Caraballo

Alright, well, this weekend i went to visit one of the other ministry sights, Caraballo, and it was one of the most interesting experience. i decided to just put in my journal entry about the place, since it'll be easier. sorry it's long, i tried to put in a lot of pictures to help it along. : )

"Caraballo was a completely different experience. Here's what's going on: basically, in the middle of hundreds of acres of sugar cane are the completely forgotten workers in their shacks by the river. Definitely the most poverty I've seen here, horrible living conditions, absolutely no control over sexual immorality, (getting raped is normal, women have many different children from different men, no one's married, family units are non-existent), and it's all ruled over by a disgusting witch doctor who uses his power to get what he wants out of everyone - mainly the women. Heavy stuff. And then, Kids' Alive and another ministry called Crossways came in and set up a school, clinic, closer-to-decent housing, and a church across the river. You can imagine the resistance they had in the beginning from the witch doctor, but freeing people from lives of fear and worthlessness is a big deal, and now they're well-established. So it's going well, and it was neat to see. Clearly God can conquer and do His work in whatever place he deems ready. Praise Him!

Before we left, we crossed the river into the witch doctor's village, where many people still live. It was definitely a solemn experience. The living was even more disgusting, and in the midst of it was the witch doctor's 'temple.' It was only a shack itself, but harrowing because of the heavy feeling of wickedness, darkness, and evil there. (we didn't go very near it) There was no doubt in my mind that the missionaries are contending with a great evil there." (This next part is an interesting story, bear with me) "Now, the van we were driving won't start unless it's moving, so we always have to push it to get it going. But this time we continued to push it through the entire village, and though we tried it many times, it would not start. There were no other cars to jump it with for miles around, and I wasn´t sure what we were going to do......until, on our last try, we pushed it over the bridge and out of the witch doctor´s village.......where it promptly started. Coincidence? Only God knows. One thing's sure - I was praying a lot! But there is a good side to seeing the evil in this world: despite the churning in my stomach, and the fear i felt in the people's lives, I was not afraid. Those people live in fear, but I could walk through that village - being the witch doctor's most hated opponent - and not fear a thing. What I really felt in that village was God's power.

So, I am sitting here thinking of and remembering the amazing, powerful, strong, incomparable, almost-unbelievable LOVE of Jesus for me, for us, for Caraballo, the world. That's why I'm here. People in this world live without hope; and though they lack many other physical needs, it is hope that we're sent to bring them. Because when you have hope, you can go without anything. I have this great hope, and many blessings besides! Surely, when I am down, it is this hope, this great love, that I can cling to, remember. And then all I need to do is watch as He buoys up my heart on a joyful wave, to face another day and take this hope to another empty soul."

Thanks, have a great week. ~Allison




Here's the Caraballo project: the green building is the school, the blue one is the church. The small one on the left is a fair-trade organization that takes things that the women make and sells them for good prices in The States. -->

saturday

okay, well this entry is just for fun.
today was a nice relaxing saturday, after a great week of fun teaching. (minus the spider that was bigger than my hand in the 5th grade classroom) but today we went to climb Mt. Mogote, and then we went swimming in a river. it was a great time of refreshment at fun, especially since i got to spend it with a couple of the ark kids, and get to know them better. anyways, here are some pictures of the beautiful scenery, my first visit to the ark, and the kids. i'm sure i wish you all could be here with me, it's breathtaking sometimes! i don't know what i'll do when i return to the flat state of illinois next year......hahaha

God bless your sunday! ~allison



<- the ark











a view from the ridge ->













<- sitting down for a rest








hey everyone!! : )

buenos dias y !hola de la republica dominicana!

things here are going great, just finishing up my second week of teaching at the school........english classes are going well; grades 5-8 are learning the most, i think, while grades 1-4 are mostly just learning alphabet, random words, etc. but it'll be interesting to see how much they all come out of the year knowing. anyways, since many of you have been asking to see some of my fellow interns and missionaries here, i thought i would put up a few photos of my closest friends, aside from the teachers i've already posted. but of course, i had to start off with a photo of this adorable little girl; as you an imagine, i have more than a billion pictures of cute kids by now, so i'm sure there will be at least one or two of them in each entry. : ) ok, first off:



this is Anna, she is the resident nurse for all three kids' alive schools in the area (palo blanco, anija, and the ark)


she and her husband dustin have been here for about 2 years, and she just found out she's due in march! : ) she's a real sweetheart, and i've really enjoyed getting to know them both.





this is our hilarious intern jonathan, who's basically in charge of the entire support department, for which i've also been recruited.

...he, dustin, and i are now notorious for being the 'american football' junkies. yes, we did catch the vikings vs. seahawks game on josie's tv.




last but not least, this is angie (on-jee), the other 19-yr-old teacher at ANIJA. she teaches primarily pre-primario (preschool), and it's been so fun getting to know her. a good workout on my spanish!



....and here i am, in our 'office'/first aid room, translating letters. right now, it's about 9:00pm, i'm sitting here smelling the coffee and listening to.......well, a dogfight. yes, every night, i can hear dogs howling and barking and possibly dying. let me tell you, they're everywhere. haha, just another part of living in the Dominican! i sure do love it, and God's really been blessing me with some amazing growth experiences, friends, and even a lot of special devotions. praise HIM for all He's been revealing to my heart. i pray that He works in your heart as much as He has been in mine. what a great God we have! thank you all for your prayers, i've no doubt that that is a major
contributor... : ) !que sigan caminando en la luz de sus palabras! -allison

School

Alright, well, teaching has begun! i mostly teach english, in all the english classes, and in my free periods i either help in PE, or i teach english to the PE teacher, Alberto. so, despite the fact that i am speaking spanish the whole day, i am actually very surrounded by the english language. it's very interesting to suddenly notice/understand things about your own language that you've never noticed before. pronunciation is something i'm really focusing on, as the other teachers are spanish speakers, and so they still speak with spanish accents. comparatively, the english language is very nasal (and somewhat ugly) compared to the openness of spanish, and the kids think it's really funny when i am teaching them to say 'r' and 'a' with their noses, as we do. but they're very good at it, and are learning quickly. aside from teaching and homeschooling (which is also going well), i have been assigned to the child support department, with the other intern, jonathan. this includes translating letters that the children recieve from their supporters, helping the children write english things back them, and brainstorming for fun info that the supporters might like to hear/see from the children. so all in all, i'm kept quite busy during the weeks, and really enjoying all that i have to do. lastly, i was reading My Utmost for His Highest, (which i highly recommend), and God really sent me a heart-check, reminding me why i'm here. and i learned that no matter where i am, i can be at home there, as long as i am being intentional about what God wants me to do there. so praise God, i feel like he's growing me every day. please pray that i continue being diligent in the homeschooling especially, i began to realize as i went along that, well, i'm not thirty, and i'm not totally ready to be in a stay-at-home situation; however, i'm determined to keep doing my work here in the afternoons, and i'll just have to learn patience and contentment.



Here I am teaching......i promise this wasn't staged, i was actually in the middle of teaching the children to say "What is your name?", when Micah Trautwein snapped a picture with my camera.... : )








....and here's the class i was teaching....









last but not least, these are the teachers i am working with: (left to right) Nojean teaches english kinder-4th, Elias teaches english 5th-8th, clearly i'm the white one in the middle, and Albertro is the gym teacher for everyone.

HOLA AMIGOS

wow, i am so excited to finally BE HERE!!!! thank you all so much for praying; truthfully, yesterday was probably one of the longest days of my life, but it gave me a lot of time to process the fact that i was leaving everything and everyone i love behind, and moving on to a new place, a place and people that i am learning to love just as much. : ) God certainly is great, and it's been a wonderful first day here. we jumped right in to living here without delay: after arriving at about 11:30pm, we got up at 7:00 the next morning in order to get ready for school, which starts 8:00am. i spent the day getting a tour, meeting teachers, and then taught PE with Alberto (not the one i already knew). It was fun, but i sure got an immediate tan/burn, as i forgot to put on sunblock this morning. don't worry, i learn fast. : ) now i'm spending the afternoon helping the trautwein kids with their math, latin, grammar, etc. the weather is beautiful, as well as the country, and i absolutely love it here. i can't thank you all enough, again, for your prayers and support, i miss you all in the states, and will be thinking of you often.






chase trautwein, and some girls in her class : )