Glimpse into our Life - Christmas Trees

Last year we were in the states at this time of year.  It was our first American Christmas since we were married and Eddy's first American Christmas ever.  There are several differences between an American Christmas and a Dominican Christmas.  I will post more about as we continue into the Christmas season but for now I wanted to show you this.

This is a picture of us buying our Christmas tree with my parents last year:

And this is a picture of us buying our Christmas tree this year:

Glimpse into our Life - Christmas traditions

This time of year, in the evenings, Eddy and I like to listen to Christmas music and drink hot chocolate (even though it only drops down to around 70 in the evenings.)  It's one of our Christmas traditions.

In honor of our family members in New York and Chicago.

I also love to bake Christmas cookies.  I plan and make lists and spend hours organizing and baking, and then I make plates of them and give them to everyone that I can think of.  Christmas cookies are not really a thing here in the DR.  (Typical Christmas desserts here are apples and grapes.)  However, everyone really gets excited about my plates of cookies and have so much fun doing it.

Candy cane kiss cookies.  Everyone's favorite.

Glimpse into our Life - Preschool Christmas Program

Today is our annual Preschool Christmas Program.  It is, without a doubt, my favorite day of the school year.  We started doing a nativity play as part of our Christmas program a few years ago and it is so much fun.  The teachers really get into, the kids are so excited about it, and the parents love it.  This year we did a dress rehearsal on Monday so I took some video of the dress rehearsal and made it into video.  Here it is:  (Prepare yourself.  The kids are so cute you might not be able to handle it.)



Christmas Program 2014 from Carrie Ramos on Vimeo.

Glimpse into our Life - sharing the road

If you have visited us in the DR, you know that it is very common to encounter dogs, chickens and cows in the road.  Sometimes you will even have to stop and wait for them to pass before you can continue on your way.  However, you may not know that sometimes you will also encounter other animals, such as turkeys or a small pink pig.  Although it happens less often; it does happen.

This was taken about a block from our school.

Glimpse in our Life - Home

Hi All,

I know it's been two months since my last post.  Sorry about that.  Over the last two months Eddy and I have been busy getting ready for our trip to the states, traveling to New York, Buffalo, and Chicago, and then traveling back and readjusting back into life in the DR.  We had a great trip to the states, and I'll write more aout that in future posts, but for today I just want to get back into sharing some glimpses into our life again.

When I traveled back to the DR I was really sick and the jetlag, time change, and climate change hit me really hard.  I got home around midnight on a Friday and then I ended up spending my first three days back sick in bed.  So that Tuesday, when Eddy I left the house to go to the school, as I walked out my door and looked out, the view actually stopped me in my tracks.

Our apartment is on the second floor of a building and the building is at the top of a hill so our view is very beautiful.  I wish a picture could capture it.  You can see over the trees all the way to the mountains.  But it wasn't necessarily the beauty that stopped me in my tracks.  It was the realization that I was home.  This view is what home looks like.

Glimpse into our Life - A Drive Around Santiago

At lunch time on Thursday, Eddy and I had to go into downtown Santiago to run some errands for the school.  I decided to video parts of our drive so that I could show you around the city a little bit.

Since most of this video was taken around 12:30 on a Thursday, you unfortunately won't see the crazy traffic that happens in the late afternoons.  (We intentionally avoid going into the city at that time of day.  But if we ever do, I will make sure to record that for you as well.)

You will, however, see a lot of cultural things as we drive through the city, such as people carrying umbrellas to shade them from the sun, motorcycles all around ignoring every single traffic law,  women carrying things on their heads, men pushing carts full of things to sell, the monument, people hanging out of the doors of moving buses, people selling water bottles at intersections, etc.

The last minute of the video shows us arriving in our neighborhood at the end of the day.  After we turn the corner, you will see a white building in front of us.  That is where we live.  Our apartment is the second floor of that building.  The video ends with us turning into our drive way. 

So, I invite you to take a five minute drive with us around Santiago.  I even added a Spanish praise and worship song for you to listen to while you watch.



A Drive Around Santiago from Carrie Ramos on Vimeo.

Glimpse into Our Life - School Video

This is a video that Joy made for us about a year ago for our last trip to the states.  In case you didn't get to see it or would like to see it again, I thought it would be a good idea to post it here.  Since the school has been a major part of our lives for the last several years, this video definitely shows a "glimpse into our life".

Bienvenidos a Caminito de Jesús from Joy Gort on Vimeo.

Glimpse into Our Lives - Lunch

We had lunch with some of our favorite people yesterday.  Eladia and her two gradchildren, Adriana and Joseph.  Eladia is an amazing cook and hostess.  We had a very typical Dominican lunch.  Rice with beans, concon, chicken, salad with tomatos and avocados, arepitas de yuca, and homemade key limeade.  We love going to Eladia's house for lunch.

Glimpse into our life this morning

This morning, when we were leaving our house, there were two men cutting down a tree...

in the middle of the road....

with a machete.

Completely normal thing in the DR.

See the machete?

Glimpse into our life - outreach

About a year ago, Eddy and I needed to start searching for a new church to attend.  After visiting a few different churches we started regularly attending ICC (International Christian Church).  We were welcomed with open arms into their church family and have found a home there.  We have gotten involved in some of the church's ministries over the last several months.

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, Eddy serves on the praise team.  The church is focused on building relationships with other churches and serving the community.  The church is sometimes asked to help with a "campaña".  Campañas are very common in the DR and are used as an outreach.  Basically you set up in the street in the community near the church hosting the campaña and have a worship service or a concert right out in the street with the purpose of evangelism.  Sometimes campaña are just for one night, sometimes they are for several nights.  

When helping with one of these campañas, it is always a little bit of an adventure.  You are out in the street at night in a barrio.  Things go wrong and changes need to be made.  The important thing is to be flexible, go with the flow, enjoy yourself and give all the glory to God, because God does find a way to move and work in that space.

I put a few pictures below of these kinds of campañas.  In the one you will see that there was no stage, so they just set up in the back of the pickup.  In the other, it started raining in the middle of worship so we got rained on for a little while and then when it picked up, we moved into the church.  None of those hiccups hindered God and what He meant to do.

Monte Cristi

Monte Cristi

setting up in Pekin

This is about when it started raining.

Glimpse into our life - Laundry

Here in the Dominican Republic, doing laundry requires a delicate balance of several factors over which I have little to no control.

In order to wash clothes, I need electricity and running water.  Since we do not have a dryer, in order to dry the clothes, it needs to not be raining and the clothes need to be on the line well before 6 pm.  (Eddy put clotheslines up in our "backyard" and also on our porch.)

So there we go; laundry needs to be done in the morning or early afternoon when there is running water, electricity, and it's not raining. Easy, right?  Nope, not here in the DR.

Here's the problem with the electricity.  We lose our electricity every day.  The amount of times that the electricity goes out and the duration that it goes out varies and is in no way a dependable schedule.  On a good day it will go out two or three times for an hour or two.  Most week days, however, it goes out sometime in the morning, and doesn't come back on until late afternoon or early evening.  On bad days, it doesn't come back on until late at night.

Here's the problem with running water.  We lose our street water several times per week.  This is more on a schedule.  For example, we know that every Wednesday and Saturday sometime during the morning, the water will go out.  Plus it will go out random other times as well with no warning.

Here's the problem with rain.  When it's rainy season, or there is a storm nearby, it rains pretty much every day.  It usually doesn't rain all day long.  It rains in short bursts, separated by sunshine.  When it stops raining and the sun comes out, there is no guarantee that it won't start raining again in a half an hour.  Sometime it's raining and sunny at the same time.  Seriously.

Here's the problem with doing laundry in the morning or early afternoon.  I work at a school.

Because of all of these factors, I had not been able to do laundry in almost two weeks.  But a couple days ago, the stars aligned, and it was sunny with running water and electricity ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  I got so much laundry done.  It was great.

I love my little automatic washing machine.  Most Dominican washing machines require the use of a bucket and hose.

Drying in the sun in our "backyard".

Drying on our porch.

Glimpse into our life - practice

I believe that most of you know that Eddy has a gift for music.  He self-taught himself to play the piano and he also sings.  He serves at our church on the worship team.  He also plays the guitar and percussion (on the keyboard).  A large part of my time at home is spent listening to Eddy practice.  I love how passionate he is about worship and I love listening to him play.  He usually sets up on the kitchen table but since Jenny and I were hanging out in there, he came up with this set up today:

He was so focused, he didn't even notice me taking his picture.

Sitting in a rocking chair, piano on the hamper, computer on the floor.  Whatever works right?  Love him.

Glimpse into our Life - phones

This is the cell phone that Eddy and I share:

I bet you didn't even know they still made phones like this.

This beauty is pay-as-you-go.  We "buy minutes" when we run out so that we can make phone calls.  Its features include texting capabilities and an awesome multi-colored font when dialing phone numbers.

My lack of modern phone technology, has led to me asking my friends and family in the states ridiculous questions such as "Do you have a cell phone?" or "Do you have minutes?", which usually leads to them patiently explaining to me (with the voice usually reserved for when speaking to small children) that yes, they do, in fact, have a cell phone, and they don't "buy minutes".  Embarrassing.

Eddy had a second phone for a while, but it never worked very well and finally broke completely a few weeks ago, so for the most part, yes, this has been our phone.

That is, until today.  I present to you my very first smart phone:

Isn't it beautiful?

Now I just need to figure out how to use it.  

Glimpse into our life - Sobrinas

This is a picture of me with our three sobrinas (nieces).  They are my loves.  My life would not be the same without them and I consider myself to be truly blessed to be their tia (aunt).  On the left is Jenny.  On the right is Adriana and Adrianys.  Adriana and Adrianys are sisters.  For the full year before Eddy and I got married I lived with Adriana, Adrianys and their mom (Eddy's sister, Guillermina).  They are a huge part of my life.

 In May the girls, and their mom, moved to New York to be with their dad.  Their family had been working very hard for years to get their visas for them to be able to move the states to live with him.  We celebrated that their family is reunited, but we miss them terribly.  They call us a couple times a week to talk one the phone and catch up.  Here is a picture of them at the airport, ready to go.

There is probably nobody that misses those girls more than Jenny.  Jenny and Adrianys were born days apart and the three girls are the best of friends.  (Jenny's mom is Eddy's other sister, Gloria.)  The girls lived right down the street from us, but Jenny and her mom live farther away so we have to be more intentional about spending time with her.  Jenny comes over to our house about a once week to visit us.  We bake together and play Jenga and hang out with Eddy.  She also comes to church with us most Sundays and participates in the activities that the church has for the kids.  We love her dearly and are so thankful to have her in our lives.

Glimpse into our life - Roadside Stands

One thing I love about living in the Dominican Republic is the ease at which you can purchase everyday items.  From neighborhood colmados, to roadside stands, to people selling items at stoplights.

Within a block of our house there are four colmados open.  These colmados are small stands or stores that sell a variety of things that you can buy in small quantities.  For example, I could go down to the colmado and buy two eggs, three plantains, a bottle of water, and just enough laundry detergent for two loads of laundry. That would be a completely normal colmado purchase.  Within a mile of our house there are also several roadside food stands that sell fried chicken, empanadas, pizza, etc.

At most busy intersections throughout the city, there are vendors selling a variety of items on the street.  Things we have bought at intersections: bottles of water, cds, phone cards, windshield wipers, phone chargers, educational posters for the school, avocados.  The people walk between the cars when they stop and you buy what you want right through your window.

One of my favorite kinds of roadside stands are the flower stands.  Along the normal routes that we take, there are four different flower stands of various sizes where we will sometimes stop to buy flowers.  These flowers are fresh and beautiful and cheap.  What I love the most is the variety of tropical flowers available, most of which I had never seen before moving here and don't even know the names of.  I love having fresh flowers in the house and I love giving flowers as gifts as well.

My mom calls these "bird of paradise" flowers.  There is a large variety of this type of flower.  You can see a few of the different kinds in the last picture.

I like the ones in the back that look like honeycombs.  I think they are really cool.

So many cool flowers to choose from.  :)

Glimpses into our life - First day of school

Hi All,

I've been thinking and praying a lot about this blog of mine that I have been ignoring for several months and neglected for far longer.  For a while I was considering shutting it down, but as I thought about it, I realized that it is such a great tool for connecting with all of you.

We have such an amazing group of friends and family and supporters in the states.  We love when some of you have a chance to come visit and get to see firsthand our life down here in the DR and we love catching up with you all when we are in the states and telling you stories about our lives.  I realize that most of you reading this have no idea what our day-to-day lives are like.  You don't know what its like to live in a barrio in the Dominican Republic, but in talking with some of you, you seem to be really interested to know.

I would love to start writing on here again someday about some of the deep stuff.  To share my continued testimony with you and talk about the heavy stuff and the way that God is moving and working in our lives.  But for now, what I really want to do is just reconnect with you all and start sharing our lives with you.

So what I've decided to do is start a new series of blog posts called "glimpses into our life".  A few times a week, I will post a few pictures with a short post explaining the most recent "glimpse" into our life.  Each post will focus on one small aspect of our life; from what our home looks like, to the struggles of doing laundry in the Dominican Republic, to our church activities, to Eddy's family, to why we are afraid of mosquito bites, and the list will go on.

To start us off today, the first "glimpse into our life" is an easy one.  This Tuesday was: THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.  This is the fifth school year that I will be present for here at Pathway to Jesus School (and, I think, the ninth or tenth for Eddy.)  Luckily the school has started off very smoothly (with very little crying at the preschool side).  Here are a couple of pictures.

Cafeteria at the elementary building

some of the big kids

KINDER - 4 year olds

PARVULO - 2 year olds

MATERNAL - 3 year olds