Listen Up!

from now on, all our blog posts will be on the main page of our new website, not on this site. check it out: www.makariosinternational.org

méxico!

here's a video from our time with the kids in mexico city. more on that later...

toothbrushing!

Isaiah. Or as my dad would say, "I-zi-uh"

I have found these verses to be encouraging and wanted to share the encouragement.

Isaiah 58:10-11

If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.

And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

The Guagua

Have you ever wondered what happened to the guagua that burned? You probably thought that it was taken away and used to find parts for other guaguas. You are wrong. Our guagua was taken away, repaired, and is now running as public transportation (the Puerto Plata-Rio San Juan run). Cara and I were lucky enough to ride in it on our way to Sosua for some grocery shopping. Here are some pictures of the new and improved MAK guagua:


Cara next to the sign on the window: Puerto Plata - Rio San Juan


The dashboard...look familiar?


There it is, our old guagua bustling with life

Cristina

This is Cristina. She is one of the teachers at our school. She's Dominican. I suppose a lot of you won't be able to understand her but I wanted everyone to get an idea of what she looks like, sounds like and see her smile that overflows with love and joy!

Ambiolix and Estiven

Ambiolix is one of our preschool students. He's so little! His mom is Evelina; a wonderful, hardworking single mom (her husband died suddenly about 14 months ago) who wants to learn English and always has a sweet smile on her face. Ambiolix doesn't talk too often. He's missing his front 2 teeth (pulled by dentist because they were rotting) and has about 4 other rotting teeth in his mouth. He calls me Lubi (Robin here sounds like Row-been and is sometimes shorten to Rubi because Robin is too difficult) because he is Haitian and therefore switches the 'l' and the 'r' sound...I think it's precious! Today Cara and I went to spend some time in Chichigua, just sitting around, hanging out. After about 45 minutes, Ambiolix come running out of his house with the most precious hat on! Here are some pictures of my little Ambiolix:









Estiven has huge ears, a wide nose, and a big smile! He recently has a little accident with a bicycle and has a wound on his foot. Cara Jane has been trying to help it heal but it's difficult. She's cleans it and wraps it but an hour or 2 after arriving back to Chichigua, the bandage has fallen off and the wound is full of dirt! Today when we arrived the bandage was still on but fell off about half an hour later. He then began hopping on one foot to keep the wound off the dirt. Cara decided to look for a walking stick for him to help him keep his foot off the ground. Here's the result:

Estiven already looks like an old man and with the walking stick he looks even more so! I know that his right ear looks strange, but fear not! His ears are so big that he can tuck them in. He gets a kick out of tucking in his ears!

Diori in his glasses!

Ashley

This is Ashley. She is a chunky, solid little lady with a sassy attitude and a precious lisp. Here she says: Soy Ashley y estoy comiendo sancocho (I'm Ashley and I'm eating sanchoco)

Some videos from preschool

Singing in line before entering the school






Memorizing scripture with Cristina (Genesis 1:1- In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth)

Videos of Jakob and Isaak

Sharla and I were going out to eat one morning but arrived a little too early to the restaurant so we decided to visit the grocery store (it's in the same building). The twins decided that they would go shopping for us and here are the videos of our time in Tropical:


Jakob is closest to me and Isaak is with Sharla. We're in the cereal aisle.



Isaak had, just before this video was taken, run full force into the cooler with the apples! It was funny. But look at their skill. They can turn corners, reverse, and stay clear of the obstacles that stand in the way!






Jakob gets around tights corners, runs into the plungers and looks for Mama. He's decided to start talking recently! And Isaak has as well. He says 'mama' and 'powpow' and some other things. It's all very exciting!


Playing with pillows is fun! Isaak is in white and Jakob is in maroon.


Garrett beats up on the twins


Cara teaches Jakob Spanish and Isaak continues to take the wrath of Garrett.

Sancocho

Sancocho

Today for the first time our Doña Cristina made sancocho! It's a kind of soup/stew with yautilla (a root crop which is grown and eaten like potatoes), ahuyama (a very large pumpkin-like squash with orange flesh that is moister and sweeter than pumpkin), zanahoria (carrots), cilantro (same in English), yuca (also called cassava), plátano (plantain), pollo (chicken) and it is delicious!



Doesn't it look yummy?!





Our Doña cooking some rice to go with sancocho

Construction!

it's really exciting to see the house go up. it will be even more exciting to see how God provides the money that we'll need to finish the house! prices on construction materials have more than tripled since we began the project. i think God just wants to show how nothing can slow Him down, so i look forward to seeing His provision unfold. here are some pictures of the house.


side view of the house from the road


the men and the container


front carport view


you gotta buy it all before the prices go up again!


the back staff area


view from the back


looks like a living room, right?


this is where you'll sleep

roller blades and the start of a new school year

here ronni is wearing pink roller blades. let's discuss. where did he get roller blades? i hadn't seen them in this country until recently, and i'm seeing them in poorer areas. so this makes me wonder if a big shipment of used roller blades came down from the US. also, he's wearing these in chichigua. if you have ever been to chichigua, you might remember that there is no flat, paved surface. all dirt and rock. ronni was just walking around awkwardly in them. it didn't seem fun. but what i do i know about fun in chichigua? maybe it was a fashion statement.

on a different note, this week is what one might call "the calm before the storm." although now that i say that, it's not all that fitting because hurricane hannah has been raining on us since sunday. but from a school perspective, it is quiet - the summer program has ended and monday is the first day of the new school year. i think it's gonna be great! stay tuned for pictures and posts.

graduation

There will not be students over the age of twelve in the upcoming school year, so we had our first graduation ceremony and party for all of the older students in our program. It was really special planning the event for my students, and having them and their parents come all dressed up and participate. We showed a quick slide show and then had the ceremony. Preparing for the graduation.

William

Yunior

Ernesto

Jonatan

Luis

Natanael

Rubén

Francesa

Francia

Lissi

Yoslena

Albertico

Ronni (who at first hid under the table after hearing his name called)

The whole graduating class
plus Weston, Robin, me, Kate, and Cristina

Ernesto and Ronni, the two from Chichigua, were wearing new clothes (that were matching). They both also got haircuts. It was really precious!

Ronal was one of my former students. He moved to Haiti and was gone for a majority of the year. This graduation was the first time for me to see him since coming back, it was really exciting.

some pictures i like

we're in the process of redoing our website, so i've been going through lots of new pics. here are some of my favs.

A tour of our garden

Behind the school we have a little fenced in area and some unfenced landed that is teeming with life! Here's a little picture tour of the food growing in our backyard:


The ranchito with the garden behind it. Our little cunuco (vegetable garden)


Limones
Limes


Picante o Aji
Hot peppers


Molondron
Okra (the pictures is poorly focused, sorry)


Berenjena
Egg plant
Dominican Spanish saying: En lo que dice berenjena (In what the eggplant says)
It means to go quickly. If someone were trying to catch up with a group, but they were walking, you would say En lo que dice berenjena and they would begin to run!


Tomate
Cherry Tomatoes


Frijoles o Habichuelas
Beans


I don't know what it's called but it's pretty


Cereza (not to be confused with Cerveza)
Cherry


Zanahoria
Carrots


Plátanos
Plantains


Our composed heap. We put all the egg shells, banana peels, and left over food from the school


Melon o Sandia
Cantelope or Watermelon (I can't remember)


Coco
Coconut


Guineos
Bananas


Auyama
I don't know what it's called in English. It looks like a watermelon on the outside but a pumpkin on the inside.


Ronni told me that it's called Ñami or something similar. I have no idea, really!


Mango
Mango
This tree is just beginning so it didn't produce this year. It is currently mango season here, so if anyone really likes mango, plan a trip down to the DR during late summer. They are huge and cheap here. If you are like me and detest mangoes, you should still come down here during late summer because it's the season for:


Aguacate
Avocado
They are also large and cheap during this season!


Lechoza
Papaya
This is one of my least favorite fruits ever! The tree is kind of strange because the papaya grows like a goiter on the main stem on the tree. This is a baby tree on our fence line.



That's a lot of what we have in the garden, but I'm sure that I have missed quite a few things with my untrained eye.

Taking Diori to the doctor in Santiago

From our visit to the doctor in Puetro Plata it was decided that Diori needed to go see a specialist in Santiago. His vision in both eyes was great and so the doctor said that she did not have the technology needed to diagnose any further what my possibly be the cause of Diori's eye.

Jennie, Diego, Catie (summer intern), Diori and myself loaded up in the Makarios truck and headed to Santiago. Diori slept through most of the trip, until getting car sick



We arrived at the doctors office, checked in and waited. In the meantime, Diori got to play in the kid's area of the waiting room and enjoyed the toys.


We get in to see the doctor and she checks his vision with all of her tools (it was such a new experience for Diori!) and the entire time he sat patiently and answered all of her questions.


She was testing his vision and trying out different lenses to see which one was better ("Which is better, number one or number two? A lot of us have been there!)


After doing her initial check, the doctor ordered that his eyes be dilated. In this country the process takes an hour. So Diori and I waited in the waiting room while Jennie, Diego, and Catie went to La Sirena (our version of Target) to pick up a few things. After waiting the full hour, we get called back in and the process of looking at his eyes begins again.


It was concluded that Diori will need glasses. They are hoping that in using glasses, his eyes will have a specific thing to focus on and the muscles that are overpowering his eye, therefore causing it to turn in, will be corrected. He will wear glasses for three months and then we will have another visit to see if the lenses have helped sufficiently. If it is decided that the issue has not been corrected sufficiently, we will begin to talk about a possible surgery.

After the visit to the doctor, we headed to the Santiago airport to pick up our mail brought in by Missionary Flights International (the service that brings mail from the US to the DR and Haiti, as there are no mail services in these countries). The plane was quite late. After a three hour wait, we had our mail and made our way back to Puerto Plata. Diego, begin only three months old, was not enjoying his day away from home and proceeded to cry a lot of the way home. Catie held him and let Diori sleep on her shoulder. We got him a Dramamine and he did not get carsick! It was a long but productive day!


This week or next week I'll be taking Diori back to the doctor here in Puerto Plata to have him fitted for his glasses. I hope he likes them!

Interns - Session Dos!

Four new interns arrived at the beginning of July to join Emily and Paul and have hit the ground running (Picture L-R: Catie Houser, Jennifer Domingue, Sarah Haugh, Sarah Penn)! After some orientation, community building, 27 Waterfalls and a retreat, they were in charge of developing and leading school. Sarah H. and Jennifer (both UT students) proposed a co-project with art, and therefore the theme of school was discovering the beauty of God's creation through art. Each day of school, two or three days of creation were discussed and portrayed through various art projects such as watercolors, vegetable stamping, chalk, and other mediums. Now, Jenn and Sarah are going to do follow-up "workshops" with the older kids that have showed the most potential/interest in art.

Catie is our UT pre-nursing intern and is assisting Cara at the school with tending to minor injuries, taking kids to the local clinic and a couple of more serious cases to the hospital. She is also observing/researching ways to better Makarios' knowledge and treatment of minor injuries at the school.

Sarah P. is one of our Pennsylvania Biblical University interns and is developing curriculum for school to teach some basic business and entrepreneurship concepts to the oldest class. Our other PBU intern, Paul Weitzel, with the continued participation of the interns, is continuing the development of relationships through summer Kids Clubs at the Wharf (downtown barrio of Puerto Plata) and a village behind the Mak house that we so affectionately call Poopie's Place due to one of the little boys named being Poopie.

Emily Falk, our full-summer Harvard intern, is continuing with her sociology research as well as building beautiful relationships with the children at school and the wharf, our neighbors at Poopie's, and of course the staff.

Your prayers are greatly appreciated as the interns have only a couple weeks left in the country and with each other and seek to finish strong for His glory. These are definitely some of the most flexible, joyful and passionate people I've known in quite some time and hope you are as honored as I am o their work with Makarios.

la casa makarios

here are some pictures of the house we're in the process of building. you are welcome to come and stay here any time - the cistern is big enough for guests and we could through a few mattresses down in there for you. Or you could come stay in the house we're renting now and help us build this house!