Changes

I have made some big changes since I returned to the Dominican Republic.  The biggest one being that I have moved.  For about four months I was living in the apartment of another missionary while she was in the United States.  It was a very nice, two-bedroom apartment in a more wealthy area.  Very similar to what an apartment would be like in the US.  If you are a follower of my blog, you might remember my entry a few months ago about my decision to move in with a Dominican family in a neighborhood close to our school.  A few months ago, God led me to the decision to make myself as much a part of the community that I am serving as I can.  I made the decision then, but now I have actually done it. 

I am now living with Eddy's sister Guillermina and her two daughters Adriani and Adriana.  The girls are five and seven.  Guille's husband lives in New York and only comes home about once a year to visit.  This is actually a pretty common situation here.  My new place is a two-bedroom apartment as well, however, the whole apartment could fit into the living room of my old place.  The girls sleep with their mom and my bedroom is tiny.  The headboard and the foot of the bed touch opposite walls and I have about two feet next to my bed.  If I were to guess I would say the room is 6x6 feet, maybe 7x7.  There are no closets so my clothes are hanging on a bar that is in one of the corners of the room and all of my stuff is either on my new bookshelves of in a suitcase under the bed.  Almost everything that I own came here in four suitcases, but I still had a really difficult time fitting all of my stuff into my room.  I tried to take pictures, but it's so small that i can't get far enough away from anything to take a picture of it.

There are many other differences between my old apartment and my new one as well.  I no longer have an inverter, so when the electricity goes out, it's out.  Also, there is no hot water.  I don't know if I will ever get used to the ice-cold showers.  Because there are no screens, the bugs and mosquitos are very bad.  I even sleep with a mosquito net. However, with all of this said,  I have to say that I love it.  I love living here and I love being a part of a family.  Not just Guille and the girls, but the whole family.  Eddy and his parents, Guille's two other sisters, three aunts and countless cousins all live withing walking distance and are always at each other's houses.  The women are such caretakers.  They are always insisting on cooking for me and doing things for me.  For example, Yasmin, the oldest sister, keeps insisting on doing my laundry.  I don't know how to tell her that I would prefer to do it myself.  I also love living with the girls.  They are so cute and they love coming into my room and hanging out with me, they are so amazed by all my stuff and love doing my hair. 

God definitely knew what He was doing when he led me to this decision.  Being a part of this family has blessed me so much and will continue to bless me in ways that I'm probably not even aware of yet and I pray that I am a blessing to them as well.