Dia de Accion de Gracias

      As we celebrated Thanksgiving this past week, I was reminded that as the Spanish translation says, it should be more of the "Act of Thanks". What does that mean to me? It means many things but primarily it tells me to look back over the past period of time (day, week, month, year) and all the ways that I have given God Thanks for my life circumstances. Good and bad. Positive and negative. The prophet Job taught us to give Thanks to God in all of our situations. WOW! It is much easier to give thanks for the good things and then ask "why" for the difficult times. I have to wonder why that is that we often feel we should be exempt from any trials or hard times when the bible is very clear that the closer we get to God, the more trials we will experience. Maybe that is why we should be Thankful for those times, because it means we are getting closer to God as we get through them. It's still hard though.

Mogote: looking out of our front porch. It is the highest peak in the middle

(2010) Fred, Jeff, Lauren, Janae. Oh the memories of spitting wood

        On Thursday we were told to close our sites early and be at the SI base by 2:00 for games, followed by dinner at 4:00, then more games. Since most of us have left our families in the states, then this would give us the opportunity to spend time with our "DR family". It really was a great time with 90+ people in attendance. Several of the people from SI spent much of the day Wednesday and Thursday preparing for us. I had planned on a bicycle ride on Friday and then Janae and Marcy were going to climb Mogote but as the rain kept coming, our plans changed to just hanging around the house and reading. This is the second year in a row now that I have not been able to (or as my kids would say "didn't have to") cut and split wood on Thanksgiving weekend. I looked at that as a bonding time, They, of course had a different view of it :) . Either way you look at it, it didn't happen this year. I am sure we will make our own memories when we finally do get to climb Mogote with Marcy and Janae.

Sunrise coming up over the mountain that I see on my way to work on the days that is is clear.

Blessings in the not so normal days

Janae and Marcy at the Upper Falls of Salto Jimenoa

Marcy at Salto Baiguate

      As the Christmas decorations begin to go up here in Jarabacoa, it is hard to believe that we are only 2 weeks from Thanksgiving and a few more to Christmas. Our weather here has cooled off a bit and we no longer run the fans all night, it will only get up into the mid 80's during the day and then down to the low 70's at night. It has been raining more with a shower often each day for a short time (sometimes for longer times). That makes our frequent trips to the water falls to swim on the weekend a bit challenging since the water is then muddy and the walk down is a little more hazardous. We still try to get there as often as the weather permits. As we drive to work or downtown for something we are surrounded by mountains and we still marvel at them as it is much different that the scenery in La Grange County Indiana. I am not sure we will ever stop commenting on them to each other. 

Buddy playing with Maribel's daughter Abagial.

        Remembering back to last year when we spent the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays in Costa Rica, we will again be spending them in a warmer climate and away from our family. Even with that downside, we continue to be blessed in so many ways here and are so thankful for so much. Good health, prayer and financial support, safety in our house, (we are one of the very few SI staff that has not been broken into or had a vehicle stolen this summer and fall. It has a little to do with our 145 pound, 30" high Bull Mastiff security system and a lot to do with God's protection). We have also experienced safety on the roads, for those of you that have ever been to the DR or other Latin countries, that is a real blessing. Good staff at Genesis where we work has also been a blessing. Improved Spanish and much much more.

          We have had some interesting and humorous days at Genesis that you can see at our Genesis blog.  Whenever we have teams at Genesis to work with us from the states, we have an orientation with them on their first day here. As I go through what a normal day will look like to them, I always say that I can give them a lot better idea of that once we have "a normal day" there. There is always something interesting going on from taking kids to the hospital because they had a huge (4" diameter) boil on the side of their stomach that no one at home had noticed until it burst on his way to school one day, to our cooking days and teaching them how to make cookies, cake and fruit drinks, to visiting the local fire department and having the kids put on the full fireman gear. I am still trying to find a normal day in all of it after being here for 6 months now.

Picture of the week.

         I will close this post out with the photo of the week. On Monday of last week, one of the teachers reminded me that we were out of hand soap bars in the bathrooms so I needed to pick some up sometime. So I did and on Friday of last week I put a bar in each of the two bathrooms and that left the third of the three pack to go on the shelf for a spare. On Monday of this week I went to wash my hands before lunch and sure enough, no soap. I think geeeeeeez, it didn't even last two days. As am thinking this I turn to walk out after just washing with the water and I notice a bar of soap on the back of the toilet tank. I think, who put the soap over there? and as i go to get it i notice a white, milking (soapy) look in the water in the toilet bowl. No, don't tell me one of the kids actually washed their hands in ..........................  Like I said above, never a normal day at Genesis.