Blog 3/26/09

(This is a blog for yesterday- there wasn’t time to write it last night)

Today was insane. I went to the airport around 415 after doing homework all night. I got to celebrate my birth minute there- it was very exciting! We boarded the plane to Atlanta and when we arrived, my travel group (Team Awesome!!) TOOK OFF for the gate- we even beat the tram they had in the airport that the rest of the group used. My legs were SO TIRED after that- it felt like the Amazing Race! ☺ After that, we got some lunch. One of my favorite parts about these trips is getting to eat lunch at like 1015 AM! It’s awesome. Then we boarded again and took off for Santo Domingo. Personally, I slept most of the time since I had been awake for 30 ½ hrs and I was beat. When we arrived we were greeted warmly-literally-the heat was a welcome change! The bus arrived and we went to the place where we are staying, La Casa de Abraham. The actual facility we are sleeping in is less developed then La Loma Luz was, but it is still more than efficient. Soon after we got there, buses full of children arrived. We all gathered around and started talking and playing. All the kids stood there and sang Happy Birthday to me in Spanish- that was really cool! We burned a lot of energy and then we met in the chapel room for a presentation by the locals. Now, I thought that this was going to be some little welcome, but they had a full blown spectacle prepared for us. I really can’t describe it- it was just amazing. I definitely feel pressure to do amazing work, because they had worked so hard to put that on. I heard today that they had rehearsed for over a month before we arrived to have that ready. We ate some dinner- Queso or Veggie Empanadas- DELICIOUS! and then we had worship. We sat out under the stars and then prayed for the person to our left. It was an awesome moment. Unfortunately, one of our teammates was not able to come with us, and I just want to take this moment to say that we are missing her and praying for her. We know that she will have an amazing Spring Break.

~Steven Blondo

Ok so this was a really great day. We woke up bright and early and got some breakfast. Then we split up and some people went straight to Quisqueya to start building the school there and the group doing VBS this evening went to Sendero, so that we would be able to come back and clean up before VBS. I was in the group going to Sendero, and on the way we stopped at the Conference Office for a pastor to sign some forms before we could do our work. Of course, what would be next to a Conference Office? An ABC! We went in to look around, and to my surprise, I saw a copy of “Gifted Hands” translated into Spanish. I thought that was really cool. When we got to Sendero, we were greeted by a lot that was covered in trash and a barb wire fence through the property. We started picking up the trash, chopping down the brush and trees with some machetes, and then cutting down the trees that were used as posts for the fence. It was long, tedious work, but it had to be done. We went in for some lunch, which was absolutely incredible. I tell you, these people are feeding us amazingly. Anyway, when we got back out, the locals had already marked off lines for the rooms, put up string, etc. and had made the lot look like a building was actually coming soon. It was amazing. We came back to La Casa, showered, changed, and then went to Quisqueya for VBS. There were TONS of children, all speaking Spanish, but somehow the Lord translated our broken Spanish and their super-speed Spanish into something that all of us could understand and we actually communicated quite well- Thanks Silie! The church members fed us an amazing dinner and we came back here for worship. Ed spoke a little and Maria got up and shared her testimony, which was really awesome. I truly feel charged to really let the Lord guide me on this trip and do His work. Well, I must go to bed now, because we have a big day of who knows what ahead of us tomorrow. Goodnight!

~Steven Blondo

Down here no one has their phones on and no one has a watch, so we woke up about thirteen minutes before worship started. With eighteen girls and four showers that weren’t working, it was a little chaotic.
Breakfast was a mashed plantain dish, called mangu..I think…and papaya juice.
Afterwards the group split into two, the VBS group and the working group. The students who were assigned to do VBS (our group) was supposed to work at a school called Sandero. We picked up trash for hours on the lot; it was as if they had been using the land as a dumpster for years. There was broken glass everywhere! The village kids helped pick stuff up too, they were all really sweet. And the parents brought us shovels and machetes because we got to the site with no tools. Oh, and there were ants everywhere. As soon as some of the trees were chopped down you would see them swarm all over, and they bit. Devon says it doesn’t hurt, only itches, but I think it does. There’s lizards everywhere too. Marilyn let one of them bite her ear so that it hung like an earring. It was pretty cool, but gross too.
Lunch was rice and beans with veggie meat and grapefruit juice, and also this pumpkin pie type dish. It was soooo good! Our group got to come back to the camp afterwards and take showers, and since it was still the hot afternoon the cold water felt good. Once we were ready we headed over to the other church and work site to set up for VBS. We performed a skit about Jesus caring about the birds and flowers and all of his children. Devon was Jesus, he did a really good job. The kids were laughing when he acted like a bird on the stage. We provided crayons and pictures for them to color and take home. All of them are really honest and sweet, we thought we would have trouble getting crayons back from them but not a single child was greedy. It was kind of funny to try and pick out the youth group members from the kids, Seema especially blended in with them and you couldn’t tell her from the Dominican kids.
Dinner was a yuca dish and bread and tamara juice. We’ve had a new and different kind of juice at every meal, we didn’t even know so many kinds existed! The fruit here tastes so incredible, it’s not like at home.
We have worship as a group before bed, and this time we all had a chance to find a partner you’ve never prayed with before and pick a private spot where you could talk about a prayer request and pray for each other. It was a really nice chance to connect with someone else and get something off your chest. It’s nice to know someone is praying for you.

-Jaime Jacobson and Devon Kittleson