Jarabacoa & Valentine's Day

Hola todos,

Como estan? Well I had the most amazing weekend. We went to Jarabacoa and rode horses. I actually got to gallop for the first time. It was the coolest thing I have EVER done before. It was so freeing. Each one of us had a little guy riding and guiding the horse that sat behind us. Ok...my "lil" guy was 16 but most of them were around 8 years old. At the end of the trail we came to a waterfall and got to swim in it. That was also another first. It was so powerful though, we couldn't stand directly under it without getting plastered with water and losing our swimsuit bottoms I'm sure. Not exactly on my list of things to try lol. Maybe next time, jk. lol.

Yesterday for valentine's day a group of 6 of us girls decided to surprise my kids at the orphanage and throw them a party. It was seriously my favorite valentine's day ever. The look on their faces when we were playing musical chairs, eating cake/candy/pop, and dancing merengue was priceless. Truly the face of Jesus himself it felt like. Funny story with the party though...as we were waiting to concho to the house it literally POURED. we were completely soaked when we arrived and after the party we were trying to catch a concho. Do you know how HARD it is to catch a concho at night when you can't see if it's a concho or not?! well....one of them stopped so we literally ran...all six gringa of us...and jumped in. we were so relieved to find one finally. the chofer was all like "ah ay ay girls! i'm not working right now." we felt pretty stupid lol. I have to say that was the first time getting kicked out of a concho. I guess there's a first for everything lol. After the party 8 other girls came over to my house and the 10 of us hung out and ate american junkfood for 3 hours talking. it was so much fun especially because it was with people I don't always hang out with. Good times.

Thank you grandma for your letter. That was sweet of you to send me a letter. The mail is SOOO slow here. I know other people have told me they've sent me some things via the mail but I haven't received them so far. I keep hoping every day it'll come but not yet. Oh well, I'll just learn to be patient.

Well, I met my host grandma this last week. She's such a sweetheart. She hugged me like twice and kept saying "tan bella!" which means how beautiful! lol. she lives in New York and is visiting for a little while. I asked her if she likes american food and she said not really lol. she always cooks dominican food. I have to say that I am way excited to cook dominican food this summer in the condo. I'm goin to have a friend or my host mom teach me how to make platanos maduros (my fav!), mangu, habichuelas, sancocho, and tostones. I know those words don't mean anything to you guys but you'll just have to try them. they're sooo delicious!!

Ciao! -natalia

Thanks for all your phone calls, letters, comments, and prayers! Dios les bendiga! (God bless you all!)

Prayer Requests/Praises:

1. I am so grateful that I've found a church I like going to. It's a pretty charasmatic church that has a wed night service which works perfect for my schedule.

2. I would not compromise my standards in guys just to date a guy down here.

3. I would get to hang out with dominican girls. yes, i have met one new one but we haven't hung out yet.

4. I would take the opportunities to speak spanish all the time. Because I have found that it's so much easier to understand and talk to my host parents when I'm in spanish mode all day long.

5. My little girl Joannie at the orphanage needs lots of love and attention. She's 10 and has a lot of anger and hurt bottled up. I felt led to write her a letter in spanish telling her what I and God see in her and to speak truth into her life. She really loved the letter. but keep praying for her

6. my friend Casey has decided to come back to God and needs support and guidance to hold strong in it esp in the carribean.

Carnaval

Hola Todos,

Well I had a blast this past weekend. Yisette and I went to "Carnaval" in La Vega on Sunday with our host parents. these are some pictures. There's guys that dress up in scary looking masks and go around the streets. Each group represents a different "Barrio" or pour neighborhood of the Dominican Republic. They'll take pictures with you and it's tradition for them to hit girls in the butt with their fabric-covered coconuts. I got hit 5 times! I even have a bruise now. Those things hurt! If you're not looking, they whap you in the butt. It was funny because I told my host mom to take a picture of me but she's really not technology savvy so it took 3 times to take a picture of me, but it was funny.

On Saturday I went to my friend Lentz's (lance) concert. It started at 9:30 SUPPOSIDLY. but naive lil natalie thought we were going by american time....no...we definitely waited there until it finally started at midnight! only 2 1/2 hours later...no biggie. lol. But it was fun. I definitely met his ex-girlfriend who doesn't really like me which made things really awkward. Oh well...awkward is life.

Claudia and I had our first real english teaching session with the kids at the orphanage. It was a little chaotic but I taught my first english lesson in spanish. Man, the skills I'm building now...we taught them "left" and "right". We are also teaching them about God and praying with them too. We're mixing catholicism and evangelic christianity.

Last night I told my host mom that my butt was kinda sore from the carnaval, and guess what she does!? she gets vapo-rub and brings it to my room. I'm all like, "Umm...I don't need that . Thanks though..." She was giving me butt cream!! lol! How the heck would vapo-rub help my butt feel better?! You tell me. Our lights went out last night 3 times in a row. They do that frequently but now my TV doesn't work. dang! i liked watching my latin music station. bummer!

Next weekend our group has it's next excursion to Jarabacoa and Carnaval. I'm really excited. there should be horses that we can ride. I hope I don't get hit in the butt again at Carnaval but probably will.

Ps-Judi, I would LOVE you to send me candy. i just found a place that sells starburst and had my first one here in the DR. but i miss skittles and swedish fish, and sour patch kids. i'm such a candy holic and they only have ONE place that sells only starburst.

ciao! -natalie

Prayer Requests:

1. I still need prayer that I can shine for God in a place with so much temptation

2. Teaching the kids will go well

3. That I take my mom's advice and I find things other than dancing to do for fun

More Pix

These are pics of my kids at the orphanage! The 2nd to last one is a picture of the orphanage and the last pic is of my neighborhood and the minimarket on the corner that I always go to.

The Orphanage

Hola Todas,
I hope you guys are doing well and not freezing to death in the States as I'm peeling from a sunburn lol. This week was packed full of stuff. The part I'm most excited for is my community service with the Orphanage. It's been a little tense because the system is way more relaxed down here but I like it. Claudia and I are going to be teaching 10 kids from ages 7-11 twice a week for 5 hours total. We met with the senora of the house and our profesor today and worked out a plan. It reminds me a lot of my park in Portland. But now I have the new struggle of learning spanish as the kids learn english. It's good though because that is my struggle whereas leading these activities is a comfort to me. But Claudia is the opposite. She's bilingual but struggles with leading the kids. I think we'll make a good pair. The house is freakin amazing!!! We actually get to teach them Bible lessons too!

Claudia and I are getting closer. We have 3 classes together and she's an amazing catholic girl. She really lives out her faith in such a real but different way then I'm used her. Her and I came up with the plan to have a weekly time with whomever wants to join to pray together, talk about our weeks, fellowship and eat together, and to pray together. We're going to take turns at different people's houses each time. I'm super excited! We start not tomorrow but the next Fri.

This weekend we're going to carnival with our host parents (sunday). I'm excited because we get to see where our host mom grew up and get to meet family. this should be interesting...lol.

You guys will all be happy to know I'm feeling more at home here. I'm getting more acustomed to the culture and I love it here. I still have some bad days--like are to be expected but the majority are good. It only took me a month...lol. One guy yelled at one of the girls in our program in english "Hey there pumpkin pie!" lol!!! Who says that?! I guess he's never been to the states to know that people don't say that. He was trying to mean it as a compliment but it was freakin hilarious. I've also become more comfortable with talking with Dominicans. Today I initiated conversation with a dom student that lives in my house, with a vendor, and other random people.

Ok, I know this is petty but I've been craving skittles or starburst or ANY fruity candy down here. NOBODY sells it. finally robin found a place that sells starburst and i must have looked all over the place but could not find it. I even walked 20 minutes to find it and no luck. sad day...pobrecita...Man, I'm pathetic.

So, God has been doing interesting stuff in my life recently. I'm finally able to see him start to work down here in me. He's been showing me a lot about my identity. I told you guys how hard it is to feel like I'll never fit in because of the color of my skin. Well, I learned in my class and as I was praying earlier that no matter where I am I will always be unique but that's ok. I need to be proud of where I come from because whether I like it or not, it's my heritage. God can use any culture to affect another in unique ways. I have also seen lots and lots of butterflies and if you know me really well you know why that's significant. Thanks steph for telling me that story about butterflies. I think about it everyday no joke.

One more thing. I'm not a baseball fan but omgosh this country LOVES their baseball! they're all fanatics! You should've seen how crazy they went in the streets until 4 or 5am after the Aguilas (santiago's home team) won the championship. wow! that's all I have to say...

Ciao! -natalie

Prayer Requests:
1. Details work out to meet with group for Christian encouragement/fellowship
2. I will apply myself when studying when it's not that difficult down here
3. For the 12 kids we're going to be working with
4. More confidence with spanish and being ok with the fact I'm american
5. That I'd be able to talk to my roommate more about the hope I have in my life with Jesus and also with my friend Casey.

Surviving

Hola Todos,
Well I've officially been here for 3 weeks. Some days I love it here, some days I hate it here. Last week, some girls and I went to Caberete to the beach for the weekend. It was fun. The bars and discotecs are right on the sand. I got to play beach volleyball and kicked butt actually! it was so much fun. I was playing with two argentinians, and 3 dominicans, and one italian I think. For all those who know what my favorite thing to do on the beach at night, i was able to do it: run while looking up and never looking down. It was so beautiful. How can someone not believe in a God that is so creative and beautiful when looking at such beautiful hand-crafted creation!?!

A friend and I were able to play basketball today. I feel pretty rusty from H.S. but it was fun none the less. I even beat him the first game...unfortunately I lost the next two. I think I'm going to go more often. Playing sports is such an outlet for me when I'm stressed or simply want to lose myself and not think about anything.

This same friend, Lentz (pronounced Lance) is an R & B singer and he's really good too. He gave me his lyrics today and he's going to give me my own autographed copy of a cd of his soon. I actually get to be his special guest on Feb 2nd at his performance. VIP baby!! it should be fun. and for all of you who are already thinking this, NO he's only a friend. lol.

Here's some of the differences between the States and the D.R.:
1. in the states at night it's quiet. here, there's no quiet rules and so music is BLASTED until 4am most nights.
2. you put toilet paper in the waste basket, not in the toilet. weird, huh?!
3. at the dinner table, people just get up and get what they want (at least at my house). they don't ever pass things around for everyone to take things
4. people can ride, stand, or even dance around in the back of a truck while people are driving. Heck, you can do whatever you want while driving. I've NEVER seen a car pulled over here. if there's nobody coming while you're sitting at a red light, you go. nobody cares.
5. one word: CONCHOS. they're taxis that fit 8 people in a 5 person car. They're sort of like public transportation. they only cost 12 pesos which equals about 30 cents. sometimes (usually) you're squished next to lots of people, even if you've never met them before.
6. pedestrians DO NOT have the right away. there's no such thing as cross walks here.
7. people never recycle, which drives me nuts! there is so much trash on the sides of the road and everywhere but people don't even double take it.

I'm starting to get a tan now. my sunburn finally went away. A couple of you have been telling me it's snowing in oregon. how weird!?! i wish i would've worn shorts today because it's about 85 degrees. it's starting to get warmer. you can always tell who is dominican. they're always wearing pants.

Good news! I went to visit the orphanage that I'll be volunteering at. The kids are so adorable! there's girls and boys from ages 4-12. It reminds me a lot of my park at Montavilla. I got to play basketball with them and we all did kart-wheels together. They're much better than I am. They also did a dance for us and sang a song. I'm going to have them teach it to me. So, I'll be going in with my friend Claudia (another girl from the program) every mon and wed from 10-12am to help them with homework, play with them, and do whatever. I've already memorized a couple of names (it's my first goal in order to get to know them better): Adriana, Joelie, Joannie, Katie, Estephanie (that was the first one i remembered...;) ) Jaime, and I don't remember the others. Hey, that's at least better than nothing.

Thanks for all your guys' comments. it's comforting to hear (read) comments from friends and family. it makes me think of home. thanks for calling me ash the other day. it helped hearing your voice :). thanks also for all the prayers. i can definitely see God working, even if it's hard sometimes.

Ciao! -nat

Prayer Requests:
1. boy drama. i would like God's wisdom to know how to act and what to say while i'm having to make some tough decisions.
2. i would continue to stand for what i believe and stay close to God when i feel surrounded in total darkness and pleasure island.
3. i would be able to pour into the lives of the orphans i'll be working with.

First Full week of classes--ah!

Hola,
I hope you guys are doing well. Everyday I feel a bit different. For some reason, everyday there's a new struggle down here to overcome. I'm still experiencing culture shock and I really miss just hanging out with my friends in the states speaking english. I really miss going to Fox with everyone. I miss chapel, I miss Potter's Hands, I miss hanging out with my roommates in my apt. I miss volleyball and my friends there too. I just really miss all that. I feel like a tourist everyday. The other day was really hard because God showed me a reality in a way that wasn't the easiest to learn. I realized yesterday that no matter what I do to try to fit in here, I will never be considered a Dominican or a local based on the color of my skin. I will always be seen as a white rich girl (because being white down here means you have $$) and a tourist. Even if I married a guy down here, I still wouldn't be accepted as a local. It just kind of hit hard and made me feel really lonely. It's as if everyday I have to wake up and start that struggle over again. It's only the 2nd week I'm here but it's still really hard. I REALLY miss American food. If you know me pretty well, you know that I love ethnic food but I've had ethnic food overload. I just want a PB & J sandwich. I just asked the asst director and he said that there is PB & J down here. yay!! i'm totally going to buy some!

Well, my classes went well for the first week. I'm going to drop Afro-carribean culture and I'm going to take a Film class instead. The culture class is really boring already and is basically the same information that I'm learning in my other classes. It's a weird system down here. Ok, normally in the States you'd get a list of books from your Prof of the class material and everyday you have to read for that class. Here, it's different. Sometimes they'll make you buy a book, but it's not usually a book. Usually it's a giant packet of articles or paper that you have to go buy from the Kiosk. They photocopy it for you and bind it. Weird, huh!? Plus, the library is way different. You can't check out any books really. All of them are basically the same as reference books. Plus, you can't grab the book yourself. You go up to the counter, tell the guy which one you want, and he gets it for you. Then, if you need to read it outside the library, you can photocopy it downstairs. but do they let you photocopy it yourself? oh no! you have to stand in line and they do it for you. I miss doing things myself. In a way it makes me feel more like a tourist which i'm hating right now. I just want tobe able to cook my own meals, check out my own books, and walk by myself at night but I can't do any of those. Also, (which is nice and convenient) ISA is providing taxis to all ISA Students (me) who have night classes at PUCMM so that we don't have to walk home at night. I figured that'd make some of you feel more at ease ;).

This weekend is a long weekend. We never have classes on Fridays and Mon is a holiday. I don't remember what it's called but a group of us girls are going to Caberete (the beach) tomorrow and spending one or two nights there. I'm really excited to be able to relax on a beach that's not a tourist beach. La Isla Saona was fun but was FULL of tourists, and only tourists. I'll be sure to take pictures. I would add more pictures, but for some reason my camera doesn't work at this computer so I'll add them next week from a different computer.

Ok, I have a funny story. I bought a cell phone down here from the company "Orange." Well, there was a worker there who understood english and so he helped me out in the buying process. Ok, well anyways, at the end, he told me in english I was free to go and that was it. But, for SOME reason it didn't quite process in my mind, so I kept waiting and waiting there for 15 minutes to be done thinking "Gosh this takes forever! hurry up!". I finally asked him again after 15 or 20 minutes and he said "I TOLD you you were done like an hour ago!>!!?" I think that funniest part about the whole thing is he told me in english and I still didn't get it. what a ditz! They probably thought "oh my gosh! what an american!" lol. ah...good times.

Prayer Requests:
1. details for this weekend would go good and we'd be safe
2. I would spend more quiet time with God because it's kind of been hard to get in a routine so far down here.
3. That I'd reach out and have confidence EVERYDAY
4. That I'd be able to see and fufill the needs of the orphans I'm going to be working with in my comm service (oops I forgot to tell you guys that. I'm going to be working with Orphan kids 4 hours a week for a class of mine! I'm super excited! It starts next week).

La Isla Saona (Island Excursion)

Hola!
I had my first class this morn. It went pretty well. The prof is really nice and really funny too. I didn't know a spanish grammer class could be so fun, lol. He spoke really slowly which was a nice change.

This past weekend, our group (ISA) had our first excursion to the city La Romana and to the Island of Saona. I felt like I was on a movie. They had people there wanting to sell you massages, the sand was softer than ever, and the water was warm. It was my roommate (Yisette)'s first time swimming and so I got to teach her how to swim in the Carribean Sea!! We drank coke while swimming in the sea. They offered Rum n' Coke but I was a good girl and only had coke. Alcohol is EVERYWHERE here! Even on the boats! They call it "Cuba Libre" here for Rum n' Coke. Just in case you're all interested lol. While on the island, Robin, Katelyn, and I found the most exotic, big, and beautiful shells. Of course we picked them up and brought them home with us. They're my new decorations in my room.

For those of you who are Fox students, you'll appreciate this. Kaylie (I forgot her last name), but she's Ashley Sheller's old roommate is HERE in la Rep Dominicana!! I saw her this morn after my first class and I was all like, "Oh my gosh! What are you doing here?!?!" It automatically made me feel more at home. I'm excited to hang out with her. She's in another exchange program with PUCMM. (You pronounce my university like this: "pook-a-my-ma")

Well, I still am completely exhausted at times, for example last night. My whole body was fatigued, but praise God because the malaria pills haven't made me sick, and I haven't had any nightmares from them at all! what a miracle!

Wed, I'm going to buy a Dom cell phone and int'l minutes to call home. Sorry, since it's really expensive I can't call all of you. But once I get my cell phone #, I'll write it here and if you have an int'l phone card, you're welcome to call me if you want. Just remember, I'm 4 hours ahead of West Cost time. It's 10:45am right now, and 6:45am in Oregon.

Pues, tengo que irme (I have to go) ciao! -natalia

Prayer Requests:
1. My cell phone works and I'll FINALLY be able to call my parents
2. I can understand and not feel intimidated in my classes (confidence in asking Q's)
3. I'd be smart in who I hang out with (as far as dominican guys)