The 5 [or 7] standard ballet poses

We just hit 50%.
12 of the 24 people in my family here are/have been sick.
Yikes.


But, aside from the illness running rampant, celebrating Christmas with these people has been the best ever. As anticipated. It's crazy how natural it is just to get right back into the swing of things. I know I'm not quite there yet, because break is not the normal swing of things, but because of how they prepped us for coming home, I was picturing a more difficult transition already. I guess that's good. I just don't want it to be such an easy transition that the Dominican Republic becomes an amazing dream [which it sometimes feels like] rather than the life-changing adventure it was. I want to hold on to what I was supposed to bring back with me and leave there what was meant to wait until my next Dominican journey.


How is J.R.R. Tolkien so brilliant? I know I'm a nerd, but The Return of the King is on tv right now. And sometimes I just have to stop and marvel at the genius of that guy and his epic trilogy.


Also, I just figured out why I'm not struggling more with the transition. Because I have the best family/boyfriend/friends in the world. So it makes sense that it wouldn't be difficult to come back to them and all their wonderfulness.


Highlights of my day so far: 

• winning Compatibility with Haley
• watching my little cousins tell Jordan stories on skype
• painting nails with Maggie and Ellie...and using four different colors for each of them, one for each hand and foot....hey, you only live once 
• witnessing my family's good sense of humor even despite the sickness
• Squabble and Psych with the older cousins

I hope this big group family time happens again before next Christmas...

why moms are the best...

So, yesterday I wanted to make some brownies for a Christmas party.


And its been a while since I've made these one kind of brownies. [You're probably thinking, its brownies, how hard can it be? And you would be right, except this one tricky step that I always forget] Long story short, I added the egg too soon and my too hot and recently melted shortening decided to fry that egg a little bit. So, in my five-year-old-I-messed-up voice, I went and told my mom the situation. And ever so graciously, she said, "How bout you get a new batch going for your friends, we're out of freshly baked desserts around here, these can be for us." And so my beautiful mother [and really my awesome family] shouldered the weight of my mistake. And really, once I mashed up the egg whites, they still tasted not too terrible ;)


And though this is a silly little analogy, I appreciate the reminder of how wonderful it is to live in community with those you love and who love you back. Where burdens are shared and undeserved grace flows like a river. 


Also, all these little mom things that my mom knows....I hope I learn them before I come to that stage of my life. Or I hope my kids have grace with me if I learn them along the way.

home...

I'm home. 


And it is such a beautiful thing.
I'm still not even sure that I know how to explain what I'm thinking and feeling, so I'll probably continue to blog over break and in the spring as I talk with people and more of my seeds of thought grow into sensible, shareable thoughts. 
But for now...


I know that I am going to miss DR families and team like crazy.


I also know that I'm so incredibly grateful for all the support and encouragement I received from those I love while I was gone.


I also know that it was absolutely incredible to hug my friends and to hang out for a couple days with the one with whom I'm more comfortable being me than anyone else in the world.


I also know I need to get those essays out of my way so I can soak up the time I get to spend with these beautiful people in my family.


I also know that I never want to lose focus of what's worth pursuing in this life...
        Life          Hope

                    Love                            Justice

                                                             peace                       JOY

...and so on.


I also know that there are still unconquered fears in my life but I never want to let those fears drive or control me. I want to live with reckless abandon to the One who gave it all for me.


I also know that I love Christmastime. I always love Christmas, but this year it's even sweeter to have all this family time because I've been away for so long.

We just said goodbye this morning...

...and I already miss them...

Agridulce...

I'm so ready to be home again.
And so not ready to leave this home. 


As the day draws nearer, I keep thinking about the bittersweetness of it all.
This is what triggered my thinking mood the other night:

To most of the world, this might be a strange thing to make you miss home, but the lacy cloth reminds me of Grandpa and Grandma's house and I can't wait to be there again. The music one looks like something that would be at the Giffords house, and I'm so pumped for Roth Christmas. And finally, if you can't tell, the movie on the TV is The Kid [Jordan, we still have to finish watching that someday]. Though I've never watched it in Spanish with them, that is totally a my-fam-movie and I can't wait til we're all in the same house again.

I'm going to miss mi familia:

And I can't wait to see mi familia:

I'm gonna miss this girl coming over to my house to hang out with me all the time:

And I can't wait to hang out with this girl over break all the time:

Also, I already miss being roomsies with Rach, and I will miss being roomies with this girl:

And, I can't wait to be roojmies with this girl:

I'm sure gonna miss my curly-haired friend and my Taylor friend along with the rest of my team:

And, I can't wait to see my curly-haired friend and my Taylor friend and all my other friends at home:

And, as much as I love our amazing wetsuit pictures:

I can't wait until we are on the same side of the ocean and can take a picture together again:

So, all things considered, I'm thinking more sweet than bitter. There's just a ton of amazing people in my life. All mi gente at home, I'll see you in a week!!!! Until then I'm going to be hugging on my bros and my preschoolers and pajama partying it up with the ladies of Mata Gorda :)

I should be doing homework right now. 
But, after about half an hour of trying to coax myself into a Faro a Colon-paper-writing-mood, I gave in and decided to watch a movie with Amy, Neil, and Rachel instead. Old habits die hard.


However, in light of my decision to procrastinate, yet again, I decided to multi-task and blog while watching my movie. 


Tonight we're having a Christmas party at Josh and Vicki's. I wonder how long it will take me to realize that it is actually December and we're now in the Christmas season. This semester for me has been a continuation of one big long summer straight into Christmas break, so I'm still a little disoriented. But I'm pumped to hang out with these awesome people tonight...

This last week at my home in Mata Gorda is going to fly. by. There are too many things I want to do before we move out. Like make bracelets for my preschoolers and get recipes from Kati. And figure out a way to fit lots and lots of coffee into my suitcase. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsoBoru5Y9Q


I love this video. The amazing Jazz concert I attended last week reminded me of this video. And I miss that kid. Good luck with tryouts this weekend Broski!!

Mi escuelita

I wanted to blog on Thanksgiving, but then was overwhelmed by the multitude of things for which I am thankful. Due to the massiveness of my list, I opted for eating and playing games with my friends here and skyping with my family and Jordan instead of blogging. But, just know that I am incredibly thankful for all of you, and your love, encouragement, and support.

..........

This blog entry is dedicated to my amazing preschoolers and the ways they brighten my days:

Angel gets so excited for the interactive lessons we have on Thursdays. Its awesome. And his voice cracks me up. Its not really a lisp, but he puts some extra sound in there so manzana becomes manshana. SO funny. 

Yocaira. I feel like it would be fun to watch her narrate what was happening as she played with dolls or something at home. She seems really good at entertaining herself and I always wonder whats going on in that little head of hers.

Enmanuel's mom is close friends with Kati so he is always over and its so much fun watching him laugh and wrestle with my brothers and want to be like them. And at school everything he makes/finds is for Jenni, his step-sister. So cute.

Kyarolin has perfected the art of pouting, BUT aside from those times, her big beautiful smile is contagious and I love it. When she gets excited about something in class she's really expressive and animated. She should probably be an actress someday.

 Smil. Such a funny kid. He's really good at his letters, but gets embarrassed when you acknowledge him in front of other people. I love the mornings [namely this morning] when he is still tired and just wants to sit on my lap during song time.

Jaelis. I think she has toughedned up a bit since I first got here, but she is just a delicate little girl sometimes. But, super sweet as well. She sits next to me and snacktime and shares with me. And she invited me to a picnic she's having.

Isaias. Where to begin? He's a thinker and a question-asker. I have tons of Isaias stories, but one of my favorite moments was when he was over at our house and sat on my lap to eat soup and picked out the parts he didn't like and handed them to me.

Katerin has the biggest most beautiful brown eyes in the world. She [and actually a lot of my girls] have really low voices, but I'm not making fun of them, because I can totally relate :) And, when I smile at her she always has the hugest smile on her face and then gets shy and looks away.

Stiven is the quietest kid ever. And we he actually does speak, his voice is super quiet except when I push him on the swings. Then he has a huge smile on his face and laughs super loud and I love it.

Moises is one of the little ones, but he is very good at tracing the letters we're learning. And every time we read books, he wants me to read him the same tractor book. Pretty soon he will be able to read it to me.

Luis Angel is our tiniest little guy. He LOVES the swings and everyday during recess I hear "Miquita, rempujame" [empujame means push me, but I love how he says it, wish you could hear his voice] and then when I ask him to share with the next person, "¿una sola oiste?" [Pretty much means, alright you can push them once, but then I want my swing back :)

Daniela. Preciousness. She's so well-behaved and quiet but when its just the two of us, she tells me stories. She's always the first one asleep during naptime and its so much fun to wake her up as she squints and rubs her little eyes.

Mis Hermanitos

Our mosquito net here serves two purposes. It protects us from mosquitos [more or less] and it protects us from projectiles such as bottle caps and paper airplanes flying over the wall from our brother's room.

Junior. What a great kid. I love his voice, he always sounds like he has a cold or something because he has athsma or some kind of breathing thing. Flaquito [that's his nickname] wants to work with computers when he gets older, aka, he's super smart. Plus, he's always nice to me [unlike the other two]. The other day he and I played balloon volleyball against the younger ones, and we smoked them :)

........................................................

Jansys. I've always like the middle brothers. Now that I'm his sister instead of just a guest in the house, he can definitely be a punk, but deep down he is super sweet. He always helps me out, i.e. when I had to prepare a lesson for preschool he ran around the house looking for things I could use. Gordito [we all have nicknames for each other, all the boys are skinny, but he was a fat baby apparently, so we call him Gordito] wants to be a carpenter someday and build his house on the roof of his mom's house. Precious.

..........................................................

Jeuris. What a little stud. He wants to be a singer when he grows up and he can dance SO well. I love it. Especially his Michael Jackson impressions. And, he is the scrawniest little kid, but he [actually all of them] can eat like there's no tomorrow. Chi-Chi. I love it when he gets all excited during the Aguilas games or when we get back from an excursion.

My little bros are the best. I love watching Drake and Josh with them in Spanish, and watching them break dance and laugh and be crazy.

I'm going to miss them like crazy when I leave.

Mogote

Wepa. 

[I spelled wow incorrectly the first time. And Mogote. My apologies. But I don't feel too bad because this is a verbal culture much more than a written one, so its whatever. Haha, Dad, I can already see your face cringing at my spelling when I get back :]

That was an unnecessarily long and irrelevant intro, but Mogote. Wepa.

First of all, lets face the facts. I'm outta shape. So, it was slightly ambitious of me to attempt this mountain in the first place, but I'm SO glad I went. That night and the next day my legs and back hated me, but I felt so accomplished at the top and after coming back down. I started out hiking with Corrie, but after a while I told her to leave me behind [she is in ridiculously good shape so there's no way I could have kept that up.] But, as fun as it would have been to hike with her, it was actually a huge blessing because I had one of, if not the most incredible God-encounters since I've been here, there by myself on the side of the mountain. One of those God moments that I won't be able to describe to you. Just know that God is good at what He does and if you all are ever in the Dominican Republic, you should hike Mogote.

It was ridiculously steep on the way up almost without breaks of flatness. For such a long time. Looking back I have no clue how I did it. It was God carrying me through parts of the way for sure. I would pick a landmark a little ways ahead of me and then will my legs to move to get me there. One of the most physically exerting things I've done in my life, but so rewarding. The view at the top. And just the hike itself. Amazing. The peanut butter and pineapple jelly sandwich I packed tasted SO good. And then on the way back down I had a wonderful chat with Corrie as we had to spider-crawl down through the mud and steepness.

I love me some mountain-climbing.

I wish this picture could actually show you how beautiful it was.

Haha, I should explain this picture to you, but I don't feel like being made fun of at the moment. So maybe another time :)

It got ridiculously muddy on the way back down. Ridiculously.

This picture is far away so you can't really tell how big the mountain is. But it was big. Trust me :)

I have SO much to say about Magote but more pics will have to come Tuesday because I'm being kicked off the Internet as we speak 

Lo siento

Jordan Hohm.

So, here's the thing.

I miss you.

Lots.

AND, you know how much I wish I could be there to celebrate your birthday with you, but I just wanted to let you know, that I'll probably never actually be able to let you know, how much I appreciate you and especially your support and encouragement now while I'm so far away.

Hope your birthday is AMAZING.

.............................................

Joyful Exhaustion.

These two words seem pretty characteristically true of my life right now. If I told you how much sleep I'm getting, you would probably laugh at me for being exhausted, but its true. I'm physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted right now. But God is good.

{I would change your human frailties to My strength. I would take your resentments, and give you My grace. I would take your natural inclination to anger and give you My unerring tendency to LOVE and to FORGIVE.}

I got this from Come Away My Beloved [really good devotional book if you're interested]

So, Saturday was a great chill with the team, play games, watch a movie day. We got Pizza Pepperoni [that's the name of the restaurant, I actually had Hawaiin :] and Vicki made us chocolate chip cookies. Yes please.

Then, we had the craziest Sunday here so far, sin duda. It started out wonderfully. Eliana [whom I haven't seen since our first day here when she was scared of me] came up to me and I held her and she wrapped her arms around me during worship and then sat on my lap and drew in my notebook during the service, [so I didn't pay attention really at all because halfway paying attention is impossible here] but she was SO precious and kept looking up at me after she drew something to see if it was ok still. 

THEN, after the service Kati had major MAJOR back pain. The pastor could hardly even carry her to the truck she hurt so bad. It was scary. Alberto [our pastor] and Jen went with her and I stayed with my bros. I was super anxious while she was gone not knowing what was happening, but they got her taken care of. And I love how Dominican community works because she can just go to the hospital and know that her kids are fine staying with the neighbors.

Monday. Exhaustion. Fortunately it was a holiday which meant laundry and nap day.

Enmanuel. He is SO precious. He is one of the kids in my class.

Here's my brothers. On the roof. No big deal. 

Can't go wrong with a four-day weekend...

Jueves: Thursday, I got to teach my own little lesson to my three and four-year-olds. I still don't want to be a teacher, but it was a lot of fun! I had them close their eyes and try to guess certain noises, but I had to hold everything behind my back because they kept peeking! But they were laughing and actually paying attention and seemed to enjoy it. And, in the evening we had some deliciously warm and wonderful asopao [rice, salami, and ramen-ish flavored broth] which was SO good. Our pastor just got back from Haiti so we had a little chat with him. I'm still in awe of how much heart is stored up in our little tiny church.


Viernes: On Friday school was cancelled because we were supposed to get tons of rain from the hurricane. And, we already don't have school on Monday because its a the independence day here. It rained some, not a ton, but I'll take a rainy day at home with my little brothers any day. :) Everybody [except Junior who always gets up at 6 {12-year-old version of Jace??}] slept in til almost 10. [que bueno] Jen and I helped some with lunch. [I'm trying to learn how to make some of this deliciousness] After that I sat around and talked with Kati and a couple of her friends over a little cafecito. [I should say listened rather than talked, although I did input a little here and there. They just talked SUPER fast] In the afternoon I worked on friendship bracelets with my bros. Then we had a little macaroni, yucca, and salad for dinner and watched Madagascar 2 with the fam and some neighbors. I love these rainy lazy days.


Alright, I've been a slacker to the max so its time to get to work on some papers/skype with people instead of being productive :) hopefully I'll have pictures for my next post...

Noviembre llegó

Tomorrow night is Without Ceasing.
I'll be there in spirit, 
and I'm pumped to hear about the ways God moves.


Sunday night we had a little party at our house during the beisbol game. [Not that every night isn't a party at our house...our doors are always open and we usually have at least five or six people over...but, such is life in the Dominican Republic :) and even though I'm socially exhausted at the end of each day, I will always love and admire Dominican hospitality]. Anyway, this time it was an extra lot of people so Kati made a bunch of hotdogs and tostones [fried plantains] and pasta salad. Delicious.


Monday was really great as well. Katie and Alberto had some forms to fill out, so I got to lead our class on my own for the last part of the day. Besides the fact that Angel [who is normally super sweet] was unnecessarily hyper, it went really well. So, Mondays are normally longer school days, but since we were out of food we had to send the kids home at noon again. But then, we got to go with Katie and Alberto to La Vega to buy more food and we stopped at Burger King for lunch. Now, I normally don't get all that excited about Burger King in the States, and I actually get a little annoyed with the people who come for a week and think they need that kind of fast food, but after being here for two months [which I realized is still not that long in the grand scheme of things] that burger and fries tasted real good. Then we bought our groceries and I got another jar of honey roasted Peter Pan peanut butter to last me the rest of the semester [Praise the Lord, that peanut butter {especially with Oreos} is the best snack known to mankind] That evening we ate avena de maiz, I did dishes with Chi-Chi [my littlest bro] and we watched Drake and Josh together.


I've been impacted lately by the creative genius of people here. 
Since we don't have running water out here in the campo, we have a nifty little draining system to collect rain water. 
Everyone here has perfected the art of opening cans with knives because then, who needs to buy a can-opener?
The boys figured out a way to play war with the community UNO deck.
Gotta love it.

This is my new house

And the view of the mountains from my porch :)

And this is Jordany. One of my favorite kids out here. And not just because he has a super sweet name :)

I've been in a reflective mood lately, but my thoughts have mostly been in pictures or fragments of phrases in a combination of languages and haven't yet been translated into inspiring blog-worthy thoughts. So, we'll see how this goes.


My preschoolers are amazing. Seriously, the best. On Friday Katie split our class in half and I went outside with the four-year-olds for a coloring activity. I love those kinds of situations when I have no help so I have to get creative with my wording if there's something I don't know. That could have sounded sarcastic but I'm totally serious.
I'm hoping to take my camera with me on Monday so hopefully I'll have some pictures to post of them next time.


Our dad at this new house works in the capital and only is home twice a month, so we met him for the first time last night and made some delicious tacos. Jen and I volunteered to cook that night, unfortunately we are not extremely familiar with the taco making process here, so we still needed some help from Kati. [this could potentially be confusing: she is my mom in Mata Gorda and Katie is the profesora at my preschool] So we had fun in the kitchen with her and my younger brothers.
Speaking of my bros, you still need to meet them.

All three of them are crazy and awesome and I love them.

Hiking to this waterfall was our excursion today. I had a sweet little chat with Corrie today. I love her. Also, I saw a tiger-striped butterfly. So amazing.

Sorry I don't have very much for today, my thoughts are still a little scatter-brained. Here's hoping for an exciting blog on Tuesday!

Life is Beautiful...

As I write this entry, [10:30 p.m. 10/25/10] I'm listening to the first Christmas song that I've decided not to skip on my iPod. I know some people have rules about waiting until after Thanksgiving, but at my house I believe after Annie's birthday Christmas music is fair game. Therefore, Christmas music has been 'legal' for a couple weeks now, but nonetheless, I almost hit skip when David Archuleta began singing Joy to the World to me. Up until this moment, my reaction has been to skip every Christmas song, because they make me miss home too much. But there is too much good Christmas music for me to fit it all into the nine days I have at home before Christmas. I'll just have to begin my Christmas season in 88° weather this year :)


And, I think I'm able to listen to Christmas music now [Norah Jones is still not a possibility though, unfortunately] because I feel so comfortable and at home here. I'm so grateful for my family/preschool/church/community here in Mata Gorda. The first three or four days here, though exhausting, have been some of my favorites of this whole trip so far. 


Friday: move-in day


Such beautiful, joyful, giving people in this community. I spent pretty much all afternoon playing UNO and making bracelets with the kids. By the end of the first day I had already received tons of hugs, some flowers, a bracelet, and a whole stack of paintings. SO many precious kids here. And my three little brothers here are the BEST. When we first arrived they were SUPER shy, but by the end of the day we were throwing stuffed animals and paper airplanes back and forth to each other over the wall between our rooms.


Saturday: RAFTING


Only 6 of us girls from our team decided to go white-water rafting, but it was one of the best decisions of our young lives. We had a BLAST. Our guides [Luis y Carlos] were crazy and hilarious and [praise the Lord] super strong and therefore able to get us through the crazy rapids without any injuries. At the beginning I think we did a decent job of following their instructions in español, even though almost all of the directions began with a [adelante, atras, abajo] but in our moments of panic, they had to whip out the english to get through to us in a hurry. 
About halfway through, we got out to do a little cliff-jumping. All of us girls jumped off the 25-foot rock, [most of us screaming] and then Luis did a gainer [back-flip] like its the easiest thing in the world. It was amazing. Like I said, our guides were crazy and intentionally held us under a rapid at point and tried to flip our raft multiple times, but thanks to our wit and agility [ha] they only succeeded in tipping us once at the end. Also, one time we rammed a rock and Margie just popped out of the raft, but before we could even tell what was happening Carlos grabbed her vest and yanked her back in. [So glad those guys were pros]. I'm also SO glad that I went on this excursion, because I totally forgot how much I love rafting. 

There are a bunch of pictures on facebook too, but I thought I would share a few of them here.

I haven't taken any pictures at my home or the preschool yet, but I'm sure I'll have TONS in the future. 

Sunday: iglesia Dios es Amor


Out here in the campo we meet for church in the afternoons. So, after we cleaned the church a little in the morning, had some delicious lunch and took a siesta, we moseyed on over to church. Mis amigos out here in the campo know how to worship like David. More than one song mentioned fiesta [Hagamos una fiesta en la presencia del Señor] During this song, I looked back to see all three of my brothers break dancing behind the rows of chairs. They know how to party in the presence of the Lord. I LOVE them. 


Monday: preescolar


Really good first day at preschool. I was thankfully able to communicate almost everything that I wanted to say. [I'm going to need to review those commands again though]. Im working with Katie and the younger ones [3s and 4s] and they are all SO precious. Today we learned the letter A and colored and played with blocks and on the playground and ate lunch and napped together. 
Que bueno.


Megs, I hope you get lots of rest and feel better real soon. 


Gotta wrap this up now, time for a skype date with Jordan :)