The First Weeks: Part III

Thanks for returning to read more about our adventures!  This post covers our second and third weeks in Jarabacoa, which was filled with many more exciting experiences, new places, and still more changes. 

On Sunday evening, we started the second phase of our “couple shuffle” and moved in with another couple from the school, Tim and Whitney.  They too were amazing hosts and we really enjoyed our time with them!  We spent the first few days of the week at school with some free time to get accustomed to our new roles, set up classrooms, and other more administrative things.  As usual, our days began with all staff prayer, which continues to be an incredible blessing as we start our day each morning before God.  On Thursday, Joe and all of the other administrative staff spent the day working on improvement projects around the school ranging from installing new windows, cleaning up neglected areas which were in disrepair from the summer, and painting the outdoor basketball court/play area.  It was a good experience and just a day spent working on the physical buildings of the school gave Doulos a nice facelift! 




(Re)Painted outdoor basketball/volleyball/hopscotch/four square court at Doulos

 

On Friday August 12th, the entire staff spent the day at the local Young Life camp for an all staff retreat, which is a beautiful area removed from the city and higher up in the mountains.  We spent the morning praising God in worship and learned about service, primarily through the symbolic act of washing one another’s feet.  One of the main goals of Doulos is to train students to become servant leaders in their communities and throughout the country of the DR.  As a staff, we seek to exemplify the qualities of servant leadership in order for the students to have a model to follow.  It was an incredibly humbling experience and very valuable for both of us.  In the afternoon, we were given free time to swim in the pool, play games in the field, and just relax/hang out.  It was a great day!



"Pool" at the Young Life camp (filled by a mountain stream)

The next day Joe had an opportunity to hike up one of the rivers near town (called Rio Camu) with some of the other men at the school.  It was about a two mile hike up to two beautiful waterfalls with several fun stops along the way to jump off of 10 foot cliffs into deeper pools of freezing cold water down below.  While Joe was out hiking, Christen went to a pancake breakfast at a few of the other teacher’s house, got a haircut, and spent the afternoon finishing her classroom set-up. 

Hiking up the river

The destination: beautiful waterfalls

On Sunday, we returned to the church we have been attending , called “La Vid” (The Vine in English) with T&W.  The services are done mainly in Spanish, but from time to time, they do have translators for the sermon.  It has been a bit of a struggle for Christen, but in the long run, it should help her Spanish develop a bit quicker.  After church, we had lunch and relaxed and then later that afternoon, we began phase three of the “couple shuffle” and moved in with another couple from the school, Rob and Meghan.  We had a great week with T&W filled with laughter, stories and just generally good times.  At the same time, we looked forward to getting to know R&M better.  We even got their entire apartment to ourselves on the first night since R&M were housesitting for some friends who are missionaries with another organization in Jarabacoa.  While it has been great being with these wonderful couples, it was very nice to have an afternoon and evening to ourselves. 

Monday and Tuesday of the following week were local holidays, so work was “optional,” but since we both did not feel like we had gotten much done in the first two weeks, we decided to come in to school to get some things done (at least for the morning).  Tuesday marked our third wedding anniversary, and so after sleeping in and then spending a few hours at the school, we walked back to R&M’s and relaxed, went on a run (which turned into running in the rain as the weather took a turn for the worse right after we started), and just enjoyed one another’s company.  We dined that evening at a local restaurant called “La Parrillada” and had some of the best bruschetta either of us have ever tasted.  It was a very enjoyable, yet simple day and we are continually grateful to God for the strong marriage he has blessed us with and all of the great support and encouragement we receive from all of you (so, thank you)!



Celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary at "La Parrillada" in Jarabacoa, DR



Wednesday August 17^th was the first day of school at Doulos and we were introduced to many new traditions here.  Every day begins at 8am in the amphitheater on campus with announcements, the singing of the Dominican national anthem, prayer, and what is known as a “Doulos” for the day.  Essentially this is some acrobatic act or “cool” move followed by pumping a fist in the air and shouting Doulos!  First the volunteer for the day who “has a doulos” gets up on stage to demonstrate and then the rest of the students and staff follow suit and the entire school does the doulos.  It’s been pretty entertaining what the kids come up with and always gives us a good laugh in the morning.    

Christen’s first day of classes went well for her.  She was a bit nervous, but God calmed her nerves and allowed her to use the great teaching skills He’s blessed her with to make an immediate impact on her students.  She is teaching 6^th grade devotions, 6^th – 8^th grade science, and 9^th grade health.  This means that she has five different classes to prepare for, which she says is “mucho trabajo” (a lot of work). 

Joe is also teaching a class, in addition to his Finance Director roles.  He was asked to teach a devotions class for high school once a week (on Thursday mornings) and decided to go through a sermon series (and book) by Chip Ingram entitled “Good to Great in God’s Eyes: Ten Practices Great Christians Have in Common.”  He has 17 students and is really enjoying the experience thus far.  Christen has also really enjoyed her students although the 6^th grade class has been quite difficult for all of the Middle School teachers. 

After school on Friday, we enjoyed a dessert party with friends from school which was to celebrate several birthdays from the summer which passed while they were back in the states.   We played some fun games and got to know some of the other staff a bit better in a social setting, which was really great.  The following morning we traveled with R&M to Santiago, the nearest city (about 45 min down the mountains) to go to La Sirena, which is essentially the Domincan equivalent of WalMart.  We were able to purchase several items that we needed to outfit our home and see a bit more of a bigger city as we drove through town to the store.  Despite being in the store for about two and a half hours, we both agreed that the experience was less frustrating than when we registered for wedding gifts three years ago!  To cap off the evening, we made a great Italian dinner at R&M’s and spent the evening playing Settlers of Catan and other games with three other teachers from Doulos. 

We continue to enjoy our time here and are amazed daily at the beauty of this part of the world.  More importantly, we are blessed to have a God who provides for all of our needs and great family and friends to share in these experiences with us!  We hope this finds you well and hope to hear from many of you soon!  SDG

The First Weeks: Part II

Thanks to all of you who have started reading and following our blog, Caminando Por Fe!  It was great hearing from many of you and we hope to continue to hear from many more.  Part II of “The First Weeks” will be a run-down of many of the happenings of our first week in Jarabacoa. 

Our last post ended with us getting dropped off by our shuttle driver, Julio, at Doulos Discovery School, which is where we will pick up this week. 

Since we had only been in country for about a week, we still didn’t have cell phones or many other means of communication established with other staff at Doulos.  However, we had received an email from the Managing Director, Tim, informing us that for the first week we would stay with another married couple from the school.  When we arrived at Doulos, we were to call Keith and Kerrie, who would drive to the school to pick us (and our numerous bags of luggage) up. We asked our cab driver to borrow his cell phone to call Keith, but as soon as we were connected and had informed Keith who we were and that we were waiting for him at the school, the drivers prepaid cell phone ran out of minutes.  Not realizing this, however, Joe continued to talk and was starting to wonder if anyone had warned Keith and Kerrie that they would be hosting us as Keith failed to respond to anything said on the phone.  After a few more seconds of hearing nothing, Joe examined the phone and realized it had hung up.  Still not knowing what had happened, we told the driver he could head out and we would hope that Keith understood that we were waiting at the school.  As the driver began to pull out of the parking lot, Keith called his number back and we were able to explain things to him and forewarn him about the large amount of luggage we carried with us.   Fortunately, Keith and Kerrie WERE expecting us and Keith showed up about 15 minutes later in his late 90’s model Toyota Corolla station wagon.  Recall now the last photo on our first post:  all of that luggage somehow fit in the back of the car (minus one bag which was strapped to the luggage rack) and Christen sat on Joe’s lap in the passenger’s seat for the ten minute ride through town to Keith and Kerrie’s house.  We’re sure it was a sight to behold…..

We got settled at K&K’s house for the evening and then woke up fairly early the next morning for church.  They attend a monastery high on one of the mountains outside of town and the view is fantastic.  Since the congregation is fairly small, they’ve gotten to know some of the monks and frequently share bread (made by the monks themselves) and other goodies with them after church.  We were fortunate enough to share in this on our first week, which was a real treat for us.  The monks cheerfully shared bread, cheese, marmalade, and a hot chocolate with a tapioca pudding-like consistency with us.  The company was great as the two monks, Laro and Fransisco, were incredibly friendly and hospitable to the two of us as newcomers, which helped to ease our minds as we headed into our first day of work at Doulos. 

The first week was filled with ice-breakers and team building activities which were great for us as new staff.   Doulos is classified as an Expeditionary Learning (EL) school, which means that students learn both in the classroom and through rather elaborate experiential activities, which focus heavily on community involvement.  Since we, as a staff, are expected to teach within this paradigm, the director of the school set up a “SLICE” of an expedition (which is basically a condensed version) for us to take part in over the course of the week.  The theme was Education in the Dominican Republic and so as a part of the expedition we had the opportunity to visit both a public and a private school in town.  The contrast was absolutely staggering.  Following our visit to the schools, our executive director, Krista, informed us that as our “Service Day” (which Doulos includes in every expedition) we were partnering with a public elementary school in a local town to clean up/prepare the physical structures for the upcoming school year, construct a new preschool and library building, and accomplish other beautification initiatives at the school.  On Wednesday August 3^rd, we traveled to the town of Manabao, which is about a 30 minute drive up windy, narrow, mountain roads from Jarabacoa.  We broke into several work teams and after a prayer for clear weather (Tropical Storm Emily was bearing down on the D.R.**) and safety for all involved, we got down to business.  Joe worked all day on the construction project digging ditches for the foundation, mixing cement, and hauling wheelbarrows full of cement to pour the foundation.   Doing such work in the Caribbean heat and humidity gives one a great appreciation for the heavy machinery used in America for such work, but also for the folks who toil away daily doing this difficult labor.  Christen worked with another team creating signs for the doors of each room to designate where each class would meet.  Another team hung and painted chalkboards, while another drew a Monet-esque mural, and yet another repainted the basketball court. 

Bathroom building pre-mural (before)

Bathroom building post-mural (after)

The amount of work accomplished in one day was impressive and it was an incredible feeling to be part of a team so dedicated to improving the quality of the learning environment in a country like this.  On Thursday, the Doulos teaching staff thought of ways that we could further our impact to Manabao school and created a threefold plan for continued partnership.  First, they created basic classroom materials for the new preschool such as calendars, center activities, and even a small stage with sock puppets.  Second, they created an awareness poster stressing the importance of education to hang in the hallway of the school.  Finally, they prepared a presentation for preschool parents, which will be given in Manabao by several local Dominicans who are on staff at Doulos at the beginning of their school year.  All of these advancements are especially remarkable given the strong opposition by many in the Manabao community to the entire project.

On Thursday and Friday, we were given some free time in the afternoons where teachers could set up their classrooms and administrative staff could work on their specific tasks as needed.  Since we were free, we were able to use about an hour of this time on Friday to go look at some housing options in the local community.  After seeing an apartment the night before and then two homes on Friday, we had narrowed our housing down to two options – both of which we were quite comfortable with but each posed its own challenges.  We decided to pray on it over the weekend and wait for God’s leading. 

Christen woke up feeling ill on Friday, but since she didn’t want to miss any of the orientation and classroom preparation, she decided she would push through and go in despite feeling sick.  She made it through most of the morning, but was getting progressively worse and eventually had to run to the restroom feeling quite sick in the stomach.  Joe took her back to K&K’s house shortly thereafter to get some rest and try to kick whatever she had.  Before Joe left school that day, he was given some advice for how he should treat the “stomach bug” that Christen was suffering with.  (Since the water here is not potable out of the tap and there are numerous bacteria and parasites living in it, it’s very common to experience an “upset stomach” shortly after moving to the country.)  The experienced staff recommended that Christen give (and therefore, Joe take to the clinic) a stool sample to ensure she didn’t have anything REALLY bad (like a parasite).   Needless to say, Christen reluctantly obliged and Joe took the sample in for analysis.  The true sign of love is someone carrying your poop to the Doctor’s office for analysis, or at least that’s what Joe told Christen.  Our gracious hosts, K&K also sacrificed one of their Tupperware containers for the greater good.  The analysis came back on Saturday morning that Christen had “numerosos” (numerous) bacteria.  We got her some Amoxicillin and by Saturday evening, she was feeling much better and was able to eat something other than saltines for the first time in 48 hours.   By Sunday evening, she was nearly back to 100% and had officially made it through her first bout with third world intestinal issues!

Despite the small setbacks of illness, we are encouraged by the great teachers and staff at the school and the good work they are doing in this part of the world.  Please stay tuned for part three, coming your way soon!  SDG

** Our prayers were answered and the first tropical storm during our time here fizzled before it made landfall and turned West toward Haiti.  We had some dark clouds and some light rain, but nothing compared to what we thought might have come!

First Weeks: Part I

Welcome to our blog!  We've chosen to entitle it "Caminando Por Fe" which roughly translates into "Walking By Faith," which is what we believe God calls each of us to do with the lives He has given us.  Thank you first of all for being a part of our adventure in the Dominican Republic!  We hope to provide (at least) weekly updates on happenings down here to keep you up to date on the things going on in our world.  As always, we’d love to hear all about your lives as well!

Since much has happened since we left the States on July 24^th, this first post will be a summary of some highlights from the past two weeks.

We flew out of Nashville, TN at 9:40am after being dropped off at the airport by our good friends, Eric and Katie Neel.  They had been gracious enough to host us at their home for the previous three weeks, which made for an even more difficult goodbye with these wonderful Christian friends.  After a nearly three hour flight to Miami (which was fairly uneventful), we prepared for a six hour layover.  Fortunately, since Joe is technically still on active duty in the USAF, we were able to spend most of those hours in the MIA USO (military lounge) where were able to catch up on some much needed rest after a late night of packing on Saturday night.  We boarded our flight and upon takeoff as we watched the Florida coastline disappear at dusk, it really sunk in that we were leaving and wouldn’t be back in the US for quite some time! 

We arrived at the Punta Cana airport right on time at 9:30pm and waid in several lines before we could exit the airport.  The best part was that when we arrived at customs they were so backed up that everyone (including us with our 6 bags) were able to just walk through without our bags ever being checked.  This was truly a gift from God as much of our household items would have likely been taxed at 15% of their original value.  After making it through customs, we found our travel company’s desk and were quickly transported to the resort we would be staying at for the week (for those of you who don’t know, Joe hadn’t seen his family since arriving back in the States after his deployment to Afghanistan.  To make meeting up easier [and to celebrate sister Jennie’s recent graduation from Calvin College] the Byker family planned a trip to Punta Cana, DR in order to all meet up before we began our work with Doulos Discovery School).

The first time riding in a vehicle in the DR (especially at night) was quite an experience.  Small motorcycles (called “motos” here) are everywhere, often without any lights, signals, helmets, etc.  Safety is definitely an afterthought (if a thought at all) and the motos go where they please – rule of thumb is much like downhill skiing – you worry about what is in front of you on the road.  Needless to say, Christen was immediately uninterested in driving here. 

  We spent a fantastic week at the Iberostar Punta Cana hotel with the Byker family (Don, Donna, Sarah, Bruce, Eliana (our new baby niece), Sam, and Jennie) enjoying good food, great sun, the pool and the beach, but more importantly, each other’s company.  There’s much more from the week in Punta Cana that we could share, but the highlights were time spent as a family and rest & relaxation after a very busy month preparing for our move.

  After our restful week in the resort town (read, not the real DR) of Punta Cana, it was time to begin our trek to our new home in the mountain town of Jarabacoa.  To get from the far eastern coast of the island (where Punta Cana is located) to the central mountains of Jarabacoa we looked at numerous methods of transport including purchasing a car, taking a taxi, taking a bus, renting a car, etc.  After not having much luck with most of these options and hearing that we would have to transfer buses in downtown Santo Domingo (the capital city with roughly two million inhabitants) with all of our ten bags of luggage*, we opted for the shuttle contracted by the resort hotel.  While this was the costliest of the rent/taxi options, it was also definitely the safest for us during our first ever transport experience across the island.

The entire ride was incredibly interesting – from the stunning poverty of the village directly outside of the resort area, to the hustle and bustle of downtown Santo Domingo, to the impressive greenery and forests of the countryside.  While it was certainly very different for both of us, Christen experienced culture shock to a greater extent than Joe since he had just recently returned from his deployment to Afghanistan.   From Santo Domingo on, the drive started a gradual climb up into the mountains, until roughly 30 miles outside of Jarabacoa the roads begin their steep march up the mountainside and the going gets slow.  All told, the ride took about six and a half hours and at its culmination we were dropped off at our new school, Doulos Discovery. 

(Stay tuned for Part 2 to hear about our first week at the school and living in Jarabacoa)

*If you’re reading carefully you’ll notice that this increased from the six bags I previously mentioned.  We were blessed in that Joe’s parents were able to carry some baggage for us which prevented us from having to pay exorbitant shipping and/or excess baggage fees with the airlines.