls leave tomorrow morning. we are going to miss them. they have been incredible examples of patient, loving parents and the girls are so fun! speaking of tomorrow morning..i should sleep because laurin, the interns, and i are headed to cabarete beach at 8am! goodnight.