Camino de Jesus

I have been thinking a lot lately about culture. My culture as a Dutch American, the culture of America in general, and the culture here in the Dominican Republic. The culture here is so different in so many ways and I often find myself in situations where I don't fully understand what is happening or why. As a result I spend a lot of time thinking about where I'm coming from, how I think based on my culture and the difference between that and where the people that I am meeting are coming from and how they think based on their culture. I believe that in order to navigate through life here I really have to have a firm understanding of that. I have also been thinking a lot about how much I want to make myself a part of the Dominican culture or, on the other hand, how much I want to separate myself from it. In general, I have been trying to figure out what kind of life God wants me to build here.

The fact that my experience here is very unique is both freeing and overwhelming at times. Most of the Americans that I have met, including Shelley, came to work at Santiago Christian School (SCS). This is an english-speaking school where all of the teachers are American. If you are a teacher at this school they assign you a nice apartment with roommates, you speak English all day, you have American roommates and American friends. Everything is planned out for you. For me, however, it is very different. I have the freedom and added responsibility of figuring it out for myself.

I am approaching a fork in the road. I will be living in this apartment until the end of July. After that, I don't know where I will be living for the following school year. The first idea that we had was that maybe I could move in with some of the teachers from SCS. I have had the opportunity to get to know some of the teachers there and they have an empty room. I would first need to get permission from SCS, however. If I were to move in there, my life would be pretty comfortable. I would be living in a very nice apartment with some great Christian American girls who are teachers as well. A friend from high school would be living in the same building. I could probably even get away with riding the SCS bus to and from work. It's a great plan and I believe that I could grow there and build a life there. However, God always seems to have other plans for me.

The day before Katie left, we went to Eddy's house to meet his family. We had a great time. They were so welcoming and open to us. I hadn't been that comfortable or happy since I arrived here. Which was odd considering I was surrounded by a bunch of people that I didn't know and didn't speak my language. It should have been the most uncomfortable that I have been. On the ride home, Katie (who knew that I had been struggling to find the balance and find my place here) turned to me and said that maybe I should move in with a Dominican family. That maybe that's what I needed to really feel at home here.

So I have been thinking about it a lot. And I have really been trying to seek God's wisdom in this decision. And it's interesting because He keeps leading me to Bible verses and sermons that are really speaking to me. For example, the other day I listened to a sermon, in which the pastor opened my eyes to the the fact that we put a really high value on comfort in our American culture. And I realized that that was what I was struggling with because that is what I would be giving up. I would be giving up my comfort. My own space with privacy, a hot water heater, and real running water. The place that I would be living in is in a poorer neighborhood where the living conditions are much different than the ones I am living in right now. But they are the living conditions of most Dominicans and I know that it would be beneficial for me in so many ways if I were to make the decision to live there. Over the last couple of weeks, I have continued to spend time in that neighborhood and with some Dominican families from my church and the feeling of peace and happiness that overcomes me when I am there is almost unbelievable to me. To a Dominican mom, there is nothing sadder than the fact that I live alone. They worry about me so much. It doesn't matter to them that I live in a really nice two-bedroom apartment, in wealthier neighborhood, or that I have some comforts that they don't have. Because those are not the things that they hold as being important. To them, people are important and family is important and living alone is the worst living condition that they can think of.

This decision feels a lot like the decision to move down here in the fact that it feels like the decision was made without me. I know that it will be difficult at times, that I will struggle with the cultural balance and the lack of American comforts, but if this is what God wants for me, then I have to be open to it and He is making me open to it. I know that I would grow as a person and in my faith in many ways and that it could help me be better suited for the work that He wants me to do here. I believe that God sent me here to be a part of it not to be on the outside looking in. I just have to figure out exactly what that means and how it will show itself in my life.

dominican experiences

Here are a few pictures of me teaching the third grade class. They have class in the partially built house and their room is very cramped so I try to bring them out into this open area as often as possible for class.

In this picture we are playing a review game (boys vs. girls).



In this picture, I am teaching them a new song.








A few weekends ago, Katie and I went on a beach trip. Osiris (the assistant pastor at our church) is starting a sister church very soon, and as a fundraiser, he planned a beach trip. About half of the people that went were from our church and we knew them, the other half are members of his new church. Shelley and Guille did not go, so it was basically me and Katie and 30 Dominicans crammed into two gua-guas (vans). But of course, they were an hour late leaving the church, and then one of the vans broke down and we sat on the side of the road for about an hour and then finally tracked down a new guagua, which needed gas of course, so we ended up getting a very late start, but that is to be expected here. Katie and I were expecting a typical tourist beach, so we didn't pack a lunch. When we got there, we were shocked to find out that this was not a tourist beach. I cannot imagine a more 'dominican' beach. We were the only Americans there. There were no gift shops or restaurants. Just lots of dominicans with loud music playing out of speakers that were as big as their cars and dominoes games being played everywhere, shacks containing people cooking fish and rice and chicken lined the 'street'. Our search for a bathroom included walking through a 'dance club' (basically a tin roof with loud music and presidente) and being told we needed to pay 10 pesos to get the key to a tin home-made outhouse painted pink. It was definitely a dominican experience. I wish that I could have taken pictures of everything that we saw and experienced, but it was not a place for tourists and we were trying to blend as much as possible so taking pictures would have been a bad idea. I did take this picture while hiding next to our van so that no one could see me. Of course all of the women had gotten up two hours early to make a complete dominican meal for lunch so Osiris' wife, Manuela, gave us some of her food and it was so good we asked her if she would teach us how to cook. So last week we went over to her house and spent almost 6 hours there walking miles searching for chicken and spending hours learning how to cook a real dominican meal. We took lots of notes and took pictures of every step to help us remember. It is a lot of work. We both definitely have a lot more respect for dominican women and the amount of work that they put into every meal.



























A few weeks ago, we decided that going to a salon and getting haircuts would be a good idea. When we went in to make the appointments, the lady told me that my hair was boring and that she would make it more exciting, so I was pretty nervous. Luckily for me, however, Katie went first. We were there for hours. Katie had long hair before we went in and asked for a trim. However, she ended up with a bob. She cut a lot off. So by the time she got to me, she was so worried about cutting too much off, even though I kept telling her that she could, she barely cut anything of. However she did style it in a very fluffly, bouncy way. This is a picture of me at the salon.

the last two weeks

Here are some pictures of the people in my life.


This is a picture of me with Eddy and Katie, my two best friends down here. Katie is leaving to go back to Kansas Saturday morning. :(






This is a picture of Katie with our neighbors. They came over the other night because the twins needed help with their english homework. They brought 'arroz con leche' for us to eat as well. They are always bringing food over for us. Yesterday it was mangoes, and today we went over to their apartment for lunch. It was amazing.






This is a picture of the 'Hernandez family'. It was taken at the monument. Guille, Shelley, Mark, and Sarah, with their two new adopted members of the family.





Here are some of the highlights of the week that the Illiana group was here.


This is a picture of me and Katie shopping at the beach.












This is a picture of me running the projector for the praise team at church on Sunday.










In this picture I am playing ball in the rain with some of the kids, while other people worked.
:)











In this picture the Illiana group is singing a song in Spanish as part of our Sunday service.














This was taken at our goodbye activity.








This last picture shows how we filled the columns with cement. In case you can't see, they are passing buckets full of cement up to the top, dumping it in, and passing them back down. We filled seven columns that way. It was a long, but successful day.

My New Home

I had an interesting experience at our goodbye activity for the Illiana group Sunday night. Several of our church members were there and Shelley gave everyone the opportunity to say something to the group if they wanted to. Many of the church members said thank you to the group for helping, and many of members of the Illiana group talked about what a blessing the experience was. We did a similar activity when I came on my work team in August. It is always an emotional experience.

I decided early that I wasn't going to say anything. I had been listening to Katie (who is leaving Saturday) talk with some of the girls in the group about their families and how much they missed them, so I was already feeling emotional and I didn't want to cry in front of the whole group. So my plan was to not talk. But, as usual, God had other plans. Just as everyone was finishing their comments, I realized that I had not had the opportunity to share with the Illiana kids my story of how I ended up in the Dominican Republic. I did speak in chapel in November, but I'm sure that they don't all remember that. So I was feeling like I really should tell them and that I really should encourage them to allow God to lead them in their lives as well, just as I did in chapel.

At that moment a mosquito flew in my face and I swatted it away, Shelley saw it and took it as me raising my hand to talk, so I went with it even though I hadn't really thought through what I was going to say. But as I had been sitting there listening to everyone, I was very aware of the difference between them and me. They were just wrapping up their trip and heading back to my hometown, where all of the people I miss are, and I am just starting my life here. I don't allow myself to actively think about and miss my family and friends the way that they had been earlier that evening because I am afraid it would consume me. I haven't even reached my halfway point yet. Having the Illiana group there was very good for me. It was very much like having a piece of home there. A bunch of Dutch kids from my high school and a chaperon that was actually my teacher and coach. It was difficult to know that they were leaving and I was staying.

And as I started sharing with them about how God had brought me here, and how he had led me back again, I did start crying, but then something interesting happened. I all-of-a-sudden was surrounded by and was very aware of my new Dominican family, all of the people that God has brought into my life since I arrived here. Sleeping in my lap was Eliseo, one of the children that I love as if they were my own nieces and nephews, and then Bartolow (the resident 'grandpa' of our church) came and put his hands on my shoulders and handed me his hanky, and then Eddy, my best Dominican friend, was there as well, and the whole time that I am speaking, I am looking and talking to my sister in Christ, Shelley, who is crying with me as I talk. In that moment, as I was feeling very sad about saying goodbye to my piece of home, God comforted me in a very real way with the people that are pieces of my new home.