republica dominicana. [post #1]

So.  Two weeks in Dominican Republic.  My mind is still spinning from everything God taught me there.  I've decided that instead of giving you a huge general summary, I'm going to break up my two weeks into different entries to give you a better understanding of the things our First Pres group did while there.

Today I'm going to familiarize you with our base and my site in El Callejon.

26 of us set out from Reagan Airport on July 12 and arrived on the Students International base in Jarabacoa later that night.  This is what base looked like.

 The building in the picture above in the main building where we ate all of our meals and the upstairs is offices and meeting areas for the SI staff.

These were the "dorms" we stayed in.  Each building had two rooms that housed about 10 people each.  They also included bathrooms and showers.

There was also the "Chapel" where our groups met for morning worship, devotions and Bible study.  It's also where our guys spent a lot of time playing Polish/ping pong.

Over the two weeks in the DR, I worked in a community called El Callejon.

El Callejon means "the alley".  And that's exactly what it was.

It's the poorest of the communities that any of our students worked in.  The roads are dirt and cluttered with trash.  The "houses" are glorified shacks, some only made out of wood.  It's a little community squashed between a golf course and a guy who owns a lot of land.  Because that man doesn't want anyone his property, he built a cinder block wall to keep the people of El Callejon out.  The wall runs the entire length of El Callejon.

 

Thankfully, one of the ministries that SI has is an art ministry.  They are responsible for painting murals on the wall of El Callejon, brightening their community and giving them hope.

There are a couple ministry sites based out of El Callejon like dentistry, microfinance, social work, and of course my site, Prescolar Ascoiris or Rainbow Preschool.

The school currently has 27 students, 7 which will be graduating in a couple weeks.  It's basically a two room schoolhouse, one room for the older/more advanced students and one room for the young students.  There is also one bathroom and a kitchen.

The schoolyard itself consists of a open air pavilion where my little group of five students met and did work and also where the students gather for orientation every morning, devotions and lunch.  The kids also have a playground with swings, "fort", slide and sand box.

Please be praying for the SI interns as they start their last two week outreach of the summer.  Also, be praying for the community of El Callejon, that the Lord will move in incredible ways there and the community will just experience an overflow of his love.  Also, keep my kiddos in your thoughts as they finish up their school year and some of them move on to bigger and better things.

Hopefully I'll be back soon with another post, giving you more of a taste of the DR!