Things I have learned about myself since moving to the Dominican Republic

Since arriving in the Dominican Republic almost nine months ago, I have learned a lot about myself.  I have learned things that I may never have known if I had never plopped myself right in the middle of another culture.  Some of them are spiritual, some of them are comical, some of them are just random.  I was thinking about some of these realizations the other day and decided to start a list on here and add to it as they occur to me. So...

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT MYSELF SINCE MOVING TO THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:

1. I love grape pop.
2. I have a fear of turkeys
3. I will never be able to dance the merengue how it is meant to be danced
4. I am capable of getting used to ice cold showers every day.
5. The JOY that God gave me, shows itself in a physical way.

A Ministry of Dance

In Spanish there are two different words for dance.  They are 'bailar' and 'danzar' and they have two different meanings.  I looked it up and the spanish/english dictionary doesn't indicate any difference, but it has been explained to me that here they mean two different things.  'Bailar' is what most of us think of when we think of dancing.  Here it would be mostly merengue or batchata, and in the states it would be the kind of dancing you would do at school dances.  However, 'danzar' is the word used when the Bible refers to dancing.  There are examples in the Bible of people singing and dancing and praising God.  This is the kind of dance that 'danzar' refers to.  There are many Christians here that do not 'bailar' but do 'danzar'.  In fact, many of the churches here have a Ministeria de Danza (Ministry of Dance).  They are groups of girls and young women who dance as a way of worship in the same way that a praise team sings as a way of worship.  They take it very seriously and have great respect while doing it.  The girls have to follow many rules and may not participate if their lives are not reflecting God's will.  Our church just recently began a Ministeria de Danza and on Saturday we had a big fundraiser for them.  It was awesome.  It was amazing to experience another culture worshiping and praising God.  We had two different praise teams play praise and worship songs, our girls did several dances, a dance group from a sister church came and did some dances, we even had a mime.  We also sold pop and empenadas and popcorn and many other Dominican foods.  They raised a lot of money and it was a night of rejoicing, enjoying time together and praising God.  I posted pictures from that night.  My hope that they will give you a small idea of what it was like.  I would really love to post a couple of videos of the girls dancing so that you can have a better idea of what the dances are like, but the website is not letting me upload any of my videos (I have been trying every day for the last week).  I will keep trying and if my computer ever lets me upload them on here, I will post them.

:)

Donuts

So you might think that, with all of the stuff going on right now, including major construction on the new school building, school getting postponed for the elementary classes, and preschool starting their second week of classes, I would have plenty of things to write about.  But, I spend every day working and thinking about all of that stuff, so instead, I am going to spend my time telling you about my quest for donuts :)

As some of you may already know, one of the hardest things for me to get used to living here is the food.  I now live with a Dominican family so I eat rice, beans, and plantains every single day.  Most of the foods that I ate my whole life in America, I can't find down here, and if I can find them, they are very expensive and I don't have what I need to cook them.  Most of the food is fine. I'm used to it.  I don't hate it. It's edible. 

However, there are a few foods that I have found that I love, that might even be better than what you can get in the states.  The avocados and mangos, for example, are much better here.  Another favorite is yogen fruz which is frozen yogurt blended with fruit.  And finally, there is a bakery here that I discovered that has amazing donuts.  I am not really a donut person, after Lansing Bakery closed, I never really had a desire to eat them.  But down here they are one of the few things that I love to eat. 

Now that I moved, I am no longer in walking distance of the bakery, so getting there is a much bigger deal.  It is not close to anywhere else that I ever go, so if I want to go there I have to make a special trip (plus I don't have a car).  Since I moved to my new apartment, I have managed to get to the bakery a few times, but each time they had no donuts.  None.  But I didn't give up.  I kept hope that they next time, there would be donuts.  It started to get a little rediculous, I even started having dreams about donuts.  Yes, I do have several more important things to think and worry about, but sometimes you need a little 'rediculousness' in your life. 

Two nights ago, I had another dream about finding donuts, so yesterday I decided to try one last time on my lunch break because I needed to stop at my old apartment anyway, and when we got to the bakery.... THEY HAD DONUTS.  I bought two.  One chocolate and one vanilla.  When I got back to the school, I realized that I had done nothing but think about how happy I was and how excited I was to eat my donuts the whole way back to the school.  At this point, I decided it merited a blog post.

I made that decision for two reasons.  First, I think that some people (Katie Copeland) will find it amusing.  And second, I feel like this story, in a way, paints a picture of my life down here.  Living in a different country with a different language and culture can be difficult.  I have a lot on my shoulders and I am now constantly and completely emersed in this other culture that I don't always understand.  But to keep myself from becoming completely overwhelmed, I have learned to remember the good.  I spend a lot of time focusing on my work and what I need to get done and what else I can be doing to help the people that I am serving, but sometimes I need to remind myself to appreciate the little things.  The little gifts that God has put in my life that cheer me up or make my day or remind me to breath and relax and be happy.  Those gifts come in many forms, it could be the hug I get every morning from the cutest little boy, Henry, or the daily lecture I get from Eddy's mom to take care of myself because she loves me, or eating mangos on the front porch while watching the people on the street, or maybe even eating a donut at my favority little bakery.