Twas the week before Christmas

     Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house, much is stirring, but not the mouse. We got him (or her) in the glue trap last week. I know that doesn't rhyme but.........
     The kids at Genesis had their last day of school on Tuesday and Karen and I finished working the rest of the week with me doing semester end paperwork and getting ready for January and Karen doing some cleaning and getting her stuff ready for January also.
        I keep saying it but, it is hard to imagine that we have been here for two semesters now and have been gone from the states for over a year. Karen and I are neither one really big on exact dates such as we have now been in the DR for 4 Months and 3 days or it has been 1 year and 3 weeks since leaving Shipshewana, or we now have two years and 9 months left here, or....... You get the idea. But at the same time we just continue to feel blessed each day and the longer we are here, the less of a sacrifice it seems to be. Going through the Thanksgiving season and now Christmas, we are even more aware of how much God has given us and blessed us with: good health, a great house and neighborhood, fantastic teachers and (for the most part) great kids at Genesis, a new family of SI staff that has openly accepted us for who we are, a great sending church and community that has supported us beyond measure. A year and a half ago or so when I started this blog, I named it "the best of times, the worst of times" We are now experiencing less and less of the worst, and more and more of the best.

On the way up Mogote

       So Marcy and Janae have three more half days at JCS and Karen and I officially start our Christmas vacation on Monday. Today Marcy and Janae and I went for a hike to the top of Mogote. It is one of the taller mountains that we see out of our front porch and we had a great day for it. It took most of the morning and returning soon after lunch just in time to get our shoes in the washing machine and get in a 1/2 hour nap. We had absolutely great weather for it. With a total of a little over two hours to the top, Marcy would periodically ask, "How far now?" I was tempted to use the "twenty minutes" line from all of my working trips to the south end of the island but I refrained and simply told her it was now about twenty minutes less than the last time she asked. :) It did make me think back to those trips when the answer to every question about distance or time was "twenty minutes". It was a bit aggravating at first but then it got to be more of a joke and we could laugh. That was the one thing that those trips taught me was how this culture never wants to give you bad news or an answer that you don't want to hear so they just tell you what they think you want to hear. How many times in my life have I done that to God by just saying what I think He wants to hear? "I will get up every morning and do devotions, I will read my bible every day, I will help out in church wherever I am needed. Maybe I even know at the time that I will not follow through but I know I should.

Playing "build a better burger"

        Some other activities that we have had take place the last couple of weeks are Marcy and Janae's Christmas program at JCS.  We also had the summer interns over for hamburgers one evening and then played games with them. That is something that we wanted to do because when our daughter Rachel lived here for 4 months back in 2010, one thing that she mentioned was how much she enjoyed going to other SI staff people's homes and getting to know them and eating American food for a change. :) We had had them over soon after they arrived for homemade Mac and Cheese and really enjoyed getting to know them a little better.

Manny Ramirez as he was up to bat.

We also went to a Dominican baseball game one evening. That was an experience to say the least. Those of you that know me very well know what a sports fan I am. In the top of the 8th, the score was 0-7 with our home team behind. That inning we got 7 runs. Of course my first thoughts were "great, now its going to go into overtime or extra innings or whatever, I was hoping to be home by 10:00"
      It was kinda funny though because as the one guy comes up to bat I was trying to impress the guy I was sitting beside and said "dude, that guy has hair as long as Manny Ramirez." That in its self is a miracle that I would know that name to start with. The guy then proceeds to tell me "That is Manny, look at the score board", sure enough, there was his name and picture. HA! How cool is that. The only name in baseball that I even know (even if it is because he has hair like a girl) and he is playing in a game that I am at.
        Karen is really enjoying her role at Genesis more and more as she is getting to know the teachers better and her Spanish is improving also. It is fun to watch them interact as she helps them with getting the resources that they need to to a better job of teaching. They are always wanting to improve something that they do or try something different.We had all 7 of them over for dinner after our "school cleaning day" last week and to have them in that setting when we could laugh, tell stories, enjoy a meal, just relax was so nice and reassuring one more time, that we are in the right place at the right time. Gloria A Dios.

Just a random shot of getting ready for a wedding. Nice thing is that if the guests dont fit in your front yard, just use the street and put up a "men working" sign. HA! gotta love it.