A Unique Clothes Dryer

We have a clothes line that we have hanging in our living room so we can dry our clothes without worrying if it is going to rain or not.  However, to take full advantage of the sun, we also have one that is hanging over a planter outside our back windows.  In order to hang or retrieve clothes Melissa has to climb out the window into the planter.  The planter connects to the room next the living room, which is what we use a TV room.  Tonight, she startled Michael and his friends, who were in there playing video games, when she decided to climb into that room from the windows instead of back-tracking to the living room!  It's not just laundry, it's a sport!

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A Fun Week

We have a group of nurses down this week, mostly from the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  They have seen all of our school students in the four programs in Sosúa.  This picture is a group of kids showing of their fingers that just got stuck for a blood test to check the iron levels in their blood which can be used as  part of a nutrition assessment.  Check out their blog http://projectassessment2010.wordpress.com/

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An Fun Game of Air Hockey at McDonald's

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We have Arrived

We'll after months of struggle, court paperwork, and government agencies we have finally begun our first visit to the States with Michael.  We are so excited.  Experiencing the United States through Michael's eyes has already been interesting.  Here are a few of my favorite moments so far.

1.  Michael asks, "Is there a bathroom in Nana and Poppo's house?"

2.  In the Miami Airport, he needs to go to the bathroom and I inform him, "Michael, just so you know, here they throw the toilet paper in the toilet to throw it away."  He looks at me with a very puzzled expression, and asks "Why?".  I tell him, "It's just the culture here."  I need to make sure he knows that I meant in all homes in the United States, and not just the Miami Airport.  I'm telling mom and dad this story on the way to their house, and my dad says, it's okay, I've made sure that there are plastic bags in all the trash cans in the bathrooms, because of Kate's visit in January, I evidently forgot re-entry cultural counselling for here, and she kept with the Dominican custom of throwing the paper in the trash can a few times.  Just a heads up for the homes we will be visiting!

3.  He was amazed when we passed a car transport truck on the interstate with 10 cars stacked up on it.

4.  His excited face on the plane for his first flight.

5.  Him trying to convince us that he is not going to be shy when he meets all the new people here, and he keeps reminding us that he, "Speakies Englesh"

6.  When we got to Nana and Poppo's and started settling in, he asked, "Do they have air conditioning?"  I said "Yes, but right now it is hot air that comes out to make the house warmer, because it is colder outside."  Another puzzled look from Michael.

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Information from New Missions in Haiti http://www.newmissions.org/News/2010HaitiEarthquake/EarthquakeBlog/tabid/293/Default.aspx

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Trucks and Christmas

Interesting morning of mission work today.  We run three truck routes on church nights to pick up members from three different communities.  However, on holidays like Christmas, New Years, and Easter the laws say that large trucks and passenger trucks can not be out on the roads; however, if you get permission from Civil Defense, then you can run the trucks.  Well, our church services are on Friday nights, and this year Christmas Day and New Year's Day fall on Fridays, so in order to pick people up we need this special permission.  So, with the help of one of our church leaders we called the head of Civil Defense yesterday, and he said that we could get special permission, we would just need to meet him this morning.  So, we headed down to meet him this morning.  I assumed we were going to the Civil Defense office, but found out that he was working out of his business today.  A tire repair store just minutes from my house.  It is actual a place I have used often, since it is so close to our home.  It's surprising how many times here you can have trouble with tires, but you have to see the roads to understand.  Right now for instance the city did some work with water lines or something and they have left gouges in the road that wreck havoc on tires.  So when I mentioned tire repair store you may be thinking Firestone, Goodyear, Sears Automotive.  It's not anything near that.  I found it humorous that we are doing this official city government business in this little mechanic shop.  Well, we get there and he says, "Sure, no problem, can I have the copies of the truck paperwork?"  Well, sure, except I didn't bring copies, because this is the first anybody mentioned copies (I think to myself as I'm smiling politely).  I ran to the office were I keep the copies of the paperwork, and headed back to his store.  Somehow he had a computer hidden among the car and motorcycle parts in a back room, and he types up these nice forms that give us permission to run the trucks, and of course gives them an official stamp!

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Yellow Tickets

On Wednesday nights in our Spanish Church is Bible study and we break into age groups.  I teach the 5, 6, and 7 year old class with two Dominican ladies from the church.  It is quite an active group, so I started a reward system.  They earn little yellow tickets throughout the evening that they can trade in for toys and other goodies.  Some of the kids were having trouble saving up for bigger toys, because they were loosing their tickets during the week, so two weeks ago I started letting them turn any tickets in at the end of class and I would save them for them until the next week.  At first I only had a few takers, but as the kids saw that the kids that let me save their tickets were getting bigger prizes they have all started saving some tickets from one week for the next.  Well, this past Thursday afternoon I was walking around down town doing my regular errands for the mission, banking, changing money, paying bills, etc.  I ran into Elias a kid that was new to my class the night before, and he was with two of his friends.  They were playing with a parachute toy that Elias had "bought" on Wednesday night.  When Elias saw me he came running up to me with two yellow tickets in his hand and said, "Can you save these for me for next week?"  This was something I was not expecting, but he was so excited about his tickets, it was a special moment in the middle of the day

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