Doulos Discovery School
Dominican Republic
Thursday, March 19
La noticia nùmero tres
Greetings from the DR
Yesterday, the rain poured down all day as we continued our outdoor work on the amphitheather covered with cement and wet muck from head to toe!
Inside, we prepared vocabulary materials for younger classrooms. Some team members led classroom instruction. Katie Nelson taught ninth grade Algebra. Kathy Manke and Jane Koza, teachers in their own careers, taught first grade. Nurses Jane Schroeher and Kristy Koza, along with several others, led classes on family life and healthy sexuality to groups of boys and girls in middle school. After a day in the rain, we enjoyed a lovely and delicious dinner at a mountain restaurant with spectacular views!
Today, the sun shined all day while we continued our outdoor work and vision and hearing testing with older students. Each morning, Marlys Stanga also leads a Walk Through the Bible class with middle school students that the kids love! We often eat lunch with the kids and that is always lively and fun. Knowing this is our last full day at the school, we are soaking in as many experiences and hugs with as many children as possible! After you learn the names of kids, they become instant friends.
Normally, the kids practice soccer after school but the rain came pouring down at 3 p.m. today as school was letting out. As a matter of fact, as we were writing this message, the electricity went out and we lost our first draft!
Tomorrow morning, we will enjoy the early part of the day with the kids at school and then head to the airport. We have had so much fun on this mission trip that the week passed by more quickly that we would have liked! We look forward to sharing our experiences with all of you who have prayed for us and supported this endeavor at a special gathering on Sunday, April 19 at Redeemer Lutheran Church at 7 p.m. Come and join us to learn how God has been at work in us and through us.
The Doulos Team
Update Numero Dos
Greetings again from the DR
A highlight this week was our visits and meals with sponsored children and their families in their homes. Delicious and plentiful meals included chicken, fried sausage, salad, plantains, a big pot of rice, fruit, and sweet cake. The homes are modest but very clean and colorful with lots of family photos on the wall. We played games, took walks to the river, talked and prayed with the families in spanish and english, and enjoyed their generous and warm hospitality.
Perfect sunny weather carries us through each day. Yesterday we took windy roads through the mountains to visit a coffee farm and plant where beans are processed. Our tour covered all parts of the coffee production process, from tiny plants to a packaged product. The growing process over many months takes place in high altitudes. Coffee beans are ripe when they are red, and called coffee cherries. They are all picked by hand and go through many different cycles in a process, from drying and de-husking the shell to sorting beans by size and color with machines. After our tour we sampled delicious and rich dark coffee, sweetened with sugar that is common with the locals.
Farther up the mountain, after a harrowing ride of hairpin turns, we visited a larger coffee plantation co-owned by Chad Wallace. There, we hiked five miles while some on our team took turns riding horses on the plantation. Mary Luhrs, a real pro, galloped along and impressed everyone! We saw beautiful mountain views and visited a campsite built by Eagle Scouts. This is one of the places of expeditionary learning by the Doulos students.
Today it happens to be raining buckets! This is slowing down the cement work at the amphitheater but vision and hearing testing continues with lots of activity. Our learning and working vacation has brought us blessings beyond measure.
The Doulos Team
Update Numero Uno
Greetings from Doulos Discovery School in the Dominican Republic!
Our work team of 22 is off and running! On Saturday, we had a spectacular first day at the school with sunny weather for a solid day of work! Many spent the entire day laying cement the old-fashioned way--mixing sand and rock by hand with cement mix to complete part of the stadium seating at the new outdoor amphitheater. After shoveling hundreds of wheelbarrows of rock and sand, there was plenty of Advil to go around at the end of the day. Several others organized medical supplies and cleaned the infirmary. An all-day soccer tournament was underway as well that day with teams from the region competing fiercely. We enjoyed watching the competition throughout the day and cheered for our Doulos kids!
Sunday morning worship (spanning 2.5 hours) was filled with great messages, inspiration and songs we could all recognize even though most of us do not speak Spanish. After a lunch of chicken, rice, beans and salad at the school, a common meal, we all became students ourselves and learned in a classroom setting about the culture and educational system in the Dominican Rupublic. Here at Doulos, teachers often use expeditionary learning where classes go out into the community or the outdoors to get hands-on instruction. In the classroom, students are generally organized in groups of teams for participatory learning.
Our work team is staying right across the street from the school in clean cabins and are within walking distance of downtown Jarabacoa. Sunday evening, we all walked down to Pico Pollo and sat outside eating delicious fried chicken and plantains from one of the popular street vendors. On the way, we were amazed to see a man on a moped holding a washer or dryer with one hand on the back of his seat as he was driving!
Today, Monday, we are continuing our cement-laying work at the amphitheater and organizing school supplies that were collected by many of you reading this email. They are very much appreciated! The nurses are also doing hearing and vision testing for the pre-school children. Katie, Elizabeth and Kelsey--our American students on the work team--are serving in the classrooms as math tutors. Tonight, families of the students will be hosting us for dinner. We are all making new friends with children of all ages, teachers, the staff and parents. The people here are so warm and friendly and bend over backwards to make us feel welcome.
Each day, we begin and close our day with devotions and prayer as a group.We are also joining the teachers every morning in their gathering time of check-in and prayer. We've all are being used well in the name of Christ and feel his presence as we help to continue building this amazing and beautiful school. More later!