God is Good!

So, I have not been sick for over a week now and am feeling great! My rash and bruising that lingered on my legs after my fever finally went away as well a few days ago! I loved how concerned the community was about my health and all the home remedies that everyone wanted to try on me to make me better! My friends treated me to a beach excursion once I was feeling better which was wonderful! We weren't really aware that we were going at the time though so we didn't have our swimsuits but it did feel great to just be outside and put my legs in the water. The picture below is at the part of the beach that we usually go to but on this particular day there were much more people than usual! Sunday's in the DR are beach days. The whole family goes and they cannot forget the big pot of spaghetti! Yes, spaghetti, that is one of the wonderful traditions in this country! Anyway, on this particular day we weren't with the whole family and were just with a few friends so we didn't have spaghetti with us, but I am hoping I do get to experience spaghetti on the beach at some point!

Me on the beach!

We have also made some other types of art such as bracelets, earrings, and wind chimes have probably been our favorite! We have made all different types with beads, shells, bottle caps, or just about anything we can find! We have loved making crafts where we just use things we find instead of having to buy stuff!

This is another part of the beach that we spent more time at collecting shells and just hanging out! We were the only ones in this little cove and we spent a good part of the day enjoying the sun and making memories with one another!

This is Jhondrayli(John Riley). I have no clue why he has such a normal American sounding name with such an odd spelling! Anyway, this is him cracking open almonds from the trees surrounding our little cove that we were at! He now has a new nickname, "mono," which is monkey in Spanish because of this particular behavior pictured above! The raw almonds were so tasty and he was pretty good at opening them up for us!

I don't have a picture of what we had for lunch, but it was pizza and it was great! The guys ran into town and ordered Canadian bacon pizza and brought Coke to drink for us. I can not explain how much I have missed pizza and just simply eating it on the beach was wonderful! Later, they brought back another pizza but this time Canadian bacon with corn. It was interesting, but pretty good! After we were done in that little cove we went to two other beaches and finally actually got in the water with our clothes on! It felt so good and was such a great day hanging out with wonderful friends! I will hopefully post more pictures later! Anyway, I took the rest of last week pretty slow because I didn't want to wear myself out after being sick for a week! 
Here are some pictures of things I spent my time doing!

Mama Luisa, Taylor's mom, showed us how to make peanut brittle and it was so good! We have decided this is something that we are going to try to make when we get back to the U.S.

 We still haven't started planting the garden at the school yet, but we have actually realized that we were not ready to start anyways. We thought we were prepared, but have started to understand the purpose of the stumbling blocks God has placed along our way. He needed more time to prepare us for something greater! We have started doing some of the activities in the curriculum with some of the kiddos that hang out with us to start teaching them about gardening! Below are some pictures of one particular activity!

We started by collecting plastic bottles that we found in the backyard and proceeded to cut them in half. 

This is Johanny and Trini digging for soil to place in our "mini gardens"

After cutting the bottles, we inverted them and placed the soil and a seed in the top. Then, we put water in the bottom half of the bottle. After, we unscrewed the top of the bottle just enough so that water can be draw into the soil, but the soil doesn't fall into the water!

This is Trini and I. She is such a sweetheart and loves to learn how to make and do new things! I have loved getting to know her and spend lots of time with her!

Here is an example of one of our wind chimes with the flag of The Dominican Republic painted on it!

So, something else that I have been doing this week is researching stuff about keyhole gardening because we have decided that type of garden would work wonderfully in this community. I will give a short explanation of how keyhole gardens work because I am not sure if anyone is familiar with how they function!

This is a diagram of the way keyhole gardens look.

This an example of a finished product!

So, keyhole gardens... They are made entirely of items that can be composted. A barrier is needed such as rocks or bricks for the outside. Then, a 3:1 ratio of brown to green items is needed to create the surface to plant on. Brown items consist of cardboard boxes, paper, newspaper, magazines, feed sacks, clothes, and anything else that can break down.  Green items consist of soil, manure, branches, leaves and other such things. To build, you place cardboard boxes all on the bottom and outside of the structure putting water on top to attract the bugs. You also place a sort of trashcan in the middle right behind the path to use later. You continue to do this alternating between brown and green items until the area is full. Then, you place real rich soil on the top and plant! The "trashcan" in the middle serves as a place to continue to place items that will compost and create more nutrients for the soil!  I hope this was an accurate explanation and that you understand now. I have spent some of this last week maximizing my vocabulary in Spanish so that I can explain this same thing but to people here. I have successfully explained the garden to around 10 people and have asked them to start collecting any of these items that they have! It has been great because they have told me what they have started to collect and let me know that they have started telling others to do the same!  It is really becoming a community effort which is what we wanted all along. Now I am beginning to understand the reasons why we haven't been able to start planting the garden yet. The Lord wanted us to inspire the whole community to become involved and we needed time to gain knowledge for explanation! The Lord works in marvelous ways and I love when he reveals the purpose of his plans. I also enjoy thinking back to the times when I was frustrated that we hadn't started yet and realizing that there was much more God needed to still prepare. So, I have been spending time having conversations with people in the community explaining keyhole gardens and showing them how they can help! It has been very rewarding and I am loving every minute of it! When I ask people if they understand, their response is usually "mas o menos," meaning more or less, so I still have work to do but hopefully people are getting it! Anyway, there was a special holiday this last week in the U.S. that of course we still celebrated here in the DR. Our initial plans didn't happen, but nonetheless, The Fourth of July happened. We had wanted to build a bonfire and roast marshmallows and make S'mores but we had a hard time explaining marshmallows or finding them! So then we decided we could get hot dogs and roast them instead. Well, that didn't happen either because someone mentioned pizza and we decided that was American enough! So, we went to a nearby town called Cabrera with about 12 of us and had pizza and ice cream! It was wonderful! The food here has a lot of flavor, but definitely isn't very spicy so my friend Alicen and I spotted the Tabasco sauce on the table and made sure to douse our pizza in it! We got very strange looks, but it tasted SO good! I think we have a few pictures from that night which I will post later! I am sad because we also wanted to teach the community how to "Two-Step," on Independence Day but like the rest of our ideas, that didn't happen. But, we are definitely still going to do that at some point! Another thing we wanted was sparklers, but hey, the pizza and ice cream was a success! Anyway, this weekend we went on a trip to a town called Jarabacoa where our professor, Christine, is staying right now with a group of study abroad students. It was a great weekend, but I think I am going to wait to explain about it because this is already long and I want to post some pictures too! Thanks again for your love and support for me this summer! It is going by so fast but I am enjoying it SO much!

Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God."

So, this post will actually be short! I am sad because as of today, I officially have exactly a month until I am leaving this wonderful country. I will definitely be looking forward to going home, but also not wanting to leave! Anyway, this past week has been very interesting and yet not interesting at all. Starting on Friday night I wasn't feeling that great and discovered that I had a fever. I rarely ever get sick in the states and I am really not the best a being sick. Even though my body needs the rest, I really struggle to just lay on the couch all day while my body heals. So Saturday, I took it pretty easy and actually just hung out on the couch. Christine, our professor, did come visit us on Saturday night and so I did hang out with her and the other girls some that night. Well, Saturday night the fever got a little out of hand. It got up to nearly 104. I figured that was probably significant enough to need to go to the hospital. So Sunday morning, Christine, Taylor, and I went to the hospital in a nearby city. "Hospital" here is a little different story. It was basically a room with a few beds and a doctor. She talked to me and tried to figure out what was going on. I had to go to a clinic to get blood work done to ensure that I didn't have Dengue, which is the disease caused by mosquitoes that Christine just got over. Thankfully, the blood work showed that I didn't have Dengue! We went to a pharmacy and I got me a good supply of Tylenol. Then we went home and I just slept all day. Well then proceeded to do that everyday until Friday morning when my fever finally broke! So, I am feeling so much better now, finally regaining strength. My diagnosis was some sort of virus that has been just making its way around our community. It pretty much is just a fever. But there is also a little rash and bruising that has decided to linger on my feet and legs. I think it just is a result from poor circulation during my fever. It is getting better and I am so thankful. The Lord definitely works in crazy ways. I love how He needed to make me physically weak so that in Him I could be strong.  The Lord knows exactly what you need always and this week I needed to be still and know that He is God. Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers!

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

Becoming Unified

"2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to one hope when you were called- 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." Ephesians 4:2-6

Hola!
Sorry it has been so long since I have made a post! It has officially been a little over a week since I have been in my community. I have loved every minute of it! This week has been a little bit crazy because a group from my professor's church in College Station arrived here on Tuesday.  We have been recruited some to participate in the activities that they are doing. For example, yesterday we were able to paint two people's houses that live right outside of our community. It was so great to see the joy that they had in seeing us paint and even painting with us.  The mom that lives in one of the houses even said that us painting was only possible with God. I loved seeing her thank the one who was responsible for working through us. Okay, let me try to give a pretty quick recap of the week. My days will probably run together, but I will try to keep them separate. So on Monday, after class, I had lunch with my family.  Lunch usually consists of various items, but usually rice and beans and some type of meat. I have loved basically all the things that Mama Purita has fixed for me! Monday afternoon I hung out with my new friends Lleni and Johanny, who I mentioned in my last post. Thankfully, my friends and I brought a great deal of string because all the girls ever want to do is make bracelets. So the majority of Monday afternoon I spent hanging out with my new friends making bracelets together.  Lleni, pronounced Jenny, still talks really fast and I can never tell if she actually understands me. But Johanny on the other hand is extremely patient and loves to work with my Spanish.  The two girls invited me over to their house and I got to meet the rest of their family.  Their mom talks super fast and is SO hard to understand, but I am hoping if I can learn to understand her then I will be able to understand relatively anyone else!  For dinner, my mom made soup! It was basically a sort of noodle soup with chicken broth noodles, and herbs. It was really good! I think it rained a lot Monday night, so I wasn't able to do much more in the evening but just hang out with my parents and watch TV, which I really do enjoy!  On Tuesday after class, Christine, my professor, arrived with her church group. It was fun getting to know them and introducing them to the community.  For lunch on Tuesday, I had the most amazing fish! It was blackened and SO good. I didn't realize how much I had missed fish. I have rarely eaten fish with all the bones intact so I was having to watch and see how my parents were eating their fish. Right after lunch, Oliver and Company was on TV so I was able to watch a movie that I know pretty well in English in Spanish which helps a ton! My mom as well as Taylor's mom are involved in a Women's Club that meets on Tuesday afternoons, so Taylor and I joined them! I think they really appreciated us being there and we enjoyed attempting to understand what they have been doing and their future plans. Later on in the afternoon I just hung out with Lleni and Johanny at their house.  While there, I made a date with their mom to teach her how to make bracelets on Wednesday afternoon. I was really nervous about spending a lot of time with their mom because I knew the language barrier would be rough. For dinner, my mom made pan-fried plantains which I have really grown to love. Also, my other favorite thing she makes is just scrambled eggs with sauteed onions which we also had for dinner. She knows that I love onions and usually I get the more than once a day! Wednesday was a crazy, but awesome day!! After class, I went down to where some of my other friends as well as my professor lives. There are always a lot of kids hanging out down there, so it is fun to play with them. I was able to play baseball with a few of the boys and it was so fun. I love being able to do things that doesn't involve a whole lot of communication to give myself a break!  At first, a young boy named Ronny and I were just throwing back and forth on their driveway. He was playing catcher and I was the pitcher. He loved how I actually lifted my leg up like pitchers do when they pitch! Later, he brought out Heramia and a bat! So I played catcher while Ronny pitched and Heremia bat.  Then, it was my turn to bat. I didn't think I was that good at baseball, but the boys were getting a kick out of how well I could hit the ball. They kept inviting other boys out to watch me. It was slightly embarrassing, but fun. I credit most of my baseball knowledge to playing church softball in highschool. Just a quick shoutout to anyone who helped shape me into the great player I am!  After lunch, it was time to go help Johanny and Lleni's mom learn to make bracelets and headbands.  She just watched me and tried to learn by sight. I felt bad because not too much longer after I had been there, my friend Alicen told me that everyone was going to the beach.  I knew that Lleni and Johanny and family were going to church shortly anyway so I told them that I would come by the next day to teach some more. I was so excited to go to the beach because I hadn't been able to go yet. I was walking toward my house to change my clothes and then realized that my parents had already gone to church. I was hoping that they hadn't locked the doors, but they had. So I wasn't able to put a swimsuit on. Oh well, I wasn't going to let that ruin my fun at the beach.  I wasn't quite sure how we were going to get to the beach and I was nervous that I was going to have my first experience on the back of a motorcycle, which is the basic means of transportation around our community.  I was excited to learn that we were all headed to the beach in the back of a pick-up. It was so fun and it definitely felt like home! As we were heading to the beach, the weather definitely started looking a tad bit rough, but we weren't going to let a little rain ruin our day. The beach is only about a ten minute drive, which is so great!! After arriving, we all headed to the water. I really wished that I had a swimsuit, but I went right on in with my T-shirt and shorts. It was beautiful and so much fun.  Sadly after just a few minutes the dark clouds swarmed the beach and it started raining a bit.  It started getting pretty cold so we decided to leave.  The rain decided to pick up a lot on our way back to our community. Let's just say, the ride in the back of the pick-up was not as lovely on the way back.  It was basically pouring and we were all getting soaked.  The rain sort of felt like little knives stabbing into us and it was freezing, but we all enjoyed experiencing this crazy time together! The rain continued for most of the early evening so once again I spent time at my house with my parents. It wasn't just filled with watching TV like usual though.  My mom and I sort of starting playing a "game." We were supposed to bring vocabulary words for school the next day, so I decided to ask my mom to tell me the words she thought I needed to know. This just turned into her pointing at things and me saying the word in Spanish. If I didn't know the word she would right it down for me. It was fun to just spend time with her learning new things. At 8:00, we went to the computer center where we have class to watch a movie. This time it was a treat for us because we were able to watch "The Mask" in English. It was fun and after it was over I headed to bed. Yesterday was also a pretty packed day! After class was over, Christine asked us if we wanted to go help her paint some houses.  Of course we did so we headed up the road to begin! Like I mentioned earlier, it was a great experience to paint alongside them.  We painted after class until lunch then headed back up after lunch to finish painting.  When I got back to my house, there were some people playing dominoes in my front yard.  I never had really paid any attention on how to play, but this time they were encouraging Taylor and I to learn.  Taylor told me after watching that it was a game called, "Chicken Foot," which I had still never played but it was easy to catch on.  I am hoping that I will be able to play soon! My mom decided to make Taylor and I a little afternoon snack. It was SO SO SO good. It was a mash of sweet potatoes, coconut, milk, sugar, and cinnamon. I think she realized that we like it and she will probably make it more often! For the next while, Taylor and I just spent some time together talking which we hadn't done in a while. It was great to catch up with her and talk about all the joys we had experienced. After dinner, I went over to Taylor's and hung out with her and her family. Her sweet nephew was over and so I enjoyed playing with Ericson. He is three years old and is precious! Not too much later, it was time to go to sleep! Write now I am at the computer center waiting for my mom, like my real mom Jaylynn, to get home so that we can Skype! I just heard my friend say that we are going to be dancing tomorrow night, so I will finally get to learn. I am nervous, but hopefully it will go well. I have posted just a few pictures below and will try to post more soon.  We are going to try to take some pictures of our houses and with our families this weekend so that we can post them this next week. The following pictures are Taylor's and Alicen's, FYI. I just took them off of "The Dominican Experience" page on Facebook! My camera broke recently, so I didn't bring one with me. School is officially over today so we are hoping to start talking to the teachers this next week! Anyway, enjoy and I will post more soon!

This is almost our whole group. From left to right: Alicen, me, Rose, Caitlin, and Taylor.  Susie didn't come with us the day we went to the caves so she isn't in this picture. Taylor, Alicen, and I are doing the gardening project while Caitlin, Rose, and Susie are helping Christine with research!

This is Taylor, Alicen, and our new friend Lleni! They were showing the headbands and bracelets they had made!

Left to right: Sonya, Me, Yari, and Johanny. We were just hanging out at Alicen's house. Yari is Alicen's Dominican littler sister. Sonya is one of Yari's friends from school and Johanny is my new adorable and patient friend!

This is Ericson. He is Taylor's Domincan nephew! Isn't he adorable?!

This is the beach that is only ten minutes away. Hopefully we will be able to go often!

This is also at the beach, where a river feeds into the ocean.

This is a stray dog that always follows us Americans, and only us. We have named him "Patito," which means little duckling, fitting him perfectly! The community has begun to care for this dog because they have seen how much we love him!

I know this blog was kind of long, but I hope you all enjoyed the update. I have loved becoming part of the family in this community! In just a short time we are becoming unified. I thank God for placing these new friends in my life, I love them all so much! The love that they show is incredible and of God. Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers. Te quiero mucho!

-Kinsey

Loving in a New Way

One of my favorite verses in the bible is this: " And love means living the way God commanded us to live. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is this: Live a life of love." It is from 2 John 6. Heck, I even named my blog after this verse. Over these last few days, The Lord has been preparing me to love in a new way.  I have learned the importance of living a life of love through service. I am starting to realize that I may not be able to show my new friends or parents love through words, but I can love on them through my actions. The verse in 2nd John says "love means living the way God commanded us to live," and his command is for us to love in all aspects. These different ways of love consist of giving, affirmation, touch, service, time, and many other ways.  The Lord didn't call us to just love in one of these ways, but to employ all of these qualities when we love because each person differs in the way they receive love. I have begun to understand the words, "live a life of love" more over these last few days than I ever have before. I thank God for using these powerful words to encourage me to live alongside others and love the way He loves me. 

So, my Spanish is improving! I know it will take a while, but I am starting to understand more! In Spanish class, we have started to just practice with vocabulary instead of learning how to conjugate verbs in different forms. I am excited because more vocabulary is really all we need right now. This morning, we wrote words in English and in Spanish on the board then had to create sentences using them.  After that, we played a sort of "hot potato." We had a card that we were passing around in a circle, but in order to pass it to the next person, we had to say a vocabulary word in both English and Spanish. This game is very helpful because it makes you have to say a word on the spot, which is very practical. Later, we played the same game, but we had to say the word and then use it in a sentence. This was much harder, but it is going to help so much! 

Now I am going to give a short update on what I have done since my last post. Every week day usually consists of roughly the same thing.  I wake up in the morning around 7:00 and will usually run with my friend Taylor. After running I will take a shower and then eat breakfast.  My mom, Pura, always has breakfast sitting on the table for me with bowls covered by plates and then all covered by a towel so that the bugs can't get to my food.  She does this for every meal and not just breakfast. I love it because it creates a sense of surprise.  Every time I sit down at the table, I take off the towel and then remove the first plate from on top of the bowl. It is fun, because I have no clue what is under there and it is always a surprise!! For breakfast, I usually have some bread with cheese or butter on it along with coffee or hot chocolate.  But, this morning was different. I had scrambled eggs, yucca root and potatoes.  All of the food my mom makes is very good, but there portion sizes are insane here! After breakfast, I go to school from about 8:30 to 10:30 and then stay til around 12:00 just using my computer.  The computer center is just a few minutes down the road from my house, so I leave a little before noon.  When I get back home, lunch is usually waiting for me on the table.  After lunch, I usually go sit outside on the porch with my dad.  He owns a animal feed business and just sits outside all day while customers come by, so I enjoy keeping him company.  Depending on how the previous night's sleep was, I might take a little siesta. The afternoons are usually spent hanging out with kids in the community along with my friends from the states.  Alicen, Taylor, and I enjoy singing on Taylor's front porch while she plays guitar.  I usually eat dinner around 6:30 and then just hang out with my parents until I go to sleep either watching TV or just talking.  I have learned that the electricity turns off at unexpected times so my family enjoys watching TV when it is available.  I tend to go to sleep between 9:30-10:30 depending on if I get hooked on a specific movie or not. May is supposed to be the month of rain, and I have noticed the rain slowing over these past two days which has been so nice.  I have actually slept during the night more than a few hours! I have noticed that the chickens and roosters have no since of time because they cluck and cock-a-doodle-do at all hours of the night.  Last night, I knew it must be the morning because all the roosters were crowing but it was only 2:00AM. I guess this is something I will just have to get used to. I think the weekends will usually be spent just hanging out with the community.  On Saturday, it was raining the bulk of the day so weren't able to do a whole lot. On Sunday morning, I went to church with my family.  They have established a really small catholic church in the community.  It was great to see how involved my family was in the service! My dad is the priest and my mom leads all the singing.  Although I couldn't understand hardly anything that was going on during the service, it was great to see how passionate these individuals are for The Lord. After church, my family and I had breakfast and later Taylor, Alicen, and I had our own worship.  My mom was telling me that she was going to be at church again from 11:00-12:00 and that she would leave lunch on the table for me. While at Taylor's house, her mom asked us if we would like to go up to the church again.  I wasn't sure what we were going to do there, but we all went again.  I think it was basically just a late service, although once again, I couldn't understand much.  I think our families really appreciate us being there though! That afternoon, Taylor and I spent more time singing together.  It was fun because some people came by and just sat and listened to us sing.  We only know one song in Spanish, but everyone seems to get a kick out of us singing "Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord," in their language. Two young girls came by and listened to Taylor and I sing for a while. After we were finished, we started to talk with them some.  The phrase that I used the most was "Yo no entiendo," which means, " I don't understand." I could tell that the girls were getting frustrated because I didn't know what they were saying by they would speak really slowly and use hand gestures so hopefully I could get the gist of what they were saying. They were so patient and it was also great practice for me!  When I didn't understand something after multiple trials, we would just all sit and laugh together! Later, I took them over to my house and we made some bracelets together. It was fun to be able to do something that didn't not require words. I am very glad that I was able to meet these two girls and I know that our friendship will continue to strengthen! Anyway, it is almost time for lunch here so I better go! Thanks again for thinking about me and I am hoping to posts some pictures soon!

-Kinsey

Silence is Golden

Well, it would be quite the understatement to say that adjusting to this new life has been very hard.  Don't get me wrong, I really do love my new home! Communication has been quite an issue though. I have learned a lot over these last few days, but my Spanish is still not where I would like it to be.  I tend to sit and "listen" to others speak Spanish although I can't understand much. I wish I could say that "silence is golden," but not necessarily in this situation. It can be a bit boring and tiring to just sit and only understand every 10th word. I am odd in the fact that I can speak much better than I can understand.  It is nice because I can talk to people and ask questions, but then I don't always know what they are trying to say back to me. I really like the house that I get to live in. It is really nice and I love my new family.My new parents are so sweet, and I have enjoyed talking with them.  My dad's name is Lion and my mom's name is Pura. They have eight children, and seventeen grandchildren.  None of their kids or grandchildren live in La Esquina but some live nearby and will come visit often.  There are many times when I try to say something to my mom or dad but I can't figure out how to say it so I just stop, then we just smile and laugh and everything is okay.  I do feel bad because my mom will try to explain something to me and I don't always understand so she has to get up and show me things all the time! I really have enjoyed all of the meals she has prepared for me although some of them are quite interesting! My friends and I have also been taking Spanish lessons with Alex who runs the computer center. They have been helpful, but we are all on different levels so it is kind of hard to accomplish much. He is a good teacher, but he cannot always explain in English so it can be pretty confusing. Class is at 8:30 and we get access to Wifi while we are in class and continue to use it until 12:00 without any charge.  So I should be able to check Facebook and my email, as well as update my blog on a fairly regular basis. Yesterday, some boys in the community took us girls to some caves.  It was quite an interesting trek, but we all survived and it was really fun! Last night, we watched Ice Age 2 in Spanish but it was very hard to understand it at all. I have enjoyed getting to know different people in the community, and cannot wait until I will be able to converse with them much better.  Sleeping has been an issue because it storms like crazy in the night and my tin roof is extremely loud. Also, there are chickens everywhere and they like to make themselves known early in the morning.  I am sure I will get used to this and will be able to sleep well soon. I do love how their culture takes part in siestas because it is a great way for me to catch up on my lack of sleep. I am excited to see what the weekend brings because it the time of many fiestas. I will have the opportunity to meet a lot of new people as well as learn to dance! I think we may also go to the beach, and I am excited to do something really relaxing. Thanks again for all the prayers! I will be updating everyone again soon!

-Kinsey

"Patience is a Virtue"

Well, after waking up at 5:00am yesterday morning, I finally arrived to Santo Domingo at 8:30pm(ET). Yesterday was quite a crazy day. The plan was to fly from Miami to Dallas at 7:40am and arrive at 11:30am(ET). Then, I was supposed to fly from Miami to Santo Domingo at 12:50pm and land at 3:00pm. Well, that didn't quite happen the way I had planned. The flight from Dallas to Miami went very smoothly and I did arrive at 11:30am. However, my flight from Miami to Santo Domingo was a different story. We started boarding the plane around 12:14, which was normal.  Everyone had boarded and we were just waiting to take off. After the last safety check, I thought it was time but boy was I wrong. There was some kind of maintenance problem that needed to be cleared. We had already started our journey to the runway, and then the captain informed us that maintenance needed to take a look at our problem. By now, it was around 1:30 which really wasn't that much of a delay. Well, we ended up having to bring our plane back in to a different gate to allow maintenance to assess the problem. After about 15 minutes, the captain informed us that this particular plane had a history with this maintenance problem. He then continued to say that we would all need to get off this plane because the maintenance would take a few hours.  The captain did explain to us that we shouldn't have to wait for the maintenance, we would just schedule a different plane. So after reading all these confusing signs and riding a skytrain, I arrived at the new gate. Originally the captain told us this new flight should leave around 3:30(remember I was supposed to arrive in the DR at 3:00). We ended up boarding this new plane a little before 4:00 and I figured we were ready to roll. But, I was wrong.  Apparently the crew that was on this new plane we had acquired was not able to fly internationally because of legality issues so we had to get a new crew.  Our captain informed us that as soon as the first officer of the new crew arrived we would be well on our way.  I guess it was wrong of me to think that should just take a few minutes.  To compensate for our delay, our seats were stalked with pillows and blankets this time. So I decided to nap. I woke up around 4:45 and knew I must have been so tired if I could have slept through our take off. But wait, we still hadn't left. At this time, the captain told us that the first officer had been located and he was on his way.  At around 5:45 he arrived and we took off at 6:00.  Just keep in mind that my friend Taylor and our professor Christine had been waiting for me at the airport since 3:00.  After finally getting in the air, the 1:45 minute flight went by in a flash and I was able to reach the DR smoothly. Taylor and Christine greeted me with so much love as we all talked about the long days we had. We arrived in a wonderful hotel in Santo Domingo and had a great night's rest.

Although yesterday was a rough day, I learned the importance of patience. I know that this summer I will have to be more patient than I ever have before and The Lord knows this too. He used yesterday to prepare me for the trials I will have ahead and I thank Him for that. Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers for me yesterday, I am so blessed!

-Kinsey