Bethany wrote us this week and the following is a short report from that e-mail.
The staff have finished the older children's VBS as of this week. They also took the school program kids into t0wn for an ice cream treat.
The staff went white water rafting with a work team from the U.S. and had a great time. A surprise visit to the Ark was also part of the day. Bethany was blessed by being able to see so many of the kids she worked with last summer there.
Bethany has one more week of working with the school program in the morning and tutoring in the afternoon. She said it is going very well.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Bethany's adventures in the DR
Bethany is not able to write on the blog, but she did manage to get off an email so please enjoy:
so today i was able to get on the internet and also had enough time to be on the internet and get stuff done because the connection is slow. apologize to dad because i cannot get on the blog site due to the slow connection that i have. but here's what's going on. we started our second week of school today. i'm in the kindergarten class which is very chaotic. i am literally pulling kids off of each other daily because they all are fighters and have no concept of being obedient in class. i have been hit by kids and even bitten but they are getting better. last week was pretty stressful with the class and feeling like they were not learning anything because they were talking and fighting and what not but we had one good day last week and today was amazing other than having to send a girl home for the third time which means she cannot return to the summer program, but one of the kids (the one who bit me) actually was really well behaved today and listened and participated well which was really good to see happen. it may sound like this is a horrible experience but i really am enjoying it and establishing relationships with these children. one kindergartner is soo little that i can lift him over my head and fully extend my arms without a problem. so that's school which we do in the mornings. this last week in the afternoons we did ebdv which is vbs and there were from 400 to 500 kids there all in one church building which seemed ridiculous and chaotic but it was a great time and the kids really enjoyed it. i worked in the 5 to 6 year old boy class which was great. i had a group that i was in charge of and they all colored really well and were excited to show me their pictures and stuff and now when i walk past them in the streets they yell "profe" which means teacher so that was good but that's over and starting today we will begin tutoring some kids at casa monte plata which is the orphanage here. for the most part i will be working with kids who are really in need of help with math so i'm looking forward to trying to get these kids up to par with their grade. yesterday we drove about ten miles outside the city and drove through a river to drop alba and nadelly who live with the missionary girls and now us here at the school. they are going to the camp for 18 days to do work while the boys are going to camp and then after those 18 days they will be there for another 18 days to go to camp so we won't get to see them unless we visit them before we leave which was a little sad because we had spent a lot of time with them and become their friends and they even had nicknames for me, but we did that yesterday. on saturday rebekah (missionary in monte plata) and sarah (intern) and me went to a waterfall actually there were three waterfalls and did some swimming and luckily there was nobody else there so we had these gorgeous waterfalls and super clear river all to ourselves and it was a good day just to relax and cool off in the river. going to church is always a fun experience. when they say it is conservative it is like really conservative. we wear head coverings and skirts to every service so sunday mornings sunday nights wednesday nights and any other night that there is a prayer service or anything like that. like this week since it is the first of the month we will have church every night which means we wear skirts and head coverings every night...also we do communion every sunday and if you have been baptised you sit on one side of the church to take communion and if you have not been baptized you sit on the otherside and don't take communion. they also dont have a pastor but a different elder preaches every week which is good and we heard a really good message yesterday about not leaving any room in our lives for sin. another fun fact about the church is that if someone is interested in someone they spend a year observing each other and then after that year they go before the church elders and ask if they can get married and then once the elders give their permission the couple can start planning the wedding but they never date before that they just observe each other which seems actually crazy. oh and another thing about the church is that they do not have like a worship team or song leader someone just throws out a song number and a guy somewhere in the church (i have yet to find out where) starts playing the song on a keyboard and everyone opens their song books and starts singing the song...it would seem impossible but it is really smooth and not chaotic whatsoever. it rained really hard yesterday for the first time since we've been here which was nice because it gave us a break from the really hot days that we've been having mixed with ridiculous amounts of humidity. well that's pretty much everyhting that is happening you may not receive another email from me so enjoy this one because i do not know if i will have internet access or the time to use the internet but for now that is all.
bethany
so today i was able to get on the internet and also had enough time to be on the internet and get stuff done because the connection is slow. apologize to dad because i cannot get on the blog site due to the slow connection that i have. but here's what's going on. we started our second week of school today. i'm in the kindergarten class which is very chaotic. i am literally pulling kids off of each other daily because they all are fighters and have no concept of being obedient in class. i have been hit by kids and even bitten but they are getting better. last week was pretty stressful with the class and feeling like they were not learning anything because they were talking and fighting and what not but we had one good day last week and today was amazing other than having to send a girl home for the third time which means she cannot return to the summer program, but one of the kids (the one who bit me) actually was really well behaved today and listened and participated well which was really good to see happen. it may sound like this is a horrible experience but i really am enjoying it and establishing relationships with these children. one kindergartner is soo little that i can lift him over my head and fully extend my arms without a problem. so that's school which we do in the mornings. this last week in the afternoons we did ebdv which is vbs and there were from 400 to 500 kids there all in one church building which seemed ridiculous and chaotic but it was a great time and the kids really enjoyed it. i worked in the 5 to 6 year old boy class which was great. i had a group that i was in charge of and they all colored really well and were excited to show me their pictures and stuff and now when i walk past them in the streets they yell "profe" which means teacher so that was good but that's over and starting today we will begin tutoring some kids at casa monte plata which is the orphanage here. for the most part i will be working with kids who are really in need of help with math so i'm looking forward to trying to get these kids up to par with their grade. yesterday we drove about ten miles outside the city and drove through a river to drop alba and nadelly who live with the missionary girls and now us here at the school. they are going to the camp for 18 days to do work while the boys are going to camp and then after those 18 days they will be there for another 18 days to go to camp so we won't get to see them unless we visit them before we leave which was a little sad because we had spent a lot of time with them and become their friends and they even had nicknames for me, but we did that yesterday. on saturday rebekah (missionary in monte plata) and sarah (intern) and me went to a waterfall actually there were three waterfalls and did some swimming and luckily there was nobody else there so we had these gorgeous waterfalls and super clear river all to ourselves and it was a good day just to relax and cool off in the river. going to church is always a fun experience. when they say it is conservative it is like really conservative. we wear head coverings and skirts to every service so sunday mornings sunday nights wednesday nights and any other night that there is a prayer service or anything like that. like this week since it is the first of the month we will have church every night which means we wear skirts and head coverings every night...also we do communion every sunday and if you have been baptised you sit on one side of the church to take communion and if you have not been baptized you sit on the otherside and don't take communion. they also dont have a pastor but a different elder preaches every week which is good and we heard a really good message yesterday about not leaving any room in our lives for sin. another fun fact about the church is that if someone is interested in someone they spend a year observing each other and then after that year they go before the church elders and ask if they can get married and then once the elders give their permission the couple can start planning the wedding but they never date before that they just observe each other which seems actually crazy. oh and another thing about the church is that they do not have like a worship team or song leader someone just throws out a song number and a guy somewhere in the church (i have yet to find out where) starts playing the song on a keyboard and everyone opens their song books and starts singing the song...it would seem impossible but it is really smooth and not chaotic whatsoever. it rained really hard yesterday for the first time since we've been here which was nice because it gave us a break from the really hot days that we've been having mixed with ridiculous amounts of humidity. well that's pretty much everyhting that is happening you may not receive another email from me so enjoy this one because i do not know if i will have internet access or the time to use the internet but for now that is all.
bethany
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