When I was a child, the Sabbath School teacher at church would ask us each week to report how many charitable acts we had done during the week,such as the number of articles of clothing given away, pieces of literature shared, etc. Keeping score of good deeds seems all wrong and I am glad we don´t do that anymore (although I must admit it at least kept us reminded that we were supposed to be doing kind things all week long).

After the Wednesday night church service, the Las Palmas director and the pastor of the church thanked us for our work and presented certificates to thank each member of our group. The director commented that we had done a wide variety of things during our short stay. Reflecting on it, I was kind of surprised myself. But all thanks and praise should be directed to God, because it is clear that He helped us accomplish so much.

It feels wrong to break our two weeks down into activities, since is was really about building relationships, but I think it will help us with planning for the future.

Our team: 12 high school students, 3 adults
Our time: about 10 1/2 days 

1. Pepped and painted the church´s interior and exterior and the guest house exterior
2. 7 students participated in the music workshop and concert, with some of our student musicians serving as mentors to others in their sections
3. 5 students and I presented a 3 day (1 1/2 hour) VBS to 20-35 children
4. Spent a day together with 35 Las Palmas teens, young adults and house parents at waterfalls
5. Presented Sabbath school skit 
6. Visited Adonis for a couple hours, sang, Chelsea played the violin for him, prayed with him
7. Enjoyed an educational tour of historic landmarks and cave with 10 older teens and college students
8. Taught 6 elementary and high school English classes and made some suggestions to the three English teachers (all of whom are college students)
9. Presented Wednesday evening church service about medical missionary work among lepers in China that Mike and I helped with last July
10. Gave books written by Spanish 2 and 3 students to 40 children 
11. Entertained campus with a clown show and ice cream social
12. Team encouraged one another to faithfully spend one on one time with God every morning, and shared what we had learned with each other, following the pattern of I Corinthians 14:26
13. Team learned more about ICC in our story time, reading Alcyon Fleck's A Leap of Faith
14. Team studied John 13-17 and its implications for us: "Without Me, you can do nothing," "Ask whatever you want and I will do it," "Love each other as I have loved you."
15. In many little unquantifiable ways, built relationships--among our team, with Las Palmas kids and staff, and above all with God.

And thinking ahead...

Yes, I am already thinking of next year! I would love to go back and build on what we did this year, making some adjustments.

#1 It is oh, so natural for the students to segregate themselves. At our picnic lunch on our Santo Domingo tour day, I noticed all the gringos were on one side of the picnic area, Dominicans on the other, despite sitting on the bus together. The same thing happened on the waterfall outing. I understand this. Speaking Spanish is hard work, and so you say something in English to the friend you know well, pretty soon someone else joins you and, next thing you know, you are no longer interacting with Dominicans at all. My students were great about mixing it up again once I helped them see what they were doing, but I think some pre-trip training would really help. I could give the job of anti-segregation police to a couple students and we could all be more conscious of staying in mixed groups.

#2 We spoke almost exclusively English in the house. From my own study abroad experience, I know how very, very difficult it is for people who can converse easily in their first language to speak a foreign language together. We can do better and I can work harder at this, but it needs to be student-led, not just my nagging them to speak Spanish. It's hard to make it a true immersion experience with the various levels of Spanish, but we can improve here.

#3 This was the most intentionally discipleship-oriented trip Mike and I have ever led and my students really embraced the opportunity for spiritual growth. However, I believe we could have shared Jesus more with the Dominican young people. One student suggested in the debrief document that we study the Bible with the Dominicans. My students had prepared short testimonies of God's work in their lives, but we didn't find the opportunity for sharing them. I would like to be more intentional about sharing, not just our friendship, but our faith, beyond simply praying at events and going to church together.

#4 We appointed small group leaders to help make sure everyone was present and to encourage their group members to get up for their morning one-on-one with God time. I would like to use these leaders in a stronger mentoring role in the future. It would be great to have experienced students fill this role--perhaps have 3 repeat team members to 9 first-timers.

“Rancés, I didn´t understand you,” I said to the Dominican young man as he left our house after Mike´s surprise birthday party Wednesday night. Dominican Spanish is not only challenging for my students; I often have to ask for clarification, though after this third visit I am catching on.

At the birthday party, Rancés had given each of us a little dolphin souvenir. Peter found a bit of yarn that he threaded through the eye of the dolphin and hung it around his neck. On the flight home, I gave my students a debriefing questionnaire. One of the questions was: “Which individual did you meet that made a big impression on you and why?” Peter answered, “Rancés. He was quiet, but very thoughtful.” The handmade gift was just one of the ways Rancés showed that thoughtfulness.

So at the door after the party, as I laughingly pushed him out of our house so we could get to bed, Rancés stopped me with his quiet, deep voice, “Profe….” When I couldn´t understand him, he replied, “Profe, usted es de aquí.” (“You are from here,” meaning “you are one of us.”) 

When Mike and I began taking my students to work at International Children´s Care homes, we had a goal of visiting all of the Spanish-speaking projects. We started in El Salvador, went twice to Guatemala, and then, three years ago, a Dominican young man told us they would steal our hearts. And here we are, hearts stuck, it looks like we will not get around to visiting Mexico or Nicaragua any time soon. We often receive invitations to non-ICC projects, as well, but a year is already a long time to be away from our friends at Las Palmas.

I have read the criticism of short-term mission trips, especially aimed at those who visit orphanages and create short, intense relationships that create more abandonment issues. We take our responsibility for our interaction very seriously. This year, at Mike´s party, as one of the spokesmen for the older students, Andy said he had come to understand that our role was not just to paint a building, but to build connections so that we could learn from each other. He thanked us for what he has learned from us. We are thankful for what we have learned, as well.

I hope that the emphasis Sus Manos puts on collaboration among equals, building lasting relationships, and learning from each other softens the brevity of our visits. I know that our returning to Las Palmas has spoken strongly to our friends there of their value and, I hope, has made us all long for that big family reunion in heaven, where there will be no more separation caused by distance, cultural misunderstanding or language barriers. 

            “Did you guys hang out together before we started our mission trip training?” I asked Silas, Mattie and Abby. Mattie replied, “Just those awkward greetings in the hallway or a ‘Nice shirt’ as we passed.” It had seemed unlikely to me that freshman Silas would have had a lot of opportunity to interact with junior Abby and senior Mattie, but they are so comfortably good friends now that it is hard to believe that they were just hallway acquaintances a few weeks ago.

            It shouldn’t surprise me. One of our prayers for this trip was that we would develop unity among the members of our diverse group and with our Dominican hosts. We have seen those prayers beautifully answered. Last night Kasandra, the Dominican college student who had come to ask to hang out with my kids soon after we arrived, pulled me aside. “Profe, I need to tell you something,” she said. “Many groups of foreigners come here, but never, NEVER have we developed such closeness as with your group. I can understand why some people wouldn’t want to let their kids spend time with us, since we are a different social class. But you treat us like we’re equals.”

            I responded, “But Kasandra, we ARE equals! We came to spend time with our family here.” It hurt me to know that Kasandra, and perhaps other kids here, have interpreted lack of connection with other groups as a social class divide. I am certain that most often it is the linguistic and cultural barriers that visitors face that keep them from getting close to the kids here.

After the church service last night, the older students came over to give Mike a surprise birthday party (April 1 is his day), complete with cake and a gift. Rancés, one of the older boys, had made each of us a little dolphin from something like a large flake of a pine cone and they had a little Dominican souvenir for each. As we visited, Kasandra again emphasized the difference she saw with out group: “You can all speak Spanish and you can understand us.” Obviously, my students don´t feel they always understand, especially with the Dominican accent and dialect differences from the Mexican Spanish I teach them. Andy and I made a game of matching Mexican and Dominican words—I gave a card to each and they had to find their partner and then make sentences using the words. It was funnier than it sounds, especially with Rancés really getting into his Dominican slang. We played a couple other games and finally, at 10:40, I reminded everyone that we needed to go to bed, and there were hugs, exchanges of Facebook or email and finally I got my kids settled. We were asleep when I heard music outside our window—the older students had returned to give us a traditional serenade to say a final farewell.

            We have that bittersweet feeling about going back home to friends and family, yet knowing we are leaving behind friends and family that we may not see again until heaven. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

The walk to our job site just got shorter. Our original project was to paint the church inside and out. Since we finished that on Friday, we were given an additional task: painting our own house! Originally a home for children, it is now used for volunteer group lodging and the exterior was faded and peeling. We spent all of Monday scraping and scrubbing the walls and porch/patio ceilings. We worked hard to get all the prep work done in one day. The plan for Tuesday was to get the first coat on, but we ended up getting quite a bit of it second coated and used up all the paint. It looks so lovely. We just have the trim work to do on Wednesday, so we hope to have a short work day.

We gave the books my Spanish 2/3 students wrote to the children at the VBS last week, but we had 20 left. Today I visited the elementary school and gave books to the children in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades who had not attended the VBS. The second grade teacher was so enthusiastic about the books that she asked for one for herself. The principal again told me what a wonderful help the books would be for developing reading skills, as she knew the books would be passed from child to child. I can hardly wait to go back to class next week and show my students the pictures of the Dominican children with their books. Chelsea said today that seeing how much the kids liked the books made her want to make an even better book next year. (Hey, Chelsea, does that mean you are taking Spanish 3?)

My buddy Andy played my sidekick again tonight in my clown show. Last year he did a sketch with me that brought the house down, but I think tonight was even better, as we did a levitation trick. Once it was obvious how we had cheated, the place roared with laughter. Abby told me she recorded the whole show. I guess I am going to have to confiscate her camera before the video hits Youtube. I had arrived in the Dominican Republic without much in the way of clown props, so I am so happy I was able to put on a crowd-pleasing show. I told Andy next year I will have to bring him his own clown nose.

As we left the school, where we had the show, my students were amazed by the brightness of the stars. A Dominican child, hearing all the oohs and ahs, asked the student missionary, “Don´t they have stars in their country?” When we got to our house, most of the students, Andy and I climbed up on the rooftop to enjoy the stars from a little closer, with background music provided by the crickets and frogs. When we climbed down, we were greeted by three frogs (or possibly toads)—one of which was almost the size of my fist. Alieha was hesitant to come down, but the toad finally hopped away from the ladder.

We had to skip our storytime tonight, as it was so late when we got home, but we hope to play catch up tomorrow night. We skipped about 12 chapters in the book, so that we could get to the part about Las Palmas in this history of International Children´s Care. The kids were surprised when Samilin, the director here, was mentioned. We had also met Gladys Lora, the original director of Las Palmas, at church on Sabbath, so finding out how she got involved in ICC was meaningful to the kids.
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I always post a day late, as I write at night after kids are in bed (Paul commented that I don´t seem to sleep much—I just love that quiet time), but I don´t want to walk to the director´s house to get onto the internet late at night.  So goodnight, or good morning, as the case may be. 

I am going back and adding pictures to previous blog posts as I have time, so you should go back and look at previous days. It takes a long time to upload pix and I have very limited internet time, so I am only posting a few. Thanks to those who have emailed or posted comments. We appreciate all of your prayers. 

We got the house exterior prepped today. Painting tomorrow!

                “Are you okay with all the noise?” I asked our bus driver, Alberto. He flashed a broad smile and assured me he was not bothered by the shouting, singing and drumming on the cooler as we rode back to town after our day in Santo Domingo this evening. Later I told him that bus drivers in the US would not tolerate the bedlam.  “We are used to it,” he assured me, and added, “In fact you kind of miss it when it is quiet.”

                We invited the oldest students from Las Palmas to join us for our historical tour day. Nine Dominicans who had not been able to leave for the weekend, plus the American student missionary who is here teaching English, went with us. I had my students sit with Dominicans and helped them get their conversations started. It was a bit awkward at first, but eventually they got talking. Some students told me it got hard again, after they exhausted the obvious small talk. I am thinking of how to make this easier for them. In Spanish class, my students use wordless pictures to help prompt them when they retell stories. Perhaps having some visuals could help them with real conversations, as well. Ryan, Anita and Carmela played a translation game with their seatmates, which gave me the idea of creating games to get them talking. Lots of ideas for next time!

                We stepped back in time as we walked through Santo Domingo´s colonial zone, visiting the Alcázar de Colón—the palace of Diego Columbus, Christopher´s son—the National Pantheon and the Royal Houses Museum. It is amazing to think that people from the 1500´s walked these same streets and lived in these houses. In fact, the Royal House´s mahogany floors are original from that era and still look pretty good. The palaces were furnished with many original pieces dating from the 1500-1600´s. A few interesting facts: beds were shorter because people slept almost sitting up with many pillows to support them; viceroy Diego and his wife had separate bedrooms, which was common at the time; the guide said that what looked like a half-height closet was actually the children´s bathroom. The child would go inside the little cupboard and shut the door, then the maid would take the chamber pot away was the child was done. I don´t know if the social elite had outhouses at the time, but at least the kids had it easy. Actually, the story seems unlikely to me—the kid would be totally in the dark in the cupboard, which was too small to safely contain a candle. I wonder if the guide made it up so he would have something novel to say.

                We had a picnic lunch near the Obelisk of the Butterflies, which commemorates the three sisters who were part of the Resistance fighting Trujillo´s dictatorship in the 1960´s and were code-named “las mariposas,” or the butterflies. After we ate, I asked all of the young people to do five minutes of community service picking up trash in the plaza. Although there was much more trash in the area, our little area of the plaza looked good when they were done and I started humming the old song, “… make this world a better place if you can…”

                Next stop: Tres Ojos, a cave of stalactites and stalagmites with three underground pools of an enchanted turquoise. Trees above stretch their roots through the ground and dangle from the roof of the cave like jungle vines, searching for water, and a few pale fish live in the pools. A little wooden raft took us across a larger pool to a place where the cave opened into sunlight and a still larger pool, which was rimmed by what looked like gigantic sword ferns, as tall as me. Many of the Dominican teens had not been to this place before and it was fun to take them someplace new.

                There was one major disappointment in our day. I´d had difficulty finding out anything specific about the Eastern Sunday procession before this trip—I had repeatedly asked our tour company, but they couldn´t tell me anything.  I found something on the internet that said there would be a procession at 5:00 p.m. Our bus driver was told it was at 6:00 p.m. We returned from Tres Ojos before 5:00, just in case the earlier time was true, only to find we had already missed it! I was much more disappointed than my students, since (except for Onica) they didn´t know what an amazing spectacle they had missed.
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                We consoled ourselves at an ice cream shop and a few students found a few souvenirs to buy. When we got on the bus, it started as a quiet ride home with tired kids. But before long, our Dominican friends got the energy up again with call-and-response songs, chants and cheers. They lead cheers for real and imagined delights of our day (“Hooray for the trip!” “Hooray for the bus driver!” “Hooray for fried chicken and plantains!”) The last bit inspired us to pick up pizza, since we were getting home past supper time. The cheers really got intense when Alberto called ahead to order and offered to drive us a little extra to pick it up. We brought it back to the house and invited the young people in to eat and have a brief worship together before heading back home.
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I think it was a fun end to their spring break. Monday the Dominican students go back to class and it is back to work for us! Three more days!

               On Thursday, Carolina, a university student, asked me if we could do the special end of the quarter Sabbath School program for her, so she could leave to visit relatives this weekend. I have been here for the “13th Sabbath” program before and I know it is a big production. I told her we could continue with our VBS theme of Biblical boat stories, and talk about Jesus and his disciples in the storm (Luke 8), but I knew we didn´t have the time needed to make it a big production.  Carolina stayed up till 3:00 the morning she left to make a big poster board boat and clouds for us to decorate the church. Yesterday we cut out letters that said “Jesús es mi salvación,” which we glued on the boat.

                My students worked yesterday afternoon on their drama and thought of Bible verses they could share, but it seemed too short for a special program. I went to bed, but then decided to get up and pray a bit. As I prayed, I suddenly got the idea of doing the skit three times. The first time, the disciples would offer Jesus money to save them from the storm. The second time, they promised to earn their salvation through doing good deeds.
After each skit today, I asked the audience if it was correct. The level of engagement was high as children and adults voted down the incorrect renditions. I told my students they didn´t know their Bibles very well and asked them to try again. Finally the third time, the student actors followed Luke 8 to the letter and the audience gave their approval. I asked why Jesus saved his disciples. Many kids mentioned His love, but I added that He saved them because, quite simply, they needed to be saved. Onica, Fernanda and Jared each read a favorite verse in Spanish. I hadn´t heard them ahead of time, and I was surprised when Jared read a verse that brought our program to a perfect conclusion: “He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared.” (Revelation 21: 4) And that is part of our salvation we all look forward to.

I was trying to write this letter after lunch, but overheard Ryan and Anita discussing ways to make the world and church a better place. Soon I was sucked into their interesting conversation. Anita said that one thing she has learned on this trip is to let God work and that when we do, everything works out well. I told them that I always seek to be a catalyst for change, but I am learning that it is far better when the Holy Spirit is the catalyst. I have told the students several times this week, “If we want to make a spiritual impact, we had better asked the Spirit to do it. Let´s pray!”

During our past two trips to Las Palmas, one powerful presence has been a young man named Adonis, who always sought out my students and would get up at the crack of dawn to see us off when we left. Last June, while he and some other young men were playing leapfrog in a river that borders the property, he broke his neck and has been paralyzed ever since. His absence has left a big hole at Las Palmas for us, and even more so for his brothers and sisters here. This afternoon, we crammed all 15 of us, plus Andy and Jacqueline, the social worker, into the Las Palmas van and drove to Santo Domingo to visit Adonis in the little house where he lives with his aunt. It hurt to see the former body builder lying motionless in his bed, but his charismatic smile has not changed. We spent a couple hours visiting with him. Chelsea played a couple hymns on her violin and accompanied us on her ukulele as we sang. Onica had gotten to know him last year, so she chatted with him and showed him pictures of his buddy Stuart, who had come with us last year. Adonis is an absolute people person, so I interviewed my students with him, so he could get to know them. We had worship together to close our visit and as each student said goodbye to him, Adonis said in English, “Nice to meet you.” This is a terribly hard situation and we will continue to pray for God to work in Adonis´ life.
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Right now we are in the tour bus headed to Santo Domingo. We decided to bring the students who are 18 and older who weren´t able to leave for the weekend. I require my students to sit with Dominicans and I cannot believe the conversations going on in Spanish all around me. I am more than blessed to be with these kids. 

​                “Let’s make a ruckus Dominican style!” The tour bus filled with shouts and whoops. “Now let’s make a ruckus American style!” The Dominican kids let out a few monotone “yay’s.” Dominicans know they have an edge on celebrating over us way too quiet gringos, but yesterday we all felt like celebrating “a lo dominicano” and we shouted along with them. We had a lot to celebrate!
                The hard work of the music workshop (Ryan said he would split his lip if he practiced his clarinet any longer) paid off for the musicians Wednesday night, as they presented a beautiful concert.  It was held in an auditorium at the state university in Bonao, and began promptly at 7:00 p.m. Dominican time (translation: 8:00 p.m.).  When the applause died down after the last piece was played, the MC asked if the audience would like to re-hear one of the pieces as an encore.  The decision was unanimous: we wanted to hear the invigorating William Tell Overture again. The orchestra played just as exuberantly the second time around and got a standing ovation. The administrator had pizza delivered for the musicians after the concert and they got home after 11:00 p.m., tired but happy. Not only did they master six beautiful pieces of music, they got to know several Dominican young people.
                VBS also wrapped up Wednesday, with 20 children in attendance. A highlight was giving the children the books that my Spanish 2/3 classes had written and illustrated. The children were thrilled with their gifts and it was hard to persuade them to put the books down for the rest of the program. Those who could read, read them aloud in their little groups. The school principal has helped us with crowd control every day. She was thrilled with the book project. “This is like a project for a university class!” she exclaimed. She told us that this project was a valuable way to help the children with their reading skills. We had more books than children in VBS, but rather than giving each child two as we did last year, we are going to let the early elementary teachers give them to children who were not at VBS.
                Wednesday also saw our painting project come near an end. There is just a bit more to do on the outside of the church today. With “all hands on deck,” we feel sure it will be completed this morning and we will have this afternoon to prepare for Sabbath.
                So after a wonderful Wednesday, we were ready to celebrate yesterday. I had really worried that the outing we had planned was not going to be interesting for the local young people, so last night I asked my young friend Kasandra if she thought the kids would like it. She looked at me incredulously. “What? We can hardly wait! We keep telling each other, 'I wish it were tomorrow right now!'” Spirits were high when the buses pulled up to pick up the students… and then it started to rain. My heart sank and I prayed, “Lord, you know the kind of day we need. We would like it to be special.”
                As we drove up into the hills, the sun came out and it was a fabulous day! We went about half an hour from here to the Saltos (waterfalls) de Jima Natural Protected Area. We were required to have two guides to lead us up the trail that wound through the jungle of cacao and banana-like trees, along a little river of white water. The waterfalls were not high and there were quiet pools to play in. We were the only ones there for the first few hours of the day. After lunch of veggie dogs, chips and granola bars, we hiked up farther to the second water fall, where we were also the only people there. We swam a bit and then went back to the first falls. The vacation crowds began arriving, so it was no longer our private nature reserve. Many of the kids swam a bit more, while others visited or sunned themselves on the rocks. I noticed most of my students had broken into pairs or little groups, chatting in English among themselves, so I matched them up with some Dominican kids whom I instructed to make sure they spoke Spanish. A college student who is teaching English in the elementary school asked me, “Profe Rita, how do you do it? Your students can really speak Spanish!” Yes, they make me proud!
                At 4:00 we hiked back down the mountain and boarded the buses. We had a restaurant reserved just for us, where the (mostly) vegetarian buffet was especially appreciated, since we were all hungry after hiking and swimming . I thanked the Dominican kids for joining us—honestly it was so much more fun than our usual trip to the beach by ourselves. Not only did we take all of the teenagers and 20-somethings, we also took along the house parents, who thanked me afterward for giving them a wonderful day of vacation. The college student who had come to our house to ask to spend time with my students exclaimed, “And supposedly we weren’t going anywhere for spring break!

​Tuesday, 10:00 p.m.

                Three college students came to our door tonight, asking to speak to me. Our power was out, so we stood together on the darkened front porch. “We haven’t done anything with your kids yet!” Casandra complained. “We’ve only been here two days!” I countered. “We’ve been busy with the music workshop and VBS!”

                Andy (AKA “my favorite”) explained, “Profe Rita, your groups are the ones we interact the most with. When we know you are coming, we know we will have a good time with your students, because you let us hang out with them.” Casandra jumped in again, “This is our vacation, but we have to stay on campus this year. We want to do something fun!”

                I assured the young people that we had not forgotten them and sent them home without a concrete answer to their pleas. What I couldn’t tell them is that the Las Palmas and ICC administrators and I had been emailing back and forth for months to plan something special for the older kids. The students were right: my trips emphasize getting to know the people here and we seek to collaborate as much as possible with them in our work and activities. However, we take two tourist days by ourselves, which has always felt contrary to my philosophy. So this year we decided to give up our beach day and instead take all of the kids from houses 6 and 8—who range from age 16 to college age—with us on an outing to some waterfalls.

                Once the young people went home, I got the OK from Director Samilin to let the kids in on our plans. We then went en masse to serenade each house and invite them to the outing. Most of the girls were out, but we found the boys at home and they invited us in to sing with them before heading back home for worship and story time.

                The kids were tired and didn’t take long to get themselves to bed. The musicians put in another full day at the workshop today. They play from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 and have a two-hour lunch break. Then they are back at it from 3:00 to 7:00 or later. The school where they practice is not far from our house, so we are able to hear the progress they are making. Tomorrow night is the concert! They are sounding a lot more optimistic about how it will turn out.

                The painting crew has continued at a blistering pace and Mike has commented several times that this is a hard-working group. The sanctuary is finished and the exterior will get its second coat tomorrow. Some of the Las Palmas young men worked on the sidewalk today, with Mike and Paul helping haul materials. Younger boys cleaned up the church yard and it is looking very nice.

                We had only twenty children for VBS, compared to nearly double that on Monday. The elementary school principal who helps us explained that other activities had pulled some of the kids away, so we aren’t sure if we will be back to the big group tomorrow. Although we missed the children who didn’t come today, the group was easier to work with. Even craft time went reasonably smoothly today! We think we are getting better at this and are ready for the big group again tomorrow, should everyone show up.

                The house is quiet and the crickets are chirping. I guess that means it is time for me to wish you a good night, even though I know it will be morning before I trek to the administrator’s home to use her internet to send this. I promise to post some pictures soon! 

Much love from the Dominican Republic,
Rita

                 We ate by the light of battery-powered lanterns tonight. My students didn’t bat an eye when the power went out. We have only been in the Dominican Republic twenty-eight hours and power outages are already old hat. As we settled in after our arrival at Las Palmas yesterday evening, one of my students came out of her room puzzled. “My light doesn’t work,” she informed me.  “Remember how we talked about being prepared to lose electricity in the Dominican Republic?” I responded, “This is it.” One of the most important skills in foreign travel is flexibility. As I write this, several students are making shadow animals on the wall in the lantern light. That’s what I call going with the flow.

                After our red-eye from Portland to Newark Saturday night, the next leg of our journey was delayed one hour because the pilot’s seat was broken. We were happy to find our bus driver still waiting for us when we emerged from customs at the Santiago airport, and although most of us had slept very little on the flights, we were game for a little tour. At the Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration, we got a quick history lesson: more than three centuries of Spanish colonial rule ended in 1821, but Haiti conquered the Dominican Republic in 1822, following its independence from France; the DR broke away from Haiti after a couple decades of resistance, only to be re-annexed by Spain; the War of Restoration brought independence from Spain again in the 1860’s.

History lessons are one way to meet our goal of learning more about the Dominican Republic, but our cook, Gertrudis, provides a delicious cultural lesson every day, with traditional Dominican dishes that use ingredients we don’t even recognize. We have already enjoyed sancocho, yucca, moros (arroz con gandules), and tostones.
             
   Some of the funds raised for our trip are helping to sponsor a music workshop that brings together students from Las Palmas and musicians from surrounding communities and from as far away as Santiago and Santo Domingo. My students weren’t quite aware what an intensive music camp this was going to be, but they got a glimpse of it as the seven jet-lagged participants had their first practice soon after dinner Sunday night, ending about 9:30. The visiting artistic director, a professor from Puerto Rico, studied and taught in the USA, so he is able to explain things in English when needed. My students are finding music to be a universal language, but they are also picking up some helpful terms and phrases. Chelsea asked me at lunch how to say, “Let’s start again at the beginning,” so she would be ready to work with her two fellow violists this afternoon. The emphasis of the workshop is building unity, and the Dominicans are very happy to have PAA students uniting with them to praise God through music.

                Those who are not in the music workshop prepped the church for painting inside and out this morning. In the afternoon, my five students and I prepared and led a Vacation Bible School. Onica and I had worked with VBS here at Las Palmas last year, so we were sure the six of us could handle it, especially since we had been told there would probably be a smaller group of kids this year. However, invitations to kids from town had been very successful and, instead of the two dozen children expected, we had close to 40. The singing was enthusiastic and the kids enjoyed the students’ drama about Noah’s ark. The energy level during the craft time, if harnessed, would power a small city, I am sure.

                Meanwhile, back at the church, our two adult sponsors, Mike and Paul, having lost all the students to the workshop and VBS, started painting. The Las Palmas pastor and Antonio, a 16-year-old boy who we taught to paint during our first visit three years ago, came to help them. The four of them painted the first coat of the entire interior of the church and one exterior wall!

                An important purpose of this trip is to grow in our relationship with Jesus. We all get up early for one-on-one time with God and get together to share what we have read. Last night we started a Bible study from the book of John, starting at John 13 and Jesus’ “new commandment” to love as He loved. We pray that these twelve days will be a time for us all to connect firmly to Him, so that he can give us the ability to love like that.

                It has been a full day. There is no internet when the power is out, so I will have to post this tomorrow. But for now, buenas noches from Las Palmas.


Tuesday morning:  I had some pictures to upload, but forgot my cable at the house. ​I have to walk to the director's house to access the internet, so I am not going back for the cable right now! Check back tomorrow for photos! But please remember no electricity means no internet. :)