ashley's dominican adventures..

2010-06-27T22:42:00.001-04:00

a cenar juntos.. what a blessing! it is so good to have time with our sweet friends and neighbors to laugh and share a meal. we always leave full with so many things to laugh about. i will miss their good company. a couple families we have gotten close to decided they were going to cook a dominican dinner for the gringas this time, so all we had to do was show up! everyone brought different dishes and we had a wooonderful meal!

tanya y yesenia- two of the hilarious cocineras

jose angel- by far one of my FAVORITE neighborhood kids.

sweet smiles.

all the ladies at gloria's

all the muchachos

abbi and dean

2010-06-20T12:48:00.000-04:00

may. 22. 2010.

MY BEST FRIEND GOT MARRIED!

the ceremony was absolutely beautiful. abbi and dean got married at laguna gloria, part of the austin museum of art. it was perfect. classy. vintage. intimate. relaxed.

we got there in the afternoon after abbi had her hair and makeup done. we spent the afternoon walking around the grounds and the bridesmaids hung out with abbi upstairs. it was really relaxed and we were more ready than nervous. you can only "get ready" so long, so of course we had some photo shoots..

court, abbi, me

doesn't she look absolutely STUNNING? i mean seriously. first of all she is one of those gorgeous-in-sweats-with-no-make-up girls already, so put her in this vintage looking dress (one that i might be slightly obsessed with) and stick some flowers in her hand.. whoa.

abbi and her bridesmaids (jessica, carey, courtney, abbi, ashley, rachel, me, charis)

the ceremony was really small. their two immediate families and wedding party watched the ceremony down by the lake. it was sweet and very real.

after the ceremony we walked up the little hill to the reception where many more people were waiting. it was all outside and the weather was perfect. the stringed quartet was lovely and it was so fun to eat and laugh with abbi's family and friends that we have grown up with.

abbi, joe, lisa, evan

..and off they went to enjoy their honeymoon together. mr. and mrs. shirley.

i love you both so much and i am so happy for you.

may mini vacation

2010-06-17T11:10:00.000-04:00

literally a few hours after we had our class graduation celebration, i was on a plane headed to los estados. my best friend ABBI was getting married and while i was in town i got to spend some time with the fam and some good friends.

in pictures, here is a little bit of what it looked like (minus wedding photos.. next entry, people. next entry)

kennedy turned ONE! oh my goodness i cannot believe it has already been a year! she was absolutely adorable in her tutu at her elmo themed party.. she has some pretty cool parents. :) auntie tinkle can't wait for more time with little kennedy!

lunch date with my sista (reeeeally good food. everyone needs to eat at mother's at least once). i was thankful to get some time with court planning the bachelorette party, going to the wedding, and hanging out a little. she rocks.

bananarchy date with becca! becca was the one who first introduced me to bananarchy (a wonderful frozen banana trailer.. pick your toppings right there and wah lah- frozen banana pop on a spoon!). our bananarchy hang out date was great! love me some becca time..

dinner at central market (yeah.. they let it be my choice :) with some of the REC crew. OH how i miss those days and these incredible people! we have some gooood stories..

dia de anna- kayaking and lunch! oh what i would give to spend every morning on a lake with anne.. our entire day date was FULL of conversation, laughs, exploration, scripture.. anne is one of those people that is just good for the soul. i am so thankful for any time we are able to spend together.

my time home was incredible and there are many more sweet people i was able to spend time with and good things i was able to do that i did not document with pictures.. chipotle with brett and kosh. shopping with mom. austin stone and whole foods with tay. worship, the boat, and dinner w/ the boons. nights with friends. back porch conversations in blankets. long runs on new trails. hanging out with the fam. . dallas road trip with mom. dallas with shannon. abbi's bachelorette party. abbi and dean's wedding.. (i know, i know. ashley, quit rambling)

the point?

it was awesome. loved the little break in los estados. so thankful for incredible people to spend it with.

graduation!

2010-06-13T11:04:00.000-04:00

yes, it's true.. we made it through the year!

for a lot of my kids, this was our second year together. in two years it is incredible to think about how much they have grown.. physically, they are bigger and stretching out more and more. their minds continue to expand, they pick things up so quickly, and absorb SO much that we do. they have learned how to learn. their personalities keep getting more defined and growing. they are hilarious. it makes me almost cry to think about how we have formed a community in our classroom; they have the routines and rules down and know how to treat each other and our things (this was a process..). they understand that we are in school to learn, we treat people with respect, God calls us to love people, we are all friends despite racial differences... there is seriously just so much i could say about them.

i am beyond proud.

to be completely honest, it has been a really hard year. there have been many struggles, many fights, issues and hurt from home situtations entering the classroom, distractions, illness, tears.. not easy. BUT..

we made it.

despite all the challenges, we pushed through to learn about the Lord, how to read, how to add and subtract.. we learned how to fight through some of the mess and do it together. there are SO many moments of sweet hugs, dancing, successes, laughing and just joy to remember. oh i am so thankful for that.

so here it is. the end of the year. here's a glimpse at what graduation day looked like:

parents and siblings watching the ceremony

regina getting her certificate

my smart little crazies (class photo)

oh man i love them so much.

taylor

2010-06-11T19:26:00.000-04:00

TAYLOR CAME TO VISIT!!

yeah she did. i really do have great friends.. tay and i met the first day of our freshman year in high school and then we ended up both going to school at UT (hook 'em). there's a lot of history.. tennis tourneys, wrecks, birthdays, festivals, sonic trips, different jobs, goodbyes, new people, dorm adventures, concerts, conversations, ut athletics, texas lassos, all-nighters, surprises, tears, living together for 2 years, 2 brain surgeries... a lot.

LOVE you, tay. i'm glad we got to add the DR to our list..

hotness at la playa

tay gets the award for the splotchiest/most awkward sunburn

trying sugar cane- get it!

look at all that dominican food.. including sancocho de cerdo (soup w/ pig) and a block of fried cheese. she's way braver than i am..

fire-blowing, rum-spitting, crazy-dancing man during halftime at a basketball game in puerto plata. oh yes.

hangin' out with bernito and wilner in chichigua

thank you so much for coming, tay. i love me some ashlor time.. miss you.

i love YOU. a lot.

elections

2010-06-07T10:04:00.000-04:00

oooh the elections..

everyone gets SO excited and into the elections here. especially in the weeks leading up to voting days, the streets were filled with people waving their party's color, honking, giant trucks announcing different candidates, parades, and just a ton of noise. signs and billboards go up all over the place and candidates make appearances everywhere. the night winners were announced TONS of people in montellano stood outside the public school where they were counting votes to await the results. the streets were blocked off and people were standing around for hours to see who won. people standing on different sides of the school would compete to see who could cheer the loudest for their party.. everyone gets really into it.

THEN after the winners are announced there are MORE loud parades to celebrate. parades down the highway, parades all over monellano.. parades. parades. basically people ride around on vehicles or motos screaming, waving their colors, honking.. (sidenote- the night omar sanchez won kendall and i rode around in the parade on johan's moto. it was nuts. we of course waved white shirts around and yelled like crazy people. i mean, you just have to.. our protective neighbors weren't too fond of the fact we went bc it really is craziness but, hey, we are still here :)

here's a video of one of the parades after omar won the elections.. this is right in front of our apartment. actually, we were driving back from puerto plata and accidentally got into this parade. haha.. ok here it is:

i'm not going to lie.. it was fun but i'm glad elections are over!

DANCE circle!

2010-06-05T09:13:00.000-04:00

"so ashley, how was your last day of school?"

umm.. awesome.

"yeah? what did y'all do?"

movie time.. and MICHAEL JACKSON DANCE PARTY (yes, again..)!

coolest. kids. on. the. planet.

bingo!

2010-06-03T19:00:00.000-04:00

our neighbor gloria is, well, quite a character. i really don't even know where to start. a couple random/quirky things about gloria:

she will force you to eat even if you're not hungry.
she sits on her porch all the time.
she knows everything going on in the neighborhood.
she looooves telling stories.
she laughs at everything.
she treats our apartment like we are her daughters.
she plays dominoes every weekend with her ex husband.
she rocks the skinny jeans.
she has hilarious children who still visit her ALL the time.
she is sassy. quite sassy.
AND she plays bingo every week..

kendall, robin, rachel, and i agreed to play bingo with her one week with no idea what to expect. she is so funny.. we ended up at a woman's house in montellano and played bingo on the porch. we all had bingo cards we marked with rocks. well, there were a few women who brought their own fancy chips (time to get serious about bingo). gloria is hardcore and managed to play FOUR bingo cards at one time. yes- four.

it was a really funny night.. oooooh gloria and her crew. :)

gloria and kendall

me and robin (i just WON one and robin is being the caller)

b.i.n.g.o. time.

eww..

2010-06-01T18:53:00.000-04:00

this was in my room.

doesn't it just look like some giant, evil, poison-filled creature ready to sting me while i sleep??

dramatic? maybe.

but really.. what is this?

we had to call ada over to the house to kill it. he said it was "muy peligroso."

disgusting.

labor day

2010-05-30T18:31:00.000-04:00

many places of work here in the good ol' DR have parties or get-togethers for their employees for labor day. it's not always just a day off but time to hang out with people you work with.

sooo makarios people hung out together at la roca in the river. you KNOW that means there was some gooood sancocho made by some of the makarios dominican men. of course there was plenty of swimming and jumping off the giant rock. fun..

some of the makarios dudes

me and kendall

so many people at the river!

basketball

2010-05-25T12:06:00.000-04:00

ahhh basketball season. professional basketball game in puerto plata, anyone?? (and by professional i mean "professional")- i guess i should explain. they're technically professional; it just looks quite different than the nba..

mm.. yes please.

kendall and i met some of the guys at the game. it was nothing less than awesome. one thing i love about being here is that when it comes to sports (well, i'm mainly referring to some baseball games i've been to and some pick up basketball games), dominicans are EXCITED. it is an event.. and every moment is exciting and LOUD. it doesn't really matter what is going on; there is always something to yell or cheer about. so much fun..

in action

wilson, jody, caquito, chris

me and kendall

abbi!

2010-05-23T11:43:00.000-04:00

ABBI CAME TO VISIT. yeah she did! oh my gosh i can't even begin to explain how great it was to have her here. abbi and i have been friends for almost 15 years. she's one of those people you can only hope you'll meet once. i am so fortunate to call her my best friend. ok, if i don't start talking about her visit now, i will be rambling for pages about her awesomeness..

the time she was here FLEW by. she was here 5 nights total.. we took motos to la tienda, spent time hanging out at rachel's, ate dinner at tropi with friends, went a couple beaches, had people over for chili night, went to a dominican basketball game, ate sancocho at the river, visited villages, played with my kids, went to school, walked the malecon, took public, went to church, ate rice/beans, talked, chilled.. y mucho mas.

it means the world to share a little part of what my life is now and has been for two years. i'm just. so. thankful. i really don't have words. i am honored you took time to come here, abs. i love you so much.

sancocho.. yes please.

2010-05-16T10:50:00.000-04:00

ahhh days at the river are so GOOD!
basic agenda: make sancocho, swim, hang out, wait for sancocho, EAT.. this particular trip was especially awesome because ABBI CAME! oh i can't even begin to explain how good it was to have her here in country for a little while. really. beyond thankful.

me and ABBI! love you.

rubia pouring some of the veggies in the amazing sancocho (did i explain this? it's a soup - sooo good)

everyone hanging out while the soup cooks

rubia, jefferson, wilson, jody, brenda, robin

sass. roomies (minus kendall)

johan jumping from the tree

yep. good day.

double wedding

2010-05-08T20:15:00.000-04:00

two beautiful sisters that rachel has been friends with a long time, dudu and chichi, were both getting MARRIED! ..of course that means a DOUBLE WEDDING- woo!

rachel helped them plan, find dresses, decorate and organize.. AND she was in the wedding (as the godmother). basically, she is 1) an incredible friend and 2) a stud. it was a beautiful wedding.

now, let me make something clear.. a haitian wedding ceremony here is totally different than a 20 minute deal we have in los estados. weddings are long (i'm talking hours) and start whenever the bride (or brides in this case) is ready, even if that means hours after the announced start time. there are a TON of people that show up and EVERYONE that has a camera takes pictures the entire time. the couple(s) sit at the front of the church while there is basically a church service (sermon and songs). there are mulitple performers and when it is time to do vows and such at the end there is a mob- a MOB- that crams in the front for the kiss. cara describes it well-it's like a rock concert. people pushing, snapping pictures, yelling, making them kiss again..

we got out to villa early to help prepare for the wedding. rachel asked me to be the "photographer" so i was taking pictures the whole time..

shoes.

dudu looks kind of sad here but i promise she was super pumped. :) her sister chichi is in the back getting ready

walking from the house to the church

and the brides enter..

sitting during the ceremony

the lovely choir

praying

pastor jonny (dudu and chichi's dad) praying

and the cake people watching the reception..

i think rach, cara, and i ended up being out there from 2ish to after 10pm. good day.

it was sweet and i am so happy for the newlyweds!

congratulations. :)

B+ for wilner

2010-05-06T13:51:00.001-04:00

sweet wilner.. wilner lives in chichigua and we have been blessed to watch this little dude grow, play, and pout. in december, robin and holly took him to get his blood tested and confirmed that he is HIV positive. a couple months later, with another doctor, they learned he needed a blood transfusion.

[ok, i have to pause for a minute and note that robin and holly have taken wilner numerous times to the doctor for tests and medicine, pouring themselves into these time-consuming processes for him. they have faithfully loved him and been consistent people he can trust to take him.. and get him ice cream after having needles in his arm. i say this because i don't want to jump so far in the story without giving a little peek into what those months looked like. now to resume..]

what kind of blood does he have? B+. our whole staff started reporting blood types back to robin. guess what type i am? yep.. B+. the weekend we were going to give the blood for the transfusion, holly happened to have a friend, bonnie, coming who also had B+ blood. welcome to the country, bonnie. come to a clinic in the third world and let us stick a needle in you..

robin, holly, bonnie, lauren (our physicians assistant at school), and i took a day to go to puerto plata for the donating process. first, bonnie and i had our blood tested and then did what we do here all the time: wait.

turns out my dang iron levels were a little below the ok level (bah) BUT praise the LORD- bonnie COULD donate! wilner could have the transfusion!

check out that GIANT needle in bonnie's arm. the donating was ridiculously fast. i mean, look at that thing. no wonder she felt light-headed after losing blood so fast.

bonnie being a champ. that was one giant bag of blood they ever so professionally rested on the chair..

i've heard they don't let females donate blood here because they think women will become iron-deficient (yeah...) so it was incredible they allowed this. ALSO, praise the Lord bonnie was in town for those specific of days!

wilner had the transfusion and is doing well.. still as funny as ever. thank you, Lord!

computer club

2010-05-03T13:01:00.000-04:00

i think it is hilarious to watch my students play school during free time or activity time because i get to see what school looks like to them.. and what i look like to them (woah). i've actually laughed out loud while they've read stories to each other and passed out "homework." i especially love when they take someone to the esquina de descansar (corner of rest.. "chill out corner") or the office. they're great kids but, yes, they know exactly what it looks like to be sent to the corner and office..

this particular day, they were on their "computers" (our class books) and talking about what they were doing: watching michael jackson.

i may or may not occasionally download his videos and have michael jackson days.. :) i'm pretty sure i have the coolest kids ever.

smiley

2010-04-24T12:56:00.002-04:00

alright, i have to be honest. i am just NOT a fan of the stray dogs around here. i'm just not. mange, excessive barking, dog fights, weird looking poop on the street, etc?

no thank you.. especially after i got bit by one. (sorry to all of you with huge "doesn't matter WHAT kind of dog it is, love it anyway" hearts..)

HOWEVER, there is one dog who has recently made me re-think my stance..

THIS dog is just awesome.

we call him "smiley."

hccsa returns!

2010-04-21T16:35:00.001-04:00

for their spring break trip, a group of incredible students from hill country christian school of austin came down to serve the makarios staff and our kids. laurie's spanish classes come every year to serve alongside some of their parents and school staff. i cannot begin to tell you how incredible every single one of these kids really are. we actually talk about it every time they are here.. how in the world are they all such great people? they love Jesus, respect everyone around them, are full of energy, and come to humbly serve.

i probably said this last year, but i will say it again.. it is just SO encouraging to see juniors and seniors in high school know the Lord the way they do and want to spend their spring break sweating and serving other people. love it. their unique community of students, staff, and parents is a beautiful picture of how to hold others accountable and build people up.

basically, they rock.

here are just a couple pictures of my kids from when they came to lead our classes for a few days (umm AWESOME for us teachers. we got to sit back and hang out with our kids while they took over..)

working hard on their giant name crafts

who wouldn't LOVE fake snow? (especially if you never see real snow!?)

what a beautiful picture of service and what an encouragement for all of us here..

thank you, laurie, for loving your students so much that they want to come love mine.

unexpected

2010-04-20T15:53:00.001-04:00

so you know cristina already.. one of the wisest, strongest, most loving, graceful women i have ever met. i have missed her friendship and presence terribly since she moved to the capital. i love LOVE her so much!

we hadn't talked in awhile and she randomly called me one afternoon. or course we start blabbing a million miles an hour about everything going on and she randomly asks me about my plans for the weekend.. and i ramble some more..

i will save you all the mess but basically i was having an incredibly hard couple days and honestly felt like i was about to break. on sunday i was sitting in church praying to the Lord, calling to Him and declaring how much i just disparately need Him. i'd been brought beyond my own strength. no more. i need Him. i always need Him but sometimes, in my foolishness, try to do things on my own strength.

anyway, in the middle of me scribbling in my journal to the Lord, kendall scoots closer to me on the bench because someone sat down on the other end. then she elbows me and whispers..

"cristina"

what? WHAT? thank you LORD!

robin has everyone shift over so i can run to the other side and sit by cristina. i couldn't let go of her. i was just sobbing. sobbing.. the kind you can't turn off. she let me hug her, told me to stop crying, and held my hand the rest of the time. ahhh i could just feel so much of the love of God in her presence.

i am so incredibly thankful for the time we had. she is such a blessing. for her to find money to be able to travel to see us "just because" is so loving. we were able to spend the day with the group at the beach. cristina spent the night with us and got to visit school in the morning before heading back to the capital.

oh i am so thankful for her understanding, her deep love, and her friendship.

i looooove surprises! :)

effeciency..

2010-04-15T13:48:00.000-04:00

here's the thing- if you have 4 people all going to the same place across town at the same time, it just makes sense to go together, right?

aaand if you have 1 moto, why not share it?

yeah, we really did ride across montellano like this after school. it's safer than it looks. ok, lie. BUT (mom, this is for your sanity's sake) johan is a really great driver.. :)

cooler than hot cross buns

2010-04-14T22:18:00.000-04:00

remember how we used to go to music class in elementary school? "hot cross buns" on the recorder, anyone? c'mon you know, hot cross buns. hot cross buns. one a penny. two a penny. hot cross buns.. yes it is still with me even at 24 years old.

well, we don't have "music class" everyday (wouldn't that be awesome? my very own 6-year-old band!? hmm.. not ready to let go of this idea..) so for awhile in art class, we had a music theme. we made drums, watched youtube videos of random people playing piano, the flute, drums, guitar, etc.

the coolest part of the week was that we got to have SPECIAL GUESTS!!

special guest: CARA JANE on the GUITAR!!

cara taught them about the parts of a guitar, played a little for them, and let them try to play! FUN.. they loooved trying to name the parts of the guitar and listening to cara jam a little.

special guest: ROBIN on the FRENCH HORN!!

eduardo mastering the technique robin taught

french horn. is robin fancy or what?

rachel learning to play..

you should have seen robin's grand entrance playing the horn as she walked into the room.. and their faces- oh man. robin taught them all how to position their lips, how to blow into the horn, where they should put there hands.. they were more than freaking out they were so excited! that was my first time to try the french horn.. they get to do it at age 6. watch out, we might have some musical prodigies on our hands..

oh and yeah, that's right.. my roommates pretty much rock. perhaps we should start an apartment band. i'll be the interpretive dancer and kendall can learn the drums.. ahhh yeah. for real, THANK YOU so much, robin and cara!

destruction

2010-04-14T20:44:00.000-04:00

.. pretty crazy this is possible for a 4 year old to do, huh? one of lauren's students was left in the room by himself for a minute to calm down. anger.. who knew he could turn a wooden table on its side (left side of picture)? please keep praying for our kiddos.

[note- since this happened, he has been asked to come for only the end of the day and then lauren uses some of her afternoons to work with him individually. we have seen a difference in him and were just talking about it today. praise the LORD]

i really love him

2010-03-30T18:08:00.000-03:00

everyday for a couple weeks, luis fernando has been coming to school.. and every day at some unpredictable moment he would snap. after the snap he spirals into a rage he doesn't seem to be able to control. this takes on many forms- attacking other students, throwing chairs, hitting, etc. i can't accurately describe what his face morphs into or the way his heart races and whole body shakes.

we don't have a principal or counselor.. or really anywhere i can send him, so helping him through this is my job. i carry him to the office or porch while he fights to escape with every ounce of strength he has. i remind him over and over how we can count and breathe when we are angry. it is ok that he is angry but let's try to breathe. breathe. breathe.. as calmly as possible, i remind him that we are friends and i can let go when he is tranquillo and we can talk about it. sometimes he calms down eventually, sometimes odilsia has to come talk to him, and sometimes it just won't stop.

what hurts me more than anything is that i know he is confused and hurting. i can take him hitting, biting, kicking, pinching, and cussing at me all day; i know it's not me he's really upset with. oh but it breaks me to hear about his mother wanting him, not wanting him, taking him back, giving him to one of her friends.. and then to talk to the woman he stays with now (he calls her "grandma" but she's a friend of his mom) and hear her say "oh yeah, his mom doesn't want him. he misbehaved. she doesn't want him.." in front of him. ugh. he's told me himself that his mom doesn't want him.

one day he was in a pretty bad rage (i guess that's what i would call these fits..?) and i'd been sitting with him in the office, arms wrapped around him to keep him from hitting me or running out.. for literally like 15 minutes. at this point, no one has been in my classroom (which pretty much means utter chaos in there) and luis and i were both dripping in sweat. i asked him if i let him go, what his plan was. where would he go?

then i tried it. let him go.. and he walked right to the front gate. "ok i can't let you leave.." and i carried him back to the office. he wasn't going to stop. there was nothing in him that would stop. my class is screaming down the hall, kids are yelling "profe!" every two seconds, i hear people crying, luis is shaking and trying to pry my arms apart, i can't ask for anyone to help and no one but odilsia is in the building.. and i really let him go.

i even opened the gate for him.. and he left. walked by himself in the rain.

of course i stood there sobbing until odilsia ran to calm my class down and told me i had to stop crying. ok. back to class..

after school, i went straight to luis' house to talk to his "grandma," explain to her what happened, and make sure he knew i love him and was not mad. grandma said he wasn't going to public school that afternoon (perfect..) so i asked if he could come with me for an hour or so. yes.

we made necklaces, watched michael jackson videos (we share a love for good ol' mj), read books, ate apples, played with my camera, and laughed. oh my gosh it was so refreshing to hear his little laugh again and watch him sing/dance.

you know who that is.. (photo by luis)

one of my favorite smiles on the planet

such a funny kid.. loco

i am so incredibly thankful for that afternoon. that hour. his shrieks of laughter. his playfulness. his love. please, please be praying for luis fernando. please pray for his family. pray that he knows and understands God's love at such a young age. pray that the Lord is where he finds stability, peace, and love.

kids + numbers

2010-03-07T17:24:00.007-03:00

i feel like i write about a lot of random things on here and forget to talk about where i am most of the day: escuela. my kids are awesome and they are all slightly (ok, some are VERY) crazy in their own ways.. i won't lie- at the end of everyday i am exhausted. i mean exhausted. i have always been someone who can run on very little sleep and go, go, go but i have never experienced exhaustion like this.. ok, that's for another day, another conversation. what i am actually trying to get to is that my crazies are LEARNING. they really, really are. i am so incredibly proud of them.

in math we have been moving towards adding. YES. adding. before you can do the whole
2
+_2_
4
thing, you have to understand 1 to 1 ratios, be able to count objects, recognize numbers, understand a number represents an amount, etc. before jumping into setting up addition problems, we did some prep work.. they worked in teams to put the right amount of dots with the correct number.. aaand they rocked it.

"check us out.. all done!"

this video is just a little bit of the kids in action. ok, ignore the smack in the middle of it (told you.. they can be a little feisty) and listen to their problem solving smartness. OH and teamwork (minus the smack).

we've started written addition problems and they are learning so fast.. my guess is that they'll be doing statistics by the end of this year.. maybe a little trig, who knows? :)

makarios olympics!

2010-03-06T14:48:00.003-03:00

this past monday was the DR's independence day (feb 27th) observed, which means no school! for the day, erika and chris decided to go all out planning an amazing "bonding day".. "staff development" if you will. what did that mean?

makarios winter olympics!

we started the morning with some worship songs led by our very own jody chance and revealed our decisions about what we are doing next year (who is staying/going after august- more on that soon..). THEN we drew names for teams, made our team names, made our flags, and.. let the games begin!

meet TEAM JEHOVIA.

meet TEAM COLMADO. (yeah that's right.. and you should have seen our flag and mascott..)

lauren trying to stick her winter picture on the olypmic rings

three-legged egg carrying race = hard!

haha we really tried so hard!

chris and erika planned all sorts of incredible games..

pin the winter object on the olympic rings
3-legged egg race
pictionary
winter grams (think word making race with banana grams pieces)
limbo
singing bee (finish the lyrics)
water balloon distance throwing contest

end of the day with our PRIZES

so who won??
ok the way the points worked out the last event (water balloon chunking) would determine who the overall winner would be. team jehovia won that one so they had more points total.

..so maybe team colmado lost the last event which technically means that our overall point score was lower BUT out of the 7 events we TIED one AND won 4/7.. if you want to look at it by number of events won, i guess you might have to go with the colmadoians.. :)

maybe i am just a liiiiitle bit competitive. just a little.

well played, everyone. well played.

baby time!

2010-02-20T13:52:00.000-03:00

milka and francis are having a BABY! woo! milka and francis are some friends we know through church.. maybe some of the most friendly, joyful people i have ever met. we are all super excited for them!

because jessi is, well, awesome.. she threw them a really fun baby shower. i don't know how jessi knows so many different games; they were so cute! games AND prizes AND treats. we had to guess what characteristics we think milka wants their baby to have. milka or francis' nose? whose sense of humor? whose intellect?

cara was the champ of identifying different powders (do you know your sugar from detergent?) and i can proudly say i can draw something that resembles a baby when there's a plate on my head.. there were so many games she'd prepared. pass the bo-bo (pacifier), match the sock race..

basically we are so happy for milka and francis! praise God their baby is coming into such a sweet community of people.

one of the treat tables

some gringas at the party

milka opening her gifts

..and if i were to give prizes:

best decorating team: rachel and jessi
hostess of the year: jessi
cutest pregnant person: milka

congratulations!!

critter magnet

2010-02-15T22:35:00.003-03:00

ok i was just standing in our kitchen and had a little worm try to crawl in my underwear (yeah. SICK.) and i realized i actually must attract critters. i mean, really.. let me just give you some examples from lately:

ants- infested my room THREE times now. three times. i am talking literally hundreds of ants at a time..
worms- they're ALWAYS in my room and i've woken up to one crawling up my neck. gross.
rat- mystery poop appears on my bedroom floor but i haven't seen it.. yet.
banana spiders- the other night one was crawling on my FOOT while i was laying in bed (think size-of-your-palm big spider)
lizard- this one i don't mind. he doesn't bother me.. just lives in my closet
mosquitoes- every day. say 40 people are in a room with one mosquito.. it will find me. you probably think i am being dramatic but it is actually almost impressive how much i get bit.
little worm- you read the first paragraph. my underwear, really?
pregnant banana spiders- i have now killed 2.. and their babies that exploded all over the floor.

just call me a critter magnet.

2 other critter stories- anne killed TWO rats after waking up to one on her pillow (ewwww) and cara has woken up with a roach on her face. sick. sick. sick.

toothless belly rolling

2010-02-14T00:43:00.003-03:00

my little luis lost TWO teeth!

i wasn't there because i was sick in bed for a couple days but robin told me about how brave he was- pulled those suckers out by himself! he was pretty dang excited to show me on friday.. and then tell me he plans to pull a third. patience, boy. :)

now i'm not trying to brag about my boy BUT, not ONLY did he pull his own teeth out.. he had some new moves to show me.

belly dancer? i couldn't be any prouder.

cristina

2010-02-12T22:55:00.004-03:00

cristina's last day was yesterday.. still processing what everything is actually going to look like without getting to be with her every week.

having worked for makarios since 2006, she holds a lot of history. she is a constant source of reminders about how everything has grown and of wisdom about how everything is. i was incredibly blessed to have her at the school with me as the other teacher. there are countless things i learned from her.. a ton, of course, about my kids and how to love and work with them, but there is so much more.

i have been trying for days to figure out how to accurately explain the woman she is. i always get stuck at the inadequacy of my words, but if i had to try..

cristina is deeply respected by EVERYONE who knows her. she really just has to open her mouth and people will listen. she is a pillar of wisdom. strength. passion. love. her strength is rooted in her unwavering faith in the Lord. she knows the Lord so deeply an listens to Him about everything. oh my gosh, you should hear her talk about the Lord and pray. she's brought me to tears so many times with the fire in her. she has been through so much pain but has only been strengthened and deepened in her trust in the Lord.

in everything she does or says, she carries herself and speaks with so much grace. so much beauty. her face brings joy and i swear her hugs are magic. cristina can walk up to me in the morning and just know exactly how i am.. and how to respond with so much love. she just knows.

i am so thankful for her tight hugs. laughter. listening ear. wisdom. pulling me aside to pray. bold questions. inside jokes. unspoken thoughts. trust. friendship. love.

i am sad. we know the Lord is calling her to move to the capital and just have to trust Him in that. trust Him with her family, a home, a job.. she is going to be a blessing for so many people. the Lord is going to use her to do beautiful things. i know that. i mean, she's cristina.. i'm just really going to miss her. my coworker. my friend. my sister.

here's a picture of her i really love:

i hope you all get to have a cristina sometime in your lives.

pray with me for her and her family and what this will all mean for them.

i love her. oh gosh, i will miss her..

popsicles and michael jackson

2010-02-08T21:18:00.004-03:00

last thursday after school kendall, kim, lauren and i took a couple of our kids who don't go to public school to get POPSICLES! they played in the park and got chinola stickiness all over themselves..

THEN (my favorite part) we had the boys from chichigua (minus wilson) over to our apartment for some popcorn and a michael jackson DANCE PARTY! we totally get to hang with some of the coolest kids on the planet.. check out bernito. workin' it for the camera- yeeeah, b!

..and do you see memo on the floor in the background?

love these dudes.

Haiti (first part)

2010-02-08T19:25:00.003-03:00

“how was haiti?” has been an interesting question to try to answer and i honestly still don’t know how to answer. i guess i will try to explain what we did while we were there. warning- i will try not to be too wordy, but this might be a bit long..

wednesday (jan 20th)
we made the decision to go. cara, kendall, rachel, gideon and i would be leaving friday for cap haitien (on the north coast of haiti) to take supplies to a couple, johanne and chris, who work for emmanuel’s wish foundation and are starting emmanuel’s wish orphanage. we would do everything we can to supply the orphanage with immediate needs and prepare the place for about 50 children.

we ran to puerto plata to buy some supplies we didn’t have already and had some beds made for the kids (this means having foam mats cut and rolled). we met at rachel’s to decide how to spend thursday preparing and made bags for every kid to have for their things.

our bag-making system at rachel's

thursday
in short- we ran around like crazy people getting ready from the time we got up almost to the early friday morning hours. rachel met gideon at the airport because he'd just gotten in from canada to make the trip. we were thankful to have all day to prepare (no school) because it was a holiday.

friday
5am- wake up! cara, kendall, and i left for rachel’s to finish packing her truck.
stars out, sun starting to come up, we were on the road. rachel’s truck and mine and cara’s car (good ol’ negrita). drive, drive, drive to dajabon where we would cross the border.

dajabon in a word on friday (market day): MADNESS. it took us FOUR hours to cross the border. in the middle of papers being checked, being sent from this office to that office, back to another line to pay this, another line to pay that.. in all that i was wondering how on earth chris was going to find us. he was supposed to meet us to drive us in but how would he find us in this mob of people? our cars could only move inches at a time bc there were so many people BUT he did! praise God. we were definitely the only gringos there, but i wouldn’t have known where to start looking.. thank you, Lord.

we started following chris and an hour and a half later we were in cap haitien. dusty, dusty. people moving everywhere. waiting at their house was johanne and their beautiful daughter, hannah. we unloaded negrita and rachel’s truck, ran to the store for something for dinner (no refrigerator makes it hard to keep things!), ate at the house and went to bed.

"driving" through the mob of people at the border

the border at dajabon

rachel's truck finally in haiti!

the stuff we brought from the DR

saturday

our first stop for the day was a “kresh” (forgive me. probably misspelled) where johanne used to work. it is kind of like a temporary orphanage. the idea is that all of these kids have somewhere to go. either they are being adopted and waiting for the process or their parent are temporarily unable to take care of them but want them back. we talked with the staff about their situation and played with some PRECIOUS kids!

after stopping by johanne’s old house to get a phone number, we went to a hospital where people from port au prince were being brought. across the street was a makeshift hospital (a school building- no more room in the hospital), which is where we went to give them chris and johanne’s information in case they need somewhere for kids. a man took us into some of the rooms. i don’t have the right words to describe it really. we can’t possibly understand their places or pain. i wish i could do more but the only thing i could even think to do was tickle one sweet girl who was playing with her bedpan. A smile won’t fix anything but maybe for a second relieve a bit? acknowledgment? no words. i still don’t know why we were taken to see what we did.

we left the hospital and went out to the site where chris and johanne are building a church. it was beautiful out there! after the church site, we got a late lunch/early dinner and then went into town to go to the haitien market. tons of people all over- it was wonderful. we bought some more sheet sets for the orphanage beds. thank goodness johanne was there to help us figure out how many gouds= haitien dollars= pesos= american dollars..

rachel and one of the sweet kids at the kresh

driving.. can you find the road? :)

site where they're building the church

the market downtown in cap haitien

Haiti (continued..)

2010-02-04T21:15:00.007-03:00

sunday
headed over to the house being rented that will be the orphanage. the space is going to be great for the children.. we spent the morning unloading everything we’d brought and setting it all up. we stored everything and got to lay out the beds and make them. because of the tight system right now, no kids were being released when johanne went to pick up the group we’d expected. we have to keep stepping and moving in faith even when we don’t know what will happen or when anything will happen. that afternoon we went to church and then back home to eat and rest together.

orphanage house

some of the beds all ready for someone to sleep on them :)

towels, toothpaste, shoes, medical suppies, etc

pulling stickers off the kitchen stuff. exciting.

johanne and chris

monday
drove to the orphanage house to move pepin (man who’d been staying there) out. after unloading all of pepin’s things, we went to a gym-turned-refugee-center to give chris and johanne’s information out. there we learned a lot of valuable information about how the system is erring on the side of caution about children, concern for diseases and aids spreading, who to contact in the UN about our team being there, etc.

downtown, we had some pictures printed of the orphanage to put with all of the information about chris and johanne’s place. we stopped at the market again before going back to the house where gideon set up a blog for chris and johanne.

gym where some people from port au prince were being sent

driving through cap haitien

tuesday
back to the DR. right back into the work we have been doing. literally 20 minutes after getting to the apartment, we had to leave for a staff dinner..

so thankful to know johanne and chris. they are incredible people and i know it that wont be the last time we see them. i am thankful we were able to bring supplies and set the orphanage up, but really.. i wrote about what we did to be able to share with you BUT truly it is NOT about what we did or do.

“ascribe to the Lord, o mighty ones, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.” ~psalm 29:1-2

i will continue to pray that it is HE who receives glory in all of this. thank you for your support and prayers. the Lord was absolutely with us.

if you made it all the way to the end of this- WOW. and high five. ☺

rain, rain..

2010-01-31T18:46:00.002-03:00

we came back after visiting the states for Christmas to the island of sunshine and warmth.. no, wait. RAIN.

and then some more rain. now, i love playing in the rain and get that it is so good for all the vegetation and such. it's peaceful. pretty.. BUT imagine everything smelling like mildew, riding on a moto with rain in your face, rivers rising so kids can't walk to school, laundry you can't hang outside..

needless to say, i am so thankful the sun has been back out! woo! after weeks of rain, we are much quicker to recognize how wonderful the sunnnn has been (remind me of this in a month when we wake up in sweat because of that same sun and heat.. :)

one rainy afternoon in chichigua..

look at all those gringas (and little bernito) in our rain gear

kendall and bernito

wrinkle toes.

new start

2010-01-31T00:29:00.000-03:00

i have been debating in my head about this whole blog thing. YES, it has been a loooong time. do i put up some of the posts i was going to write about summer and fall? do i start with the new year? do i start now?

really, if i am going to start doing this thing again, i really just need to start. now. new start. there is so much that has gone on and i wouldn't know where to start if i tried to back track..

so.. hello.

miss you, katy!!

2009-11-19T23:48:00.003-03:00

all for you kah-tee. love you. :)

couldn't let you miss out on g's new mooooves.

zach graduated!

2009-06-03T22:10:00.001-04:00

zach graduated. zach graduated. zach graduated.. that means he will be going to COLLEGE. whoa. when did he even turn 8 years old?? i don't remember him being this old.. anyway, wierd. SO stinkin' proud of my brother. it has been so encouraging to see how he has matured and grown. he is such a cool kid and i can't wait to see the man God continues to make of him. seriously, though. i could go on and on and i'm not just saying that because i am his sister.. he rocks, people.

some of the graduating peeps on the NEW field in georgetown (cool/wierd..)

i don't know.. some people say we look alike. :) proud of you, zachy!

graduated? YEAH he did!

brotha and some buddies.. can't believe they're all done!

christina and i are so proud of our brothers!

CONGRATULATIONS, ZACHARY!! i can't tell you how excited i am for you about all of the sweet things ahead of you. i LOVE you so much.

week in tejas

2009-06-03T22:04:00.000-04:00

i was so thankful to be able to go home to visit friends and family for a week before all of our summer stuff got started. of course there never seems to be enough time to see everyone but i love the little time i do get to spend with friends and family.. here is a mini-collection of photos from the week:

i learned how to long board with zach! it was really fun/a little scary. i did alright until the LAST run. i was holding onto the car while he pulled me and when he stopped i was supposed to cut in front of him around the corner.. what it actually looked like was me NOT cutting hard enough, deciding to jump off because i was headed for the curb, and barrel rolling on the pavement because i was definitely going faster than my feet could run. ouch.

lunch date with my sister and taylor. love my crazy little sista.

have a coke and smile. tay is a genius at knowing "hippie ashley" places to eat and always has some fun, random place to try that i have never been too. i get lost in all the great places to go but she can totally sort it out and knows the perfect places.. thanks, girl.

and some things haven't changed since like 7th grade.. kristi, jes, sonia and i went to ashlynn's to swim, lay out, and catch up (missed you shlynnie! she got there later) rachel (ashlynn's mom/another mom for all of us) had invited us to come over even though no one was going to be there and left drinks in a cooler. when she got back she had NOODLES. so funnn..

before i'd even gotten home, tay had invited me to go to mauldin's 60th birthday party- heck yes! i LOVE her whole family and it was wonderful to eat some good bar-b-q and do a little dancing with everyone!

there was a lot going on but there are some of the highlights from the week! love me some tejas time. love all you tejas peeps too.

kennedy anne

2009-06-03T13:18:00.000-04:00

i have been so thankful for God's timing in many things this year and i couldn't believe how perfect it was this may. i only had one week off after preschool ended and our summer literacy camp/group stuff started. i was talking to ashlynn on the computer one afternoon and we figured out that i would be home right around her due date!

..so i basically started happy crying almost in disbelief of how perfect that would be. when i got home, kristi and i road-tripped it up to san angelo to meet the beautiful kennedy anne. it was SO good to see clay and ashlynn and meet their sweet daughter. auntie tinkle (me..) and auntie kristi FELL IN LOVE with her in about .3 seconds.. like the speechless, awe-filled kind of love.

kennedy anne is a beautiful little gift from God. i am so thankful for who she will be in all of our lives; she is one LOVED little girl. oh my gosh i am so excited to see her grow up. clay and ashlynn are already such loving parents. we are all amazed at every little expression and noise she makes. oh i wish i could put this into words.. but i feel like i am failing to describe how truly incredible kennedy and her little family are.

auntie kris and kennedy

momma shlynn and her girl :)

auntie tinkle misses you like crazy already, kennedy anne. i love you.

last day of preschool!

2009-06-02T15:57:00.000-04:00

our kids are DONE with their first year in preschool!! woo hoo! cara and i "organized" a last-minute "ceremony" for our kids.. basically, it looked like drum rolling, shouting names, giving out folders/crafts from the year, and lots of screaming and clapping.

so proud. good job, chilluns! man, i love these kids!!

cara is pretty

2009-06-02T15:36:00.000-04:00

for a project at one of her churches back home, cara had an assignment to have pictures taken in her everyday activities with a sweet pair of frames.. i had the honor of stalking cara for days with a camera.

it was funny to watch the kids play with them and react to her.. here are a couple i thought were cute:

there's really no point to this blog post.. i mean i guess to sum: glasses are fun and cara is pretty.

guitar class concert

2009-06-01T11:29:00.000-04:00

for one of cara's personal projects this year, she taught ronni, sili, and ernesto how to play guitar! they LOVE cara so much. she spent a lot of time preparing music for them and ended up making them binders with all they'd learned. the grand finale of their class was a concert at our apartment!

..well, we were all QUITE excited and quite overwhelming for the boys. the whole makarios staff was there and ronni's family came. the boys refused to even come in the apartment for awhile.. they did NOT want all of us watching. most of the staff actually went onto the back porch so they would start. it was really sweet once they'd been convinced to start. they did such a good job! so proud. :) they had such a great teacher..

ronni and ernesto

cara and sili

after eating treats and performing, cara gave them their binders and certificates. it was such a sweet time. because they performed she also promised a trip to the beach.. :)

david and goliath

2009-05-21T11:04:00.001-04:00

for the david and goliath story in Bible time we decided to do an interactive play. who better to play the part of goliath than garrett?? for our first round the casting directors (us..) decided yunairi, who is quite possibly the smallest kiddo at school w/ a little bitty voice, would be perfect. i mean, look at the two. what a pair! they certainly looked the part and did a brilliant job telling the story. imagine garrett (goliath) towering over our little yunairi (david).

without hesitaiton she flung the rock (threw crumpled paper) directly at goliath and he came CRASHING down!

drama. truth. brilliance.

because the performance was incredible, the casting directors tried out a couple other students and then had everyone be david for the grand finale performance.

david and goliath: the performance

meet goliath (played by garrett boon):

meet david(s) (played by all the preschoolers):

aaaand ACTION!

goliath is threatening but david(s) have prayed.. no fear. God gives david(s) strength and courage..

goliath is DOWN! praise God for His faithfulness!

a stunning performance.

..then there was an impromptu attack session. poor garrett suffered no serious injuries after being trampled by 30 children.

diego is a YEAR old!

2009-05-16T23:45:00.001-04:00

it's official. the cutest little guy in the makarios family is ONE YEAR OLD!! jennie and miguel's son, diego, is such a cool kid. he already has SO much personality and whenever he is around he of course has all of our attention. he is one of the funniest little people to watch and honestly just brings joy wherever he is.

happy birthday, diego! time to celebrate..

opening his presents with his papi

that's right- he got a POOL for his birthday! yeeeeah! how fun is that? (note to self: need blow-up pool) oh AND robin and jennie blew bubbles. miguel played in the water a little and gave us a mini-concert on the mini-keyboard at the mak house. funnn.. miguel's family also came so diego and his cousin got to chill together in the pool.

and of course there was CAKE!! who needs hands, really?

sancocho saturday

2009-05-12T23:28:00.000-04:00

anne's face might just sum up how we felt about RIVER day:

this would be one of the reasons for all the excitement: sancocho!!
ok so here's the idea..

WHO: all makarios staff (from the people who work at the school to the guys at the job site) and familias
WHAT: eat sancocho, play in the river
WHEN: saturday
WHERE: the river.. (you know, that one ;)
WHY: sancocho is some dang good soup, we like to hang out with each other, and who doesn't want to be swimming in the river?

everyone just hung out, we went swimming and made a "water slide" through the part the rushes more, the MEN COOKED the soup all day, and we ate. and we ate. and then we ate some more.

and there was a cool tree..

date with luis!

2009-05-08T23:17:00.000-04:00

whenever i have a bad day or feel like i am just going to break down for whatever reason, there has been one little man here that God has created who just makes everything ok. do you ever have those moments? when you just need to stop or feel like you are on the verge of tears? whenever i have those mornings, i get to school and pull my little luis fernando over. one hug. praise God for his little bitty arms..

not only is he just sweet and wonderful; he is absolutely hilarious! i love that he narrates my every action and finds it hilarious. he screams across the room and gets excited about everything. he is shy in new situations or with new people but the second he feels comfortable, watch out! he is a wild man. he will talk your ear off and laugh at everthing. not that i have favorites, but he is totally a favorite :)

i absolutely LOVE my little preschool chilluns and they are all so beautifully different. it is so FUN to have time to just play with them outside of school too..

one day after school the dialogue in my head went like this:
-what should i do this afternoon?
-go get luis and hang out??
-yes, yes, yes.

pretty simple.

i went to his house and asked for permission to take him on a walk for a little bit and we left. he was surprisingly quiet and just held my hand while we walked. we saw a man opening the little ice cream place- perfect timing! luis picked out a little fruit popsicle and we walked to a gazebo so he could finish it/ drip it all over himself. after he was good and sticky we walked to the old cane processing plant (which isn't currently running) and looked at all of the big equipment. the watchy-man came over to tell us we couldn't go in but i ended up asking him to explain what all the big machines do to luis. he was a chatter. i think he liked having someone to talk to..

luis and i just kept walking and went all the way to pancho mateo so he could see where some of his classmates come from every day. we saw a couple of the preschoolers and hung out on the basketball court for awhile. after a little talking and some time to sit, we jumped on a moto back to luis' house (the walk was a long one for his little legs and i think he was tired!).

and that was it. popsicles. sugar cane refinery. walking. pancho. moto.

i love time with this little guy! oh i want you all to meet him..

luis fernando sucking down his popsicle..

on the bridge to pancho- check out his baller shorts!

during our walk

luperon

2009-05-06T22:46:00.001-04:00

it is so good good good to be able to occasionally explore other parts of the island we don't see everyday and to be somewhere it feels completely different. we all piled in the truck and headed out to find luperon. for the most part, we knew the general direction to go- not to the mountains, head to the coast.. we had to ask a couple people for directions which sent us all around the tiny town.. but we made it! it was super tranquilo and we were able to really chill out and relax.

(that's garrett out there fishing)

good day.

weave me a hat..

2009-05-02T23:11:00.000-04:00

please. cristina said she knows some people who can make it happen. i think i might take her up on it. i mean, how cool does davidson look in this hat?? we have such stylish preschoolers.
i'm thinking maybe teal and brown.. on the hunt for some yarn.

thai thai thai

2009-05-01T14:44:00.000-04:00

is it really possible to get enough thai food?
(hint: NO.) look at it..
we had a wonderful reason to revisit lax for another go at thai night: amanda was leaving town! amanda is a really good friend of cara's from back home who stayed with us a few weeks.. she pretty much rocks- freakin' hilarious and just full of spontaneity. she is fearless and friendly and a great person to talk to. for her goodbye dinner we put on some normal clothes and wilson took us all to the restaurant in his sweet van.

the ladies.. with all of our bags

me, johan, robin

wilson, amanda, cara, kendall

oh yes, then we went to bon for some goodbye ice cream..

nice, kendall :)

miss you, amanda!

..and now i am hungry.

clase de arte

2009-04-30T14:13:00.001-04:00

quick review of the schedule during the school year:
mon- preschool + staff meeting
tues- preschool + personal project
wed- preschool + personal project
thurs- preschool + personal project
fri- Bible classes for older kids

(if that was a useless repeat of information, sorry. i forget how much i have explained..)

the staff has many projects going on (english class, guitar class, Bible study in chichigua, etc). wednesdays, for my personal project, i would go to the homes of my students and spend time with them and their families to build relationships and just hang out. tuesday and thursday afternoons i taught an art class! i was able to hold it at the school for people that live around tamarindo. shallan would stay with me at the school last semester and katy or kendall would stay to hang out and help this semester. our options are a little limited because of the supplies we have and there are no art supply stores or hobby lobbys around here.. we definitely got creative. :)

there were a lot of random things we did- bead necklaces, make paper beads, fold oragami boxes, watercolor, watercolor over white wax, make cards, prime a shelf, paint t-shirts (thanks to a group!), use acrylics on canvas (thank you again, group for the supplies!), paint frames and put them together, "paint" with chalk, decoupage, make leaf rubbings, design and color puzzles..

i ended up having to create a sign-up sheet because it got really crazy with so many people piled in the room and limited what we could do. there ended up being a cool group of teenage kids, a couple younger kids, some mothers of my students, and even some babies (who had to come so their moms or siblings could be there). the age range was difficult sometimes, trying to accommodate different levels and abilities. i'm thankful they loved it so much, though, and would wait outside for me to open the door up.

frame making.

paint and katy.

yamela.

the original thought for art class was for it to be a safe place for people to escape to, a pause from everything else going on. i wanted it to be a place where relationships would begin and continue to form. i wanted it to be a place where minds could expand and experience freedom in creativity. i wanted it to be a place for removing boundaries. for conversation. for expression.

i can't say it is just bliss all the time. i am thankful though for relationships that have begun and deepened because of the time together. excited to see where everything goes..

curry cravings..

2009-04-16T20:46:00.000-04:00

ladies night? yes please. well, i guess we get a lot of these because there really aren't a lot of dudes on staff.. anyway, what we DON'T get to do a lot of "going out" type nights (ain't got no money, ain't got no car to take you on a date.. name that song).

we noticed a sign one day at lax that said wednesday nights are... THAI NIGHTS!! that's right. curry. oh how i crave curry.. on a daily basis.

the staff at lax were still figuring out all the logistics of this themed night so the food was a little slow (more time to talk, right?) but oh man.. it was so worth it. i think i inhaled mine..

my two foxy roommates, katy and kendall

jennie, robin and rachel.. lookin' good.

cara, me and amanda.. love.

i guess the point of this blog is that
1. these girls rock.
2. i love curry.
3. i really love curry.

lazy river bums

2009-04-13T14:24:00.001-04:00

the saturday before easter we went out to the river with some people from the church. they'd rented a huge safari truck (which jessi drove by the way- cool points) and we left from the church. it was a sweaty, bumpy ride for about an hour into the valley, but we made it.. and this was basically our agenda:

1. carry our all of our cosas across the river.
2. chill out and get situated.
3. eat. (dominican-style comida from el garage.. served with red rock of course)
4. be lazy.
5. lay around more.
6. talk.
7. nap.
8. sit in the river and collect pebbles.
9. put natural clay masks from the river clay all over yourself.
10. hang out some more.
11. (if you are rachel.. :) jump on a horse with the random guy who rides up. (haha don't worry. he brought her back..)
12. cross the river and head back.
13. randomly stop at a camp.
14. home.

27 waterfalls

2009-04-10T15:26:00.000-04:00

during semana santa (the week before easter- a week staff had off) we all ventured down the highway past puerto plata to a FUN place.. will was in town, benjamin had the day off, and the chichiguan dudes could go. perfect.

destination: 27 waterfalls.

essentially 27 waterfalls is, well, 27 waterfalls. creative. we walked to the base of the mountain where we started the hike up.. THEN for the best part- jumping/sliding/climbing down all TWENTY-SEVEN waterfalls! it was freezing but after the hike and with all of the adreniline it feels amazing..

on the way to 27 waterfalls..

robin and amanda.. READY!

afterwards with our hilarious guides.. soaked and happy.

sorry there are no pictures of the really cool parts (the whole hike, cliffs, and waterfalls).. i didn't really trust the guide's ziplock bag to adequately protect my camera..

*there was actually a not-so-fun part of the day- we waited on the side of the road for a gua-gua to come by and just kept getting passed up SO i waved a truck over (score!).. we hitchhiked back to puerto plata in the back of a truck which was totally fine UNTIL the police pulled them over, made us get out, and took them away (maybe because we'd been in the back). stink. i hope everything turned out alright..

the hunt.

2009-04-05T11:20:00.001-04:00

who doesn't like easter egg hunts? it really has to be one of my favorite parts about easter (i mean, aside from the whole point of it and celebrating that Jesus is risen..) confession: when i am in georgetown for easter my madre still hides individual baskets for us in the house.. and yes, it is glorious.

i'm not too sure the easter egg hunt is something that really anyone here cares much about (or really does at all..) but for our easter party we were absolutely going to do an easter egg hunt, gosh darn it.

we spent like 15 minutes hiding the eggs around the schoolyard, trying to be sneaky and creative with our egg-hiding skills. guess how long it took 30 preschoolers to find them ALL?

maybe 47 seconds.
soooo.. we made them go inside and we re-hid them for round 2.

they defintely run around like little crazy people which, of course, is how a hunt should happen- with extreme intensity. on a mission, people.

happy easter. praise God we can celebrate that Jesus is risen! He lives. :)

road block

2009-04-03T11:18:00.000-04:00

welcome to montellano.

to get to our apartment (on one of the main streets in montellano) just turn onto calle silencio and look for the second set of yellow apartments.

oh wait.. not today.

the road has a gigantic hole dug out of it for this cable construction project. lovely.

who would like to join the car-watching party on the porch? we can watch people try to leave and vote on who has the best turn around.. who can conquer the maze the fastest? who will get stuck at the surprise dead end?

kah-tee = awesome

2009-04-02T11:14:00.000-04:00

fact: katy is my incredible friend.
fact: katy is my teacher's aid.
fact: katy ROCKS.

at the beginning of this semester i flew in with our 2 new amazing staff members (my 2 new roommates), katy and kendall. it really has been fun learning how to live together. too easy almost :) our biggest dispute is probably along the lines of "i think the spoon goes there.." "no i think it goes in the other drawer." easy. ok i could rattle off all the random things we do or list fun stories BUT the point of this blog is katy's awesomeness in my classroom..

she really has been a HUGE blessing. this is the short story of katy in the classroom:

katy awesome marie kemp

katy went to work in a preschool class to help ashley with EVERYTHING. turn page

katy is very nice and very smart. ashley and the children loved katy right away. turn page

ashley asked katy if she wanted to teach a few lessons. katy said, "sure!" turn page

katy worked on a few lesson plans for Bible time. turn page

the students learned a lot about Jesus. turn page

katy adopted Bible time and rocked it the rest of the semester. turn page

ashley and katy were a great team. turn page

katy and ashley shared a lot of laughs (and sometimes frustration) in class. turn page

ashley will miss katy like crazy when she leaves. turn page

ashley wishes katy could stay but understands katy needs to leave. turn page

love you.

blow me away

2009-03-29T11:09:00.001-04:00

TOTALLY understand why all the kite surfers come out afternoonish in cabarete.. oh my gosh, the WIND! they fly through the air when they jump!

we couldn't stop laughing one weekend because it was extraordinarily windy.. gritty snot, sand-plugged ears, squinted eyes.. watch out orifices. almost painful, we could hardly read because the pages were flipping all over the place.. so we took a few pictures. of course they don't do justice to the strength of the wind.. but i will go ahead and share a few:

me and cara

me, kendall, katy.. sweet shades.

..aaand one of cara's attempts to protect herself from the flying sand

happy birthday, miguel!

2009-03-26T07:50:00.000-04:00

we went to go eat pizza for miguel's birthday, jennie made a cake, we attacked miguel with silly string.. all these things were funnn BUT the point of this post is this picture:

diego and his papi. are you kidding me? cuh-ute.

oh yes, happy birthday, miguel!!

my FAMILY came!!

2009-03-24T07:32:00.001-04:00

to explain what life is actually like here can be really difficult using just words. it is hard to understand if your only frames of reference are photographs or an attempted explanation. i often try to describe what my kids are like, what i actually do everyday, who i interact with, etc but my words just fall so short. i want people to get their feet dirty in the villages and hear my preschoolers sing and cry and shriek. i want people to feel the sun so strong and wake up already pouring in sweat. i want people to taste the difference between beans and rice when cooked together or separate. i want people to see and know that God is moving and is in everything.

for my family to come visit meant so much to me. there was definitely some good time to relax together on the beach and be able to talk in person. it was so good to be able to introduce them to the north coast. good to show them where my kids live. good to play in the ocean. good to share meals together. good to introduce them to the incredible people i work with. good to laugh together. good to show them my classroom. good to squish them into a gua-gua.. just good.

i could never hope to explain life here adequately or to exemplify what it is really like, but they did get a little peak. for that i am so grateful.

thank you for coming. i love you guys so much.

a la playa!

2009-03-18T12:03:00.001-04:00

with the HCCSA spring break group (really solid group of high schoolers.. that were so FUN) we took the preschoolers to the BEACH! yeah! the kids talk about it ALL day long and after lunch it was finally time to go.. here are a few photos:

me and my little man, luis fernando, ready to go!

when the clouds come out and we stop running around.. it is COLD (by our standards..)! they're all wrapped up :) (good opportunity to share, right? yeah? high five, kids!)

little g-man all buried in the sand.. he was warmer and super excited for about 3 seconds. then he realized he was stuck.

gigantic sand castle/tunnel thing they all made!

sorry no super cool story.. "soooo we went to the beach.." about sums it up :)

masters of the ocean

2009-03-03T11:18:00.000-03:00

normally when i think "triathlon" i think yeah ok biking, swimming, running.. got it.

BUT now picture this: surfing, kitesurfing, and windsurfing. a triathlon in the OCEAN! sweet. turns out the north coast of the good ol' DR is just wonderful for conditions needed (which is where we are for those of you who are not so geographically inclined.. like myself).

and OF COURSE we wanted to go see who, you know, the "master of the ocean" is these days.. turns out Ño ño (as we call him.. real name- emmanuel) ROCKED it. yeah!

cara and i spent the weekend with a good college friend of robin's, crystal. it was really fun and such a good break for us.. much needed. :)

me and cara.. after sprinting through the street after the all-of-a-sudden DOWNPOUR of rain after dinner.. we were SOAKED.

could not have imagined better weather.. ahhh..

crystal and cara watching the kitesurfing part at encuentro

cara and me.. so so FUN

we ran into garrett.. who accidentally competed. haha awesome.

i think this is jan marco during the kite surfing part. sweet. this guy can get some air. oh how i wish i could be this awesome..

i think everyone should come visit next year when the competition comes back.. yeah? is that a plan?

trucker man

2009-02-21T10:36:00.001-03:00

garrett grew a lot of facial hair.

garrett shaved his facial hair.

garrett will be a barber.

or a trucker.

the end.

climb and conquer

2009-02-16T10:04:00.000-03:00

february 15, 2009- the day we conquered "Mount Isabel de Torres"

there is this, well, mountain behind the mak house and we decided to hike it after church one sunday. february 15th- perfect day. there were just about ZERO clouds in the sky (which = a HOT hike but a perfect view from the top). garrett dropped us near the base and UP we went.

up. up. UP.

there are no cut-backs so it is basically a straight climb uphill for 2.5 hours straight. whew! the hike itself was fun. good. hard.

it felt SO GOOD when we finally got to the top. good in that "man, this will hurt for days/ i am about to collapse/ look at that view!" kinda way. we could see so far along the north coast which is just beautiful. oh yes, Jesus is also at the top. there is a cool/scary/unstable feeling cable car that we went down on. you can also ride up on it.. you know, if you don't want to be all hardcore-like.

yeah we conquered that mountain. sucka.

and from here, ladies and gentlemen, you can see the north coast. the pier, sosua, cabarete..

fix your eyes on Jesus..

if the cable would have snapped, this would have been katy and kendall's last photo of terror. don't worry. we made it.

the other cable car coming up

you ready for us again, Mount Isabel de Torres??

jessi & ariel <3

2009-02-15T16:22:00.000-03:00

"what did you do for valentine's day this year, ashley? hang out with your girls? eat chocolate? watch sappy love movies?"
"well, no.. actually.."

we had the honor to attend and be a part of jessi and ariel's wedding. cara, robin, and i got there ("there" being the beautiful sea horse ranch) early in the morning (7:30-8ish) and set up the entire wedding site. from hanging flowers, to setting up the podium, to deciding and arranging what the chairs would look like, to tying all bows on the chairs.. we got it set up. after doing a 20 minute shower/get ready in the outside bathroom, we met the guests and chatted for awhile.. waiting for robin to drive the bride up :)

the wedding was beautiful and jessi of course looked absolutely stunning. the weather was perfect and the ocean background definitely didn't hurt the beauty of the wedding.. after the ceremony, we rode over to where the reception was to be held, set up all the tables, and awaited the bride and groom!

the reception was so fun. we ate together, had a few mini photo shoots, and hung out. it was a beautiful full day. it is really such a blessing to know jessi and ariel and to be a part of their lives. here is a little about what the day looked like:

ceremony site from afar

guest sign in

the happy couple being married by amoury

bride and groom..

the cake (you know, in case you couldn't tell..)

jessi throwing flowers to all the single ladies

just one peek at the gringa photo shoot.. :)

happy valentine's day.. and CONGRATULATIONS JESSI AND ARIEL!

stuck in a cloud

2009-02-03T16:03:00.001-03:00

for days..
weeks..
months..

(ok. maybe not months but it felt like it gosh darn it)

it RAINED.

we were definitely breakin' out the jackets because it is cold.. by "cold" i mean like 70's. that calls for a fleece, right? (ok, we are wimps.) when it rains we can't hang our laundry outside so that means we either 1. just keep wearing our dirty clothes over and over or 2. hang our clothes inside and smell like mildew. either way i guess we smell.. oh and less children come to school because they either can't cross the high river, road is too muddy, or they don't want to go out in the rain (this one is NOT a valid excuse says profe ashley).

anyway, point is that we were here in a gigantic raincloud. there is a rainy season in like december-january (ish) i hear but this was apparently pretty unusual. cool weather though.

playing with bernito at school

can you see the lady sweeping off her roof? (hint- rainbow umbrella)

sparkle toes

2009-02-01T12:14:00.001-03:00

event: anne's birthday
when: saturday afternoon.. on jan 31st of course
where: boon's living room
why: um. DUH. anne is 29 now!

for anne's birthday we made her take the day off and i went over to their apartment in the afternoon so we could hang out.. this is a bit of our agenda:

1. look through presents from anne's mom and fun friends.. including silly string, apple crumble mix, a journal.. she got SO many fun toys we got to play with..

2. drink coffee. look through magazines. cut out all things wonderful in the magazines.. and put them all together. happy collages.

3. paint toes with purple sparkle nail polish from michelle. pretty toes.. the kind you watch when you walk. yes.

4. start playing with fun presents again.

anne, could you be any more foxy? gold teeth, purple toe nails.. that garrett is a lucky man!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, anne!
loveth you.

what do you REALLY know..?

2009-01-25T18:58:00.001-03:00

jessi and ariel are getting MARRIED!!

you know what this means..
no? c'mon..

the girl needs a bridal shower!! yeah!
we threw her a surprise shower to celebrate. she and candace had just gone to dinner and candace made up some shpeel about how she needed to go to robin and cara's apartment. we ate a ton of snacks, jessi opened her presents, and played some games.. one of my favorites:

we'd asked ariel questions about himself.. and about jessi.. wrote them all down..
THEN made her answer ALL of the questions in front of all of us.. funn.

three whole years

2009-01-25T18:46:00.000-03:00

happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you
happy birthday los tweeeeems
happy birthday to YOU!

our two favorite little twinkies and roommates turned THREE! big day :)

sharla invited their nana and papa (jim and teresa) to their birthday party which was super exciting! they came from santiago and we all sang, jakob and isaak blew out the candles, and got to eat CAKE! they LOOOVED the cake and couldn't get enough.

man, i can't wait to see two of my favorite little dudes in 3 more years. they get cooler by the day.

i love you boys. happy birthday!!

discipline and salsa

2009-01-23T18:30:00.000-03:00

anne registered our staff to attend a "positive discipline" workshop at doulos discovery school in jarabacoa. the doulos school is incredible and really inspiring. chad and krista wallace, the founders of the school, are amazing people and the work God is doing through them is absolutely brilliant. i really can't speak highly enough about them and their school; their professional work and personal selves are very respectable. their house is the one we stayed in last fall for a weekend when we did the awesome swing thing, rode horses (and a donkey), hiked, etc.. and they let us stay there w/o even knowing us first and w/o even being there the first night! it is an honor to know them and it is really neat for us that anne connected us to a little part of what they are doing.

the workshop was really informative and interesting. i actually really LOVE to learn about all of that kind of stuff and the workshop gave our staff new ideas to impliment in our classrooms and school. there are so many new ways we can make learning interactive and have the students participate in classroom decisions.

and how about this? instead of "HEY.. QUIT RUNNING AROUND THE ROOM! GO STAND ON THE WALL!!" i will try "ok you have 2 options. you can sit in your chair and participate or we can go outside and talk to robin." yeah, skills.

bonus- we rented this sweet van and mama anne drove us all:

on the way to jarabacoa we stayed at the white's one night (santiago was about the midway point between puerto plata and jarabacoa) and went out to dinner.

we. ate. mexican food.
at a mexican food restaurant.
salsa. burritos. fajitas.

these are things we just don't ever get to eat around montellano or puerto plata. i was maybe too excited..

rainy weekends..

2009-01-20T18:25:00.001-03:00

sure when it rains the weather is not ideal for going to the beach, hanging laundry out to dry.. or really for going outside because somehow we just get soaked walking around.. BUT there are definitely some perks here about the rain:

1. rain = cool nights (sometimes we can use TWO sheets because it feel that cold and we don't even have to turn on the fans!)

2. good solid rainy day play time w/ jakob and isaak!

i feel like we get into the whole going, going, going routine sometimes and forget to chill out and relax with each other. katy, kendall, jakob, isaak, and i were the only ones hanging out at the house this particular weekend we were stuck in a raincloud.. and it was FUN. it was actually the first time we roommates were able to hang out without the group being here! oh and thank you God for the rain now. i know i will be wishing for it in the HOT summer!

kisses for jakob!

some love for isaak too!

isaak chowin' down at lunch time

k and k with the dudes at the table

chopped it off!

2009-01-15T20:17:00.000-03:00

one day..
after teaching art class..
i walked over to cara and robin's apartment..

and cara chopped my hair off.

turns out she is all professional and such..

goodbye 5-6 inches..

check out that pile of haaair! (looks like i am crying but i was really glad)

haha..

it is gone!

stone group

2009-01-12T19:57:00.001-03:00

first group after christmas break: austin stone college group!
mission: build a wall. YES.

here's the deal- around our school is what we like to call our, you know, "school yard" (clever?). it is a wonderful space for the chilluns to run around and play. however it has been kind of hard first of all to define to the neighbors, kids, me.. exactly where it starts/stops. AND people just kept coming in and stealing our fruit! (fyi- we have quite the garden out there..)

brilliant solution? a wall. clear boundries. protection..

in true dominican fashion of course it is cinder block style..

some of the awesome group working with some of our friends who live around the school. shovel that dirt!

why of course there was some time to play.. :)

THANK YOU AUSTIN STONE.

really, there were SO many amazing things about this group. nicki and scott were incredible leaders and i was so happy to see some familiar faces from home!! everyone was extremely hard-working and so incredibly flexible about everything. some hardcore ladies attacked my termite-filled shelves, others carried cinder block for hours, some worked in the garden and made the yard look awesome.. of course they wore themselves out loving on our kids.. AND when all of our directors were out of the country at the end of the stone trip, the group ROCKED the bucket baths and "no flushing" after a sweaty beach day (our pump overheated, we had no water in the cistern.. calling a water truck and soliciting help from our neighbors didn't fix it.. blah)

the wall is still coming and it will be so cool when it is all finished. praise Jesus for bringing such willing people to serve Him in this.

full bellies = strong

2009-01-11T19:07:00.000-03:00

how are we going to start the year (yes, we've been in school.. i mean 2009) out with the chilluns? for "cara time" she did a unit on water. SUPER IMPORTANT. aaand super brilliant. i mean, they really just NEED to know that water from the botellón (the water jug thing) is good to drink and that it is clean.
cleaner than tap water.
cleaner than the river water (that is mixed of course with pee, soap, trash, parasites.. yum).
anyway, GREAT lesson..

another peek into cara's awesomeness for you.. she taught us that food makes you strong. that's right. so now everyone is always always reminding me "profe!!!!! i ate my food!" (as the flexing ensues..) and of course the shirts are yanked up so we can ALL see the full bellies of food that make us STRONG.

not nearly as many "i am NOT eating" decisions..
now it is more like "bahaha i ate more than carlos so i will be stronger!!!!!"

thanks cara.. for caring about their little bellies and bodies. :)

so we met in the airport..

2009-01-05T13:07:00.001-03:00

meet my new friend, stacey:

we first began our friendship in the lovely dallas airport.. we'd already boarded the flight and gotten settled in when "we will be deplaning due to difficulties shutting/sealing the door.." came on.

well, that just doesn't sound safe, right?

so we deplaned. and waited. (hadn't met yet at this point). i got some snacks and returned to our terminal. waited. saw an empty seat next to a girl about my age. she was on the phone explaining our situation so i sat and started my crossword..

"well i don't know if i will get to haiti today. i might miss the flight from miami.."

haiti?? awesome! we were going to the same island! wait, that means i won't be getting their either probably.. wonder why she is going to haiti.. maybe i will ask. no, that is nosy..

i asked.. turns out stacey is all sorts of awesome and we talked until they'd gotten a new plane for us. praise Jesus she was there because we were able to figure out all the reservation/flight change stuff together. we were both going to miss our flights in miami and have to stay there overnight.. in miami, we met up again at the counter to get our meal and hotel vouchers.

"so we should hang out tonight.."

yeah, we should!

and that's what we did. we were put in the same hotel so we watched tv in her room, ate dinner together, played on our computers, had a photo shoot.. it was really FUN. stacey was definitely the best part about the delay!

oh, and bonus: cara AND my 2 new roommates were on my flight the next day! got to meet 2 more people in the airport..

the kelso's 12.27.08

2009-01-04T20:25:00.001-03:00

my ashlynn. shlynn. shlynnie. farmer shlynn..
GOT MARRIED!!

i was so blessed and honored to be a part of it. i wish i could have been there for more of the planning and such of course.. we had so. much. fun. as bridesmaids (jesica, kristi, sonia, heather, and me) together the week before the wedding. we have grown up together for over TEN YEARS (that is more than a decade, people..) and i looooved spending so much time with some of my girls.. ah, i love y'all. here is a mini-rundown of our time during this part of my visit back to the states:

heather, kris, the BACHELORETTE, me, and sonia before heading out for din-din at p.f. chaaangs!

the bride-to-be opening some of her gifts at her bachelorette party..

this could sum up much of the time we spent together: daaaancing. (i miss this, kris!)

me, jes, shlynn, kris, sonia, and heather at the rehearsal.. :) we rehearsed. then ate some dinner..

we hung out all day on THE day.. make-up, eating, hair, eating, talking, talking, talking, eating, getting each other cinched into our dresses, making up dances, taking pictures, laughing, praying, getting nervous/excited..

then it happened! the ceremony was beautiful and ashlynn was gorgeous of course. such a sweet time. it is official: ashlynn and clay kelso. the kelso's.

bridesmaids at the reception.. all the single ladies, put your hands up..

my sista and brotha that i love oh so very much

why of course, there was dancing. much dancing.

so happy for mr. and mrs. kelso :)

ashlynn, i love you and am always praying for your lives together. i can't wait to see what God does with you guys..

1st weekend home!

2009-01-04T18:48:00.001-03:00

the entire 2 weeks i was home seem like a whiiiirlwind. a fun whirlwind. in summary (though i know you'd love to hear me blab..) there were 2 weddings, my dad's birthday, fun bridesmaid stuff for ashlynn and clay's wedding (bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner, spa day, FUN..), appointment after appointment, a mini-trip to spicewood, eating indian food and mexican food (oh how i miss it), Christmas, new year's, spending time w/ my wonderful friends, family time... you get the picture. it was awesome. i came back more tired than rested but, man,

it. was. worth. it.

the first weekend i was there, kenneth and kelsey got married!! it was absolutley beautiful and of course i could not be more excited. it was also like a reunion w/ our little georgetown family :)

almost cried (actually i did, didn't i?) when i got to see shlynnie!!!!!!

um, that's right. my soul mate friend, KOOOOSH, came.

the stunning couple.. takin' it away on the dance floor!

some of my favorite people.. class of '04 dude reuinion at the reception

emily, my siiiiister, and kelly were there too!!

what an amazing evening. congratulations, kenneth and kels. love you guys!!

christmas coffee, pants, & surprises

2008-12-15T21:29:00.001-03:00

it's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS..

for the last night together before i left for christmas (my last night sleeping in the same room as shallan and melissa..) we had a christmas themed evening..

anne's brilliant idea- the necessities:
1. wear pants (it might not be cold per se.. BUT we were going to pretend).
2. bring a to-go cup of warm coffee (again- christmas time in our heads = coldish).
3. go look for lights.
4. christmas music only.
5. visit nativity scene.

FUN. love you.

first big light display we stopped at.. the security guard finally let us walk inside to take this picture :)

the square was decorated all christmasy and so pretty. the night was actually pretty damp so, you know, let's just say it had been snowing.. oh! and there was a random art gallery showing that night in the gazebo thing that we happened upon- just one of the exciting surprises of the night..

mel has it down- pants, warm drink, christmas tree..

anne, mel, and shal at the nativity scene that had been set out by the catholic church in downtown puerto plata

ok, we went to see the extension of the art that was showing and while we were inside the gallery room, we heard singing upstairs.. so we walked up the stairs and found that we'd stumbled upon a christmas play rehearsal!! they could not have been any nicer.. invited us in to watch, pulled out a plastic table for us to sit on while we watched, and performed the whole thing! it was stinkin' amazing. they were really friendly and none of us could stop smiling when we were walking back to the truck. i love God's little surprises for us.

MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS. :)

happy birthday, lubi!!

2008-12-14T18:53:00.001-03:00

happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you
happy birthday dear ROBIN
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!

our last day of bible class for the semester was also.. ROBIN'S BIRTHDAY!! during class, ronni, one of the greatest kids ever, brought robin a surprise: a cake! a cake that he made at the bread place he works.. he was pretty embarrassed and it was ridiculously wonderful. he walked in, gave her the cake, and jumped on a moto as fast as he could to leave. i mean, how sweet is he? still has to be cool though. he loves robin :)

robin and her cute pink cake

cara and robin walkin' around town with THE cake

turns out the cake was about 37% cake and 63% icing (the part on the plate was the actual "cake" part) it was a lovely dominican-style cake.

that night was our last night together as a whole girls staff (cara left the next day for christmas break) soooo we went to the beach for the night! in celebration of ROBIN and her 25th!! woo hoo! love you, robin :) we walked to dinner and then spent the night in the air-conditioned room playing cards and watching chigaco.. ahh.

oh yes, robin.. one more HAPPY BABY TO YOU.

presents..

2008-12-12T17:01:00.000-03:00

thanks to the wonderful donations our chilluns all got some sweet socks, underwear, vitamins, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and toys for christmas! GRACIAS

luigi is a little protective of his cosas :)

christmas at the beach!!

2008-12-12T15:12:00.000-03:00

for christmas party #2/last day of school we took our preschoolers to long beach!! yes, we know. coolest staff ever. thank you.. :)

so this is what the day looked like:
we met at school, ate breakfast, sang a few navidad songs and made sure everyone was ready to go (making sure our boys had on underwear, getting girls shorts if they didn't have suits, etc)

next- loaded 30 kids + staff into the gua-gua.. and we were off!

we stripped the chilluns down and left everything with the amazing juan (one of the most solid men i have met in this country.. he is our favorite driver)..

then we marched down the beach..

after explaining the rules it was time to GO! everyone took off running..

ok, little yunairi is just precious..

who will get the floatie?

love luis fernando..

making sandcastles/holes/places to bury each other..

splash!!

then the rain started heading our way..

we bundled up in our towels, walked back to the gua-gua (rain-free), and had a picnic! note- special food at the picnic: sandwiches, apples, grapes, juice boxes, and cookies!! WOW.

MERRY CHRISTMAS. FELIZ NAVIDAD. PRAISE JESUS.

PLAYGROUND party!!

2008-12-11T14:17:00.000-03:00

that's right. for christmas party #1 we spent the second half of the party at the PLAYGROUND!! let me just say that some of their faces (especially the ones who had never seen a see-saw, swing, slide, etc EVER in their lives) were just as much fun to watch as playing!
haha marileidi looks so tiny on that slide!
lots of swiiiiings!
yery- ok so i am hanging.. now what the heck do i do??
weeeeeeeee!
shal pushing her boys :)
there were many accidents.. this one one of the funnies. poor rebecca! (i'm not evil. she was ok)
anne's amazing maneuvering skills just to protect eduardo from the agua
wilsenci was dripping sweat from his see-saw action!

ok so to sum up: FUN. (thank you, sherry!)

sprinkles and stickers!

2008-12-10T13:10:00.002-03:00

so we had TWO days of official christmas parties at school (best preschool ever, right?). here is a mini-overview of the festivities for day one:

9:00- singing/praying outside (+ feliz navidad songs!)
9:15 ish- wash hands, eat breakfast..

THEN time for CHRISTMAS CARDS! yeah!

THEN we iced SUGAR COOKIES!

THEN we added SPRINKLES!!

THEN we packed all 30 kids + all the staff in a van and went to the PLAYGROUND!! (see next blog entry..)

there were some exciting firsts- imagine icing your own cookie for the first time.. what is that stuff?? and what the heck are these colorful things we are putting on top??

oh, and the PLAYGROUND!? for some this was the first time they had ever seen anything like it.. what would you think a see-saw was?? or swings?? FUNNN!!

little santis & thank you sherry

2008-12-09T12:18:00.001-03:00

the last week of school before christmas break is of course all about CHRISTMAS!! christmas time is HERE!! Praise God that we can celebrate Jesus, the undeserved gift from God and that through this grace, we are able to have eternal life! well we of course should celebrate this and sit in humility and awe every single day..

we celebrate in preschool. week-o-awesomeness..

one of cara's activities for the week was to make santi claus hats!! SO CUTE and man, were they excited to wear them or what? here is santi luis and santi wilsenci chowin' down on their lunch..

one of the greatest christmas presents ever this year was a donation from anne's wonderful mom, sherry, so we could have a special christmas party!! SO of course we were all extremely excited and so thankful. what a blessing. the kids all know her by name now and we made christmas/thank you cards for her because, well, she is woooonderful. :)

making special cards = very important. that's why they got so into it..

i am 23..

2008-12-03T10:10:00.001-03:00

my birthday this year turned out to be rather wonderful.. greatly due to the fact that i live/work with some of the greatest people/family on the planet. my family and friends in the states also made it incredibly special. thank you.

we began the celebration the night before my birthday. we all went to pizza internacional so i could get my favorite "freak pizza" (you can ask if you are really that curious..). shallan came with crowns for everyone to wear that night. they also had our cranky waiter SING to me and bring me an invitation for later festivities. sidenote- one of my favorite things about bdays in the DR is their english version of the bday song ("happy baby to you, happy baby to you..")..

melissa, me, and shallan with our crowns and plans for the evening..
cara rockin' the crown and grubbin' on some pizza
anne left the moto driver garrett's crown when we left. i bet he wore it all night around town.
these are a few of my favorite things.. (this was part of the special evening plan after dinner- a cereal and wine picnic in our room :) we projected "love actually" on the wall and hung out. it was AWESOME)
i was rather excited about the suprise plans :) (and it wasn't even the official day yet! it just kept going!)

morning of my bday: woke up and opened the sweet packages and cards from my family and friends in the states (thank you for thinking about me). then i followed a trail of confetti that lead down to the table that was set up for breakfast (my favorite bowl, cereals, coffee mug etc). ahhh.

as i was walking up to school, the chilluns all came running and screaming. they jumped on me and kept yelling "feliz cumpleaños!!" the kids sang "happy baby" and shallan made me wear my crown all day. after brushing our teeth at school, miguel told me i was in his country and therefore needed to have a dominican birthday..

what does that mean? GET SOAKED. he poured water all over me and right about the time i was dry, garrett threw water all over me mid-conversation. haha it was fun!

got home and anne had a dot cake ("confetti cake" for those of you who call it that..) made for me! my mom has done that every year for our bdays and it was really sweet (almost cried) to remember that and bring a piece of the my family in the states to the DR.

the whole day (two days of celebration i guess..) were stinkin' awesome. yay 23.. :) and thank you all so much for making it so special.

THE swing

2008-12-01T20:51:00.000-03:00

this is it. THE swing. best swing in the world.. you can run and jump, swinging out over a drop-off. it is REALLY fun. before you try it, i must warn you:

BEWARE OF THE ROOT

the running, jumping, flying through the air, attempting air tricks, etc = all fun. there is a root of one of the trees, however, that is out to get everyone. therefore, the landing is important. we crashed A LOT, ended up bruised and bleeding with strawberries on our shoulders (but of course we kept going because we couldn't get enough). no one could really move the next day- abs sore from laughing and bodies sore from the attack of the root and the fact that we didn't stop until it was dark..

i give up on explaining more about the greatness of this swing. i will just ramble and can't do it justice. we took hundreds of pictures (no exaggeration) of the swing but here are some of my favorites of us actually in the air.

the spread eagle (me)

the mysterious one-legger (shallan)

the tuck-twist (melissa)

the tarzan man karate kick (garrett)

the speedy double-kick (anne)

the strong-hold leg-tuck (jonathan)

the double up shreaker (jakob and isaak)

the graceful flying eagle (robin)

air-hurky (cara)

jarbacoa!

2008-12-01T18:11:00.000-03:00

looking for mountains? coldness? swings? real fireplaces? places to explore? hiking? somewhere that feels like you are in a completely different country than the beachy DR??

is there such a place? why, yes. JARBACOA.

sharla has some wonderful friends, chad and krista wallace, who opened up their house to us the weekend after thanksgiving. we road-tripped there the friday after thanksgiving. excitement started before we got to the house.. took a wrong turn on the mountain and ended up getting the truck stuck on the path. after many, many attempts to get the truck to go backwards, uphill, between two ditches and around a turn.. garrett and jonathan rocked it (almost taking us out in the process..) aaand we were back on our way up the mountain. got to the house and were all kind of floored. it was absolutely beautiful and i can't even explain the view. wow. after running all over the house, we were introduced to the greatest swing on the planet (look at next blog) where we stayed for HOURS. we were out there until we couldn't see anymore (or move.. haha).
then.. dinner time:

we ate our thanksgiving leftovers we brought on this fun table setting..

the next morning after we'd eaten, read, explored, etc we drove to the bottom of a hike.. that lead us to this waterfall. beautiful. perched on the rocks, we ate our lunch and hiked back down.. we jumped in the car and drove to another area where we began hike #2 to the coffee farm (run by chad and krista.. where dominican joe's gets their coffee!):

..melissa crossing the shaky bridge on hike #2

made it to the coffee farm where we found some hourses and and a donkey ready for us to ride around the mountain. off we went. jonathan and cara rode one of the horses together. melissa and i also shared.. a DONKEY. yep.. a short (but tough..) farting donkey. really, melissa had to hold his tail down to keep the farting under control..

melissa showing off her dirt/donkey sweat/donkey hair booty. she was a trooper- put me in the front on the saddle an sat bareback on our sweaty little donkey.

.. and here is some legitamate dominican coffee, people.

shout out to our farting donkey! yeah. what a tropper.

shal, me, and mel on the way up the mountain. we have decided this picture sums us up rather perfectly..

anne riding on the way back down..

so after our horse/donkey ride, we hiked back down to the car and went home to eat dinner. the wallace's got home (they were gone friday night) and we had some of our friends, layne and caitlin, over.. pizza/game night! fun. perfect night.

sunday morning we relaxed and had church at the house. we headed back feeling woooonderful. could not be more thankful for that weekend!!

banana tree

2008-11-28T10:40:00.001-03:00

did you know..
(according to "word reference") the word for banana in:
french: banane
italian: banano
german: banane
polish: banan
portugues: banana
greek: μπανάνα

i will stop BUT point is.. banana in spanish (the way i learned it..) is plátano. plátano. ok i can do that.. not heeeere.. i learn over and over that dominican/caribbean spanish is a little different:

we have a guineo tree in our front yard. guineo (gee-nay-oh).

anyway, we took pictures.

miguel, diego, jennie

anne and garrett

shallan, me, melissa

robin, me

oh yes, we also took roommate pictures because
1. we are crazy
2. we had flowers and robin had my camera
3. we needed our true, miserable feelings about each other on record. :)

giving thanks

2008-11-27T19:48:00.000-03:00

for thanksgiving this year we had everyone over to the makarios house.. all of our family here was invited and it ended up being like 30ish people i think. kara ("poof"- finally got to meet her!) and cara's mom, barb (finally got to meet her too!!), were in from the states. we had the DR staff there, including odilcia (the amazing woman who cleans the school and house), odilcia's kids, cristina, claudio and their kids.. the house was packed with people all over and it was so good to be surrounded all day by such amazing people. (yes, mom, i did miss you guys.. and i was so happy i got to talk to you! thank you for calling. love.)

kara diggin' in.. and jonathan is ready!!

i met my FOOD TWIN.. kara and i were excited about the veggies..

makarios staff photo :)

the most gigantic bowl of macaroni and cheese i have ever seen in my entire life.. thank you, anne!

cara and momma barb

the kids all sat on our cushion things on the floor. they didn't know what to do with all the "american" food.. didn't eat too much of it actually because they preferred the rice/lentil dish cristina and odilcia had made together. they did, however eat their fair share of pies.

happy thanksgiving.

G for galleta

2008-11-27T18:38:00.002-03:00

at the end of a crazy busy week, i had in my lesson plans that part of the G lesson would include cookies (tactile learning, right?). the chilluns deserve a treat for putting up with crazy profe ashley all the time.. :)

i was completely exhausted all week and i got home late the night i was going to make them but planned to stay up late to do it anyway.. shallan and i walked into the kitchen to find the cookies done and packed up for school with a little note. melissa was in bed but she had spent her afternoon making no-bake G cookies for my class so i wouldn't have to! could i ask for better roommates?? i was so surprised i really did tear up. shallan and i sat and looked at each other for like 5 minutes, not knowing what to do with ourselves. yes, they looked awesome and she saved me hours. love mel.. (and shallan too bc she'd already agreed to help when we got home).

aaand the next day we learned G:

this is proably "ganzo (duck)" or "gallina (chicken)

profe ashley is super excited about the suprise..

ruth chowin' down on her cookie

i think jeson liked the letter G

*photos by shallan. and THANK YOU, mel.

G por galleta, G-G-G!

who will you root for?

2008-11-27T17:36:00.000-03:00

i decided last-minute (day-of) to go with a group from our church, templo biblico, on a day trip to santiago for a baseball game. we all loaded up in a van and off we went..
plaaaay ball!

ears-ringing-for-hours kind of LOUD fans.. yeah, águilas (eagles)!!
yes, it was actually really painful.. but, hey, it kept every single second super exciting! i would like to thank the drum behind our heads for the partial deafness that night.
i sat next to an angel.. (love you, shal)
the game got pretty intense.. jonathan might be rethinking rooting for licey ;)
dominican baseball is LOUD, exciting, and everyone goes NUTS for every single play. definitely not chill and hang-outish. it was a really good day. oh, and we even got to eat some pollo victorina and splash for dinner!

80's-o-rama

2008-11-26T20:33:00.001-03:00

neifi lookin' stylish from head to toe: pony tail, denim jacket, light jeans.. even hot pink water shoes?

weekend destination: santiagoooo

2008-11-26T18:53:00.001-03:00

freeeeeedom! if i had to sum the santiago trip into a word, well, that would be it. robin, cara, jonathan, and i took off in a caribe bus to santiago after work on a friday in mid-november. we stayed with the whites all weekend which is really a treat in itself. what i didn’t know was that it would turn out to be absolutely what we all needed. oh God and His timing..

friday night with jim and teresa we were able to just play with their puppies, eat, and chill out.. good thing because the next day was PACKED.

saturday we went out to the old makarios farm. robin and cara wanted to visit ruben.. and teresa was like “you guys should take the car.” WHAT?! a car? a car we can drive? and go wherever we feel?? freedom. so we over-excitedly drove out to the farm.. to find ruben had gone into town. we hung out anyway, played cards, hiked around the land, explored jim and teresa’s new land.. ruben hadn’t come back by the afternoon and we were STARVING so we decided to go to the ol' “pollo victorina!” ate so much..

(walking around the land with ruben's daughters)

THEN we went to the grocery store- a real grocery store that has everything you want/need.. ahh. love me some grocery store time. after that adventure we went to a real mall. uh huh. shopped around a bit and then jonathan, cara, and i saw a moooovie while robin got her nails done. oh, and these places were all air-conditioned by the way- score!

(santi claus at the mall!)

review: ruben's house/old mak farm, pollo victorina, grocery store, mall, movie (at the mall)..

ok we get in the car and call teresa who tells us we can definitely keep adventuring.. where to next? the monument. we parked by a carnival and walked up the hill to the monument. from the hill you can see all over santiago. it was dark and the lights really were beautiful. we spied the lights of a baseball game in town sooo we “navigated” (pointing with our fingers) the way we should drive to get there..

(standing at the top of the hill at the monument)

after a few shouts out the car window for directions.. we made it! plaaay ball. this was my first real dominican baseball game- FUN. i pretty much lost control of my excitement.. oh it was wonderful. most exciting baseball game ever.

(cara, robin, me, and jonathan at the gaaame!)

sooo after all of that, we figured we should get back to the whites’. perfect day. we spent sunday relaxing with jim and teresa and ventured to the store for teresa, isaak along for the ride. it was definitely one of those weekends i’d like to do over and over. thank God for His timing and knowing exactly what we’d need.

(jonathan and isaak at the store)

get yo hur did..

2008-11-26T18:23:00.000-03:00

need a new do? you give some of our friends here the ok and, man, they will go to TOWN on your hair.
one afternoon i’d lost cara and shallan for awhile in chichigua.. walked up on this:

hotness..
cara had jeson's whole family getting into it!

i am not the biggest fan of people messing with my hair.. i just imagine hand grease all up in my hair and i don’t get all jazzed about the idea.. however, i guess there are always exceptions. i’d told maria, one of my art class students, that her hair always looked cute in the net thingies she wears but mentioned i could never pull it off. we would soon find out.
the next class she walks in with a bag behind her back.. a bag with a net she’d gotten me, a comb, bobby pins. how sweet was that? so of course i let her brush, pull, and pin my hair in a big swirl and stick a net on it..

chichigua

2008-11-26T12:08:00.001-03:00

i would love to introduce those of you who haven’t been here to chichigua. about half of my students come from chichigua, a batey in the cane fields. chichigua began as a home for haitian workers in the cane fields surrounding it. not too many who live in chichigua work much in the cane now.

we (mak people) LOVE going to spend hours and days in chichigua. it is probably the smallest of the villages we serve; everyone knows everyone else’s business and you can walk through the whole place in 5-10 minutes. it is open and everyone is so welcoming. whether you know spanish, kreyole or neither, you are always welcome to just sit. the kids looove to run and play and are super creative about what they do all day. i can’t explain the beauty, generosity, and a little hope in and among the tin, dirt, and hurting.

maybe a few pictures can make up for my lack of words to explain the complexity and contrasts of this place that so many of my kids and my family calls home..

can you tell they're brothers?

amauri's mom and sister

beautiful bernito

estiven outside of his house

hangin' out on the water tank

i am a HUGE fan of bernito in his overalls

franchesca's house

the gym

so there's a peak. you should come visit..

new careers?

2008-11-26T11:43:00.000-03:00

i am thinking shallan and i might need to go to design school.

"glasses: all colors and shapes to fit your face.."

they went with one of our Bible stories/verses.. i'm thinking of the many things now beyond pipe cleaners. oh the possibilities. and man, the kids look good.

play-doh goooop

2008-11-24T16:55:00.000-03:00

this semester one thing we have been working on in preschool is learning our letters. i will forever sing "A es por agua-a,a,a. E elefante- e,e,e. I es por isla- i,i,i.." ..and hopefully they will too. i mean, i still remember how mom helped me with my letters: "A is for apple- a,a,a.." yep, got the song from you, momma, and made it all spanish-like.

to keep letters exciting, we've paraded around in E-elefante masks, painted A's with agua, gone on letter hunts around the room, hopped like rabbits and ran like horses for C (conejos and caballos), eaten cookies (galletas) in the shape of G, etc. did i mention i LOVE preschool?

what could be more fun than play-doh letters for practice? slimy, gooey, melted play-doh from being in the heat so long. imagine play-doh. then multiply the stickiness by 5 and add 10 points to the level of difficulty it is to get it off your hands. then you have our play-doh. FUN.

this is how it went (ish..):
1. get to work making those letters- yeah little ashley! (really. she's only 3 here and she is rockin' that play-doh E)
2. get a little dirty in the process maybe.. 3. wah-la!! here we have it, ladies and gentlemen! (amauri was super proud of his A :)

and that's how it goes. in my head of course.. you know, sitting around coming up with lesson plans for the day, this is more or less what it looked like. you always have to expect, though, that nothing will turn out like you expect it to. aaand that is another reason i love preschool. check marileidi out with her letter ?? in play-doh:

maybe she is an artist. no need to make a letter.. thinking outside of the box? maybe??

i need new socks

2008-11-23T14:11:00.001-03:00

i need new socks.. i wear my lame sandals to school and in walks gustavo lookin' all suave one day in his little outfit. i bet if i were 4 i would totally have a crush on him. what a stud.

could you be any cooler?

quite the little model, huh?

perfect combination of style and sophistication.

sesame street and matching socks.. dang.

medical team visit

2008-11-22T16:32:00.003-03:00

for a week in november, a medical group came to do check-ups and treat our students and their families. part of the medical plan for our preschoolers and friday Bible students includes an annual check-up. it was wonderful to see the school transform into a little mini-clinic for a couple days. the team also went out to chichigua to see some families of our preschoolers.

jack showing luis fernando how to listen to his heart beat

cara and cristina translating for the doctors with one of our families

claudio, cristina, ruth, and ashley (cristina's daughters- 2 of my students) waiting for their family check-up :) the girls are dressed up because going to the doctor is absolutely an occasion that calls for pretty dresses

nurse laura outside with yunairi, agle, and islan

anne and phillis in chichigua

all that jazzz

2008-11-22T15:55:00.003-03:00

tanda, shallan, me, and laura waiting for the musica
shal and jonathan are ready to hear some rock? ..or jazz
hey, look! we made it..
aaand the show begins. an hour and a half late.
more people at lax than i have ever seen. big tourist weekend..

so we'd been excited about this jazz festival weekend in cabarete for awhile.. finally made it there for the last night because we were working on saturday with the medical team. we were ready for the show to start at 8:30 (which is like an hour before we'd normally plan to be in bed). so we waited.. and it started after 10pm. welcome to the dominican republic. we heard a couple songs and then me, shallan, jonathan, jonathan's parents, cara, and robin travelled 45 min back home. hey, at least we got to hear a few songs, right? totally worth it. the whole day was fun and we were excited for more time with jonathan's awesome parents and time to hang out.

murder mystery dinner

2008-11-22T13:35:00.004-03:00

so for halloween night, sharla had a brilliant idea:

MURDER MYSTERY DINNER!

theme: who killed jed manhattan?? (hollywood's biggest hearthrob was shot in beverly hills)

because we were all suspects and somehow related to jed, we were invited to a dinner to figure out through conversation and time who did it! we were all given things to say during different courses in the dinner. dinner itself was AWESOME (appetizer: deviled eggs, guacamole. dinner: chili and cornbread, dessert: pumpkin cake, after dinner: apple cider). you have no idea how big of a deal all that special food is.. ahh.

meet the dinner guests:

Jonathan as Nigel LeFunk (Dominican wannabe-rapper, Jed's roommate)

Garrett as Humphrey (big-time director)

Sharla as Lady Elizabeth (fancy, talented performer from London, Jed's ex)

Melissa as Zane (communicator with the dead)

Me as Denise Devine (Jed's ex, soap opera star)

Anne as Soya (superstar.. 7 world tours, people)

Shallan as Hilda (Jed's maid and confidant)

Soya, Hilda, and Denise waiting on the other guests to arrive

*disclaimer: these individual pictures were taken before dinner and i neglected my camera during dinner because we are all really into our characters, eating, and trying to figure it all out. before dinner, robin, cara, and amanda were stuck on the highway because it was flooded and their taxi refused to drive.. quite an adventure before they even got to the dinner party! anyway, their characters were FABULOUS and hilarious. you can see in the group photo.

Robin: Zena (Greek woman, Jed's mama)
Cara: Ivy (talkative, famous talk show host)
Amanda: Janice (obsessed fan of Jed's, formerly on Big Brother)

THE GUESTS post-accusations and the confession..

so who killed jed manhattan???

well, that would be spoiling it, wouldn't it? HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

strike a pose

2008-11-21T21:39:00.003-03:00

so as you know, we moved to a different makarios house..
welcome to our room.

and welcome to our photo shoot/ song interpretations in front of the closets..

shallan and i rockin out..

sing it, ladies

ok so i am short.. and crazy?

aaand this one made us laugh for like 10 min. melissa does have a head. she is wonderfully and beautifully tall.. and we are jealous.

funnn roommates :)

and that's just a peek.