On US Soil...

So one last blog before resting for Christmas break. Yesterday we headed out of Monte Cristi around 7:30 am. I finished up some curriculum stuff the night before until 12:15am, then woke up at 5:30am to start packing! We headed to Jaibon, the other orphanage that OO works with. We had to set up for the coming weeks for teams coming in. We arrived in Jaibon around 9am and toured around showing the people that hadn't been there before what it looked like.

The Jaibon orphanage is located on 40 acres of land and is like living in the woods. The buildings are located way back on the property and is surrounded by land everywhere you look. One view from the roof is absolutely gorgeous. Three layers of mountains from afar. We looked around the orphanage, went to visit the school that is on the grounds and has about 400-500 students and we hung out with them a little bit.

The students had their last day so they were there and excited to see Americans. There was one girl with red hair, not something you see very often in the DR. Bryson and I played duck, duck, goose standing up with several of the kids. They didn't quite get the concept. They would tag someone and run about 1/2 way around and then go into a random space that someone had opened up for them to enter. Either way it was fun because they love any attention and games that people will play with them.

We left the school and headed to do work projects. A new dorm like building had been finished to house the girls for this coming week. We thought we were going to have to build bunkbeds for everyone to sleep in but someone had already done it before we arrived which was awesome! So, instead we worked on moving 25 mattresses over to the beds, making the beds, putting up mosquito nets and getting it ready for the groups. We also had 2 other areas that had to be set up and then I played Uno with several people.

After lunch, I took a siesta because of the lack of sleep the night before! We then had a team meeting and I just sat and hung out while they discussed the plans for the upcoming week. After our meeting we headed to see the future home of the Hopkins. They are going to be living on the 2nd floor of the church on the grounds. Their house was pretty neat. It had a front porch area, a big open living room area, a small kitchen, another small room for a kitchen table and three bedrooms, and one small bathroom. I think once they get it painted, cleaned up and set up it will be a great place to live. They were excited to see their new home for the next 10 years!

After this, we had another work project. We had the group clean up the construction debris around the dorm room area and me, Heather and Julie went to chalk the door welcoming one of the families that was coming in today. Well, we chalked the door and then went inside to make the beds. As we entered we realized the room was in no shape for living. There was dust, dirt, and filth on the floors so we decided to sweep and mop it out. We had to knock what looked like mice poop off the mattresses and we had to knock down several dirt nests that are made either by wasps or spiders and seen often. Nothing came out of them luckily but it was a long, hard task of cleaning. The room was dingy and dark so we worked on cleaning it up, making the beds after spraying them down with Lysol and making it look presentable. Tia, the lady in charge at the orphanage, came in and wasn't happy about anyone living in the room. She made 2 of the orphanage kids come and help move stacks of extra mattresses out of the way of the window to at least let more air and light into the room. It looked good once we left, but was rough at the beginning!

This led up to dinner time and then I worked online emailing my 7 completed Units to Tom! Woohoo! After that the boys had a short little culto service where they sang songs and then went around each saying their favorite bible verse. It was amazing that they all knew so many different verses, even little Alex that is about 5 years old. There are about 23 boys living at this orphanage, which runs totally different than the one in Monte Cristi.

We had closing shortly after culto and then got ready for bed and finished organizing my stuff for the morning.

This morning we headed out at 5:45. We got to Santiago about 2 hours early so just hung out until time to leave. I flew with 2 other girls that have been there since I arrived so it was nice to have company. We landed in Miami and I was quickly welcomed to some culture shock. As I went thru customs, I showed my form to the guy but it was inside my passport. He stuck his arm out, stopped me, and said "You didn't show me your form, I need to see your form". WOW! This surprised me a lot because I'm not used to people being so firm or almost rude. Welcome back to the States! :) Well, now I'm just hanging out in the Miami airport and waiting for my flight to leave in another 1.5 hours! I'm excited to be in Lexington, still a little in shock being back in the US.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and I'll start blogging again probably mid-January. Maybe right before I head back to the DR!