Hola Todos,
Como estan? I'm officially back in the states. It's still weird to think of being surrounded by friends and family. I'm definitely going through quite a bit of reverse culture shock. It's weird for me to be surrounded by so many white people. that might sound weird, but true.
well i'm trying to process my experience. it's been helping me to buy some music online that reminds me of the Dominican Republic. I'm glad I feel better now because I got sick 3 days before leaving. But all is done and I'm pretty sure i got all A's done there. That's a first in college. Granted the classes were really easy though.
Gracias por todo que hicieron! (thanks for everything you guys did!)
Ciao! -Natalie
Prayer Requests:
1. transition
2. processing my trip and what God taught me
3. my heart is really discouraged. i miss the D.R. and my heart just feels really heavy in general
Sunday, April 27
Tuesday, April 22
The Roadtrip
Hola Todos,
How is everyone? This is probably my last blogging. I'm leaving in 3 days from this beautiful Island.
On Wednesday I have our last dinner with ISA program. That's going to be very hard saying goodbye to all my american friends here. I also have 3 more days to say bye to my dominican and haitian friends which seems even harder because i know that i won't see them anymore. Thursday is my last time to Sosua (one of the beaches).
This last weekend four of us girls went on a road trip to Punta Cana (6 hours away). we definitely concho styled it up with 4 people squished in the back the entire way there. we stopped in the capital to go out dancing saturday night which ended up a disaster. we went to this one club and it was sooooo packed in there and they were playing techno music which nobody in our group likes. so we moved onto the next place. it looked really cool inside and so we entered and i bought an energy drink. the energy drink costed $5!!! way too expensive! plus we asked the waitor and they ONLY played salsa music....too bad NONE of us know how to salsa, lol. plus dad this reminded me of creation fest because the base was so loud that you could feel the music in your body. way too loud! so we left there and went to a colmado which is basically a food place that everyone sits outside in plastic chairs and they play music. i officially danced one song.. woo hoo!! lol. Then we got back in the car and gave up on going out. we drove through the night....definitely know why people recommend you NOT to drive to the east during the night. there was definitely a tire in the middle of the highway, a dead horse in the middle of the road, and another horse randomly walking towards us. It was so weird to be driving on a highway going 70mph at times, and other times 25mph. ridiculous! plus there's potholes in the highway. VERY different than the freeways in the States. Well we dropped off Saleema at her new job and spent the entire Sunday at the beach. lol it was PACKED full of tourists and we definitely counted how many guys were wearing speedoes....i lost count at 18. sick!!! i was invited by some guys to play beach volleyball and i kicked their butt 3 times in a row~! i was the only girl. alot of the people thought i was from Spain when i talked. yay! what a compliment!
Coming home was easier and we got back at night. Through one of the towns there was flooding galore! we drove through a lot of water and at times i didn't think our taxi was going to make it. Plus i found out that there was a tornado in La Vega. scary! this island surprises me everyday!
Well that concludes that, thanks for all the support and prayers, ciao! -natalie
Prayer Requests:
1. transition transition transition! --i know getting back to the states i will have forgot about some things that i got used to here
2. saying bye to people here (it's already bumming me out that i have to leave these people)
3. safe trip/flight. also that i don't miss my connecting flight. i have a 3 hour layover in New York but hopefully that'll be enough to make my next flight. I fly out at 11:45am my time (8:45am oregon time) on friday to JFK and from JFK to PDX.
How is everyone? This is probably my last blogging. I'm leaving in 3 days from this beautiful Island.
On Wednesday I have our last dinner with ISA program. That's going to be very hard saying goodbye to all my american friends here. I also have 3 more days to say bye to my dominican and haitian friends which seems even harder because i know that i won't see them anymore. Thursday is my last time to Sosua (one of the beaches).
This last weekend four of us girls went on a road trip to Punta Cana (6 hours away). we definitely concho styled it up with 4 people squished in the back the entire way there. we stopped in the capital to go out dancing saturday night which ended up a disaster. we went to this one club and it was sooooo packed in there and they were playing techno music which nobody in our group likes. so we moved onto the next place. it looked really cool inside and so we entered and i bought an energy drink. the energy drink costed $5!!! way too expensive! plus we asked the waitor and they ONLY played salsa music....too bad NONE of us know how to salsa, lol. plus dad this reminded me of creation fest because the base was so loud that you could feel the music in your body. way too loud! so we left there and went to a colmado which is basically a food place that everyone sits outside in plastic chairs and they play music. i officially danced one song.. woo hoo!! lol. Then we got back in the car and gave up on going out. we drove through the night....definitely know why people recommend you NOT to drive to the east during the night. there was definitely a tire in the middle of the highway, a dead horse in the middle of the road, and another horse randomly walking towards us. It was so weird to be driving on a highway going 70mph at times, and other times 25mph. ridiculous! plus there's potholes in the highway. VERY different than the freeways in the States. Well we dropped off Saleema at her new job and spent the entire Sunday at the beach. lol it was PACKED full of tourists and we definitely counted how many guys were wearing speedoes....i lost count at 18. sick!!! i was invited by some guys to play beach volleyball and i kicked their butt 3 times in a row~! i was the only girl. alot of the people thought i was from Spain when i talked. yay! what a compliment!
Coming home was easier and we got back at night. Through one of the towns there was flooding galore! we drove through a lot of water and at times i didn't think our taxi was going to make it. Plus i found out that there was a tornado in La Vega. scary! this island surprises me everyday!
Well that concludes that, thanks for all the support and prayers, ciao! -natalie
Prayer Requests:
1. transition transition transition! --i know getting back to the states i will have forgot about some things that i got used to here
2. saying bye to people here (it's already bumming me out that i have to leave these people)
3. safe trip/flight. also that i don't miss my connecting flight. i have a 3 hour layover in New York but hopefully that'll be enough to make my next flight. I fly out at 11:45am my time (8:45am oregon time) on friday to JFK and from JFK to PDX.
Thursday, April 17
Some pix for yall
The first picture is at a random dominican birthday party. Notice the barbie hats...lol...PRICELESS! The second one is before Robin and I went dancing. The third is a picture at the Santo Domingo zoo with my HIPPOS!!! YAY i love hippos! and the last picture is with lil Haitian boys at Dajabon--the border of Haiti (which we got to cross!) and the Dom Republic.
My Last Weeks Here
Hola Todos,
How is everyone? I can't believe I'm about to come home. I fly in on the 25th, 8 days from now. Wow, time is flying. I'm excited to come home but sad because of the friends and things I've been able to experience here that don't exist in the States. But a cool thing happened. I prayed for God to transition me back to the states and he's done a really good job at that.
Last wednesday we had a huelga (a national strike). It's a little different than the ones in Europe like Talia tells me about. Here, the whole town shuts down basically. There were no conchos so some of our classes got canceled and I couldn't go to my orphanage because lack of conchos. We were told not to go out that night because these riots get pretty dangerous in the streets. But mostly just in the poorer neighborhoods so we were fine for the most part. There were some shootings in Naverrete which is 20 min away from Santiago. I saw footage on the news of Naverrete and it literally looked like Iraq with the vacant streets and the random groups of men shooting anywhere and everywhere. I figured Mom that i'd write you after the fact to let you know I'm alright and only got shot 2 in the leg but it's healed now....lol. Fast recovery, what can I say!?!
I went to Ensenada Beach with Angela--the lady who cleans and cooks for our house. Yisette came too. Lol, this was an interesting trip to the beach...to start off the story we got picked up at the gas station at 6:30am on a motorbike. The guy took us to Angela and the bus that was going. We definitely took a yellow school bus. Now...let's get this straight...school buses are supposed to hold around 100 people, 2 to a seat, right?! well we definitely crammed in 200 full grown people. And there were 3 people in my seat including me, with me on the end...yes....one butt cheek in the isle. COMFORTABLE! not...and then there was a lady's butt squished up against my face/side for like 1/2 hour. what was SUPPOSED to take 1 1/2 hours took 3 hours. This beach is REALLY dominican. By that, I mean that there were absolutely NO tourists. only gringa was me. yay! what fun...lol....just imagine the looks. "Whoa, a white girl! never seen one of those before!? I'm going to talk to HER". If I stood in one place for too long, i'd have too many "new lil friends" if you know what i mean. Well I ended up meeting a guy named Roberto that officially gave me my first dominican love letter. LOL! It was hilarious...apparently I'm the most beautiful flower in the garden lol.
Today was my last day of classes officially (ok i lied, i have one more on monday night for a little bit). YAY! I've finished over 1/2 of my final papers for my classes. I don't really have final exams, only one. But it's not that hard, school here for the "foreigners/exchange students" is kind of a joke.
We had our last day at the orphanage. It was really funny because I gave the kids some conversation hearts with the messages on them. Well they made me translate them into spanish but it's pretty hard to translate some phrases that DON'T EXIST in spanish like "Sweet Home". They gave me the oddest looks when I translated some of them. Well I did fine saying goodbye until I had to give a speech and I just lost it. Tears just started flowing. Omgosh that was SOO hard to say bye to those kids. Looking at Yoanni's face as I looked at her for the last time before shutting the gate was just as hard as when I had to say goodbye to my boys at the park last summer. Let's just say yesterday was a pretty hard day. Plus my host mom took me and Yisette over for a visit at her's friend's house. Well, I don't know if you know what I mean when i say when you can just tell two people talked about you before you get there? I just knew she told her that i can't speak good spanish (yes...this is the VERY sweet way my host mom introduces me to others...nice, right?!...not). Well she didn't talk to me whatsoever. She only talked to Yisette even though I understood everything she said. She even asked Yisette "where's she from?" talking about me when I was SITTING RIGHT THERE. It really hurt my feeling but of course my host mom wouldn't understand, nor Yisette because I'm sure she didn't notice that it happened.
I'm enjoying my last moments here. This is officially my last weekend in the DR and I think 4 of us girls are going to roadtrip to Punta Cana to move in a girl--Saleema who is working there for the summer. We'll see how this random road trip goes.
See you all really soon! -Ciao, Natalia
Prayer Requests/Praises:
1. Praise: Wrote a lot of my papers already
2. that God would continue to transition me from the DR and make it easier to leave here
3. that he would bind satan because satan has been attacking me recently in my self image and my spanish skills/confidence.
4. that'd i'd be able to say goodbye to all of those I want to
5. Praise: I was able to forgive a guy from our program who has really made me mad and doesn't deserve any apology. It felt so great afterwards not holding a grudge anymore.
How is everyone? I can't believe I'm about to come home. I fly in on the 25th, 8 days from now. Wow, time is flying. I'm excited to come home but sad because of the friends and things I've been able to experience here that don't exist in the States. But a cool thing happened. I prayed for God to transition me back to the states and he's done a really good job at that.
Last wednesday we had a huelga (a national strike). It's a little different than the ones in Europe like Talia tells me about. Here, the whole town shuts down basically. There were no conchos so some of our classes got canceled and I couldn't go to my orphanage because lack of conchos. We were told not to go out that night because these riots get pretty dangerous in the streets. But mostly just in the poorer neighborhoods so we were fine for the most part. There were some shootings in Naverrete which is 20 min away from Santiago. I saw footage on the news of Naverrete and it literally looked like Iraq with the vacant streets and the random groups of men shooting anywhere and everywhere. I figured Mom that i'd write you after the fact to let you know I'm alright and only got shot 2 in the leg but it's healed now....lol. Fast recovery, what can I say!?!
I went to Ensenada Beach with Angela--the lady who cleans and cooks for our house. Yisette came too. Lol, this was an interesting trip to the beach...to start off the story we got picked up at the gas station at 6:30am on a motorbike. The guy took us to Angela and the bus that was going. We definitely took a yellow school bus. Now...let's get this straight...school buses are supposed to hold around 100 people, 2 to a seat, right?! well we definitely crammed in 200 full grown people. And there were 3 people in my seat including me, with me on the end...yes....one butt cheek in the isle. COMFORTABLE! not...and then there was a lady's butt squished up against my face/side for like 1/2 hour. what was SUPPOSED to take 1 1/2 hours took 3 hours. This beach is REALLY dominican. By that, I mean that there were absolutely NO tourists. only gringa was me. yay! what fun...lol....just imagine the looks. "Whoa, a white girl! never seen one of those before!? I'm going to talk to HER". If I stood in one place for too long, i'd have too many "new lil friends" if you know what i mean. Well I ended up meeting a guy named Roberto that officially gave me my first dominican love letter. LOL! It was hilarious...apparently I'm the most beautiful flower in the garden lol.
Today was my last day of classes officially (ok i lied, i have one more on monday night for a little bit). YAY! I've finished over 1/2 of my final papers for my classes. I don't really have final exams, only one. But it's not that hard, school here for the "foreigners/exchange students" is kind of a joke.
We had our last day at the orphanage. It was really funny because I gave the kids some conversation hearts with the messages on them. Well they made me translate them into spanish but it's pretty hard to translate some phrases that DON'T EXIST in spanish like "Sweet Home". They gave me the oddest looks when I translated some of them. Well I did fine saying goodbye until I had to give a speech and I just lost it. Tears just started flowing. Omgosh that was SOO hard to say bye to those kids. Looking at Yoanni's face as I looked at her for the last time before shutting the gate was just as hard as when I had to say goodbye to my boys at the park last summer. Let's just say yesterday was a pretty hard day. Plus my host mom took me and Yisette over for a visit at her's friend's house. Well, I don't know if you know what I mean when i say when you can just tell two people talked about you before you get there? I just knew she told her that i can't speak good spanish (yes...this is the VERY sweet way my host mom introduces me to others...nice, right?!...not). Well she didn't talk to me whatsoever. She only talked to Yisette even though I understood everything she said. She even asked Yisette "where's she from?" talking about me when I was SITTING RIGHT THERE. It really hurt my feeling but of course my host mom wouldn't understand, nor Yisette because I'm sure she didn't notice that it happened.
I'm enjoying my last moments here. This is officially my last weekend in the DR and I think 4 of us girls are going to roadtrip to Punta Cana to move in a girl--Saleema who is working there for the summer. We'll see how this random road trip goes.
See you all really soon! -Ciao, Natalia
Prayer Requests/Praises:
1. Praise: Wrote a lot of my papers already
2. that God would continue to transition me from the DR and make it easier to leave here
3. that he would bind satan because satan has been attacking me recently in my self image and my spanish skills/confidence.
4. that'd i'd be able to say goodbye to all of those I want to
5. Praise: I was able to forgive a guy from our program who has really made me mad and doesn't deserve any apology. It felt so great afterwards not holding a grudge anymore.
Wednesday, April 2
Times Almost Up
Hola todos,
How are you guys? I'm good. I can't believe i'm coming home in 3 1/2 weeks. crazyness! I'm starting to get down to the wire on my classes and have quite a few 5 or 10 page spanish papers due. At least it's better than having finals, right?! amen to that! lol. Today, i was writing an email and another american girl was in the computer lab and i randomly decided to ask her if she goes to church around here and after our conversation i found out she's a christian! that's so comforting! we're excited to hang out this week.
This weekend our dominican-haitian relations class is going to the border of haiti. We get to go and experience what it's like. That's on friday. Then on Saturday thru Sunday ISA has an excursion to Santo Domingo where we're going to visit alot of museums and cool places.
Last friday a bunch of us celebrated a birthday of a girl in our program. we all went over to her apartment and ate mexican food. oh my gosh it tasted sooooo good! i haven't had mexican food since the states. after that, we went out dancing and i danced with a friend of mine. he has to be the best merengue dancer i've ever danced with and i had a ball. his name is Johansen. he told me that i really dance like a dominican. that might not mean anything to you guys, but that's the biggest compliment you can get with dancing is someone telling you you dance like a latina/dominicana.
lol so last night i was REALLY in the mood for french toast. i was hoping my host mom would randomly make it for me for dinner but i knew she wouldn't. nope, definitely not. she made me hot dogs and fries. so, i decided to wait until she went to sleep at 10pm and i went down to the kitchen and made myself french toast. that was the best darn french toast i've ever eaten! maybe i liked it because i haven't had in for 3 months. it was definitely the highlight of my day lol. pathetic, yes i know.
The orphanage is going great now. i get so excited to go and teach them now. i am now able to do educative games with them and they're learning. SLOWLY but they're learning none the less. natalie happened to take the wrong concho today. how are you supposed to expect an american to look at every concho car and see the small detail on the window that says either "K-villa" or "K"?! crazy dominicans lol.
well, i'm going to go now, love you all, ciao -natalie
Prayer Requests:
1. that i don't get stressed with all the papers i need to be doing. plus for time management that i don't procrastinate until the last moment
2. still temptation with boys. i'm doing so much better now but i know that's a HUGE downfall of mine.
3. being a good witness to those i'm around
4. that i'm able to hook up with kristen (the Christian girl i met today in the comp lab)
How are you guys? I'm good. I can't believe i'm coming home in 3 1/2 weeks. crazyness! I'm starting to get down to the wire on my classes and have quite a few 5 or 10 page spanish papers due. At least it's better than having finals, right?! amen to that! lol. Today, i was writing an email and another american girl was in the computer lab and i randomly decided to ask her if she goes to church around here and after our conversation i found out she's a christian! that's so comforting! we're excited to hang out this week.
This weekend our dominican-haitian relations class is going to the border of haiti. We get to go and experience what it's like. That's on friday. Then on Saturday thru Sunday ISA has an excursion to Santo Domingo where we're going to visit alot of museums and cool places.
Last friday a bunch of us celebrated a birthday of a girl in our program. we all went over to her apartment and ate mexican food. oh my gosh it tasted sooooo good! i haven't had mexican food since the states. after that, we went out dancing and i danced with a friend of mine. he has to be the best merengue dancer i've ever danced with and i had a ball. his name is Johansen. he told me that i really dance like a dominican. that might not mean anything to you guys, but that's the biggest compliment you can get with dancing is someone telling you you dance like a latina/dominicana.
lol so last night i was REALLY in the mood for french toast. i was hoping my host mom would randomly make it for me for dinner but i knew she wouldn't. nope, definitely not. she made me hot dogs and fries. so, i decided to wait until she went to sleep at 10pm and i went down to the kitchen and made myself french toast. that was the best darn french toast i've ever eaten! maybe i liked it because i haven't had in for 3 months. it was definitely the highlight of my day lol. pathetic, yes i know.
The orphanage is going great now. i get so excited to go and teach them now. i am now able to do educative games with them and they're learning. SLOWLY but they're learning none the less. natalie happened to take the wrong concho today. how are you supposed to expect an american to look at every concho car and see the small detail on the window that says either "K-villa" or "K"?! crazy dominicans lol.
well, i'm going to go now, love you all, ciao -natalie
Prayer Requests:
1. that i don't get stressed with all the papers i need to be doing. plus for time management that i don't procrastinate until the last moment
2. still temptation with boys. i'm doing so much better now but i know that's a HUGE downfall of mine.
3. being a good witness to those i'm around
4. that i'm able to hook up with kristen (the Christian girl i met today in the comp lab)
Tuesday, March 25
La Semana Santa
Hola Todos,
Como estan? Bien? Espero todo bien. Ok I'll stop with the spanish. One thing that is going to be very hard for me to do when i get back to the states is to only speak in english. i use spanglish constantly. Well, we had our spring break this past week, called Semana Santa (Holy week). I found out that the DR doesnt really celebrate Easter. People went to church and treated it like a normal day. But on the weekend everyone flocks to the beach--so we did the same. Me, Casey, and Robin spent the whole weekend together. In Cabarete we danced to reggaeton and hip hop. It was the COOLEST thing because they had a bubble machine. I definitely danced and got completely covered in soapy bubbles. Sorry I didn't have my camera with me or I would've taken a picture. It was amazing. In Sosua (another beach) I saw a little Haitian boy playing by himself and his mom was ignoring him. Well, I really felt like I was supposed to go play with him. But like satan usually is, all i could think about is the doubts i had "he prolly doesn't speak english or spanish, he's fine by himself." but i went anyways and he speaks spanish. His name is Antonio. He is 9 years old and the look on his face when i asked him if he wanted to build a sand castle with me was priceless. He light up SOOO much! Definintely a divine moment that I'll always remember. The highligh of my weekend , by far. We ended up making a sand turtle that he named "cookie" lol.
Since the kids at the orphanage didn't have any plans this weekend we decided to throw them a pool party on sunday. They were sooo estatic that we came. Claudia was out of town so it was only me, Robin, and another girl named Elsie that I haven't talked about before. We had a blast. The bad thing is a handful of them have pink eye now. I tried hard not to touch my eyes just in case but I think I'm good. GREAT NEWS: I showed up to teach english on monday and the kids were ALL ready to go and behaved SOOO well. It was a complete miracle. It got so bad that last wednesday we told them we weren't going to show up because they didn't deserve it. What a complete turn around! also, claudia and I made the hard decision to separate the class into those who couldn't continue and those who could. The ones who aren't, are going to work with claudia because many of them either have ADD or major psychological problems or are traumatized from past experiences--whether that was sexual abuse, neglect, etc.
Thank you for all your encouraging emails. That really helped me and continues to help me all the time.
Ciao, Natalie
Prayer Requests:
1. I might be tutoring/teaching a 15yr old dominican girl english. I haven't gotten ahold of her yet though. Guidance and patience with her specific learning style (Tal, I'm becoming a teacher like you now...lol)
2. the kids at the orphanage that seriously need psychological help and counseling
3. the kids at the orphanage get rid of their pink eye
4. Praise: i lost my 10 pg spanish paper that i had already written and PRAISE GOD i put my disk drive into another computer and it came up. i didn't have to write it again!!! what a miracle!
5. Praise: i'm doing a lot better with temptation with boys YAY FINALLY! but please still pray for self control and the desire for me to follow God instead of the world in this way.
Monday, March 17
Different Perspective
Hola Todas,
How are you guys? Things here have been interesting. I've received several encouraging emails from lots of you. I wasn't doing too hot earlier. I've been feeling really spiritually empty, and Praise God my mom called me in a perfect time right when I needed to talk to her.
The orphanage has been really frustrating. Claudia and I have been going and every time the kids aren't ready. You guys would be flabergasted by how unorganized the school system is down here. We came and the kids were moving around mattresses and then when we FINALLY started 30 min late, they wouldn't listen to me, pay attention, and were really disrespectful. So, as a result we've had enough and told the kids that this is NOT acceptable and we're not going to come on wednesday as a result so they can see what they're missing out on. Tomorrow we're talking to the mom (senora) of the house and telling her these problems. She's half the problem because she gives the kids chores to do when she knows we're coming then. They're not learning anything and not even learning how to respect people either.
I can't believe I only have 5 1/2 weeks left. How weird! I've realized that I really love this country and really hate it at the same time. I hate their systems of doing things (esp education) because they don't value it. But I absolutely adore the music, how much this country celebrates even the smallest of things, and the fact that the world moves a lot slower down here. It's relieving for once not to be soooo busy with too many committments. I still don't enjoy the glares and rude looks I get from Dominican girls though. I still don't really have any dominican girl friends. oh well. it sucks but I just have to deal with the fact.
The other day I was sitting reading my Bible and journaling and I noticed several Haitians walking around the corner. but to my knowledge, NOTHING existed around the corner, only a lot of plants and nature. Well...I was curious and went around the corner and there was a little nature trail. So I followed it and low and behold I saw something I couldn't believe. In the middle of nowhere, some haitians had constructed a house out of cardboard boxes, sheets, and sticks. It was the poorest house I'd ever seen. I can't believe it exists behind these beautiful apartment buildings. It was as if two worlds were existing in the same place. I wish you guys could've seen it. I just couldn't believe that they had to live there. I wonder what they do when it rains...
so, i'm guessing the haitians definitely ate our cat. sad day lol. he has been missing for 3 1/2 weeks. don't expect him back anytime soon. Last weekend we went to the beach--Sosua. It was beautiful as usual and me and my friend robin shared a virgin pina colada in a pineapple. there was actually chunks of pineapple in it. it was DELICIOSO! Qué rico la bebida! (the drink tasted amazing). well I don't have much to say this time.
Ciao, Natalia
Prayer Requests:
1. That our meeting goes well with Rosa (the mom at the orphanage) tomorrow at 9:30am (6:30am for you guys)
2. temptation with boys (but praise God it's been getting better)
3. the kids at the orphanage would learn something or there would be some progress
How are you guys? Things here have been interesting. I've received several encouraging emails from lots of you. I wasn't doing too hot earlier. I've been feeling really spiritually empty, and Praise God my mom called me in a perfect time right when I needed to talk to her.
The orphanage has been really frustrating. Claudia and I have been going and every time the kids aren't ready. You guys would be flabergasted by how unorganized the school system is down here. We came and the kids were moving around mattresses and then when we FINALLY started 30 min late, they wouldn't listen to me, pay attention, and were really disrespectful. So, as a result we've had enough and told the kids that this is NOT acceptable and we're not going to come on wednesday as a result so they can see what they're missing out on. Tomorrow we're talking to the mom (senora) of the house and telling her these problems. She's half the problem because she gives the kids chores to do when she knows we're coming then. They're not learning anything and not even learning how to respect people either.
I can't believe I only have 5 1/2 weeks left. How weird! I've realized that I really love this country and really hate it at the same time. I hate their systems of doing things (esp education) because they don't value it. But I absolutely adore the music, how much this country celebrates even the smallest of things, and the fact that the world moves a lot slower down here. It's relieving for once not to be soooo busy with too many committments. I still don't enjoy the glares and rude looks I get from Dominican girls though. I still don't really have any dominican girl friends. oh well. it sucks but I just have to deal with the fact.
The other day I was sitting reading my Bible and journaling and I noticed several Haitians walking around the corner. but to my knowledge, NOTHING existed around the corner, only a lot of plants and nature. Well...I was curious and went around the corner and there was a little nature trail. So I followed it and low and behold I saw something I couldn't believe. In the middle of nowhere, some haitians had constructed a house out of cardboard boxes, sheets, and sticks. It was the poorest house I'd ever seen. I can't believe it exists behind these beautiful apartment buildings. It was as if two worlds were existing in the same place. I wish you guys could've seen it. I just couldn't believe that they had to live there. I wonder what they do when it rains...
so, i'm guessing the haitians definitely ate our cat. sad day lol. he has been missing for 3 1/2 weeks. don't expect him back anytime soon. Last weekend we went to the beach--Sosua. It was beautiful as usual and me and my friend robin shared a virgin pina colada in a pineapple. there was actually chunks of pineapple in it. it was DELICIOSO! Qué rico la bebida! (the drink tasted amazing). well I don't have much to say this time.
Ciao, Natalia
Prayer Requests:
1. That our meeting goes well with Rosa (the mom at the orphanage) tomorrow at 9:30am (6:30am for you guys)
2. temptation with boys (but praise God it's been getting better)
3. the kids at the orphanage would learn something or there would be some progress
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