Time is marching right along, I feel. I've been here for five months already and my time is almost 1/2 up. There are a lot of pivotal decisions I need to make soon regarding next fall and college and things like that. So, when you think of me, please pray for wisdom as I explore all my options!

What I've been up to lately:

School, of course. The first four days after my responsibilities with the team were done I had two papers due, and while I hate being pinched for time on papers, I think I did ok. Ha, I haven't gotten my grades yet, though! The first half of this semester I'm taking two literature courses (British and American) and I'm really enjoying them! A couple of times Chastity and I took turns reading the assigned short stories, poems, etc. aloud to make my studying more fun, and we've had some good times! However, we both agree that the modernist poets are nuts. Just for kicks I'm posting a poem here by William Carlos Williams. What do you make of it?

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens

Anyway, that's exactly how it appears in the book, line for line. And as I said, the modernist poets were nuts.

One of the things I love about my job here--and one thing I prayed about before I came--is the opportunity to do all kinds of different media projects (even though some haven't turned out as well as I hoped!). Besides filming teams, I've also done projects for a couple of SI staffmembers to show their supporters, I've made a promotional video for SI here in the DR, I did an education site update and thank-you for a buisness sponsor, and I even filmed a wedding. I'll have a new type of project to work on in the coming weeks. There's a micro finance ministry in Santiago called Esperanza where Ryan has been interning to get more ideas for SI's micro finance site they plan to put in El Callejon. Esperanza makes small loans to poorer women who want to start their own little businesses to help provide for their families, and SI plans to do the same. Ryan, Caroline, and Deisy (who runs the women's ministry in El Callejon) want to make a short video to introduce the women of El Callejon to the concept of micro financing, so within the next couple of weeks I might be going to Santiago a couple of days to film some interviews and things. We're brainstorming on the project this weekend.

Here's a few pictures I took while the team was here:

Nate doing orientation with the team (obviously it was a VERY small team!):

Some Dominican boys at the sports site:

Me with a girl at the sports site (the girls loves playing with my camera):

Katie teaching in her classroom at Mata Gorda. There are four grades in this room, so it runs kind of like an old-fashioned one-room school:

This is a little girl who hung around at the social work (women's ministry) site in El Callejon where Caroline and Deisy work: