Here's a story for you...

I spent the day today over at the base finishing some media assignments and getting all the equipment ready for when the next team comes on the 25th. After digging though the tangled mess of cords, cables, camera bags, and a million other odds and ends in the media file cabinets, I finally decided to tackle the one job I've been avoiding for months: organizing the media supplies!

So today I was matching cameras, batteries, and cords; dumping all the loose miniDV tapes in one box; putting computer and camera paper info packets in one place; checking to see if all our cords, batteries, etc. actually work; putting blank cds together and blank dvds together; etc, etc.... I even found a rain poncho, an old film camera, and a packet of powdered fruit drink burried in those drawers. The depressing thing is that, while my two little file cabinet drawers look great, there's still a huge tub of old cameras, info, cords, and batteries out in the office that needs going through. I'll get to it one of these days...

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Now for last week: brace yourselves for a long post because I'm going to tell you a story (and if you skip to the end, you'll miss something cool, lol!).

I think I mentioned in a previous post that we're making a short video for the up-and-coming micro finance site (to be in El Callejon, and managed by Ryan). The micro finance site will offer small loans to women who want to start their own small businesses and support their families. Because everything is so relationship-based in this culture, the whole loan process is quite different than in the States; the women will take out loans in groups of five or more and there's a kind of "social collateral." It's too much to explain here, but the whole process really is neat!

Anyway, the purpose of the video is to motivate and inspire the women who live in El Callejon to start their own small businesses. Besides offering small loans, SI's micro finance site will do some kind of financial counseling/coaching/mentoring to build relationships as well as teach the women how to handle money. So, last week I went to Santiago a couple of days with Ryan to film some meetings and interviews at Esperanza (Hope), which is a micro finance organization there that he's been interning with for the past couple of months. It rained Wednesday, but Thursday we had gorgeous sunshine! (I say gorgeous because it had been raining almost nonstop for 6 days before that. The water in town is actually turned off because after it rains like that the water is terribly muddy and no one wants to bring that into their house through their pipes! We've been without water at our house for quite a few days now and our cistern is practically empty. I took my shower at the base this morning.) The sunshine that day made even the barrios of Santiago look pretty (except where they had junk piled everywhere, lol). I could have kicked myself for forgetting my camera that day because, with the brightly colored houses and adorable kids running here and there, I saw so many photo-worthy scenes!

That afternoon the Esperanza director in Santiago, Helen, and the Esperanza pastor, Rafael, had a meeting with a new loan group in a community outside the city, and Ryan and I followed them in Ryan and Caroline's vehicle. After the meeting we interviewed a woman at her little fruit stand and got some Dominican coffee before heading back.

Those darn Dominican roads! They're terrible on your vehicle! We hadn't gotten too far before the CRV suddenly started making a terrible grinding sound; something was rubbing hard. We got to the side of the road and hopped out to see what was wrong. Ok, so I'm car-illiterate, so this is what happened in a nutshell: the part that connects the tire-base-thing to the axle-thing has this ring inbetween the two that allows the tire to turn right and left (in my understanding). That ring snapped, something slipped down and started digging into the metal tire rim, peeling off thin metal strips when the tire rolled (The entire wheel itself was just fine and perfectly usable--the rim was just scraped.). Hence the grinding sound. So, basically the front tire was still connected to the CRV, but it was "off" at the connection--it couldn't support any weight and roll at the same time. The weight would be pushing down on the inside edge of the rim. At least I think that's what happened. I could point out the problem for you on another vehicle, but describing it on paper is hard because I don't know what all those parts are called. I'm not sure I got it right anyway.

Anyway, Ryan called Helen and Rafael who had been ahead of us and they turned around and came back. Rafael called a mechanic friend of his, so the only thing we could do was to sit and wait for him. I think we sat there a couple of hours. When he did arrive, it was kind of amusing: he came in a old white car with...a screwdriver, pliers, and a mallet. To make a long story short, he ended up buying some wire from a little shop down the street, jacking the CRV up, and tying the connecting pieces together to keep them from slipping just enough so that we could hopefully get the vehicle to the mechanic shop that wasn't too far away, he said. Since neither Ryan nor I had enough money with us to afford a tow truck (or for repairs, for that matter) this was our only option.

Now for the cool part: while we were standing by the CRV, waiting for Rafael and the mechanic to come back with the wire, Ryan looked down and saw a 1000-peso bill lying in the gutter! (Before you get too excited by all the zeros, you should know that's only around $30. But repairs are rediculously cheap here.) Ryan checked with Rafael and the mechanic to see if there were missing any money (since they had both climbed under the vehicle at one point or another) but they both said no. When Ryan told them what he found, Rafael just laughed his big, booming laugh and threw his hands in the air, "Dios es bueno!" (God is good!). Ha, we'd been standing around by the vehicle for a couple of hours and hadn't seen the money; we must have stepped over it several times! Maybe God had it materialize out of thin air....lol!

Helen and Rafael soon had to leave in Helen's truck again, and the three of us had to get Ryan and Caroline's CRV to the mechanic shop before it closed at 6 (I think it was 4:30 or 5 at this point). When the mechanic had our vehicle "ready," we hopped in and SLOWLY and CAREFULLY started following him down the road.

We actually got a couple of miles before the wires snapped and the thing slipped again. The mechanic jacked the CRV up again, replaced the wires, and we were off...for maybe a mile. The wires snapped again, and again he replaced them. The third time this happend we broke down in town...in the middle of an intersection. People were blaring their horns like crazy and there was no way we could fix it right there, so Ryan just winced and slowly drove the grinding vehicle to the side of the road.

By this time it was getting close to 6:00, it was getting dark, and patience was wearing very thin! Ryan told the mechanic this wire just wasn't going to work and the mechanic left (we thought) to go get a tow truck. Obviously we weren't going to be getting the car fixed that night, so Ryan figured we would probably have to leave the car in Santiago at a friend's house overnight. We called Lowell (the SI director) to tell him what was going on, ask his advice, and ask if he could send someone to pick us up--once we figured out where the heck in Santiago we were. Lowell and his wife Cheryl, it turned out were already in Santiago shopping with some new staff members, so he said they could take us back to Jarabacoa with them, if we could get to where they were (they had the huge SI van and a trailer, which are not easy things to manuver around in in Santiago!).

In the meantime: the mechanic returned...not with a towtruck, but with a chain to replace the wires and also an assistant. We were HIGHLY skeptical and asked about the towtruck, but the guy said it would take a towtruck at least an hour to get there and we were not far at all from the mechanic shop now, not to mention it would cost a lot. Whatever. We tried the chain. Culturally sensitive, and all. After going a ways and turning one corner the thing slipped again. More grinding, poor CRV! By now Ryan just about had it. "This is nuts!" he said.

We hopped out again. More animated discussion with the mechanic . Ryan insisted on a tow truck. The mechanic insisted that the mechanic shop was literally right around the corner and that it would be silly to wait an hour for a tow truck to pull us 100 yards. (Hey, he actually was a really nice guy and trying to be helpful, but he obviously was used to working on old klunkers that are barely holding together anyway and can take grinding and all that--not on vehicles like Ryan and Caroline's CRV. He was doing the best he knew how, I guess.) "Patience!" he insisted, and he and his assistant readjusted the chain and we crept on once more. Thankfully, this time he was right--his shop was just right around the corner and we actually made it. The connection-thing didn't slip again until we were inside the lot!

As we pulled into the mechanic shop lot, we both breathed a sigh of relief! And this lot was surrounded by a high fence so we didn't feel so nervous about leaving it here; besides, as Ryan pointed out, the CRV isn't going anywhere and he would welcome anyone to try to steal it, lol! I was also relieved--no pun intended--because there was a bathroom at the shop; it was outside and covered by a flimsy piece of paneling and the toilet had no actual seat (just the ceramic part--and not like I was actually going to touch the dirty thing anyway!) but I didn't care because I'd had to go since noon and it was now 6:45! I was just surprised and thankful that they had real toilet paper!

SSOOO: to sum up, we eventually took a taxi to meet up with Lowell and Cheryl and the two new staff members Josh and Vicki at a certain store and then rode with them back to Jarabacoa. They also had some snacks and leftover Chinese food in the van, which we split between us. I was dropped off at my house in Jarabacoa around 8:00, but wow did it feel much later! Whew, what a day, lol! Because I had been spending so much time at home at home studying lately, I have to admit I thought this day was kind of fun because it was so unusual! Yeah, I know, it's easy for me to say that when it's not MY vehicle to pay for...

Anyway, there's your long story!

Sponsor thank-you project

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:

2009 is here...

Well, Christmas vacation is officially over, Andrea and Lindsi have gone back to college (...sigh...), I'm here hitting the books again, and everyone is preparing for the team coming in about a week. Although I totally loved being lazy over the holidays, I have to admit it does feel good to be doing something productive again ;-)

My most recent highlight has been my family's visit! They came for a week and got to go to the beach, see the ministry sites, do a couple of service projects, go to a waterfall called Baiguate, have a traditional Dominican meal, go on motorcycle rides, and just read and relax!

Ryan and Caroline got to go to the beach with us again. Mom, Dad, Nate, and Maggie rode in one van and the rest of us (Ryan, Caroline, Adrienne, Lindsi, me, Chastity, Lisa, and Katrina) piled into what we called the "fun van." Unfortunately, the "fun van" got a flat on the way down (Dominican potholes are evil):

Here's a local milk man we saw delivering milk on our way down to the coast. Kind of reminds me of Reb Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof!"

I had to take my ginormous British Literature text book to the beach to study, but other than that, it was totally fun. Some of my fam got to snorkel for the first time, too!

On one of our game nights with Ryan and Caroline, we girls taught my mom and sisters the best card game in the world: Hand and Foot!

This is a poor picture of Baiguate, but at least you can see the scale. That's my family to the far left playing with a volleyball. We took Slabach's dog Chloe with us to the waterfall and she loved it! Poor thing also wanted to play volleyball with us, but she almost put a hole in the ball so she had to just sit and watch. She did get to climb the rocks with me to the very top of the falls, though.

We all spent one day cleaning up the special education school grounds. We raked the biggest pile of leaves I've ever seen in my life! Here are Lisa and me "blending in to our surroundings:"

Visiting a woman in the community:

Carlos, who's blind and is one of the SI base employees, cooked a traditional Dominican meal for my fam:

Rice and beans, chicken, yuka, and a Dominican salad with vinegar dressing.


My family headed back to the frigid midwest on the 14th, and now I have to turn my attention to work. This week I've been mostly doing school, but last night Nate and I went to Ryan and Caroline's house for a competative and bloody game of Settlers of Catan (just kidding about the bloody part). We played two games and I finally won one! This weekend I'm filming the wedding of one of our staff, and next week I'm going to have to try to cram two weeks worth of school into one because that team comes next Saturday.

Making memories

I've decided to start a new Christmas tradition when I get home: making gingerbread houses. They are so much fun! Tuesday, Andrea, Lindsi, Chastity and I spent over three hours creating these crazy and colorful houses.

At first we we going to plan them carefully with the goal of making them exceptionally pretty, but we ended up sticking candy all over them and making halarious little candy creations to decorate the "yards" around the houses. Here are front and back views of both houses, but I think we may have added a couple of things (including powdered sugar snow) to the yards after these pictures were taken. We laughed so hard when we were making these!




This is the front of the "church." The doors are taffy, there's a little Mike-and-Ike and Dots nativity scene to the left. Joseph is a banana leaning over the pineapple Christ child, and Mary is the little pink heart. The pathway to the doors is Mike-and-Ike's and grape Nerds. There's a green Dots bush to the right of the doors and a Tootsie Roll and frosting bonfire to the right. A yellow fruit Tootsie Roll mailbox and Sprees line the front. The ginormous star on the front of the church is a leftover gingerbread cookie with green Skittles around it. Sprees and red licorice cover the roof.



The back of the church has a huge gingerbread candy cane with yellow Skittles. There's a cute little "pond" made of blue Sweet Tarts with a disproportionate Dots duck (with a banana bill) sitting on it. There's a green frosting-covered lollipop tree, anchored in a cookie, with fruit stuck all over it. There's also a little Dots evergreen tree on the side of the church, with a Sweet Tarts wishing well to the side of that.

This house has Skittles and Sweet Tarts stuck all over the front and another taffy door. To the far left is a Skittles and Sweet Tarts evergreen tree with a yellow "star" stuck on top. Below that is a little wagon on Whopper wheels carrying Nerds "coal" for the children on Santa's naughty list. Two green Spree bushes sit on both sides of the Skittles and Nerds path. There's also a yellow Tootsie Roll mailbox for this house, too, but the real star of this show are the three little Tootsie Roll carolers with Dots and Spree hats and standing on a frosted Nerds box. Just behind them you can see a green-frosted cookie bush with yellow and orange Skittles.

The back of this house has a Nerds-box choo-choo train, decorated with mini Blow Pops, bananas, Spree tires, and a fruit Tootsie Roll smoke stack. Behind that is a Dots snowman and another cookie bush, this time with Nerds. Beside that is another frosted lollipop fruit tree with a cookie base. Around the backyard is a licorice and Tootsie Roll rail fence, which you can't see well in this picture.

And everything was covered with a fine dusting of powdered sugar snow! We're quite proud of our cute, silly little edible houses!

Beach trip

One of the best things about Christmas vacation is being able to relax and having no responsibilities for a while. My brain was so ready for a break! I had submitted my last school assignment on Sunday, then Monday we all and Ryan and Caroline went to the coast for a day of toasting ourselves in the sun at the beach, reading, eating, and snorkeling. Winter in Jarabacoa can get damp and chilly because of the rain and the altitude, but you don't have to drive far to be in warmer weather again.

This part of the island is a hot tourist spot and the beach is lined with little touristy shops, and there are quite a few people walking the beach selling their wares. Grapes, tangarines, oysters, and huge shrimp are some of the foods you can get without ever leaving your beach chair. There were even a few women walking around offering to braid hair.

We girls put our collective genius together and made a cool sand castle. It was fun to be five years old again, lol!

The snorkeling here was really nice! There's a reef not too far from shore where we saw lots of weird and colorful fish. I can't wait to take my family to this beach when they come in a couple of weeks!

Christmas vacation!

Ahhhh, it's finally here! I've been looking forward to Christmas vacation for weeks! I submitted my last school assignment last Sunday afternoon, and what a relief!


Lindsi and Andrea Slabach, Nate and Maggie's other two girls, are home from college for Christmas and the house has been so much fun! Lindsi's boyfriend, Stephen, also came for eight days to spend time with the family. Lots of games, work, and good times! They spent a few days going around to several ministry sites to do maintenance projects like yardwork, painting, etc. Unfortunately, I was still stuck behind my computer at that time, finishing my last week of school, so I missed out. :-(

The Financial Concepts study all the SI staff have been going through for the past 10 weeks is finished, and last Saturday evening we had a party. A lot of staff members went home for the holidays, so the group was fairly small: only 22 people, I think. It was a great time of food, fellowship, and fun!

Maggie and the girls had put together gingerbread houses for people to decorate Saturday night. There were some interesting and colorful creations!

Alberto, Lindsi, and Andrea working on one:

Francisco and Alberto with their finished houses:

Lindsi and Stephen:

Ryan and Caroline got a chihuahua puppy recently and brought her to the party. Her name is Booper and she is SO TINY! Absolutely adorable!