Home Safe and Sound!

Despite the winter weather and ice storms I arrived home safely from the DR late on December 19th . The storms left many people in Fort Wayne powerless. Our house never lost power, but I would have been well prepared for it after expierencing this often in the DR (except for the cold!).

Since my arrival on the 19th I've been keeping busy and adjusting to life in the States. I had the opportunity to go to my friends baby shower, have dinner with all my college roomates, make Christmas treats with my sister, attend church at Sonrise, and spend Christmas with my family.

Our family decided to do something different this year for Christmas. After a long night of Christmas Eve services, we packed up our bags and Christmas morning we flew to Miami, Fl. We spent a few days in Miami and drove to the Florida Keys where we are staying for the week. It is BEAUTIFUL!

The adjustment to the states is different, but good. I've been blessed by my Aunt and Uncle who are letting me borrow their car until I find a car to purchase. It's nice to be able to drive again and in organized traffic conditions!

When I first arrived in the States it took a lot of thought for me not to automatically speak and respond to people in Spanish out of habit. I've also noticed our culture feels a bit cold to me . This is because in the DR everyone greets one another with a kiss. I have recieved many hugs though!

It's been great to be blessed by the luxaries of the States (even the cold weather) it also has been fun spending time with loved ones, but I do miss the people of the DR.

I've been in touch with many of my students and friends from the DR through e-mail.

My time living in the DR has been one of the best expierences of my life. I've learned a lot about myself, I've been challenged, I've grown in my relatioship with Christ, and I've developed lifelong relationships. I have truly learned to appreciate how blessed I am and I am thankful for the opportunity to minister to needy people in another country. The DR also was a great place to start my teaching career.

I will have unforgettable memories and life lessons that I will carry with me forever. I'm so thankful for this expierence and for everyone's support along the way.

I'm keeping the faith!

I'll Be Home for Christmas..AND the New Year Too

As I reflect on my last 5 months in the DR they have been incredible. I have loved this expierence and through it I have grown and learned a great deal. We all expierence different seasons of life and I have had a great season here. As some of you are already aware my season will be ending here when I leave this Friday, December 19th. Due to a variety of reasons, when I come back to the U.S. for Christmas I'm going to be staying.

It's a bittersweet thing, I'm excited to see everyone again and for the opportunites ahead, but it will be sad to leave the great people and places I've become aquainted with here. These will be unforgettable moments in my life and memories I will hold with me forever.

Transition is never easy, nor is change so please pray for me as I make another transition back to the U.S. pray for me as I say some difficult goodbyes in the next few days and am filled with the mixed emotions of excitement of returning and sorrows the of leaving.

I cannot wait to see my friends, family and many of you in the coming days! It's going to be shocking yet exciting to be back in a culture that was once so familiar. I'm excited to be able to speak English to everyone, to be clean, and have many of the luxaries I've learned to live without. I'm also nervous to have all of this again, nervous of what it will be like to have everything again when I have lived without it and survived just fine.

We are blessed in so many ways and as I sit here in a plastic chair with flies buzzing around me locked behind an iron gate door listening to dog fights and motorcyles buzz I am reminded of how blessed i am.

Can't wait to see you all! Thanks for all your support, love, and prayers in this "Leap of Faith" please keep them coming as I leap into a different direction.

Much Love,

Ashley

Christmas Program

This week was filled with lots of activity...but I survived!

Wednesday night I had to make dinner for all the Young Life leaders and staff. That's quite the job, especially when nothing turns out the way you anticipate here! Luckily my roommates helped me keep my sanity after a shattered dish in the oven, getting caught in a downpour walking home from the store, and my ride forgetting to come and get me.

Our Young Life club was a Christmas Party. We sang Christmas carols, played Christmas games, and had a White Elephant gift exchange. Can you believe they don’t sell wrapping paper on rolls here in the DR…crazy!

Thursday night was our Christmas Program at school. It was a packed night but the students did AWESOME!! I was so proud of the 6th grade students. They practiced hard for this performance and their hard work paid off. WE ROCKED THE SHOW!

Friday night my roommate and I took a night out on town to decompress from the busy week. We found a new restaurant called Kaffa and had a delicious dinner. After dinner we went back to our apartment and fell asleep.

Saturday my roommate and I ventured out to the market downtown to shop. It is pure chaos there, mass amounts of people and mass amount of things. We came away with a few items, but most of all a great experience.

I’ve become much more successful and confident in taking Taxi's around here and it has greatly improved my Spanish (especially when you get lost).

Saturday night we had our school staff Christmas party/dinner. Everyone dressed formally and we had a "nice" meal at a hotel nearby. Let’s just say I can't wait for a "nice" American meal!! It was great for fellowship.

After it was over I went over to one of my student’s houses because his parents were having a Christmas party. It was a blast. They rented strobe lights and a fog machine and we danced the night away (pretty sure dancing is against the rules!) I enjoyed hanging out with all the parents and seeing some of my students there. I got home a little after 1 in the morning and headed right for bed!

One more week of school left then “I’ll be Home for Christmas!”

The Dominican Ballet

As much as I tried to get them to stay, mom and dad have left the DR. I finally have some time to BLOG again! It was so much fun having them here and difficult to see them leave.

The last few days at the beach we went kayaking in the ocean and watched a Latino dance. We rode the public bus all the back to Santiago, the city I live in. Then my parents came to school with me on Monday and met all the staff and students at the school. I enjoyed being able to show them where I work and what my daily routine is like. My class enjoyed meeting my parents and I was happy to be able to introduce them!

In the evenings we got to go out to dinner and go around the town. One night we tried to get in a taxi to find my favorite restaurant, but were unsuccessful, so the taxi driver took us to a “Dominican Steak House” it was an interesting adventure!
Wednesday afternoo

n mom and dad left to fly back to the states. It was difficult to see them leave, but I’m excited to know that in two weeks, December 19th, they will be picking me up at the airport when I get to the states!!

Yesterday our school went to visit the Dominican Ballet. It was cute, we had many students involved and it was an interpretation of “The Little Mermaid”. It was neat to see this and educational for me to hear “The Little Mermaid” in Spanish.

It was so great having mom and dad here and hard to see them leave. Pray for me as I continue these last two weeks before Christmas break. It’s close yet sometimes it seems so far away especially when the students get out of control and the exciting anticipation of home, friends, and family are so close!


I posted some pictures of my classroom and my desk!

Give Thanks

What a thankful week I’ve had!

Our students had a half day at school on Wednesday, it was busy but good. The two sixth grade classes combined to have a tradition Thanksgiving feast, or at least as close as we can get in the Dominican Republic.

I assigned each student to bring in a different item and hoped we would have food to eat! There was an abundance of food and rice and beans has been added to the Thanksgiving menu!

The meal was a huge success and the students were all stuffed afterwards. After the mean I had my students go around and share what they were thankful for. My favorite part of the school day was having the opportunity to let the whole staff come to my room to eat because we had extra food. The faces of the staff filling a plate with corn, mashed potatoes, turkey, and other delicious dishes warmed my heart. Some of the school maids and janitors live off a VERY low income so this was quite the treat. Then, once everyone was done, I still had an abundance of food and the students didn’t want to carry it home, so I started putting it on plates and giving it away to the workers. They were ecstatic to receive this food. It is unbelievable to recognize and remember how blessed we are. To me it was only a plate of leftover food I was simply trying to get rid of, but to them it was so much more.

Glad to let the crazy kiddos out of school after our half day I went back to my apartment and got my bags packed then took a taxi to the airport to pick up mom and dad! Another reason to be thankful is that I have a loving and supportive family. It was awesome to be able to run and give them a hug after five months! I’m excited to have them here!

When my parents got here we went straight to the beach and have shared some fun adventures. It was odd spending Thanksgiving in a country where they do not celebrate, we had rice and beans for lunch and pasta for dinner – but it’s not the food, instead the people that count!!

Yesterday we went horseback riding in the mountains, through rivers and to the waterfalls where we could go swimming. It was a cool experience with beautiful views – we used a waterproof camera, so no pictures yet.

Well – I time to get back to the sun  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I’m thankful for all your love, support, and encouragement!

Family Day

The food drive field trip with my class went well on Friday. Although I had several students not come to school and a handful leave early, for those who did attend it was a good experience. It pushed the students outside of their comfort zones and gave them a chance to serve. We took 23 bags of food and passed out bibles to the Haitian families. I look forward to being able to reflect over this experience with the students at school on Monday.

I think I should have spent the remainder of my weekend building an ark because it has rained, rained, and rained. The parent club of the school had planned Family Day on Saturday. This is a huge school fundraising event, but unfortunately the rain scared some people off. I went for a short while and the set-up was neat. They had a dunk tank and some moon walks. There were all different types of activities. There was a big dodge ball tournament and several raffles. The scariest station was the jail. Students could pay a certain amount of pesos to put someone in jail for a designated amount of time. Let me paint you a picture of the jail. It was an empty classroom that was filled with newspapers, old food containers, trash, and a few stink bombs. Before students put someone in jail they could choose to torture that person by smothering them with their food/object of choice. If the victim did not want to stay in jail then he had to pay to get out. This raised lots of money, but it was NASTY!! Luckily I did a good job of hiding from the students that desired to put me in jail and I didn’t get tortured. 


The rest of my weekend was spent inside trying to stay away from the rain! We have a short week then I’m off to the airport to meet mom and dad and final destination = the beach!

Cinco Dias!

Last weekend we ended our girl’s volleyball season with a game in La Vega Friday night. When I got back Friday evening I had plans to go hang out with some friends, but I sat down on the couch and woke up at 11:30pm. Opps - I guess sleeping took priority over friends. Then on Saturday morning I left with two of my friends to take a bus to the capital, Santa Domingo. When we got there a teacher we'd met at the beach from the US Embassy School picked us up and took us around town. We watched some football games and then went to a pool party with all their American teachers. It was a nice opportunity to get to meet some new people. Sunday morning Ryan, the Embassy teacher took us to sightsee some other places around the capital and to go to the fashion mall. Afterwards we got back on a bus to come back to the little city of Santiago. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera with me during our adventure so I don't have pictures of it :(

Today was an amazing day here in the Dominican Republic because something rare happened. The temperature was in the upper 60's all day – no higher. It was incredible. My students were going crazy. They were wearing sweatshirts and I saw some of the kindergartner’s who had winter hats on. I heard complaints all day about how "freezing" it was. It was nice a refreshing! We have had a few days of rain and cooler temps, something we don't see often!

Tomorrow is Jean day at school, but it's also the day where our class will hand deliver all the food we have collected for our food drive. My class will be going to a homeless shelter where Haitians live. We have collected 20 bags of rice, beans and oil to feed these families. I'm excited for this experience the children will be able to interact with these people. I'm a little shocked by the response my students have given me to our field trip, but apparently it is normal. When I announced it many students said they could not go. I later learned that some of these students do not like to interact with those of lower class because they feel like they are dirty. I have some parent notes and I know a few students are not going to come to school, so pray to soften the hearts of the children and for a good experience.

Well, I'm off to grade some more papers! My mom and dad will be here in 6 days!! Then we are going to the beach to celebrate Thanksgiving! YAHOO! I cannot wait. I hope you are all enjoying the snow and getting ready for the holiday festivities!
Be blessed,
Ash

P.S. I thought I would leave you with a picture of the little creature that I met the other day :)

Young Life Camp

I survived a week at Young Life camp in the mountains with 68 high school students!! AHHHH. Camp went well – right after school last Friday we left in three Dominican style busses and went to the mountains. When we got to camp and had delicious camp food (here camp food is Rice, Beans, and Plantains)! During camp we had several “sessions” these are full of singing, silly games, and then a speaker. From our sessions we would break out into small groups. I lead a group of junior girls. They were fun and it was nice to get a chance to connect with them because before camp I’d never met any of them! We were able to bond through the weekend and be wild and crazy.


The first night at camp we wore all black and we were covered with the gel from glow sticks (side note to all moms and nurses, I KNOW this is not safe, but it looks cool) then we had to complete an obstacle course in the dark. The obstacles included jumping into this muck/quick sand and climbing out, swim a floatable animal across a pond, and other crazy things. While all this happened we were being attacked by water guns. It was a long night – plus when you put tons of girls in a room they don’t sleep anyway. On Saturday we had water balloon fights, shaving cream wars, flour bomb fight, and a time to make forts for your leaders out of cardboard. We also got to climb what they call their “climbing wall”, which is really the generator tower that they put pegs into!

It was a messy and sleepless weekend, but it was worth it. It’s great to see the kids have an opportunity to hear the gospel for the first time or for others to take another step and grow in their faith. I’m glad I could be a part of this. It made me miss Camp Adventure tons – the director here is nowhere near as dynamic as the one who leads Adventure (props to you dad!) and the experience is completely different, but I’m glad to have had it. I came home Sunday evening exhausted and thrilled to know I didn’t have power again!! Yahoo…OK – I didn’t take it that joyfully – but I’m made it work until I it was restored Wednesday.

I’m about ready to start my count down until my parents come to visit! It’s coming up and I cannot wait…yahoo! Love you all.

Off to Camp!

Although it's not as exciting as the presidential election, here is a little update about my life!

Early this week my roommate got out of the hospital and she has been resting a lot. She is getting her strength back and tomorrow hopefully will be her first full day back at school. Parasites can really wipe you out!

While I'm on the topic of health, please pray for the health of many here. Four of my students are out sick and two are in the hospital. One of my students has Dengue (a virus that is transmitted by infected mosquitoes) so pray that he can make a full recovery.

In addition, this week, our School Director who has also been sick with a parasite was sent to the states after some test results came back alarming. He is going to get some more testing in the states; they are concerned he may have cancer.

We had a really hot week this week, the temperatures gone way up. It's made it difficult to sleep at night. I spent Sunday at the waterfalls trying to cool off for a few hours and it was a nice excuse to get away! Hopefully we can get some cooler temperatures again.
Wednesday night Young Life was a “Bigger and Better” Club. Each team started with a Peso (penny) and had to walk around to houses or people and find someone who would trade it for something bigger or better. What a night. I’ve played this with Youth for Christ in the states since I was in 6th grade and it’s much different playing it here! First, safety becomes a huge issue. Second, the language barrier is difficult because I don’t know the language well enough to explain this to anyone in detail, so I have to trust the students are doing a good job. Finally, NOTHING is “junk” to anyone here – it is all their most prized possession regardless if it is broken or not. You know it’s going to be a comical night when the first thing someone offers you is an empty beer bottle for a peso!




School is going well, my students still continue to be rascal's some days, but I love each and every one of them.

Tomorrow right after school I leave to go to the mountains to be a counselor at Young Life camp for the weekend. We have 65 high school students going. I'm excited, it's going to be a fun, messy, and amazing weekend. It will be a great opportunity for some of these kids to hear the gospel for the first time. Pray for the students that they come with open hearts and pray for me that I come with as a bundle of energy not dragged down from a week of teaching. We get back Sunday afternoon and luckily I have Monday off because it's a Dominican holiday.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying basketball season in Indiana (those of you that live there of course) – it sure isn’t the same here – it’s PATHETIC!
Much love!!!

P.S. I have now discovered what they do with all the leftover American Halloween candy…they ship it to the DR! Ha- we didn’t see a single piece of Halloween until about three or four days after Halloween, now the shelves are loaded with candy corn! Ha – and it’s not even celebrated here!

Happy Halloween!

I got so caught up in things I didn't realize that I had been forgetting to blog! Opps! I'll try to catch you up on life real quick.

Last Saturday morning I woke up and jumped on a motorcycle at 5:15 am to get to the school bus to meet the volleyball team where we made the 2 hour drive to the capital (Santa Domingo). We played at the most prestigious English Academic School in the DR (we are runner up to this school). It was an all day tournament and our girl’s team received second place and our boy’s team took home first place. This tournament is the highlight of the season; it's the only thing that really "counts" all year. I was stretched a lot as I had to try to communicate with the referees in Spanish. Most of the time my players translated for me , a little embarrassing, but it got the job done. It was a great day, but unfortunately I got a bit sick toward the end of the day and missed the guy’s championship game :( We made the long bus ride home and I made it back to my apartment at 9:30pm and zonked out.



Tuesday night I finally had the chance to experience my first Dominican baseball game. One of my Dominican friends has season tickets and took me to the Aguila’s game. I was impressed by the size and quality of the stadium. Baseball is a huge thing here - they even have cheerleaders!! It was fun and entertaining to watch and we won the game. Now that the World Series is done all the pro's will be coming over to play so I will get to watch them at the future games! I didn't get back to my apartment until 12:30 am, but it was well worth it.



Wednesday after school I went to volunteer and help at a girl’s shelter/orphanage. This was an incredible experience! We took some nail polish, make-up and string to make bracelets and had quite the party. The girls LOVED it! Every girl had a make-over and a manicure. They all started making bracelets (I got stuck finishing them). Then, they decided to give us makeovers..this was the scary part..but so much fun. I had a 9 year old girl named Caroline who gave me a makeover and she is bound to become a makeup artist someday. I learned a lot of new Spanish vocabulary during our visit because they don't speak ANY English. Caroline was teaching me all the words for each makeup item. When I was done being made over I looked like a clown, but she loved it. I did too :) It was difficult to leave Caroline after making a connection with her, but I plan to go back every other week to hang out with the girls at the orphanage. It was a great opportunity to love and witness to these girls.

Tomorrow is Halloween, it's not a holiday celebrated here in the DR. I think a bunch of the Americans are going to try to do something fall festive to celebrate the season.

This week my students had to do their final bible project. They were assigned to do a TV show or talk show of their assigned bible story. They presented this week and the results were AWESOME. I wish you all could have seen them. I taped one - but it's difficult to hear. I am going to post it and if you want to watch it you can. It's the Oprah show with Adam and Eve. At the end Adam keeps telling Eve he wants his rib back (the kids have a great sense of humor).

Pray for our health here, a large amount of the teachers and staff at the school have been sick. In fact, they took my roommate to the hospital tonight because she's been sick all week and not getting any better. Pray for God’s healing and protection among all of us!

Have a great weekend!

20 Conferences...DONE!

What a week! Monday we had an away volleyball game at another private school here in town. I had a sub teach my class because I got out of school an hour early to take the team. I'm still trying to grasp the concept of athletics here. The lack of competitiveness drives me nuts but it's still fun. Teams don’t keep a win-loss record here in the DR because there is no reason to. You have no season, postseason, or even a schedule. Our games are scheduled the day before we play. Unfortunately our girl’s team lost Monday, but the guys team won! This Saturday we are leaving at 5:30am to take the team to the Capital (Santa Domingo) for a tournament. It's the #1 academic school in the country (they even have air conditioning!!!) It will be a long day, we play several games and we are not expected to return until 8 or 10pm but it will provide a great opportunity to get to spend some time hanging out with the high schoolers.



Tuesday night I went out to eat at a Vegetarian restaurant with the Young Life leader who was my sister’s college friend. It was delicious and nice to get out into town and experience something new.

As I was walking to the store on Tuesday I noticed something I had not seen here yet. There was a chicken on a leash. Let me paint the picture for you since it's not safe to have my camera. There was a chicken who had a black leash tied around his ankle and he was tied to a big rock. I was laughing so hard to myself. I called my dad and told him he would not believe it and he said it was probably someone's dinner...but then this morning the same chicken was on the same leash on my way to school. I made a comment to the people I was with and they said he's probably a fighter that makes money in cock fights. Wow - so I have a money making chicken that lives down the street from me..I think I might name him soon, I’ll keep you updated!

If you think Christmas starts early in the states than come visit the DR! My neighbors have X-mas lights up already, and my roommate apparently caught the bug because she went out and bought a X-mas tree. They do not celebrate Halloween or Thanksgiving here, so Christmas is the next holiday they have to look forward to. The stores have all X-mas items out and it's not even Halloween yet.



Last night at Young Life and we had Halloween night! I dressed up as a Hershey Kiss! I will leave some humiliating pictures as evidence. The club went great and it was fun to see the students dressed up.



Today was a long day. We had 1/2 day with the students and then we had parent/teacher conferences. I spoke with 20 parents. I only had two parents who were unable to make it. It was draining, not only the conferences, but the Spanglish I spoke most the afternoon. I had a translator when I really needed it, but in this culture it’s a different atmosphere when meeting with parents. I finished my day and made it to my apartment around 7:30pm! I'm grading and have a full day of classes tomorrow, TGIF!
I hope all is well. I've heard from many people that the weather is starting to get cooler in Indiana. I'm not sure if I consider myself lucky yet or not because I am still melting in the 90 degree days of hot sun and humidity! I might start bragging soon – but I’ll wait until we both cool down a bit 

The End of the First Quarter!

Thursday was one of my roommates birthdays so we walked to a fancy restaurant not too far away and had a nice dinner with some friends. The food was great and it was nice to be able to celebrate.

Unfortunately, I woke up sick to my stomach and with a migraine headache Friday morning so I had to get a sub for school. The students only had a half-day because it was the last day of the grading period so the teachers spent the second half of the day doing grades. I spent most my morning in bed and then they needed me to come in to get me grades done. I took a taxi to school and it ended up being a bit of a process (as usual). The first taxi I called I spent about ten minutes trying to explain to him where I live (here in the DR there is no such thing as "logical" directions, sometimes you say take a left at that tree and a right at this restaurant..etc) but after the taxi driver could not figure out he hung up on me. Then I called another taxi and they came on a motorcycle when I had asked for a car, this option would not work with the skirt I was wearing and the teaching bag I was carrying. So, I tried once more and after about ten more minutes I got a taxi that took me to the school. Doing the grades, the comments, and the report cards was a long and draining process but I am finished!! I went home after school and crashed for a few hours.


Then, Friday night I was invited to another birthday party of one of my students. I got ready to go and once again called the taxi. They finally came to get me 40 minutes later and then could not find the party. We spent about 20 minutes driving around looking and with my limited Spanish I was not much help. I finally told him just to take me back, but he was determined to get me there so he opened the car windows and was listening for music. What a sweet man, he was incredible because sure enough we pulled into a BEAUTIFUL house and he told me that was it. I got out and was so happy to have all my kids running at me telling me they missed me at school and wondering where I had been. Even though I was really late to the party I had a great time. It was another dance party so the students danced the night away and I spent most of my time talking with the moms. I love getting to know them better. It’s great spending time with the students outside of school, they are lots of fun.
Here are some pictures of the b-day party and the house there were at..it had a sweet pool!





This morning I woke up early before the heat and rode with one of our directors to the university and ran (this is the ONE place it is safe to run). Then I tried to get some work done before I went with some friends to go watch a championship soccer game in the middle of nowhere. It was a club team and the team I was cheering for lost to the Haitian team, but it was a good game to watch.



After that we had “American Game Night” at the pastor’s house of one of the many churches I have attended. It was a blast. We had a cook-out with great food and then we played Apples to Apples and Outburst. I just got back and I am worn out and ready to go to bed!

Thanks for your support and encouragement. It's been awesome hearing from soooo many people. I love getting updates on your lives. Carve a pumpkin and drink some apple cider for me! Love you all :)

Sushi in the DR!

Yesterday one of my Puerto Rican friends that lives here in the DR returned from a short trip to the states so group of us went out to celebrate. We went to the cutest and tastiest sushi joint I have ever been to. I loved it :) Who would think a place like that would be in the DR?!?!?

Today I experienced my first dental service of the Dominican Republic. After school I waited at the dentist for a few hours (they are so timely here) to get my first dental cleaning. It was interesting to experience this in a different country. Luckily, my dentist spoke some English, but I decided to have him talk Spanish the entire time to practice my Spanish. It worked out pretty well and I learned a lot but at times we spoke more Spanglish than anything.

The dentist was similar to the U.S. I went to one of the nicer ones here to get a good quality - but it's still not the quality of the states. Hopefully it will keep me out of trouble until I can get a more thorough cleaning later :)

My students at school have been a HANDFUL this week. OK, that is an understatement. I have had some major discipline problems and it makes teaching a difficult thing to enjoy. It's frustrating because so much happens behind my back in the Spanish language that I am not aware of. The students are not allowed to speak Spanish in class or they are disciplined, but somehow things always get said and there are words that I am not familiar with yet..Not good.

I hope tomorrow will be a better day after several kids spent time in lunch detention and many parents were called. I hate doing that, so do the students.

One exciting thing about the class today is we are starting Pen Pal's with my sister's 4th grade class. I gave each of my students a name and they wrote a rough draft letter today. They are all so excited and the letters they wrote were wonderful. I can't wait to start the exchange! The students were all thrilled as well.
I posted a picture of my surfing adventure above..I had my friend finally e-mail it to me. It's the only one I have because I could not take my camera to the beach or it would have got stolen. I think I may have found a friend who is looking to get rid of a surf board too, so I might begin my training 

Pray for me this week to be patient with my class and remember above all I am here to love on the students and share God’s love with them. As frustrated as they may make me, I need to look at the big picture and not lose sight of it. Also, as I continue working towards my master’s class in the evenings and the workload it brings pray for me to manage my time wisely. Finally, there have been complications with a water bill for my apartment and they have not been able to resolve it since the beginning of the year. If my landlord will not comprise to fix this in the next week or two then the school has told me that I will be moving (the last thing I want to do right now) so pray that things can get resolved so I don’t have to go apartment shopping here because it could potentially leave me hopping around to different teacher’s apartment s until I have my own place again. With the pace life is here – that could be a LONG time.
ONE MORE THING..(Always got to save the best for the last). Tomorrow, October 15th, is my sister’s birthday! I hate not being able to physically be there for it. If money grew on trees I would fly home just to say happy b-day and give her a big hug..but I can't - so if you see her around please give her a hug and tell her HAPPY BIRHTDAY! She ROCKS. She’s one of the best teachers ever and I’m blessed to have her advice, encouragement and support during my time here!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPH!!
(The picture below is Steph, her husband Kyle, and dog Lilly)

Surf's Up

Another successful week has passed during my life in the Dominican Republic..let me fill you in:

Last Sunday night I had the opportunity to attend a church that works with the GO Ministries missionaries. This is the church and organization my friends from Pathway Community Church (in Fort Wayne, IN) went to stay this past summer for a mission trip. My friends connected me with some people they met who have been living here and it was nice to FINALLY be able to meet those people in person. The service was nice and the people were friendly. I enjoyed meeting some of the other American's too. In fact, one of the couples I met was from Indiana and prior to moving here three years ago he was the assistant basketball coach at Indiana Weslyan University. Now he is doing work with the sports ministry missions.

Wednesday we had our Young Life club as always, but, it was different because this week I was leading it. I was nervous and a little worked up about it at the beginning of the week, but it went well. The theme of the night was "Battle of the Sexes". It was a night full of girl’s vs. guys activities such as timing to see how many kids can cram into a car, duct taping someone to a wall to see who would stick the longest (we discovered duct tape is $8 per small roll in the DR, but money well spent) spelling out words with bodies as a team, and gender trivia. The night went great and the students had fun, at the end one of the other leaders shared his testimony. It's a joy to minister to these students.

My class at school has been wearing me out lately. They never run out of energy or get tired of talking! Pray for me as I continue to have patience with the students. Friday night I had plans to go see the school drama, but I got home from school late and was wiped out that I never made it back out for the evening!

Saturday I left early in the morning for the beach. I went with a few of my friends to celebrate someone's birthday. We got someone to drive us so we didn't have to take the bus. YES! It was a tight squeeze for 10 people in one vehicle, but we made it there in one piece. We stayed at a nice hotel that had a penthouse to sleep 7 of us. It was nice and the bedrooms had air-conditioning (FINALLY!) We went out for a nice dinner on the beach Saturday night and had a great time. Then, we went back to our hotel and sat in the hot tub which was overlooking the Ocean (yeah it was pretty amazing).

This morning we woke up and walked to a cute German bakery for breakfast and spent some quality time at the pool. In the afternoon, I had the opportunity to learn a new sport..SURFING!

It was amazing, my friend’s friend, Victor, who happens to be the 2nd best surfer in the Dominican Republic and competes in California and Florida was bored and called us up and wanted to know what we were doing. He invited us out to his place and he gave us private surf lessons for quite the deal! It was awesome, only four of us actually did it but I loved it. He spent about 3 hours working with me and teaching me how to surf. He's my age and he taught himself to surf when he was 14. He spoke great English but his friends that were helping spoke Spanish so I learned some Spanish surfing words in the process! It was incredible when we left he said he'd help us out again if we come back and he's around.

I had a lot of fun but now I'm tired, burnt, and full of gallons of salt water..but it was WELL worth it :)I told mom and dad, I'm done with teaching; my new dream in life is to become a professional surfer! Haha- just kidding but it is awesome!

Keep in touch!

Dancing at the Disco!

Last weekend my trip to the beach was an adventure as everything is here! It was my first time taking the bus and I went with a group of seven girls. We woke up early in the morning and took a taxi to the bus station where we discovered that we didn't get there in time to get a ticket :( We waited two hours to get on the next bus. We finally got on the 11 o'clock bus. After the 2 1/2 hour bus ride (we were informed it was only about an hour) we arrived at the beach! The weather was great and we enjoyed the water. There were some people from France there that we met and played a game of beach volleyball with. Then, we had to leave the beach by 5pm in order to catch the last bus back to our city. Altogether we had about 3 hours at the beach, 5 hours on the bus, and a 10 hour day. That's alright because it was well worth it!

Tuesday I helped throw a surprise birthday party for one of the the teachers at the school that drives me around a lot (he is one of a few that has a car) it was fun and we had about 30 people in a small apartment! Then, Wednesday, one of my students invited me over to his house for dinner. They cooked me a delicious Dominican meal and we hung out and talked for a while. It's a family from Holland and I have enjoyed getting to know them. The mom has been a great friend to me. I love the relationships I am making with the families and the students. What amazing people!
My Spanish speaking has been stretched this week as I have been thrown into a taxi alone a few times and expected to give the taxi driver directions to the place I am trying to go...it's always interesting – I’ve learned that taxi's cost a lot more when you get lost!

Friday was a teacher in-service day so we didn't have students and it was a nice day to catch up and get some things done in my room.

This weekend I had the honor of being invited to my student's 12th birthday party. The party was last night. Birthday parties for the students that attend the school are a BIG thing. Parent's go ALL OUT. My student's party was a disco party. They had the house decorated and the party was catered. There was a DJ, a huge cake, and the invitations were fancy. I was nervous going because I didn't know what to expect. I was told the students love when the teacher's show up. So, I went and it was awesome! It was neat to see the student’s house and all of my students dressed up for a party. There was a dance floor and it was all decked out..way more than what I ever had for a party. By the end of the night my students had me out on the dance floor with them and I was having the time of my life! I was shocked when the song “Soldier Boy” came on and all the students lined up and did the dance in unison as if it were the electric slide (For you OLD PEOPLE this is a rap song that has a unique rap dance). That reminds me, Dominicans know how to dance..wow…It was crazy!

After I left the b-day party I went to meet up with some of my friends and we went to go see a movie. IT was a good night. I hope you are having a great weekend!
I'm posting a few pictures from the disco birthday party!
Love ya all :)

Back to the Beach ;)

This was a nice week because Wednesday was a holiday and I had the day off of school! Instead of sleeping in on the day off, I woke up early to drive to a place called 27 waterfalls. The name says it all, it's an area where there are 27 waterfalls and it is INCREDIBLE!

It's fun, adventurous, and intense! I went with a few teachers, some Young Life leaders and an exchange student I met from the University nearby. When you arrive at 27 falls you put a lifejacket and helmet on and you begin the journey. First we hiked up/around all 27 waterfalls, it’s neat because you actually rock climb to get to some. We had two Dominican guides that helped us. Once we got to the top it was time to come back down! Sometimes the only way to get down is to jump off the cliff into the bottom of the waterfall. Some of the jumps were about 30ft-40ft high. It was such a rush! A few of the waterfalls you must slide down and for a while we were laying in a lazy river going down stream. The water was so clean and the sights were breathtaking. We couldn't take cameras because we were jumping off cliffs into water and there would be no way to protect them so I have no pictues. We finished it all after a few hours and it was awesome. Without a doubt my favorite thing I have down here so far. So, if you're coming to visit, I'm ready to go again!

Wednesday night we also had Young Life - our theme was "Birthday Party". It turned out great and lots of students came. We decorated the Young Life house with tons of balloons, streamers, and birthday festivities. We even had one of the leaders dress up as a clown! There was a cake eating and decorating contest. At the end of the night we shared the gospel with the students. I LOVE HANGING OUT WITH THESE KIDS - THEY ARE SO MUCH FUN! The picture I posted is from our Young Life club this week.

Thursday after school we had our first volleyball game. Unfortunately the girls and guys team both lost close matches, but I was encouraged by the way we played. After school today I was relieved because it's FINALLY the weekend! It will be a nice break from school work and lesson planning. I'm leaving early in the morning to go to the beach and soak up some sun. I hope you are all enjoying the nice weather and the beauty of fall. I miss it. There are two seasons here, hot and hotter. Leaves don’t change colors and we don’t get the fresh brisk air. I am blessed to constantly have the warm weather and the beach, so I guess I’ll take advantage of that!

Love and prayers
Ash

Excited for Electricity!

This weekend I went on a Young Life leaders retreat to a Jarabocaca, a city in the mountains. It was BEAUTIFUL! We stayed at the Young Life camp and I had an opportunity to meet other DR Young Life staff. Friday night we had a dinner, did some team building and played board/card games. It was a blast! Since it’s high in the mountains, it's not as hot there, so we made smores and had hot chocolate. I even got to sleep under my sheets!

Saturday morning we had devotions, breakfast, and training and planning for the year. After we completed our planning we hiked to a small waterfall and played in the fresh water for a while. I had a great time and it was nice to get away from my apartment and enjoy God's creation. I got back Saturday night and was thrilled to have electricity again in my apartment!! Yahoo...unfortunately, it was gone again Sunday morning - but, that's life here. Things are running at the moment and that is all I can ask for.

Sunday morning we received a phone call in the morning that our school driver had been killed in a car accident the night before. This has been a difficult loss on our close school staff. There was a funeral and this week time will be spent with the family. The man who died, Renee, was an incredible man of God. I had an opportunity to spend a couple of hours with him Friday before he died while he was helping me take care of some bank business. He was a humble servant, and I know he is in a better place now.

School is going alright, it's keeping me busy. Volleyball is going great. Our team has our first game this Thursday. I'm excited; it will be interesting to see what a game is like here.

This Wednesday is a holiday in the DR so we do not have school (YES!) I think I have some exciting plans to go to a place called 27 Falls. This is a big attraction because you actually climb 27 waterfalls! Hopefully it all works out.

Continue to pray for me and my patience with my students as they have been a bit challenging lately! Love and miss you all!
Ash