Its Novemeber now. I had all this stuff I wanted to write about the mid october weather, how the tejota fields start to turn yellow and the mountain grows colder and deeper blue, and now the month has gone all together. Soo it will be mid Novemeber, then late, then December and then we will begin a whole new year. It is raining all the time these past few weeks. Luke and I just started our two week long training sessions with Peter Bergs. Its nice to see the face of someone you once knew in Canada.
The house is going well, although so busy and full of conflict we move through one day to another so quickly. It's been particularly emotionally draining this last month. And now the winter sicknesses are coming on. We have a boy who has had an fever for days now, and the last few days I have felt terrible every time I wake up. I do however have 4 days off next week because I am in training all day. I know I am going to miss the boys in the general nice way that you miss things you enjoy when you aren't around them. I really do love being a housemom. It's so stressful and hurtful, but the possibility for growth is so strong I can't imagine doing anything else at this point in my life.
Yes I have had many moments when I contemplated murder, not just with the boys but with my houseteam as well. But I haven't killed anyone yet so I mark that as a success :)
On a lighter side: WE GOT OUR BIKE BACK TODAY!!!!! that's exciting, we can actually go into town again, go to the blue restaurant, all those good things you do to get away from campus and relax. I miss the old blue restaurant :)
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
a real deal
So apparently there are tickets with Spirit Airlines out of Detroit for as cheap as $200 roundtrip from Detroit to Santiago. This means you can all afford to come visit me for my birthday BBQ.
If not you could at least send me a care package with miss vickie's jalapeno chips.
In other news, there are new pictures up on facebook, and I forget what else I was going to write....
If not you could at least send me a care package with miss vickie's jalapeno chips.
In other news, there are new pictures up on facebook, and I forget what else I was going to write....
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Sunday, September 30, 2007
A wavering step in the right direction
What they said was 'we have left so much behind'. Talking to my family back home on a Sunday afternoon. There they are getting ready for Thanksgiving. The weather is getting cold. I know to the detail exactly what that place looks like, and yet I cant get to it even if I tried.
Here its summer every day. I fall asleep in the afternoon and I wake up exhausted from the heat. There are two fans blowing all of the time. And every other day it pours rain.
How on earth did I become a mother to 10, 12, 14 teenage boys? Some of them are older than my little brother. He's in grade 12 this year, we are trying to get these guys through highschool alive.
I believe so much that God has called us here. How else could we get ourselves through week after week. One hour to the next, moving on, loving, hating, wanting to kick these kids every minute of every day.
It was a good sunday. Today we got up, ate stuffed french toast (which never cooks right in this country), went to church, came home and snacked, I gave 2 students haircuts, had a speedy lunch so the boys could play squamish in the rain, then just hung out and had a good time with everyone afterwards.
There is so much I could write and wont. Its overwhelming sometimes to be so far away and feeling so at home. I worry sometimes what will happen when these years are over for us, and I doubt if they will ever end.
Here its summer every day. I fall asleep in the afternoon and I wake up exhausted from the heat. There are two fans blowing all of the time. And every other day it pours rain.
How on earth did I become a mother to 10, 12, 14 teenage boys? Some of them are older than my little brother. He's in grade 12 this year, we are trying to get these guys through highschool alive.
I believe so much that God has called us here. How else could we get ourselves through week after week. One hour to the next, moving on, loving, hating, wanting to kick these kids every minute of every day.
It was a good sunday. Today we got up, ate stuffed french toast (which never cooks right in this country), went to church, came home and snacked, I gave 2 students haircuts, had a speedy lunch so the boys could play squamish in the rain, then just hung out and had a good time with everyone afterwards.
There is so much I could write and wont. Its overwhelming sometimes to be so far away and feeling so at home. I worry sometimes what will happen when these years are over for us, and I doubt if they will ever end.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Hi Dad
Well its been a busy week for Luke and I. We have spent the last three nights in Manabao, which is a place way up in the mountains where the boys have their summer program. So we got to take a 40 minute ride way way up to where the roads are so bumpy every time you drive through you are sure you'll never make it (I've taken to praying for most of the ride).
We have made that trip twice a day for three days, and the road is so twisty that I get car sick every time. Its cold up in Manabao at night, but the view is fantastic. Theres a cottage on stilts that the boys live in, very rustic. Two boys in the summer program speak fluent spanish and so they spent a lot of time with the dominicans (the boys have been building a school all summer in Manabao and work with the dominicans).
So every night we have had dominican visitors at the cottage. Two nights we had bonfires with them, one night I played dominoes for a long time with them. Dominicans can play dominos forever. Dominican culture is big on hospitality, so basically if someone comes to your house they stay until they are ready to leave. But they dont get in your way. They sit on the couch, or sit by the bonfire and if the boys need to get stuff done the dominicans dont mind.
If there arnt a whole bunch of adult dominicans around there are at least 1-3 little dominican boys which follow the students everywhere.
One, Allan, has been there every night. We give him food, but he wouldnt eat until everyone is finished unless we tell him to go and get food. He must be no more than 7 years old. He reminds me of vinnie when he was younger. He wrestles with every student, and Luke too. Last night all the guys were pretending they would throw him in the fire. But he fights back with all his might and hangs off the guys like they really were his older brothers. His dad was also at our bonfire last night.
Luke and I will be offically in our house on Wednesday morning. That will be the first day we are running the house as houseparents. Today was shopping day and so Fiette (the housemother who is moving out and whose place I am taking) and I went into town together and shopped. I actually think I am going to really enjoy making menus for my house and cooking. You can get so many fresh fruits and vegetables down here, and I've already had one lesson from a dominican cook on how to cook rice and beans dominican style (the food down here is very very good).So I made up my menu for next week and now I just have to get into the house and cook it.
I think Luke and I are going to subscribe to MFI, which means we will be able to get mail regularly. When we subscribe I think we will be ordering a lot more things online if we do that, and maybe I could look and see if I could get some of those BBC miniseries for cheap. Down here its nice to have things to watch, because on your time off all you want to do is veg out. I think we will also subscribe to some magazines like national geographic. Its nice to have things like that here.
I was reading in an old national geographic the other day about Orkney, Scotland. Its the northern string of islands at the very tip of scotland. Someday Luke and I would like to go there. Most of the 'cities' in Orkney have the population of 5. It listed one island as having 1 family on it-haha.
We cant believe we've been here a month. We miss the soo and family, I am going to really miss not seeing Jakob and Joshua as they get bigger. They are going to be very different when we come home next summer.
But we are happy in Jarabacoa.
Its a nice little town, and we are starting to get around it more and get to know it. Its also nice because a lot of the staff who work on campus live in the town. We still wish so much that everyone could come down and see us from back home. We always keep thinking 'oh, this would be a great place to bring so-and-so'.
There is a fully functioning monestary very close to here. The monks make and sell bread. We'd like to go and visit them sometime soon.
The Dominican is so different from home but you feel very safe here. Everyone says hello to you and is kind and polite. Dominican culture is very friendly. The only thing is they party every day and so all night you can here Bachata blaring around you. Its never so loud you cant sleep, but the dominicans sure like to dance I can tell you that.
We have made that trip twice a day for three days, and the road is so twisty that I get car sick every time. Its cold up in Manabao at night, but the view is fantastic. Theres a cottage on stilts that the boys live in, very rustic. Two boys in the summer program speak fluent spanish and so they spent a lot of time with the dominicans (the boys have been building a school all summer in Manabao and work with the dominicans).
So every night we have had dominican visitors at the cottage. Two nights we had bonfires with them, one night I played dominoes for a long time with them. Dominicans can play dominos forever. Dominican culture is big on hospitality, so basically if someone comes to your house they stay until they are ready to leave. But they dont get in your way. They sit on the couch, or sit by the bonfire and if the boys need to get stuff done the dominicans dont mind.
If there arnt a whole bunch of adult dominicans around there are at least 1-3 little dominican boys which follow the students everywhere.
One, Allan, has been there every night. We give him food, but he wouldnt eat until everyone is finished unless we tell him to go and get food. He must be no more than 7 years old. He reminds me of vinnie when he was younger. He wrestles with every student, and Luke too. Last night all the guys were pretending they would throw him in the fire. But he fights back with all his might and hangs off the guys like they really were his older brothers. His dad was also at our bonfire last night.
Luke and I will be offically in our house on Wednesday morning. That will be the first day we are running the house as houseparents. Today was shopping day and so Fiette (the housemother who is moving out and whose place I am taking) and I went into town together and shopped. I actually think I am going to really enjoy making menus for my house and cooking. You can get so many fresh fruits and vegetables down here, and I've already had one lesson from a dominican cook on how to cook rice and beans dominican style (the food down here is very very good).So I made up my menu for next week and now I just have to get into the house and cook it.
I think Luke and I are going to subscribe to MFI, which means we will be able to get mail regularly. When we subscribe I think we will be ordering a lot more things online if we do that, and maybe I could look and see if I could get some of those BBC miniseries for cheap. Down here its nice to have things to watch, because on your time off all you want to do is veg out. I think we will also subscribe to some magazines like national geographic. Its nice to have things like that here.
I was reading in an old national geographic the other day about Orkney, Scotland. Its the northern string of islands at the very tip of scotland. Someday Luke and I would like to go there. Most of the 'cities' in Orkney have the population of 5. It listed one island as having 1 family on it-haha.
We cant believe we've been here a month. We miss the soo and family, I am going to really miss not seeing Jakob and Joshua as they get bigger. They are going to be very different when we come home next summer.
But we are happy in Jarabacoa.
Its a nice little town, and we are starting to get around it more and get to know it. Its also nice because a lot of the staff who work on campus live in the town. We still wish so much that everyone could come down and see us from back home. We always keep thinking 'oh, this would be a great place to bring so-and-so'.
There is a fully functioning monestary very close to here. The monks make and sell bread. We'd like to go and visit them sometime soon.
The Dominican is so different from home but you feel very safe here. Everyone says hello to you and is kind and polite. Dominican culture is very friendly. The only thing is they party every day and so all night you can here Bachata blaring around you. Its never so loud you cant sleep, but the dominicans sure like to dance I can tell you that.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Walking the Line
Today Luke and I went walking around Jarabacoa. This was our first time getting off campus and doing this on our own. We bought peanut brittle from a Haitian, gave money to a ragged old man, got asked by two different people if we wanted to be taken white water rafting or to the falls-to which we replied, actually, we live in jarabacoa and we work at escuela caribe (in spanish of course), so they wouldnt mistake us for tourists-not to mention that our taxi driver tried to take us to Francis rent-a-car, instead of the restaurant. What the hee.
Anyway its hot here. We both miss home. Not miss it enough to want to go back but we miss it none the less. We just like Canada a lot. And the Soo. Walking 'downtown' or going to the A&P. Stupid simple things.
But now we go and eat rice and beans at the blue restaurant. We drink coca cola from tall glass bottles. We get asked to buy peanuts from baskets on the streets. We sit in the backroom of a sweating little paper store that seems to sell the leftovers of western products (I've found a stack of notepads here that I would swear is from the seventies. The pages have turned yellow) using a cramped internet cafe.
Here we see naked children playing in the river right in town. A woman with a big blue bucket on her head, presumably filled with things to sell.
This world moves differently. You can't even imagine that your home because the landscape would never fool you.
We wish we could show all of you this world.
-becky
Anyway its hot here. We both miss home. Not miss it enough to want to go back but we miss it none the less. We just like Canada a lot. And the Soo. Walking 'downtown' or going to the A&P. Stupid simple things.
But now we go and eat rice and beans at the blue restaurant. We drink coca cola from tall glass bottles. We get asked to buy peanuts from baskets on the streets. We sit in the backroom of a sweating little paper store that seems to sell the leftovers of western products (I've found a stack of notepads here that I would swear is from the seventies. The pages have turned yellow) using a cramped internet cafe.
Here we see naked children playing in the river right in town. A woman with a big blue bucket on her head, presumably filled with things to sell.
This world moves differently. You can't even imagine that your home because the landscape would never fool you.
We wish we could show all of you this world.
-becky
Friday, July 27, 2007
Latin American Spanish for Dummies
Hola from the Dominican Republic.
Finally got this blog up and running, but at the moment that is all that it is doing (and it wouldnt even be doing that if it hadnt taken my 30 minutes to figure out how to change the menu from spanish to english-using babel fish to translate everything isnt at productive as you might think). But here we are anyway, in the caribbean, at last.
Although it wasnt the easiest thing, leaving canada and everyone behind us and setting out for an unknown country, we are glad that we are here. First off let me start with some basics about life in the Dominican Republic (and specifically Jarabacoa, which is where we live).
DO NOT pay attention to traffic rules, you're liable to get killed that-a-way. Instead side step every concho barrelling down the street with ease and continue on with your market needs
DO eat dominican foods, its so good you'll want to come back for more. Ice burge lettuce has become a new delicacy for me: GASP! can you imagine! And I doubt you ever knew you liked that little thing called pollo as much as you do now.
DO stomp all the coakroaches that wander through your kitchen, your floor will look like a variation of vimy ridge but its better off in the long run. You dont want those buggers wandering around till all hours of the night.
DO expect that there will be no power and embrace this new constant in your life.
DO NOT drink from taps
DO NOT eat fruit raw unless it is peeled
DO NOT throw toilet paper in the toilet (I debated over putting this one in as I know some might be squeemish, but I have decided to so you get a real texture to life here in the tropics).
DO eat rice and beans and rice and beans and rice and beans
Pictures to follow...
Finally got this blog up and running, but at the moment that is all that it is doing (and it wouldnt even be doing that if it hadnt taken my 30 minutes to figure out how to change the menu from spanish to english-using babel fish to translate everything isnt at productive as you might think). But here we are anyway, in the caribbean, at last.
Although it wasnt the easiest thing, leaving canada and everyone behind us and setting out for an unknown country, we are glad that we are here. First off let me start with some basics about life in the Dominican Republic (and specifically Jarabacoa, which is where we live).
DO NOT pay attention to traffic rules, you're liable to get killed that-a-way. Instead side step every concho barrelling down the street with ease and continue on with your market needs
DO eat dominican foods, its so good you'll want to come back for more. Ice burge lettuce has become a new delicacy for me: GASP! can you imagine! And I doubt you ever knew you liked that little thing called pollo as much as you do now.
DO stomp all the coakroaches that wander through your kitchen, your floor will look like a variation of vimy ridge but its better off in the long run. You dont want those buggers wandering around till all hours of the night.
DO expect that there will be no power and embrace this new constant in your life.
DO NOT drink from taps
DO NOT eat fruit raw unless it is peeled
DO NOT throw toilet paper in the toilet (I debated over putting this one in as I know some might be squeemish, but I have decided to so you get a real texture to life here in the tropics).
DO eat rice and beans and rice and beans and rice and beans
Pictures to follow...
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