Many thanks

Thanks to Dominican elections, we had a very long weekend… We had Mon-Wed off from school and needed to work only 4 hours at the school during that time.  Then there was some major concern for safety on Thursday after the elections, so school was canceled at 10am.  There turned out to be no problems, but supposedly there were threats of rioting and even personal threats if a certain party won.  That party didn't win the contested offices, so there were no problems and we had a long time to relax on Thursday.  Going back in time, Monday we had dinner and played games with some missionaries from Kid's Alive. Tuesday we had a picnic with some JCS staff out at a field and had a great time in the hot sun.  We even got to play some Ultimate for the first time since last summer! 

Thanks to Dominican engineering, we have not had running water since a week ago Thursday (9 days and counting).  Needless to say our trashcan of water was quickly emptied.  It's been very stressful not being able to clean as much as we'd like (dishes, the house, or ourselves).  Thankfully the Chases who live nearby have a well rather than city water, so we have been able to shower over there and fill our 5-gallon jug to have some water around.  We've had to be creative in using water for multiple things before letting it go down the drain (e.g. dishes and then flushing the toilet).  Last night I could hear water running and filling peoples' tanks below us, but it never made it up to the 2^nd floor L.  Supposedly the cause was a bunch of sand in the intake pipes that they've had to disconnect and clean out.

Thanks to Dominican climate it's been very, very hot.  We've broken 90 degrees a couple times this week and are frequently above 80 percent humidity.  We are incredibly thankful we bought a fan last weekend (we only had a desk fan before) because this week would have been unbearable. 

Thanks to the Internet, my grad classes are starting to move along.  It's neat corresponding with professors and students through online discussion forums… while there's no face-to-face, it's still very interactive.

Thanks to time flying by, we only have 3 more weeks of school, the last of which is all half-days for final exams.  This also means we'll be coming back to the States only 4 weeks from today!

 

Please continue to pray for our school next year. We still don't have a director, and space issues could be very severe.  Unless some alternative becomes available (ideally moving the Jr/Sr High to another location or somehow building more this summer), we're going to be very, very cramped.  That on top of the lack of water has made it very hard to keep positive attitudes.

 

Please pray that we are able to finish this year well and give God the glory during these last  weeks!

Teresa and her mom. 

Daniel and his mom 

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there.
We'd also like to thank our mothers for their love and care for us. Thank you! :)

Another Week

This last week was a little less busy… oh wait, no. As usual we had our Tuesday night dinner and Wednesday night Bible study. On Thursday we had a family over for dinner. They’re from Valparaiso, IN and are working with Kid’s Alive here in Jarabacoa. They have an 8^th grade daughter and 4^th grade son, so Teresa and I have both of their kids. It was a lot of fun and it gave us a good chance to talk with the kids and parents in an entirely non-school environment. Friday night we had dinner at Leah’s (her famous chicken fajita pizza). Saturday we worked around the house and did lesson planning type stuff and just generally got stuff done. Then Saturday night we had dinner at a student’s family’s house (They also have one in each of our classes) and they served us sancocho, the Dominican special meal of throwing every kind of meat and starch imaginable into a rich chicken broth and serving it over rice… absolutely delicious.

(This is Teresa now)

We had anticipated having a relaxing Sunday, maybe visiting a waterfall. However, it was interrupted before it began. I awoke at around 4:30 with terrible stomach pains. That turned into hours of my body cleaning itself out in every possible way (I won’t go into descriptions). By the time it was done, it had ridded itself of everything in my digestive tract- I couldn’t even keep water in my body. Eventually, later in the morning I was able to drink a few sips of water without losing it. That progressed to Gatorade and I even had a few bites of jello and toast before the day was through. We’re not sure if I has stomach poisoning, virus, etc? but a few other JCS teachers also had it this week, and another one had something similar a few weeks ago. All in all, it was not a pleasant experience. But I slept all day and Daniel took great care of me. I praise God for a loving and serving husband. In addition, a woman who from our church stopped in to check on me and give some advice (she is a doctor who goes to our church). It’s so good to know that God is looking after us- even in a foreign country (the thought of going to the doctors here made me a little nervous- they would have given me lots of medicine, etc.) I am also thankful for the timing- I only had to miss one day of school (Monday). Monday was better, but I still couldn’t get up without feeling sick, so I sat on the couch and entertained myself with Veggie Tales, McGyver, and even a little grading. I at some crackers and a banana and by dinnertime I ate some chicken pot-pie Daniel made me. He came home during his breaks through out the day to check in on me.J Tuesday was better and I went back to school, but I was still exhausted and not very hungry. Daniel continued to be a huge help.

Wednesday I woke up and felt completely different- I was myself again! That evening Daniel and I celebrated his accomplishments with fajitas: teacher of the month, and starting grad school on Monday! I am so proud of him!!!

I really enjoyed the rest of the week with my students. Daniel had a good rest of the week too. On Thursday the school board treated all the employees at the school to pizza. It was yummy.J

Friday we relaxed, played games with Leah and Regan, and watched a movie (well, Daniel worked on grad school stuff at home during the movie). So, although the week started crazily, it ended up being very relaxing. J

Please pray for us as we finish up the year, write finals, pack, find a place for our kitty to stay, find a job for Daniel, and start raising support money.

us finishing the race 

huddled around dinner 

View from our campsite 

Teresa and girls from Santo Domingo at the lock-in 

Field Day Ballgame