One more knitting photo

Here are several kids waiting behind the curtain for the fashion show to start. From left to right: Darlene (Titi), Melvin, Carina, Rubieli, and Melisa.

exposicion de tejer

Today was the knitting exposition!

The knitting class has been planning this for months. As they talked about renting dresses, model runways, fake nails, and big hair I thought they must be joking; certainly they were trying to pull one over on me. But as the day grew closer, I realized this was totally serious.
So, we decorated the Salon Comunal (community center) with balloons and puffy yarn balls (like the ones you'd put on top of a stocking hat). We marked off a runway with finger-knitted cords. And we had a knitted fashion show.

I'm guessing that over 100 people came; many had to peak in through the windows. We gave out prizes for the most creative (a knitted skirt!) and most corageous (one funky mitten). And everyone received a gift (a pair of socks, a ball of funky yarn, and a hair thing).

People are already talking about our next knitting exposition. They all seem to agree that we need to do it on the basketball court, so that everyone can see better. One guy suggested that we do a knitting drama, a girl asked if we could do a dance, another suggested we invite a preacher.

The girls are lined up as one of the first girls models on the stage.

Melvin was the only boy in show. He won third prize for the best knitted item for his black, wool hat.

The knitted skirt and belt!

Wanda models a too small, multi-colored hat.

These church guys provided music before and after the show.

Jose Quezada gave a spontaneous speech.

The crowd joining in with the music.

Dia de Ninos

At all the schools, they've had a Dia de Ninos (Kids Day) as their last day of school before Christmas break. In Piedra Blanca de Hatillo, the school where most kids from Los Higos go, they had kids day last Friday.

The kids came dressed in their best clothes and a lot of the girls got their hair done (on Thursday I saw lots of girls walking around Los Higos in curlers). In one classroom, a sound system was set up and the kids danced. Others played basketball or volleyball in the yard.

At one point, the kids all lined up to get apples (shown in the picture above is Chipo after he went through the line). The fruit was donated by a politician. Before they handed it out, the director and a political worker both gave little speeches explaining that this particularly politician really cares about children that live in villages and that he wanted them all to at least get an apple for Christmas.

The picture below shows Paola and her apple. She saved all the seeds out of hers and gave them to me. I laster planted them in a couple little bags for her, along with a few tomato seeds, just in case the apples don't sprout (which I doubt they will).

Panaderia de Lola

We've been trying to work with Lola to start a small baking business in her home. She has hit hard times in the last few years and really has no way to support her family, but she herself brought up the idea of baking.

We originally thought the business would be running by now, but I'm learning that my expectations for how long things should take are never fulfilled, so I need to change those expectations. Anyway, it took a long time to get her stove fixed and hooked up, but it's finally connected.

Today we spent a good portion of the day at her house planning the business with her. We've decided to start by first making banana bread and chocolate (hot water) cake. We also helped her to make a display box out of cardboard. As we made the box, it was so fun to hear her and her family come up with ideas for how they will market what they bake. It sounds like the sign on the box (shown below) is going to become their logo-- they want to print little logos to put in every package they sell and eventually want to make a wooden sign with the logo out by the road with an arrow pointing to their house.

Luis Emilio, Lola's youngest son (shown with her in the very top picture), recently had an accident. He got kicked by a donkey and broke several bones in his face. He is still recovering and has tried to go back to work, but can't do the work because he gets dizzy when he does hard physical labor. He is getting really excited about this baking business, though, and is thinking he'd like to stay home with Lola and help her get the business going. It's really encouraging to see her family supporting her in this way.

Meri's new cabinets

Meri got cabinets in her new house. I think it makes it look a lot more like a house. She'd been putting away money every time Ramon gave her some to pay for the cabinets.

Tire gardens

Fighting off chickens has always been a big challenge in our garden. They do a lot of damage, so we've resorted to only planting things that chickens don't like (cilantro, radishes). I'd been communicating with a missionary in Haiti asking him what he does to control chickens, and he gave me the idea of constructing raised structres and planting in them, so that the chickens can't reach them. He uses old tires to hold the soil, so we decided to try the same thing with the club.

We divided in four groups to construct the 'tire gardens'. The main challenge was making a structure that was tall, yet stable, and strong enough to hold the weight of the soil once it was in the tire. We have two tire gardens that I think will pass the test (Willy is shown with one above in which he's trying to put wood across the bottom to hold the soil in) and below is a picture of one of which I won't be surprised when it falls.

Chicken Coop Church II

The chicken coop church is looking much less like a chicken coop and more like a building. In the last few weeks kids in the club have been really busy nailing up boards and moving dirt to fill in the floor. Check out the slanted wood near the top. They are even putting in a little stage with Malta Morena bottles all along the front (picture below). Very creative in my opinion.

Teaching English

I don't know if I've mentioned this before on the blog... anyway, I teach English to 6th-8th graders at the public school every Wednesday morning. I teach in Piedra Blanca, a village about a half mile from Los Higos where all the LH kids go. I don't think I'm really the best teacher in the world, but I'm glad for the chance to be in the school. I'm thankful for the opportunity to partner with the school and know what is going on there and get an idea of how the Los Higos kids are doing in school.

The picture above shows Curtis and David, two of the students who are working in Los Higos as a part of their semester abroad, are teaching 6th graders about days of the week and months. (When I asked David about wearing what looked like a school uniform he said he was being 'incarnational').

chicken coop church

The church in Los Higos is growing and just doesn't fit in the pink house anymore. It is also beginning to reach out to the community in new ways, which requires space. So, we recently moved an old chicken coop, left from a former project in the community, down to the garden.

The coop is actually bigger than the pink house, and I think will be left somewhat open on a side or two to allow overflow (I think). We're hoping that this will work well to hold church services and can also be used by the club and the new literacy classes that the church is beginning to offer.

I especially like the idea of having church services outside. I really like the idea of worshipping the Lord in an area where we can see His creation.

Hike

Today was so fun! The sun finally came out after about a week of hiding. The club was supposed to work in the garden today, but it was too muddy, so we went for a hike.

Franklin has been wanting to take us to a waterfall all week anyway, so we went with the whole club. It was much farther away than I expected, or rather it took, us longer to get there than expected, but it was worth it. We went down through a yuca field and crossed a crick, walked back up a big hill, ate grapefruits, went down a very steep hill (I decided to just slide down on my rear), walked through a crick for about 15 minutes, and then up another crick and there was the waterfall.

The waterfall was more a series of rocks on a steep hillside that the crick ran through, but at one spot the water probably dropped 6 feet. The kids really enjoyed climbing up the rocks to the top. The top picture kind of shows the height of the falls and the picture below shows David, a semester student working with Andre.

After a while of getting wet and climbing we stopped and prayed together- each kid thanking God for the thing they most enjoyed during our excursion.

When we finally got back to Los Higos, Tiva had prepared sogu (like 'so good') for us. Sogu is a plant that we had growing in the garden, that has edible roots. Tiva and the girls in the club had ground it into a flour and dried it a few weeks ago and today she prepared something like a hot chocolate drink with it.

Arjenis' hat

Isn't this picture funny? Arjenis put a sunflower on his head and said it was a hat. It's true- it was kind of bowl-shaped. He was actually really enjoying the hat, but wouldn't smile for the picture.

semester students

SI started its first semester program this fall with Bethel College in Indiana. The students finished language school a few weeks ago and 4 guys moved up to Los Higos about a week and a half ago to work with Andre and I for 7 weeks! They are living in host homes (with Meri and Meluz) and seem to be really exited to connect with the community.

These guys are all really mature in their faiths and they ask good questions. It's been a blessing to hear them share what what God is doing in their lives.

In the picture above is Jim, who is working with me, and was very proud to have successfully installed a new doorknob in the pink house.

Meri's house dedication

A week ago Thursday there was a dedication for Meri's new house. The normal Thursday night church service was held at her house (or rather in the road right outside the house, since not everyone would have fit inside).

One of the best parts of the service was when Andre called everyone up to annoint the house with oil. Each person put vegetable oil on the palms of their hands and surrounded the house, pressing their hands against the walls and praying blessing over Meri and Ramon. Baptized believers blessed the home from the inside. Andre asked each person to think of the thing they'd want to ask God for and then ask for that same thing for Ramon and Meri.

The picture below is of the community praying over a group of people who accepted Jesus at the end of the service.

networking

Since getting back from the states, I've had some cool opportunities to network with other missionaries and organizations.

A few weeks ago I spent a day with the head of the agriculture office here in Jarabacoa. I was frustrated by the day, because I got the impression that he wanted to show me around not so much for professional purposes, but because he wanted to spend the day with a single, american girl. Although that was frustrating, I did get a call from him today letting me know that they got a bunch of seeds in that are available to farmers in Los Higos for free, so hopefully some doors have been opened.

Last weekend, I went with another missionary (who is also working in agriculture in a different part of the country) to Los Dejaos so I could see a fuel efficient stove. While there we met several other people who had gone to visit this same family-- they included a man who worked for USAID, the owner of Jarabacoa River Club, and the woman in charge of the Falcon Bridge Foundation in the country. The Falcon Bridge lady told me that the next day they were bringing several eye surgeons to Jarabacoa to do free operations. I asked her if there were still appointments available, because a boy in Los Higos needs catarac surgury. She told me to bring him in. When I did, the doctors decided they couldn't do the operation there, because they needed an anestesiologist, but the foundation agreed to pay for the young man to have surgury next month in the capital!

Finally, I've been trying to find some folks who know something about rabbits. In the process of following different leads, I've gotten to meet people who work for Plan Codillera (a catholic group), who are so helpful, and eventually that led me to the neighbors with the Lorena stove (and they have a peacock and rabbits).

So, all this networking has been fun and I pray that it will help advance the kingdom as new doors open through these relationships.

lorena stove

So, now that I'm all excited about fuel-efficient stoves, I'm noticing them where I'd never seen them before. This isn't the best picture, but it's a very old 'Lorena' stove that we saw while visiting someone in Hatillo. The firewood enters in one end, and there is a chimney in the opposite, although it's not visible in this photo. So, the stove uses less firewood, because there's just one fire for three pots, and there's no smoke, because of the chimney.

This stove is really old. The guy who showed it to us was probably in his mid-twenties and said he doesn't remember a time when they didn't have it. So, I find myself wondering how it is that this type of stove hasn't caught on if they've been around for so long... I need to investigate this.

A fresh start

When I got back from the states, I was expecting to find a big, weedy mess in the garden. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. However, most of our raised beds were destroyed by rain and an ambitious man weeding with a hoe.

What was nice, though, was the idea of a new start-- most of our old work was gone, we can start anew.

And I've felt since I've come back that I am starting fresh for the most part. I've decided to make some changes in my work at the ag site, so that I can be more focused. I've decided to not continue gardening with children in the mornings, and only garden with Andre's afternoon club. The truth is that I dreaded working with them in the morning and I know I was doing them a disservice by continuing to do so.

I've decided to try to implement an experimental garden on the land surrounding where the afternoon club has their beds. An experimental garden probably looks a lot like a demonstration garden, but the concept is quite different. A demonstration garden comes from the perspective that I know what I'm doing and what I'm doing works. However, if something fails, I lose people's trust-- they assume that you do not know what I'm doing. Instead, I'm planning an experimental area, where I can try out new ideas that may have worked elsewhere to see if they were here, in this climate and culture. If it works, I can suggest it to farmers. If it doesn't work, no one has really lost anything. (The picture doesn't have that much to do with all this, but it's a pic of Yulisa drawing out a map of the garden, which we are using in planning).

I'm also hoping to work more with women in the afternoons. I already have a bible study with some teenage girls and a knitting class. I've talked with some women about forming a committee that could help me plan classes, workshops, and other events that would benefit women of the community. The women I've talked to are already talking a lot about sewing classes and have come up with some cool ideas- like parenting or marriage workshops.

Carmen's house

About a year ago I asked Carmen if we could have supper at her home with some professors that were visiting the mission. She said, 'sorry, but no', because she was too embarassed to have visitors over. If it were to begin to rain, she's be embarassed by all the rain that would come dripping through the roof. Her family was in the process of building a new house- laying block walls around the old ones, and were planning to push the old house in once the new one was constructed over the top. In this way, they could utilize the old floor and interior walls.

A few days ago I stopped in to see Carmen and her family. I didn't notice at first, because we were sitting out in the yard, but Carmen pointed out that her house has been finished! The walls still need empañete (when they smooth cement over it) and paint, but they're so happy to have a roof that doesn't leak.

Carmen said that she gives thanks to God for giving her such a good husband, who sacrificed to finish the house. She said that he does have his faults (he is an alcoholic), but she's thankful that at least he was able to do this for their family.

I've often wonderred about Carmen's marriage. She and her husband have been together for many years. She believes that he will always be an alcoholic. She says that he really is a good man, and when he's drinking he's not himself. Sometimes I wonder if this is a good or bad thing. It's amazing that she has learned to love a person, accepting all his faults. Yet, it's sad that she has had to accept something that has been damaging to her and her family and in some ways it seems that in accepting it, she has lost hope that the situation will ever changing.

The picture above shows Titi, Carmen's granddaughter, in front of the house.

cooking fires

While I was ECHO I learned about the need for fuel-efficient stoves. When people cook over a fire it's bad for their health (breathing all the smoke) and bad for the environment (cutting down lots of trees). If a person uses a better designed stove, however, they can use less wood and produce less smoke.

I've noticed that this is a problem in Los Higos. Most people in LH do own gas stoves, but don't use them, because gas is expensive. Also, fires work better when cooking large amounts of food. Lots of women, especially those who make casabe, complain that their eyesight has been destroyed by years of getting smoke in them. A lot of women also complain of lung problems, although I don't know if that is at a higher level than among people who don't cook over fires.

So, I've been thinking about how we might be able to help women redesign their fire pits, so that their fire might burn cleaner, producing less smoke, or with a chimney, to divert the smoke. I'm still thinking about what the best way might be to go about this. I want this to be something that is owned by the women, not something I push onto them.

Any ideas?

(The photo above is of Mina and Iris in their kitchen. Mina invented this little buren, for cooking casabe, when her old one broke. This buren is made from the bottom of an old 55-gallon drum.)

Cecilia's baby

Here is a more recent picture of Cecilias baby, named Natanael. He is about 5 months old now and is quite the chunk! In this picture, Iris, is holding him. There is a picture of Natanael when he was first born back in the month of April's posts.

Back in Los Higos

I'm back in the DR and visited Los Higos for the first time today. A lot happened while I was gone and I think it will take a while for me to get really caught up.
One exciting thing- while I was gone they has a large evangelistic campaign in Los Higos and several people accepted Christ (about 50!). I know that Jose Quezada was included in those fifty, which is so exciting. He has a lot of influence in the community, so let's be praying that God would use him in positive ways. Another man, Augustin, was touched. He used to belong to a different church and actually tended to speak badly about us when we weren't around. Now, however, he is attending our church! I'm not excited that he switched churches necessarily, but rather that he had a change of heart. I'll post some pictures from the campaign if I can get some from Andre.
Because there are so many people becoming involved in the church, Andre decided to stop holding the Monday night Bible teaching (which I led) and replace it with five smaller cell groups. I'm really thankful for that. I've never felt that comfortable teaching the Monday night studies, so now we'll just meet with the cell-group leaders to prepare them for their cell group, which I think will be more comfortable for me.
On a sad note- a young man from Los Higos was murdered last week by a total stranger. He drives a motorcycle taxi and gave a girl home. It was a trap and he got beat up, stabbed, robbed, and thrown in a field. The community is really shook up about it. The funeral is tomorrow.
On Thursday the police were going to move the murder suspect to a different jail, so a mob from Los Higos and La Joya (the town the murderer is from) waited outside the police station with guns and baseball bats, waiting for the suspect to come out so they could kill him. The police protected him when they led him to the vehicle and the suspect was not harmed. The mob was saying that they don't trust that the justice system will actually punish the man, so they were going to do justice themselves. Meri was on TV, from what I hear, representing the Los Higos junta de vecinos at the mob.

good poem

I just read this poem, by Allen Harder, in a book called People in Rural Development by Peter Batchelor. It was originally printed in INTERCOM Vol. 14, no 11 (1974) which is a newsletter put out by the Mennonite Central Committee. It speaks well to the experience of a missionary working in development and it gives me hope:

A boy came to Zaire
brimming with courage.
Change the natives,
build new houses,
give them food.
They're bound to change for a peace-man.

Why, why won't they
build chicken houses
plant corn
breed rabbits?
Why! Why!
And he began to resent
his people,
then to hate them.

But the people still said
"Come, live with us,
learn our ways.
We like who you are."
And he sat with them, in front of the fire
a pot of manioc and a dish of
hot caterpillars between them.

Until
one day
an elder came to him and said,
"My children are weak.
They hunger for chickens corn and rabbits.
Can you help us?"

answers

I don't know how many people actually guessed on the little quiz, but here are the answers anyway:
1. This is bamboo. It's growing all over the place here at ECHO and they have all kinds of varieties- purple and yellow'ish and green. I really was shocked with it's semblance to asparagus.

2. this is a dry composting toilet. The idea is that the urine is separated from the solids. The urine goes to a tank with water in it and can be used to fertilize plants (it's basically urea, a Nitrogen source) or if you think that's nasty, it can go through a drain field of gravel that has bananas planted at the end of it and it ends up just fertilizing the bananas. The solids go to a holding area below, which is divided into two sections. Every year or so you move the toilet to the other side of the building so that the solids fall into the other side, leaving the first side to naturally compost. After several months, the solids are basically just compost and can be removed and used as fertilizer.

3. This is a pummelo. It's the largest citrus fruit there is.

4. This is a wheel chair! It's made by a group of farmers in Nebraska who will give them to anyone working in a developing country with someone who is in need of a wheel chair. They're great because they're pretty rugged, and are easy to maintain because it's basically made of tricycle parts. They also make higher versions, which I guess can go over rougher terrain.

ECHO

So, I'm at ECHO! ECHO is an organization that does technical support for people working in agricultural development. It's a Christian organization, and mostly works with missionaries, but also works with other development workers, like Peace Corp people or university researchers.

Anyway... I'm loving all there is to learn here and am going to give you all a little quiz about some of the things I've seen. Answers will be posted later. You can leave comments if you want to make any guesses.

The above plant is what:

a. Aspargusis grandis

b. Joint weedis grandis

c. bamboo

The apparatus shown above is a:

a. medical research collecting toilet

b. dry composting toilet

c. chair

The fruit shown above is:

a. Citrus grandis, pummelo

b. Cucumis melo, muskmelon

c. Lycopersicum esculentum, tomato

The above contraption is:

a. a primitive gator

b. a tricycle

c. a wheelchair

general update

So, I'm realizing that I need to give a general update about our work in Los Higos:
This summer Andre and I were technically split into two different 'sites'- Andre working in 'social work' and I working in 'agriculture'. Our daily work basically looks the same as before- Andre works with the kids club and I garden with kids and continue to hope to work more with adults. The only difference now is that when students come to work with us they work in either one or the other, whereas before students would split their day between the two of us.

I am actually in the states until September 21. I'll be in Iowa until Sept.3 and will be at ECHO in Ft. Meyers, FL from Sept. 4-21. ECHO is an organization that gives technical support to agricultural missionaries. (They're pretty cool folks and you can check them out at www.echotech.org). I'll fly back to the DR on the 21st.

Also, be praying for Andre. He had a family emergency last week. I haven't been able to communicate with him since he left to be with them on the 10th of August, so I don't know details. It appears that one of his brothers was killed under suspicious circumstances.

more info on knitting...

So, this knitting class is getting to be one of my favorite things I do in Los Higos. The last few classes, I'm guessing that about a dozen people have come!

So, Yomairi has come to a couple classes. Yomairi is 18 years old, the oldest of 5 kids, and deaf. Surprisingly, we find ways to communicate. Anyway, she came to her second class a few weeks ago and I was trying to think of how to explain to her the difference between a knit and a pearl stitch using body language. By chance Amy, an American who knows sign language and knits, happened to be visiting the ag site that day! She was able to make up signs that seem to make sense to help Yomairi learn the difference.

Mayra, Yomairi's mom, said that it's probably that Yomairi will not continue to go to school. She has been attending a deaf school in Jarabacoa since she was about 12, and would be going into 6th grade. Since the school is really only supposed to be for kids, not adults, Mayra doesn't think it would be good for Yomairi to continue studying. She's like for Jomairi to learn a trade and begin working. I don't know if knitting will fill that role, but even if it doesn't, it's so nice to see that she can take a class with people who can hear and follow along just fine.

Another note about knitting... I'm actually in the states right now for a visit, so I left my knitting supplies with 15-year-old Marileici and told her that she could meet with the ladies and continue to practice on Fridays even while I'm away. (Marileici has been a big help during class, because she often helps her neighbors when I'm not able to get to everyone). Last Saturday, I had to swing through Los Higos to do a few last-minute things before my trip to the states, and as I drove through I spotted Marileici on a porch, apparently knitting. I stopped to ask what was going on and learned that Marileici was teaching another girl, Mary, to knit! I felt like that was a gift from God-- letting me see that, reassuring me that some of what I'm doing is working in ways that are beyond myself. It's a beautiful picture of discipleship-- Marileici isn't that far along in knitting, but what she knows she is passing on. And I hope that that is happening in other ways, too, that each new thing we are learning from eachother we might put into practice and pass on to others.

painting

Meri's house is now in the painting stage! Yesterday, Friday, several young guys from the community were busy priming it. It's hard to paint because the block really soaks paint up and because there are lots of holes and cracks to be filled. In the picture above, one of our summer interns, who is living with Meri, is helping out. In the picture below, Miguelo, is sitting on the dividing wall painting. They put sawdust onto the floor to protect the floor from falling paint.

last saturday's retiro

Last Saturday, July 28, there was a retreat in Los Higos. Several people participated from the Kids' Club, the Los Higos church plant, and also from a youth club that Andre works with in Jarabacoa. The retreats that Dominican churches do are a little different than what would come to an American's mind.

The retreat was help in a beautiful spot in a pasture near Los Higos. First we had worship together (see picture above), followed by a talk from Francisco (who runs SI's art school). Then we had some free time (in which I and some kids explored the hills nearby). Then we had lunch, moro and puerco guisado (rice with beans and pork in a red sauce), prepared by Meri. In the afternoon they played volleyball and then returned to Los Higos to have more worship in the pink house.

Lilliana's Baby

Those of you who have visited Los Higos may have met Lilliana and Ariel. Lilliana had her baby on Tuesday evening and was back in Los Higos by Wednesday morning when this picture was taken. It's a girl who weighed 5 and a half pounds. They haven't given the baby a name, yet. Ariel told me that they're trying to think of a name that no other child in Los Higos has.

I was so surprised that Lilliana was able to have the baby naturally-- without cesarian. Many births here are done with cesarian, especially if the baby is born in the public hospital. It seems that doctors find it more convenient to do surgery than to let the woman have the baby vaginally.

knitting

A few more ladies have taken interest in knitting lately. I think it helps that we've been more consistent in having the class. Last spring I had to cancel it a few times, which made it hard for people to remember to come. In this photo, I am with Mary, who really wants to make a hat, and Maruca, who has caught on really quickly to knitting.

In the photo below, Drew, a student who is with us on an outreach right now, is showing Rafa how to knit. It's fun to see how a lot of the boys in the community have wanted to learn to knit, too. A couple boys have even made me knitting needles whittled out of sticks.

seeds

The ag site got a huge donation of seed packets for all kinds of vegetables. In the above picture some visiting students are helping to organize the seeds. I was so thankful to get the seeds for two reasons: 1. the kids are more excited to plant and care for their gardens when they aren't always planting the same old thing, and 2. it's hard to get a variety of seeds here. Just the day before getting the seeds I was selling radishes in the market and they asked me if I had any of those ' nice, round' radishes. And I said I did plant some, but wouldn't be able to sell them because I needed to leave the plants to harvest seeds off of. This seed donation had two different radish seed varieties (both which appear to be nice and round), which I'm so excited to try!!

crushes

We had a team just leave a week ago that worked with Andre in his kids club. The team had 5 young ladies and one guy on it. Like TWU, they taught piano, guitar, english, and computers. What I didn't totally expect was that several or the club members developed crushed on their teachers and by the end had basically claimed which one they liked. A few days after the team left I discovered these messages written next to the door of the casita (where the ag site works out of). 'Cici y Emilio' and 'Dauris y un american'.

I basically posted it because it was cute. The truth is, though, that I had to have a talk with a few club members about how to respect girls, somthing which many have not been taught.

The coolest floor

We had a team that worked on Meri's house last week and they poured the floor. Here is a picture looking down on it (those are my feet)-- isn't that an amazing floor!! They pour the concrete floor and let it dry for about an hour. Then they 'float' it by rubbing the concrete with a trowel (?) that makes the water come up to the surface. They put a little more cement on top and smooth it out real smooth. Then they add a little more water by sprinkling with a sponge and put colored cement on (first light blue in this case), smoth that out, and then sprinkle on a darker colored cement (dark blue) and smooth it out ot make swirls. Dominicans can do crazy things using cement.

TWU leaves :(

The TWU team (shown above) finished up their time working with us in Los Higos this week and flew home on Saturday. This really was an excellent team!! The girls were very mature, reflective, and conscienscious. The community was really happy with these girls- commenting that they were pretty 'tranquila' (tranquil/ calm), and didn't spend a lot of time out in the streets (among women in this culture it is more respected to be at home).

We saw a lot of progress in the kids club. The above picture shows Jess giving guitar lessons to Daury. The guitar class especially learned a lot because the say kids stayed in the class the whole time. Andre is hoping to continue giving guitar, piano, English, and piano lessons throughout the summer when 2-week teams start coming.

Rabbit hutches

So far we have three rabbit hutches in kids' homes and plan to make 5 or 6 more. In this picture we are carrying one up to Yenny's house which is quite a hike even when you aren't carrying a rabbit hutch. We've been making the hutches mostly from wood because we can get free scraps from the sawmill, but may need to consider using something lighter.

TWU has arrived

I'm going to write quick, because I'm down in town for just a little while.

The Trinity Western University team has arrived. Nine women and their leader have gotten settled into their host homes (they're living in pairs, although one will be left alone when the leader goes home). The girls seem to have good chemistry together and are doing a great job of supporting one another. They began teaching in Andre's kids club, teaching english, computer, piano, and guitar. The above picture shows Sara teaching Daury some quitar cords. The kids are so excited.

It seems that God is really working in these girls. So often just being in a different culture softens people to what the Lord wants to teach them. It's so easy for me-- I don't have to 'try' to teach them anything-- God uses the experience itself and the community to teach people when they put themselves in such a vulnerable situation.

Please be praying that they will be able to minister to their host families despite the language barrier.

a totally unrelated post

I, Arlene, went on a retreat last weekend at the funkiest retreat center that I believe exists. It's called Crossroads and is near Sosua. The picture above is of one of the bathrooms.
Anyway. I went on a personal spiritual retreat to prepare myself to move to Los Higos for month while a team form Trinity Western University is living there. The team of women will use their time to teach English, computer and music to the club, to continue gardening, and to minister to the women in their host families. We're really excited to have this team-- it's so cool out teams that live in the community are able to build relationships with people that Andre and I haven't gotten to know. I am also excited to live in Los Higos for a while, because I'm sure it will help me to know Los Higos better and to better see God's vision for the community and my part in that vision.
So, while I'm living in Los Higos, I don't know how often I'll be able to come down and use the computer. Hopefully I still be able to post once in a while during the next few weeks.

Carrots

Carrots take a little patience... Most of the kids who have planted carrots have pulled at least one out, because they just can't wait to see how big they are underneith the ground. Darlyn, above, actually had some decent sized ones. Little Paola, pulled most of hers out when they were just a long as a finger, and as round as a nickel. She was bragging about how huge they were and was going to take them home to make juice from them in the blender.
Anyway. The other day I was talking with a lady in the community and she was asking me how old kids had to be to garden with me. I said that I prefer that they be in school. I went on to tell her how the point of the garden isn't so much that they kids have perfect plots or make money, but that they have something of their own and learn to care for it. She said, "That's not an idea that you see much here... that the kids would have something of their own. That they'd have the responsability for something of their own..." And I realize how powerful it is to entrust a child with something-- to let them know that we believe that they can do it (whatever it may be, not just gardening) and actually let them have at it. I pray that the Lord will use this garden to let the children know that we trust them and love them even when they fail and will continue to give them a new chance.

Chipo

Anyone who has ever been to Los Higos probably remembers Chipo ("cheap-o"). He looked like such a vacano the other day wearing this bandana, so I had to take a picture. As I was taking the shots, he kept wanting to pull it over his eyes. Chipo's mom used to live in La Vega, so he was being raised by his grandma, but most of the time ran loose in the community. His mom recently moved back to Los Higos and we see a little less of Chipo (less often, and less of his body, because he tends to wear clothes more often now than before).
Anyway. You might notice some owies on Chipo's face. A few weeks ago he was doing a kind of tug-a-war with another kid (Mateo), who let go of the rope and Chipo fell and somehow scraped up his face. He looked pretty rough for a few days.