Pretend time. Noky-isms… Just a few of the terms that my team has coined regarding our time here in the DR. Let me explain…
“Pretend time”: the term we use when something is supposed to start at a certain time, yet starts 30 min -1.5 hrs later. The time that we were originally told is all pretend. No one actually follows it so it's a good idea, but it's all pretend. But the reason is culturally important to explain… the people are focused on people over time. The present is more important than the future tasks and appointments. They are relational and focus on who is sitting in front of them at the moment, rather than what they have to do in 30 minutes. Things take longer to do b/c there is more conversation. My American mindset has struggled with this but I am finally starting to feel comfortable with it. I’ve come to terms with us arriving somewhere whenever we arrive there. There is no hurry. And people will wait. It’s a beautifully hospitable and caring culture that I have grown to cherish and respect.
Noky-isms… the funny things that Noky, our pastor and ministry contact who we spend a lot of time with not only when we are doing ministry but b/c we also really enjoy his company (and he invites us over for some wonderful coffee and tea often) says. For example… “You crack me up” becomes “You crack me off”.
Sounds I wake up to… roosters, pigs, motorcycles, blaring music, and running, yelling kids.
Things I've done here (so far)…
– Ride a mule w/ no stirrups, just hop on and go.
– Drive a motorcycle.
– Drive a scooter.
– Feed a baby cow from a bottle.
– Look up at the stars and moon while riding in the bed of a pick up truck.
– Eat a chicken's foot, organs, and sheep meat for the first time.
– Have a game night where I learned to play Bricka (a card game here) and play Dominos (hugely popular in the DR) while drinking the best hot chocolate ever… with ginger.
– Go into the forest to pick our own sweet lemons and chinas with Jesus 🙂
– Eat avocados the size of my head freshly picked off the tree.
– Watch the sun rise over the mountains while sitting in peace on the top of a church in the mountains.
– Played and sung a worship song to teach kids English.
– Take joy in knowing that our students understand 'this' vs. 'that', 'these' vs. 'those', and pronouns… and most of the students can use them in the proper context.
– Run the hills in the morning as the sun rises and look at the forest and clouds everywhere… reminiscent of the shire in Lord of the Rings a bit.
– Practice my Spanish and learn more.
– Take a beautiful hike to Los Sebarinos to clean up an abandoned church filled with animal poop and trash, meet the people in the town, and hold the first church service they've seen in years.
– Hold hands of kids getting immunizations as they’re scared.
– Be invited over for juice and numerous meals by Jesus (a church member) and his family… awesome dinners with them.
– Eat some amazing empanadas.
– Walk through presidential political rallies in San Juan (a major city about 45 min away from Arroyo Cano, the village that my team and I are staying in)
– Eat the most amazing sweet peanut-butter type fudge, chen chen, chicken tacos and fried plantains known to man.
– Perform the stories of David and Goliath, Noah and the ark, and Jonah for the kids who are sponsored by Compassion International.
– Take Merengue lessons.
– Play Pato Pato Ganzo (Duck Duck Goose) and sing many songs with the kids from Compassion
– Take many common drives into town which include 20 people in a van or flat bed truck… with chickens and eggs that other people are transporting as well as all of our luggage and groceries that we have to commute up to our village… it's suffocating madness and super uncomfortable, but it’s life in the DR.
We are staying at a church in a village near the bottom of the mountains, Arroyo Cano. The first 10 days we were here, there was also a festival to celebrate the saints… that means super loud music and lots of alcohol everywhere. The music would start at about 7pm and go til about 2am every single night. We had a hard time getting to sleep but finally acclimated. But it's over now and we are so grateful. Everything here is pretty loud. The music. The motorcycles. The vehicles driving by a lot. The kids yelling for us to play with them all the time.
While some team's are plowing fields, meeting families door to door to build relationships, hiking through the mountains, and helping sort through coffee beans to be roasted, my team's ministry this month in the DR is pretty informal. We spend time teaching bible stories and playing with the kids in the town who are being supported by contacts through Compassion International (if you don't know what it is, you should check it out), teach English in two towns twice a week, and spend time with Noky and his family as well as other members of the church. One of our desires is to be a support for the people who are putting on church and taking on needs of this community, encouraging them in the work that they are doing. Ultimately, we will leave and they will still be here; their home. So if we can support them and encourage them as much as possible while we are here so they can feel refreshed and with some renewed strength to continue ministry here when we leave, we've done well.
Luxeries I miss…
– laundry machines
– big coffee mugs
– my own vehicle (here in the DR, when people take public transportation vans as we often do, they don't pay for comfort or even a seat inside, they simply pay to not walk. The people hanging off the back pay the same amount as those squished inside the van and they are staunch about seating 4 people to a bench… it gets mighty crowded, hot, and painful. But we don't have to walk, so we’re thankful 🙂
– showers
– microwaves
Things you could be praying for…
– My team and I are putting on church this Sunday morning. I am doing worship w/ the little experience that I have playing the guitar and we’ll be doing songs in both English and Spanish. The girls on my team and I are also performing a dance with Camilla and Magie, two girls from church and involved with Compassion.
– Continued team unity as the six of us are still getting to know each other. We are enjoying each other and things are going well but the process of knowing each other is a slow one (for some more than others… like me)
– That we leave a lasting imprint on the church here in Arroyo Cano. I don’t want to be a missionary, (I really don’t even care for that term), but a member of the same body of Christ who is here for a time to encourage and love them.
– That my team and I will always put God before our service. We are here to serve, but without continued focus on the Lord, our service may be in vain.
– That with the short time that we have left in the DR, we would enjoy every moment (our upcoming days off of work will be filled with going to the beach, waterfalls, and a fun day visiting 3 other teams from my squad and getting to spend lots of time with them)
(To check out videos and pictures my teammates have posted online, check out their blogs as well as their Facebook pages until I get some posted… Reagan Taylor, Rebekah Clark, Rachel Williams, Matt Blair, and Tyler Hamilton)
