This week has been truly amazing seeing how God has been working through our team and in our team. What a blessing it is to continue seeing each person be stretched and already changed by the work that God is doing in them. Seriously God is amazing!
Last night we were invited by one of the men in the neighborhood to go and talk to an English Immersion class near our house. We agreed even though it was technically our day off. We went there and met the teacher, a fellow American from Philadelphia, and he split the class into small groups and we, as a team, paired off and each took a group of students. We introduced ourselves and they began to ask us questions about where we were from, what we liked about the Dominican, things like that. We were able to ask them questions as well so that they could practice their English. It was nice to be able to communicate and make jokes with the people without having a translator (although our translator is awesome).
They asked us what we liked to do in our free time. It got to my turn and I started thinking about the last time I really had free time then I realized it was probably college…how sad is that? I told them that I loved to go dancing…two-stepping…I mean going to A&M you have to have a pair of cowboy boots ready for Thursday night. They asked me what two-stepping was and they wanted me to show them. There is only one other person on my team that has ever two-stepped before…I know I couldn’t believe it either, so I grabbed Ashley (one of the girls on my team) and quickly taught her the steps and we danced to no music. Then the unthinkable happened…one of the students raised her hand and she asked me, “What is country music?” It was really funny because Ashley didn’t even know how to respond so I turned to the student and began to tell her about the cowboys out west and how they would bring guitars and write songs about the land and their families and life out west. I then remembered that I had my phone with me and I had some music on my IPod. I pulled it out and played “Chicken Fried” by the Zac Brown Band. This is the song that I play in my car with the windows down every time I pull into College Station (my home away from home) and I knew it would give them a good indication of what country music was. Some of the students actually liked it.
Let’s just say it was a fun night getting to laugh and talk with the students about who we are, where we come from, what we are doing in Comendador, and get to hear about their lives too. Of course there was a lot of dancing towards the end…it seems like wherever we go there will be dancing, but let’s be honest, we’re ok with it! So there you go as we are learning the Dominican dances, they are learning how to two-step! I just love bringing a little bit of Texas to the DR!
