presenting doña cristina

there are some people that we work with that some of you never get to hear about or hear from unless you come here. (which is why you should come here.) so, i would like to introduce our doña cristina. she is the cook at the school, and she is awesome. she never stops working. when she first showed up at the school for robin to go over some things with her, jennie had warned us that she was "older," but i remember thinking, "this lady is too old to work here in our crazy school." but she does it, and does it well. so here is the doña and some pictures of food!
cooking


pantry... very dominican


arroz y habichuelas (rice and beans) the food the preschoolers eat

t.i.r.d.

If any of you have seen the movie Blood Diamond, you may recall the idea of saying T.I.A. (This is Africa). When things happen or regardless of the insane things that go on, it is still your country. We all feel that this idea fits perfectly in this country. I often find myself mouthing the phrase "soooo dominican!" because that is really the only way to describe the things that go on in this country. This is Republica Dominicana.

Please enjoy the following pictures and videos, along with their captions. Feel free to enlarge the pictures to see every humorous detail. All of these pictures and one of the videos were taken within the 15 minutes of each other, I kid you not. The other video is bonus.
We were the first car stopped at the stop light. As we waited, slowly but surely motos wove in and out of the cars up to the front until we were completely surrounded by them when the light finally turned green. T.I.R.D.
It wouldn't be a day in the Dominican Republic if you didn't see someone drive by carrying something on a moto. This time it is a Haitian man carrying paintings over his head. Why transport your goods any other way? T.I.R.D.
On the main street that runs through Puerto Plata, which also becomes the highway when you leave town pass all the speedy cars and motos on a mission to get somewhere and to get there fast. On the same road passes a man with his horse and cart. Notice that his cart is actually a car axel. T.I.R.D.
The back windshield of the car reads "C VEND." What the owner was clearly trying to write was "C VEN D" there just wasn't enough room. What does this mean? Well, nothing to tell you the truth. However, it would be pronounced the same way as the phrase "SE VENDE" which means "For Sale." Clearly though, one would use letters with the same pronounciation (instead of the actual words which take longer to write). T.I.R.D.
Look closely at this tractor driving down the main road with its entourage of motos. There is a motorcycle in the lift. What?! T.I.R.D.




Garrett and Anne's T.I.R.D. faces.

foundations.

Over the past few weeks, construction on the new Makarios team house has continued to progress. The foundations have been dug...by hand I might add....pretty impressive, huh? For a while there it looked as if it was a Makarios archaeological dig. A few artifacts were found...but unfortunately didn't amount to much. At this point the guys are laying down the varrilla or steel supports before they start pouring cement.

The April and May rains have started which is good because we really need the rain. Its been so dry lately; however, as you can imagine...the guys are scuttling about trying to get the foundation done before too much rain falls from the sky!

kids crack me up

posted by sharla

i was translating notes from our kids to their sponsors last week and this was my favorite. keep in mind they are learning english at school. My comments in parenthesis.

I L(heart) you.

mandame una bicicleta
(send me a bicycle)

The bicycle part was erased, most likely because a teacher came around and noticed and told her to erase it. Kids make me laugh.