flooding in montellano
i'm not really sure what the official rainy season is in this country, but we're definitely in the middle of this year's right now. it's been POURING just about every night for several weeks.
one of our villages, Pancho Mateo, is backed up right next to the river. the land we bought for the new school house is just on the other side of this river, up on a hill. when drew, chris and miguel went to the land today to work on a fence, they found that there has been so much rain last night that the river has flooded all of the homes next to it. there is even one small tin house that is no longer standing.
camille and constance had taken drew to the land, and decided to stay to help out. instead of starting work on the fence, drew, miguel and chris also began helping people clean out their houses. the water line in these houses was somewhere around 4 to 5 feet deep. everyone lost everything. and though it isn't much, it's still everything.
while chris, drew, miguel, camille and constance were helping out there, carley and i were in chichigua starting the first round of English camp. constance called to say we needed to take public transportation because they were helping the flood victims. but i didn't realize just how severe it was till we arrived.
we got to montellano around 1:00. our team and all of the families were still working on removing mud and water from their houses. our team members were covered up to their chest in mud, and carely and i were soon to follow. one family was loading their muddy belongings into the back of a truck. i was helping them load, but it was difficult for me to tell what was trash and what they were trying to salvage.
we spend the rest of the afternoon, muddy and wet, dividing up food (chicken, rice and beans) to give to the families who had lost the most. we spent about 2,000 pesos to buy 11 chickens, a huge sack of rice and about 20 cans of beans, yet we still had kids asking for food to take to their families.
though it was a very tragic event, i'm thankful that we were able to be there to help. makarios is going to be a part of this community for a long time, and so it was great to begin building relationships and helping now, helping how we can, even before the school exists.
(i hope to post pictures of these amazing event soon)
a week of water and wonderful friends
this past week has been full of activity!
to begin with, we have had our first round of summer staffers/interns arrive.
constance, who will be taking care of all things group, came in a few weeks ago. within the next few days we also welcomed Carley, Drew and Barrett (who was here during spring break with the Austin Stone group). they are the first arrivals of interns who will be helping out with a variety of things this summer. this past
sunday,
chris arrived. he will be doing research for his thesis, as well as to help
makarios in our search to better serve the
dominican and
haitians on the north coast. we will be welcoming more interns throughout the next weeks and months.
but in even more exciting news, my friends, peter &
alyson, arrived last
wednesday and stayed to hang out with me for a week. we started by visiting
rubens farm, went white water rafting in
Jarabacoa, went to 27 waterfalls, spent a day in
cabarete, went to church in
chichigua and visited
pancho mateo, and ended yesterday with a visit to the historical
santo domingo, home of
columbus' first landing in the
americas. it was wonderful to see and visit with friends from
austin, as well as have a very exciting vacation at home in the
caribbean.
they also came bearing gifts from all of the wonderful people i call friends at Grace Covenant Church in
austin. one of the most exciting gifts that i received was a replacement
iPOD! yes, i told you i have amazing friends. rumor has it there was an effort to raise money, and then someone actually had on they weren't using (how do you NOT use an
iPOD?!). i was totally blown away by their generosity to replace this for me.
so thanks to everyone who contributed to the fun gifts that were brought. everything is wonderful and will be a blessing to me and my co-workers.
MAKARiOS blog
check out the MAKARiOS blog (if don't already check this as regularly as you check mine, you should) for updates about chichigua.
WARNING: GIRLY POST AHEAD
so we don't normally go "shopping" in this country. and by shopping i mean going to the mall, going in search of clothes. we've been told the quality of the clothing here isn't as good as what you can find in the US, and i pretty much believe this. another problem with shopping in this country is the the current fashion is: show as much curve and skin as possible. the tighter and skimpier, the better. so even though you can just buy a larger size, the cut still often is not what we would call conservative by any stretch of the imagination.
however, a few months ago, camille and i decided to just go walking around downtown puertoplata to see what we could find. we weren't looking for clothing stores, just out exploring. we happened upon a few clothing stores that had some cute, decent things for pretty good prices. i ended up purchasing a skirt, shirt and a dress, all for about $30 total. this was the first exciting shopping trip.
today we had some other errands to do downtown, so we decided to stop by these stores once more, just to see what else we might find. i found a dress that looked a little scandalous, but because i liked the pattern, decided to try it on anyway. as it turns out, whoever dressed the mannequin decided to dress her scandalously, but the dress actually fit me perfectly. i was a little skeptical that the ticket price of $198 pesos (about $6) was incorrect, but took it to the checkout counter anyway. the cashier scanned it, then had another girl go check to make sure she had the right price. i figured my skepticism was coming true, and that there should be an extra 1 at the front, or 0 at the end, making the price more around $30-$60. however, the lady came back and said that yes, indeed, that was the correct price. yet the price that rang up was $90 pesos. translated into dollars at a typical exchange rate of 32/1, i paid $2.81.
$2.81 for a dress that in the states would probably be about $40.
that's what i call a successful shopping day.
you know you're dominican if...
...you understand this.
all dominicans, please leave a comment.
on leaving...and returning home
i actually wrote this several weeks ago, and even now it seems a little crazy to be thinking about leaving when i still have 3 months. but i'm just a big planner aheader, so that's what happens. anyway, though this says last night, it really wasn't just last night.
on leaving...last night i began reading Donald Miller's
Through Painted Deserts. the first I heard of Donald Miller was when i was at BIOLA and
Blue Like Jazz was all the rage. it was the popular christian book of the moment and for that reason i wouldn't go near it. a few years later, living in this often quiet Makarios house, i found
Blue Like Jazz on a bookshelf and, because I was curious and finally out of the christian bubble, i picked it up and began reading. and i was a bit embarrassed that i actually enjoyed it. maybe the christian bubble does have the ability to choose something with some depth. camille had another of his books that i read next. when royce left, he left yet another one. and when keith left in march, he left this one, chronologically the first, about a time-limitless road trip from houston to oregon.
the first chapter is appropriately titled "Leaving," and in it, don talks about our need to leave home. but he doesn't stop there. in almost the same breath he ends with going home. he says we need to leave home to know how much we love it. and we need to go back home to know how much we have changed from the leaving.
and as i read his thoughts, which often drift so much more than my own, i see that this is true in my own life. i left home for college, but returned for a few months after graduation. i left again, left more, went further. so i spent 2 years in california and changed once again. once again i returned to texas, my friends, my family. but once again i left. once it again i left more and went further. i brought fewer things (yes, i know that's hard to believe), traveled more miles, and found myself living here, the most beautiful country in the world, the dominican republic.
and here i have grown as well. i have seen, i have experienced, i have learned, i have done. and i have changed. i don't really know completely how i have changed, but i know that i have. for each time you leave, you change.
and i have struggled over the past few months to decide if i am going to stay or return home once again. i have loved this leaving the most, i think, and my heart will forever be filled with a love of this place.
but i must go home. i must go because it is my home. it is there i find my friends and my family. it is there that i have my roots. it is the place to which i will always return, despite the time or distance for which i ever leave. yet more than that it is where i find my purpose, my mission. none of my leavings have been rendered purposeless by my returning home. rather, they have given me new perspectives and a new life at home. it is all of these leavings that have made home,
home.it was in the leavings that i discovered people. it was in the leavings that i discovered love. it was in the leavings that i discovered need and loneliness and hunger and fear and discrimination. and it was in the leavings that i discovered provision and friendship and nourishment and peace and compassion. it was in the leavings that show me so much about why home is home. and it was in the leavings that taught me how to make
my home a place that other leavers can also call home.
so now i go back. i return home again. and i may leave again. i probably will. but for now i go home to discover what this leaving has made me, and to be a home for other leavers far more brave than me.
...and returning homeso now, on a less sentimental fashion, here are my plans for returning home.
i will be returning to dallas texas on july 31st, assuming there are no plane delays or missed flights. otherwise it will be august 1st.
within the next few days i'll be making my way back to austin to live again in my apartment with marissa. i'll begin hounding The Container Store for a job, as well as a few other part time places to make ends meet.
and while i'm doing that i'm going to begin writing my thesis and implementing it. that means implementing a church-based ESL program - and doing research on currently running programs. on a more practical level (rather than that mentioned in the first part of this post), this is the real reason for my returning to austin. i began to realize i have limited time to write my thesis, and i do want to actually get the degree for which i will be paying for many years.
