Stepping up and taking ownership

     I sit on my front porch on a Sunday morning here in Jarabacoa and over look the mountains like you can see in the picture. Life has slowed down considerably for us in the last two weeks in one sense at least since teams are over for the summer, and a great summer it was. So now we begin the busyness of meeting with the staff that we never took time to do during the summer just to sit and visit and see how they are doing. That is probably one of my favorite parts of the job here.
      Over the last couple of weeks I have been presented with an abnormal about of "Culture Differences" that I admittedly am having some trouble getting past. Not that it matters exactly what they are but more, that I can't get past them, and make up different kinds of excuses why "they are wrong" and "I am right". Then I run across this article from Bill Cosby about the Black Race of which he is.

BILL HAS GONE AND DONE IT AGAIN...

They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English.

I can't even talk the way these people talk:
Why you ain't,
Where you is,
What he drive,
Where he stay,
Where he work,
Who you be...
And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk.
And then I heard the father talk.
Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.
In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.

People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an Education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around.
The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal.
These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids.
$500 sneakers for what?
And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.

I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit.
Where were you when he was 2?
Where were you when he was 12?
Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol?
And where is the father? Or who is his father?
People putting their clothes on backward:
Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong?
People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something?

Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body?
What part of Africa did this come from??
We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa .....

I say this all of the time. It would be like white people saying they are European-American. That is totally stupid.
I was born here, and so were my parents and grand parents and, very likely my great grandparents. I don't have any connection to Africa, no more than white Americans have to Germany , Scotland , England , Ireland , or the Netherlands . The same applies to 99 percent of all the black Americans as regards to Africa . So stop, already! ! !
With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap ......... And all of them are in jail.

Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem.
We have got to take the neighborhood back.
People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands' -- or men or whatever you call them now.
We have millionaire football players who cannot read.
We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs. We, as black folks have to do a better job.
Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us.
We have to start holding each other to a higher standard..
We cannot blame the white people any longer.'

~Dr.. William Henry 'Bill' Cosby, Jr., Ed..D.

I don't think that this article so much about the "Black Race" but more about us as a "People Race" that need to start to own up to our own actions and take responsibility for what we say and do. After reading this I had to think about all the times in the last two and half years that I have thought, "Can't you just learn to speak English so we can communicate??" even though I am the one that has crossed the border and now live in a Spanish speaking culture, and that is just the beginning. In Missionary Training in Colorado almost 4 years ago now, we were taught a phrase to remember and it was "God help us". So now I pray God help "me" to quit blaming others for what I can change myself. And to thank Him for the adversities that we go through here, that we may learn from them and it may somehow help others. 

   

Summer coming to a close (at least here)

      Our last team for the summer is here now and will be leaving on Sunday, August 3rd. It has been another busy time but yet we have had a lot of opportunities to make new friends and build relationships. We also have had the privilege of working with 12 interns this summer and they also will be taking off in less than a week. Hard to believe as it seems like not too long ago I was in the Santo Domingo airport picking up three of them, and now a week from today I take those same three back to fly to their home in the US. Part of the way I spend my day here is working with the two people that take care of teams and the interns. It has really been a special privilege to me to get to know the interns on a closer basis than before. They are a great bunch of young adults that have a positive attitude and will for sure make their mark on the world. It will be hard to see them go for sure.

Marcy reading to Nina.

     Karen is also finishing up this week too at Genesis (the special education site). They currently have 33 kids registered along with 10 staff including Karen. With two of the teachers leaving this fall to take jobs in the public school system, it will look different when they start up again in September.

Janae Helping Marcy with some harder words

  Nina is now one of the older students at Genesis. She loves going to school there and is picking up on Spanish little by little, she loves eating with the team members and interns at meal time at the base. She will turn 19 this December.

Mike and Janae on their date night. 

        Janae returned from her two weeks in the states. She spent one week in Indiana visiting friends and family, then went to Georgia to work as a counselor at WellSpring Camp (a camp for special needs children). She then spent the past two weeks helping Karen at Genesis. She will start at Doulos again on August 11th. Tonight Janae and I had a date night at a restaurant in La Vega. It was fun to just sit and spend time catching up with her. It is easy to get busy and not take time for those moments.
     Marcy will begin tutoring with the wife of a new SI staff member coming on next week. Megan Adams will be working with her for 2-3 hours each day and then she will be going to Doulos again for a couple of hours of Bible, Spanish, Art, Music, and PE. Her curriculum books came in last week and she is already 3/4 of the way through her first reading book, "Henry Reed Inc." We have seen real growth in her this summer - both physically and emotional. Pray for her as she enters the school year in a few weeks as it will be a different learning style than she has had in the past.