A Short Update

      Since my last post, it seems like not much has really happened but yet again. A lot has happened. I made my first trip to Haiti. Well technically yes, realistically no. I went with the Semester students to the town of Dajabon on the 29th, which is right on the Haitian border. Friday is the market day when the Haitians come across and sell their goods. Which mostly consists of clothes and other donated items that teams have brought down to them when short term teams go to Haiti. They in turn bring them to the DR side of the island and sell them for whatever they can get out of them.

Standing on the Border Bridge the divides Haiti and Republica Dominica

Not a beach but rather a fairly unprotected Border crossing

    On Saturday night (yes, night) Janae and I along with several other SI Staff went to the Capitol, Santo Domingo to run a 10K race. It was a benefit run for the Special Needs here in the country. It went well and was fun to do with Janae. Afterward, on our way to Wendy's for a late dinner, we were stopped by the police for turning right from the right lane where there were no signs that said anything different. He proceeded to tell us that we were just supposed to know that we could not turn right there and he was going to give us a ticket (he was really just wanting a bribe). Vanessa helped to talk our way out of a ticket. It is still hard to get used to having things like that happen. Often when they stop you, they come right and and tell you that they need money to buy lunch. Just another difference between here and what we were used to in Indiana.

Despedita for Raul (going away party)

     Raul, our site leader for the Men's Sports Site will be moving to Indiana the 12th of December this year and so we always have a small staff party for people when they leave the ministry. Blessings to Raul, Mairyn and the family as they open this new chapter in their lives.

Genesis Staff at our place for the annual Christmas dinner.

     
            This past week we also had the teachers and staff from Genesis (where Karen is the director) to our home like we do every Christmas for a dinner. There was a lot of laughter and visiting as we all had a great evening together.

            Friday Brian and I went to Santiago to look at a few more things to get the new country location up and running. We met with a Baptist Seminary just to let them know what we were doing in town and see what they had to offer us or what we had to offer them. We also met with a potential lady to work in our medical site there. Both meetings went really well. As we continue to look at opening that location, there are a lot of decisions to be made and people to be contacted. I had mentioned before that we have four teams scheduled to come down to that location in May, June and July. To get ready for those teams we want to have all four sites by the end of February then spend March training them. In January we should have a lot more to report on that.
      Here are a few random photos of sites here on the island that I have taken over time.

Milking a cow along the road on the way to Marcy's tutor.

At the Mechanics one day and noticed this car had been retrofitted for a person to drive with no legs. A handle pivots and either presses on the gas or the brake. They have a way of making anything work here!