As of today, I have officially passed the one week milestone and my usual time frame for being on a mission trip. What’s interesting though, is that this place began feeling like home on Day 2, and it feels like I’ve been living life here for weeks. It seems only natural that I should be here for at least two weeks more.
So what exactly has begun to feel normal?
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Eating rice. Everyday.
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Sleeping on a concrete floor with lots of people in one room.
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Helping with the Compassion International school.
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Reading the Bible with Emyer. (me in Spanish, him in English)
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Taking bucket showers.
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Praying over people.
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Cooking in the dark with a headlamp.
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Going on prayer walks.
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Communicating and singing in “Espanol” with Quirudis.
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Buying big jugs of drinking water.
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Unpacking and repacking most of my backpack every single day.
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Having church services every night.
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Being stared at a lot.
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Throwing toilet paper in a bucket and not in the toilet.
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Not drying or fixing my hair.
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Not having internet 98% of the time.
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Sitting on the back porch and watching these beautiful mountains light up as the sun rises.
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Washing clothes in a bucket and hanging them on a fence to dry.
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Wearing the same clothes several days in a row so that you don’t have to wash them as often. 🙂
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Seeing children. Everywhere. If a door is open – they’re inside.
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Teaching an English class with Vanessa.
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Eating oatmeal every morning. (Hey Mom! I like oatmeal now! Which is great timing since it’s my only option here.)
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Spaghetti and Fried Bananas at 11pm. Mmmm. 🙂
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Riding on the back of some guy’s motorcycle. (Sorry, Dad, I know you told me not to, but I just couldn’t pass it up!)
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Utilizing lots of hand motions when my Spanish knowledge fails me.
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Getting strange looks when my Spanish gets mixed up or I start making up words to see if they work. 🙂
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Lots of me-and-Jesus time, and lots of team time.
Life here is so laid back. Instead of people rushing to and from work, driving their big cars and getting food at a drive thru, the people here might spend a whole day sitting on their front porch just chatting with people who stop by. Relationships are a huge part of Dominican culture and anything that facilitates or encourages that seems to be something that is incorporated into everyday life. I love that we are staying long enough to really build relationships here too. My new friend, Quirudis, is a young woman who is studying nursing in San Juan a few days a week and she and I have become close despite the language barrier (and since she speaks NO English, there is definitely a barrier, haha). We even sang a duet in church on Sunday! 🙂 I also love talking and spending time with Emyer (17), Osias (19), and Paulina (20), 3 other young people here at the church. Their church has so much faith and such a heart for their community. They have started incorporating us into their ministry (even their interpretive dance ministry, haha!) and we love serving Arroyo Cano with them.
