The School Year Has Begun!

A picturesque shot of the scene at Doulos. Kids are running around the newly finished pond looking for the turtles and new fish. The pond project was a collaberation of several classes as part of their expedition. It is pretty amazing to see what students can accomplish when they are challenged to create and plan large-scale projects.

The school year has started, teachers are back in action and students are slowly transitioning into classes, homework, and social lives. Once again the school is filled with the sound of students repeating after their teachers, laughter in the cafe and futbol games on the basketball court.

I am pretty excited to be back at work, although I didn't feel that way this Monday morning at 6 am. It has been great though being busy again, having community, and being challenged daily to become a better person and a better teacher. I feel like I have so much to learn this year, especially since this is my first official year of teaching. It is a whole new ball game when I am "in charge". So, if you think about it, please pray for me and ask God to give me wisdom. I really want the seventh graders in my devotions class to learn to love the Lord. I want us to be challenged by one another and to grow this year. I will update again with more pics and stories, hopefully there will be some good ones...

A Fantastic Summer

Jake and I have been enjoying a busy summer of workteams, summer camp and a surprise visit home. One of the workteams down here was our very own church in Eugene, Jubilee. We had such a great week with them and decided to go home for a visit shortly after they left. While we were at home we went to a family reunion and visited other family and friends. We are so thankful for so many friends in both countries.

We had a house-warming Chocolate Party!

The end of the school year...

Here at Doulos we are finishing school and the kids are so excited! Here are some pictures of my class. We just wanted to say thank you to my mom who sent us all kinds of wonderful prizes for their "Doulos Store". The students earned these "Doulos dollars" every day and we had the store every two weeks. They loved getting to make some of their own purchases with their hard earned money! Thank you mom!

Also, I wanted to include some pictures from our big project that we just finished. We were studying the Maya and the students were making some awesome art projects.

Going to club...

On our way to club in Pinar Quemado we set a record for how many people we could fit in our car...10 people and a guitar in our Rav 4!

A good move...

Getting rid of the pink!!!!!
Jake, talking to our dear friends Chris and Kristen!
Yikes, everything is pink in the bathrooms too. I guess we can't paint the toilet...

Jake and I recently moved after living in our other house for only a few months. We had been wanting to move to a house that was more accessible to our neighbors and that would allow us more opportunities to get to know people in the community. We really liked where we had been living, but the owners of the house had built a rather large wall around the house and we really felt like we weren't living very much like Dominicans.

So, this brings us to our new house. It is very close to our old house, on the Avenida, which is a nicely paved road that leads to the Confluencia, the convergence of two rivers. We live close to a Pharmacy called Farmacia Cristo Rey, which literally means, Christ is King Pharmacy. In our neighborhood there are a lot of colmados (like 7-11), beauty shops, and people walking or riding their motos (motorcycles). It is a very lively area of town with music almost always playing and of course a lot of kids too! We are excited for this change and are learning to embrace all of the loud noises and smells.

Before we moved in, we decided to paint the house, which has helped a lot! Also, we have found a lot of cucarachas, lizards, ants and mosquitoes, but we are slowly getting rid of them and showing them that they are not welcome to live in our cupboards or showers anymore. The house has a backyard that is really nice with an old rusty swingset which I wanted removed, but apparently it is still good, says the owner. Our next door neighbor's kids who climb the trees asked to come and play on it, so I guess it was good to keep it.

Thank you!

We are so blessed to have people send us some much needed and missed items! It is amazing what a difference it makes to have some treats from home! Some of our favorites are natural peanut butter, almonds, and movies. Thank you especially to both of our wonderful parents as well as our church in Eugene for sending us these items (especially Pastor Scott and his men's group)!

You are all so wonderful and we really appreciate the thought, time and money that went into these packages!

Love,

Jake and Kyla