more rain

the rain began coming down in sheets this week. it believe it began sometime wednesday evening, and i am now seeing the sun peak out from behind the clouds this saturday morning.

because there was so much rain, i only had a total of 4 students show up to class on thursday. that's four students for one class, when normally i have 4 classes. we were going to also have class on friday to make up for missed day on tuesday to make a trip to santiago to pick up the mail. however, the rain only stopped for as little as an hour at a time on friday. miguel came out from caraballo and said there was no way we'd be able to get there with how flooded the dirt roads had become.

though i love the rain, it is much more of an inconvenience in this country. the people who live in the villages don't have the money to buy the appropriate clothing to go out in the rain, so they just sit in their houses until it passes. even after the rain has stopped they hesitate to go out until things have dried, otherwise they have to wait in mud that could be up to their ankles.

this is an inconvenience for us, as well, because it makes it difficult to get to the villages to have class. and even if we do make it there, very few of them show up. but what really concerns me is that, though they use their house to as protection from the rain, often it doesn't serve that purpose very well. with as much rain as we've had over the past few days, i can only image how much water is sitting on their floors, and how much has leaked in through their tin roofs.

so please pray for these people. pray that the Lord would keep them dry and healthy as this rainy season brings not only water, but also a myriad of diseases from which they are often unable to protect themselves.

dominicans and makarios working together

it has been great to have miguel as a part of the makarios team. in addition to working on a project that will someday bring water to chichigua and fixing random things around the house, he also helped us to repair the fence around the escuelita in pancho mateo.

a couple of weeks ago we arrived in pancho mateo to find half of the barbed wire fence torn off the posts and run into the ground. the kids told us that, over the weekend, a big truck had backed into it, causing the destruction we had before us. we had already had a problem with many of the smaller kids crawling in between the wires and disrupting class. now kids (and adults) of every size were able to walk, run, even ride their bicycles right into the school yard. and this of course only happened right in the middle of class so that they could cause as much disruption as possible.

so on thursday, miguel and a friend showed up with new posts and their tools to fix the fence. a couple of pancho mateo residents even gave a hand in hammering the wire into the posts. after about 2 hours of stretching wire and hammering it into the posts, we had a beautiful, new, tightly set barbed wire fence, sure to scare off even the bravest of the pesky little boys (and if it doesn't scare them off, maybe it will convince them to actually stay for class!).

miguel has also been joining us for our weekly MAK devotion time. we've been trading off who will the the devos, and this week was miguel's turn. he used Lev. 25:18-22 to remind us that the Lord is our provider. we have no reason to fear, but should trust completely in Him. he is a wise man, and we're blessed to be working with him.

thank you

my students in chichigua are great. each day when they leave they say "thank you very much" in three different languages: Spanish, Kreyol, and English.

this week we decorated letters to use in learning how to read and spell. so before they left on wednesday i told them that they (and i) have many other people to thank - many very generous people in the united states that send money so that i can be here teaching them. so they lined up with letters to spell this out for you.

from left to right we have: Elizabeth, Adelina, Madalena, Yolanda, Marijo, Marlena, Alamen, and down front is Marijo's son, Francisco.

lluvia

i don't know if the raining season has come early, or if there's some sort of tropical storm or hurricane that i am completely unaware of because i rarely, if ever, check the news. but one thing i do know is that the north coast of the DR (at least from Puerto Plata to Montellano) is getting a really good soaking right now. this has happened quite a bit over the past week or so. sometime around 3:00 or 4:00, the clouds roll in, and by 4:00 or 5:00, the rain starts coming down. thankfully, this is late enough in the day that camille is able to have all of her classes, and i am able to have most, if not all, of mine. my last class has been cut short a time or two, but they're a smart bunch, so they catch up quickly.

for those who don't know, dominicans and haitians do not like to be out in the rain - at all. and in this country, it's very reasonable. the streets, which are pretty bad to begin with, flood very quickly here, so it's very difficult to get anywhere by any form of transportation. and most of the people we work with who live in the bateyes simply don't have the correct clothing (such as rainjackets) to be able to do anything except stay in their semi-dry houses and wait it out. so, when it rains this heavily, there is no class.

so please pray that the rain stays away as much as possible during the daytime hours so that we can continue having our classes. our classes have been going very well, and we've begun to develop some good relationships (although we've had to compete with their love for Brian & Bethany, which certainly is not a bad thing :) and we of course want to continue with this as much as possible, without the interference of the rain.

language is fun and people are generous

so i was in chichigua this morning, teaching a literacy class. on the surface it may appear that what i am doing is absolutely ridiculous. i know enough spanish to get by, but i'm not fluent by any stretch of the imagination. and the only word i knew in haitian kreyol (before today) was "bonjour." all of my students are haitian, speak kreyol, and very few speak even as much spanish as i do. and i'm trying to teach them to read? ha!

but even though God confused the languages way back during the building of the tower of babel in Gen. 11, that doesn't mean that he no longer has mercy on us as we try to learn one that is not our own.

today we learned the days of the week. and when i say "we," i really mean WE. thankfully, my students know enough spanish to be able to know the days of the week, so we could work from there. but since i work with so many people who speak kreyol, i decided i'd let them teach me, as well. so we had the days of the week on the board three times: in spanish, in kreyol, and in english. it amazes me how similar the kreyol words are to a mixture of english, spanish and french (yes, i do realize this is, by definition, what a creole language is, but i can still be amazed by it).

when a person first begins to learn a language, it often seems as if it is just a bunch of ambiguous sounds. but as you continue to study it's easy to see how so many things are related. God wasn't just confusing our languages, he was also creating thousands of new and beautiful languages that allow people like me (and all of my classmates and professors at Biola) to have something to do with our lives. some translate the bible, some teach languages, and some dissect them. now i know my true linguistic nerdiness is coming out, but this really is fun!

and to end my morning, i had two different people assist me in returning to the main road. i decided that i like to walk down the road from chichigua to the main road because, 1) it's cheaper, and 2) it's good exercise. dominicans and haitians both think this is quite appalling when you can simply take a moto for 20 pesos (20 pesos that i'd rather spend on avocate!). but i like to walk. so marigeo and her son francisco walked with me half the way so i would not have to go alone. less than 5 minutes after they turned back, carolina's (one of the little girls in Camille's class) dad passed by me and offered to take me the rest of the way for free since i'm a teacher.

though many things about living here can easily become frustrating, God continues to show his grace and mercy each day.

merci vocu a Dios (please excuse my misspellings and mixture of kreyol and spanish!)s

fort wayne, land of socks and opportunity

posted by sharla, about to embark on her annual fall trip to the unpredictable north

I am packing socks. I couldn't even remember where I kept them. turns out they have their very own drawer. I leave tomorrow morning for indiana and ohio. I'll be speaking at a couple of universities that are working with makarios on various projects. I'll also be able to catch up with some college friends, which is a huge plus.

for those of you who have been faithful blog readers since the summer of '04 (the days of yore and yesteryear), you'll remember that I enjoy the fall colors, but I have a love/hate relationship with the weather. Sure, it's 70 one day, but then the next it's 50 and getting down to freezing at night. I'm packing a tank top and my snow suit. fear not, there will be bagels from panera bread, and that is the ultimate equalizer.

I'd appreciate your prayers for safety and good contacts, functioning promotional dvds, and students who want to move down to the DR!