Friday, July 2, 2010

New Beginning, and Almost the end..

I've been wanting to blog for a few days now.. but just haven't been able to find the time. Now as I finally get my much needed two hour break.. i'm ready to blog.
I got a new team this week, six girls. At first, I was so nervous because six girls is a lot! I didn't know if I could handle the hormones of six teenagers. But I was completely wrong. I love these girls. One of the older ones is only two years younger than me and is in her second year of college, and that makes me relate to her so much better! These girls are just so different in their attitudes, the way they carry themselves, and their maturity level. Ahh, it's a relief.
Jess's sister Heather is also here visiting for a few weeks, we actually leave on the same day and the same flight. Which will be nice to have someone there to talk to and hang out with in the airport.
This week Jess and I have talked about really wanting to make sure we are being serious about wanting to practice volleyball a lot, and be able to motivate the girls for our weekly games in La Vega. I think this has been a big turning point for Jess and her site because this really motivates the girls to want to work hard to be able to travel and play. And when they do that, they are able to hear God's word and messages spoken through people from him, which is always so cool.
Wednesday we had a good English class in the morning. One of the new approaches Jess is taking to this class is to use groups which I have been taught is good way of learning, and it has been good interaction for the students, which is what they need! After class we went and played around for a couple hours in the sun on our volleyball court. Here, I had to actually use my spanish skills to ask one of the boys whose house the net was at, and could he go get it for me? Jess was picking up some of the girls from another community and wasn't there, so I felt as if I needed to step up for once! :) It was fun and encouraging for me.
After a couple hours of practice we ate and Jess and I shared testimonies, which was good. After that we went right back to practice. I could honestly say that by the end of that day, I was more exhausted than I've been since I've been here. It was just a long day in the sun, with no shade, but well worth it!
Thursday we started playing volleyball right from the get-go. We played for a couple hours, then Heather , Viansy, and some of the DR girls went to Jess's to just hang out while the rest of the students and Jess made a trip to the store. After lunch and resting we headed to the river to a place called "The Jacuzzi". It's a little tiny waterfall with some rocks to jump off of, and the water below swirls around like crazy, like a jacuzzi :) The water was SO cold but felt good. That night we went to dinner in the community again, and we had it at Viansy's house. Viansy is a 19 year old Dominican girl that is Jess's assistant at the volleyball site. She is just an older example to the girls, and helps Jess out a lot when I'm not here, her and I bond and gel really well together and I like learning Spanish from her, and teaching English to her. Her mom is an amazing cook, so I knew I would be eating good! We ate so fast and had about 2 hours to waste, so we had a team photo shoot, with all my students from this outreach. It was really fun, and there were lots of giggles and craziness shared. We also had some time to love on some of the kids in the community. I would show you pictures.. BUT my camera is broken. The lens is stuck, and I think that some sand got in there and it won't open. Oh well, I'm hoping people can just take plenty of pictures for me :)
Today, we had class this morning but it was test, that the Americans took as well! Then we played some baseball with the men's sport site. We took a break for lunch and hung out for a bit during "siesta" then walked down to the river where we just played and swam and talked. There is a sand pit on shore that some people wrestled in, so we all surrounded the two would compete and watch, it is so funny and also kinda scary!
Tonight is a worship concert which I'm so excited about, who doesn't love a good worship time??
Also, I had to meet with the doctor on staff today because my big toenail is falling off. He said he is going to get some numbing stuff and just PULL it right off. He said if he doesn't so that, it will hurt really bad tomorrow, and possibly get infected. Yikes, not looking forward to that at all.
This weekend is the excursion (i'm going on a little hike), and shopping and dinner in town, church on sunday, and relaxation to start a new and long week! It should be wonderful.
Something you can pray for besides my usual requests that I will post in a second is clarity. I've been struggling with what God wants for me from here, whether to see about coming on staff as a full time missionary, or opening up doors just for summer work, or not even at all. I am trying not to let my emotions of wanting to be here get in the way of what God is calling me to do, so if you could pray for that.. that would be awesome!

Prayer Requests:

My toe! :)
Continue to keep me healthy
Peace- since i'm leaving SO soon and I definitely don't want to.. my heart is here!
Strength to finish my time here strong and with everything I have...

Thanks! :)

No comments:

Post a Comment