Mangoes, Baseball, and So Much More!

So, I just want to apologize for the fact that I haven't written a blog in two weeks. I knew my last one had been on a Friday and I was really hoping that it was this past Friday, but it wasn't. Oops! I have been waiting to write my next blog until I had some word about our gardening progress, but this last week has been crazy. We officially met the principal of the school this past Friday and scheduled a meeting with her the following Monday to discuss our plans and her plans and figure out what was next. We went up to the school on Monday to talk with her and she informed us that she had an emergency in another city and wouldn't be able to talk with us then. We were able to discuss a few things and actually see the plot of land where the garden will be planted. We then scheduled another meeting for Wednesday. On our way to the school, we were informed that Agostina, the principal, was still in Nagua with her emergency and wouldn't be able to meet but she had scheduled another time for us to meet.  The school is roughly a 30 minute walk from our houses, so we were planning on leaving about 3:30 yesterday afternoon because we were meeting at 4:00. A few minutes before 3:30 it started to rain. It rains here basically every afternoon at least a little bit because of the humidity retaining the water and then releasing it to cool things down. Some afternoons are worse than others, and yesterday was one of those days.It really wasn't raining too bad so we just all started on the journey up the hills to the school. The closer we got to the school, the harder the rain fell and the more we began to believe that Agostina was probably not going to venture out on her motorcycle in that weather. We kept hoping that she would pass us on her motorcycle up to the school so we would know that our walk was for a purpose. The whole way up to the school people were looking at us like we were crazy for just deciding to take a little stroll during the rain. I don't think they were aware that we actually had a meeting to go to.  Well we eventually made it to the school without ever seeing Agostina pass by. We arrived at the school, but she had made the right choice to not get soaked. We waited around for about 15 minutes and then decided to leave her a note. The note had all of our names, parent's names, and phone numbers so that she could either come to our houses or call us and let us know when we can meet next.  The rain continued the whole way back down the hill, and we still got the same odd stares on the way back.  With all of that being said, I was planning on writing my next blog after having information about gardening which would've been Monday!  This culture is definitely a little more relaxed than ours so we have all learned how to become patient and content with whatever happens. This summer has not been all that I thought it would be so far, but that is just The Lord showing me who is in control. I read these two scripture from 2 Corinthians 6 this morning and I think they're perfect: "But in every way we show we are servants of God; in accepting many hard things, in troubles, in difficulties, and in great problems."  Then this is next: "We show we are servants of God by our pure lives, our understanding, patience, by the Holy Spirit, by true love, by speaking truth, and by God's power."  I am learning to truly have joy and patience throughout all circumstances. 
Okay, now I am moving on to give a quick summary of all the things that have occurred in these last few weeks. I write in my journal every day so that I can look back on what I have done so I decided I will just jot down some bullet points from each day. There will also be random pictures!

Here is the family whose houses we painted that I mentioned in my last post.

Before

After

Saturday, June 8th

• Taylor and I have been singing together while she plays guitar on her front porch. Sometimes people come by and listen and today our two friends Johanny and Lleni stopped by and attempted to "sing" even though all of our songs were in English. It was really precious!


About to get in the lake!





This afternoon we were able to go to this place called the Blue Lake. It was my first time to ride on a motorcycle and it went well! 



Another view of the lake!




• We were later able to play sand volleyball which was so much fun!
• After, we even went to the beach!



Us riding on our motorcycles!



At another part of Blue Lake

• It was a great day of spending time in the outdoors getting to know each other more and more!

Sunday, June 9th:

• Went to church in the morning with my family.
• Made bracelets with some girls in the community.
• Watched some people play dominoes while trying to understand how to play.
• My nephew came over and I was able to hang out with him most of the afternoon. He was about 18 months old and absolutely adorable!

Monday, June 10th

• Skyped my Dad!
• Had watermelon, which is so great!
• I seriously played dominoes all day. I think I played for like 5 hours and still didn't know how to play. At one point I got demoted to score keeper because I was doing really bad. It was a little annoying because I knew they were all talking about me but I couldn't understand what they were saying. I did hear at one point someone say, "all she did was lose, lose lose." That was encouraging. Later they decided to let me play again.The people I was playing with eventually told others that I knew what I was doing because they thought I did, but I totally didn't. I mean I understood the gist, but never really the game as a whole. I definitely don't understand how I could play for that long and still never know if I won or lost. I would just wait to see if my partner would give me the "look" or give me a hi-five. Yeah, it was pretty interesting! 



"Playing" dominoes

Tuesday, June 11th

• Taylor and I decided to attempt to learn some of our English praise and worship songs in Spanish. It is really hard to pronounce all the words in Spanish so fast. But, we were able to learn "Our God," by Chris Tomlin, with the help of Taylor's Dominican brother, Eric! It was so much fun to be able to sing along together giving worship to our Savior!
• My brother Juan and his wife came over so I was able to meet them!



Baseball! Oniel, one of the twins is batting while Heramia is catching!



I could seriously watch them do this all day. I love it!



Watching a little baseball at Confe's. Heramia is batting this time and Oniel is catching!

• One of the main foods all of us have been missing is peanut butter. Well, there is this convenience store in the community called the Colmado and we all discovered this thing that tastes like peanut butter. It was a great find!

Wednesday, June 12th

• We figured out that Christine, our professor, has Dengue, which is a disease transmitted by mosquitoes that results in a fever and in severe joint pain. It lasted for a bit and she had to stay in the capital in a clinic for about a week. She wasn't able to come back here before having to go to another city for her study abroad program. We have missed her so much but are glad that she is feeling much better.
• My Dominican dad, Lion, brought me roasted peanuts. I was so excited. He was trying to show we how to shell them and then he could tell that I had definitely had them before and love them!
• I was also so excited to see my mom shelling black beans. I love all types of beans, but especially black beans. Before this day, I had been only having pinto beans which  are great too! I also just sat on the couch and helped my mom and dad shell the beans which I really enjoyed!
• My mom also made Dulce, the stuff with sweet potatoes, coconut, and cinnamon. I sure ate well this day!

Thursday, June 13th

• Mangoes have started to become ripe, so we get to enjoy them all the time now!
• For lunch, I had rice, beans, and also pasta. It was interesting!
• I actually played baseball in the street instead of the driveway, so we actually had bases and played in the field and stuff.
• After, we played a little basketball. I love playing sports with the kids!
• That night, we went dancing at Patria's place, which is just basically a patio that they play music at.
• We played "Spin the Bottle," but dancing style. We had a bottle and whichever two people it landed on had to get up in the middle of the circle and dance together. It was pretty funny, because the bottle always landed on you and the person across from you. I don't think they really understood that it would always do that, because they would laugh every time it landed on two guys. I was thinking, seriously, that is always going to happen because two guys are sitting across from each other. It lasted way too long, but it was fun!

Friday, June 14th

• We actually met the principal on this day. It was fun because we walked with some of the kids in the community so they could show us where she lived. We were just walking and they all started stopping, we were really confused, but the principal had just passed us on her motorcycle. We stopped her and were able to meet her. She was real sweet and definitely excited to talk about plans!
• We went searching for mangoes! We do this quite often, now! We just climb through barbed wire fences and walk through pastures until we find a mango tree. This particular day, the mangoes were still a little under ripe, but it was a fun adventure!



You know, just hanging out in the pasture with the cows finding mangoes!

• I helped my mom make dinner tonight. I assisted in frying the plantains. It is an interesting process. First you cut the plantains into like two-inch slices then fry them. After, you place them in this little smasher and smash them, and then proceed to fry them one more time. They sure are tasty, but packed with oil! 
• I was also able to talk to Trey on the phone for the first time since I had been in the country, I missed him so much!

Saturday, June 15th

• Happy Birthday, Mom!
• Made bracelets with some girls.
• Played baseball in the driveway
• Went to the beach, this time I road on a motorcycle with three people. It was built for three people, but it was still a little scary!



We found Sea Urchins!

• We had fun playing in both the water and writing stuff in the sand together!



All of us girls!



• I was even able to talk to my best friend, Christin Watson, on the phone! It has been really difficult to communicate with her because her only day off at camp, they computer center is closed here. I am so glad we finally go to catch up, even if it was short!
• Went dancing at Patria's!

Sunday, June 16th

• At church this morning, a dog just decided to walk in and park himself on the pulpit. It was quite funny because no one wanted him there, but no one wanted to make a lot of noise to get him to leave.
• My brother Juan and his wife came over again and they brought there two kids. They were so precious. I was able to go on a mango search with all of them. It was fun to see my brother just climbing up in the tree shaking the branches while we collected all of the mangoes that fell. 
• Later I was playing with one of my nieces, Juanela, and she was wearing me out! I definitely fell asleep on the couch for a bit after that!
• That evening, I played dominoes with some of the younger boys. I am actually starting to understand how to play. We also started playing "21" with dominoes which  worked the same way it does with cards. They decided that whoever won had to dance to a song with me. I absolutely love hanging out with those sweet boys!

Monday, June 17th

• This is the day that we actually went to the school to "meet" with Agostina. It was great to be able to look at the school and see where we are going to plant the garden. 



Here are some kids hanging out in the mango tree!



We started doing headstands, wrestling, and just being silly out in the pasture!

• Went on yet another mango search. We actually like played this sort of freeze tag game and just hung out in the pasture and in the trees for awhile. Love making memories with these kids!



The freeze tag kind of turned into wrestling!

• Also, went dancing this evening. I have learned that we basically dance Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and maybe even more!

Tuesday, June 18th

• This day was sad, we had to say goodbye to two of our friends, Caitlin and Rose, who headed back to the U.S. today. We are going to miss them two so much!



Here is a group picture of us and some of our favorite kiddos!

• Just hung out with the kiddos and loved on them while they were sad that their friends had left. 
• It was definitely an unusual day because Alicen was sick as well. So we spent some time keeping her company.
• That night, I went to the house that Caitlin had lived in to hang out with her family to make sure they were doing alright!

Wednesday, June 19th

• Skyped with my good friend, Collin Soltis, from school today. It was great to catch up with him and see how The Lord was able to work through him and is team in their time in Thailand.
• Hung out with the boys, watching them play baseball. I seriously do this everyday.
• Started walking to the school, then found out that Agostina was still gone.
• Just hung out at "the corner" with Susie which is what our community, "La Esquina" is named after. 
• Eventually ended up playing baseball in the street. After a while, we lost the ball. This happens all the time, but we really lost it. After looking for it for a bit, we just gave up and took a mango break.
• After, we played basketball. It's a little interesting, because the basketball is really flat, but we still kind of have to dribble. It is basically, double-dribble, travel, double-dribble, travel... I love it though! 
• We have started playing this other "Spin the Bottle" game but instead of dancing, when the bottle head lands on you, you have to sing a song for 10 seconds. It is funny  because they always want to play it but when it lands on them they get really embarrassed and don't want to sing. I know like two songs in Spanish, and they always get a kick out of me trying to sing those.
• I had avocados for dinner! They were great!!
• After dinner, I went to Taylor's and we just colored out of a coloring book. I colored a picture of Jasmine and her tiger for my family and now it is displayed proudly in my living room!

Thursday, June 20th

• The internet has been having a little trouble these last few days, so I have been trying to Skype my dad but it hasn't been working too well. The call is dropped every few minutes. But, I was able to Skype my mom!
• Every day during lunch, if the electricity is on, my family and I always watch this show called "Caso Cerrado," which is "case closed" in English. I really don't understand much of it, but it is always super intense. I really enjoy attempting to understand it every day!
• Of course, I went to Confe's house and watched the boys play baseball. Confe's house is where all the younger boys congregate during the day. The kids that I keep talking about are between 12-15 years old that I hang out with every day!
• The dog that follows us around all the time decided to roll in dead animal the other day when we were on a mango hunt and has smelled really bad lately. While we were playing baseball, some kid through a lime at me. I decided it couldn't hurt to cut the lime in half and "pet" Patito with it. I don't actually know if it helped much, but he definitely enjoyed the attention!



Our sweet little friend, Patito!

• After, we played the singing style of "Spin the Bottle."
• We also had the interesting journey in the rain to the school!
• After, I played dominoes with my dad's cousin, Primo! He has become such a big brother to me, and I have loved spending time with him. He was real upset because I actually beat him in dominoes!!
• For dinner I had avocados once again, and my mom made these patties that reminded me a whole lot of hush puppies! They were just little cornmeal patties with onions, so good!!



One last picture, these are my wonderful Domincan parents Papa Lion and Mama Purita in front of our house. Love them so much!

So that is enough updating for now. It was kind of difficult to put some of the pictures where I wanted, so sorry if they look a little out of place. We are hoping to talk with Agostina this next week and get stuff started. I heard we are going to the beach today and I am really excited. Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers!

Te quiero mucho!

-Kinsey