A way to help the Haitians

I just wanted to let everyone know about a unique, and in my opinion, extremely effective way to help Haiti. There is an American family in my town that distributes water purifiers here in the DR. The company is FilterPureFilters.org, and they make these water filters in needy countries (e.g. Africa, here, Haiti, etc.) that can be given to the Haitians so that they have a renewable source of drinking water, instead of relying on bottled water from relief teams.

To me, this makes more sense than sending bottled water that will, obviously, be used up.

Some people have been asking if I will be going down to help in the relief efforts. Some of us have definitely expressed interest, since we are here on the island already, but right now it's not feasible for a few reasons. The most important one is that it's extremely unsafe in Haiti right now due to the disorganization. The second is that most of the Haitians have no place to go because their shelter has been destroyed, so we would just be a few more bodies needing a place to stay. I think if we were to go it would be more likely in a few months, when things are less chaotic and people know exactly what needs to be done.

I'm trying to upload some videos of my kids, but thus far I am unsuccessful. Try again later!

Second foreign earthquake survived

Hello all, this is just a quick note to let anyone who may be concerned that I am perfectly fine; I didn't feel the earthquake at all. According to my father (I personally haven't looked at a map...), I am about 100 miles from Port-au-Prince. The majority of my students felt the earthquake, as did some of the other teachers. Cecilia was walking in town and saw some of the buildings shaking at the time. Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out how I end up in these countries with pretty severe earthquakes and don't notice anything. I feel somewhat gypped.

In the meantime, please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers. It is one of, if not the, poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Haitians have next to nothing; here in the DR, you can get in more trouble with the law for killing a rooster than a Haitian. At the beach you see many Haitians trying to sell things, shoes, paintings, etc. My understanding is that they will only see a fraction of a percentage of what they make selling these things. The point is, Haiti is a country with a terrible economic infrastructure to begin with, and I cannot imagine that this will help.

Some good pictures of the conditions can be found here:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/earthquake_in_haiti.html

On the Mend

I’m happily writing this without a fever! Thursday afternoon I started feeling a little better, and then after Friday afternoon it was all uphill. (Meaning it got better, not harder.) I still spent most of the weekend relaxing and drinking fluids and eating all of Jenny’s Ricola’s, as the flu has left me with one of those attractive smoker’s lung coughs. It was a delightfully low key time. We watched a good amount of movies…Top Gun, (500) Days of Summer, and 2012. I also finally finished the Curious Case of Benjamin Button today. Oh yeah, I made my lesson plans for this week too. Sometimes I do work.

At 1 today I went on a motorcycle ride with Brewer and Karyn and it was glorious. Yesterday and today we had sunny, warm weather for the first time all week. I’m glad I went; I had been having lackluster feelings towards being here, especially being sick. The drive reminded me how beautiful this country is, and how wondrous it is to live here. And the phenomenon of 85 degrees in January. I wore my Heap jersey, in the hopes of causing the Dominicans to unconsciously start favoring purple. Speaking of which…

At 2 I watched (well, read about) the Patriots crumble to the mighty birds of prey. It was beautiful. At least, the ESPN gamecast (affectionately known around here as the ‘bar graph’) looked very nice. Once it loaded, that is; today’s internet was the slowest I have ever experience while being here. I would rank it somewhere around dial up speed.

Since we have officially entered rainy season, I purchased some clothesline and clothespins for hanging inside my bedroom. Bring on the miserable weather.

Time to go sleep up for Monday! The first graders will undoubtedly have forgotten anything I managed to teach them before the break, thus I will need extra patience. Due to the aforementioned internet issues, I’m not even going to attempt to upload a picture…

Back to warmer temperatures...

Llegue! At the moment I am currently in bed with a thermometer stuck in my mouth, watching a movie. When I landed Monday I was fairly certain I was too hot, and not from the climate, although it was quite humid that day. I've pretty much been in bed ever since. I had to skip school yesterday, of course, and today. I've been alternating between drenching sweats and feverish shaking beneath my blankets, all accompanied by body aches. Fortunately I have wonderful friends here who bring me orange Gatorade, make me tea, and cook me soup. Today I woke up sans fever, just low energy. The thermometer right now, however, is reporting 99.1. Hopefully it won't continue to increase. Never have I so wanted a hot water bottle for my neck.

Anyway, I was so encouraged to go home and hear from some of you that you have been reading my blog! I thought it was just Mom (I love you!). So, it's my goal to make this more entertaining to read. Currently I am also being inspired by Julie & Julia, which (I had forgotten) is about blogging. And cooking. But I'm not being inspired to cook, shocking I know.

I must admit, being sick is not helping to motivate me for the spring semester. Neither is the cold weather...it's somewhere in the 60s, and rainy...quite chilly!! I would love to go retrieve my motorcycle, go to town to get some groceries, and make dinner! ....Or, I could sit in my bed and drink more fluids. Option B? I think so. Although I do need milk.

I guess if you have to miss a few days of school, this is the week to do it...school started yesterday, and apparently I still don't have a full class. There were only 10 high schoolers, and they left at noon. Yesterday was Three Kings Day, kind of like another Christmas, so I guess that makes sense.

I spoke to the new cleaning woman. She is fairly expressionless, which makes me doubt my Spanish when I talk to her. I apparently said something right, because she showed up today. It's the small victories...

I guess I'm off to make lists of the things I would buy at the grocery store if i could go, and then sit listlessly on my bed. Thus begins round two of my Dominican adventures!

Break!

I'm currently sitting in my basement next to my dad (in his neck brace collar) watching Night at the Museum 2 with my family. It's pretty fantastic, especially after going to DC for New Years Eve, and prowling around some of the museums in this movie. (Side note: Amy Adams is reminding me of Nicole Kidman.)

It's been a wonderful two weeks here at home, although I haven't seen everyone that I would have liked, and it has gone very quickly. I am very ready to go back to my warm and moist climate. I'm also ready to see my friends, and eat what my stomach apparently thinks is normal food now. I'm not ready to see/teach my students...but we'll work on that :)

Plans for this semester:

1) Through my substitute status as a CCPL employee, I'm going to take some online non-credit classes, which I am so excited for!! I miss learning.

2) Figure out my plans for next year. There are so many options! I could stay in the DR another year, I could go teach with my cousins (the Heins) in Cambodia, I could go to another country (India, Morocco) with my cousin (Kaylie), I could go home and pursue my Masters degree.

3) Have adventures. To include, but not be limited to, beach trips with my friends, motorcycle rides through the country, and late night laughter. There's talk of a Tier vacation too, so I hope it comes to fruition!

4) Reflect on purpose, and my purpose, and my life.

Two more days and I'm back to my tropical paradise!

11 DAYS!!

Lots to report on!!! First, I never mentioned the mouse that I found the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I was sitting on my bed when I noticed something crawl across my floor. I immediately shrieked and summoned Holly and Natalia, and the three of us proceeded to use brooms to get him into a laundry bin and throw him outside. Natalie said she found another the other day.

Next, Holly, Brooke, and Alicia’s apartment upstairs was broken into over the weekend. It was very strange; the thief only took Alicia’s money and phone, and only went into her room. He came through the window. Our windows downstairs all have bars, but theirs currently do not. Fortunately, the landlord came the next day and put bolts on the windows. It was still a very startling and scary situation, and it reminds me that I am NOT at home. It’s also

just another sign of the frustrating reality that the Dominicans see Americans and assume they have money. We are approached randomly just for money or clothes and it bothers me greatly. Alicia overhears Dominicans talking in Spanish sometimes about how she is American and must have money, and she will turn around quickly and tell them she has nothing. A few weeks ago when I got a package, the power was out so I took it outside to use the dying daylight to help me see. An old woman just walked on through the gate, took the book out of my hand, and then asked for anything, money, clothes, etc. I was very annoyed and Cecelia had to speak firmly to send the woman away.

We had another Young Life gathering Tuesday and it was fun! It does wear me out though. We meet at 5, Club starts at 7 and goes until 9 or 9:30, and then we clean up and discuss, so it is a very full evening. I am still recovering.

The Christmas program is Friday and we have a half day, which I’m very excited for. We are all really looking forward to heading home in 11 days!!

Some pictures from our trip to Boca Chica:

18 days til ETD!!!

It´s been another week, but in fairness I was at the beach for awhile. I have a nice tan :)

We had our first Young Life Club last night, which burned me out big time but was alot of fun. I really like the high schoolers here.

Thanks to everyone who was praying for our visit by the DR Secretary of Education today...we think it went well!! We´ll find out in a few days, which in DR time means a week or so.

We are all so looking forward to going home for Christmas. I personally am especially excited for cold weather (this is a first), Chrismas decorations, and hot tea. I brought my tea here, but it's always too warm to drink it.

The mornings have cooled down alot to the point where I need a sweatshirt, but I´m still wearing shorts. The afternoons get up to the low 80s or so. I think I´m in for a rude awakening when I get back to MD.

My kids go through spurts of drawing me pictures and notes. There are too many, but I've started taking pictures of the good ones. Here are some of my favorites. The first one was after I got back from the beach. I think Jesus Daniel (yes, that's his name) meant to say, I like you at the beach, but this is how it came out: