This post is to update everyone how things are going. So, we got to Las Lajas which is in the Dominican Republic on February 6th and set up camp. I had just worked out a couple of days before thinking that we would have a travel day and I wouldn’t be doing much. WELL, when we got here we were shown to out area which was down about a million steps and on a hill….YEESH…carrying my 50 lb pack was brutal but we were finally set up and shown to our area living for this month. 1 bathroom for about 40 girls and a waterfall to shower in
. 🙂 You can imagine how we were all feeling at this moment. I think the words out of my mouth were, “this is going to be a stretching month”.
Anyway, the mission here is run by Ruben and Vicky Dominguez and they moved into this house on this land about a year ago and are working hard to build and get this land ready to have an orphanage. There is still a LOT to do, but the vision is firm in their minds and hearts and is slowly coming together. Beyond the vision that they have in place and that they are building on, they already run a children’s home daycare type thing which is like a place that reinforces their school work and they are starting more english classes as well.
As a whole squad we have been getting a lot done. Each day we are all assigned to different ministries which keeps things interesting. The different things that we do each day consists of: 1.) Prayer walking in Santiago in the neighborhood around the church, 2.) Prayer walking in Las Lajas in the neighborhood around the house, 3.) Teaching English classes in Las Lajas, 4.)Teaching English classes in Cien Fuegos, 5.) Work duty which includes laundry, cleaning bathrooms and the community living areas as well as cooking the meals for the sqad and 6.) Grounds which has included digging trenches for pipes, conctete, chiseling concrete and many other random stuff….
We have had a lot of cool oopportunities to be with the kids of this town and even walking through the town all of the kids will yell out andsay hi to us. ItI is hard with many people but also rewarding because so much has gotten done. I would love to be able to come back and visit even just next year and see how much progress there has been but even more when there are kids here. Each day has been different but good and I feel how the community has accepted us and supports one another. As we speak some kids bought us suckers as we are sitting and using the internet, even knowing that we may have more money than them…they appreciate what we have been doing. Its sad to leave but tomorrow is our last day before leaving for Bolivia.
