Finally, here are some pictures of the youth and young adults who traveled to the Dominican Republic Dec. 26-Jan. 1. They did amazing work, laying 12 concrete floors in 4 days and mixing all of it with shovels in piles on the ground. They worked hard, laughed a lot, had important discussions, made plans, and of course, ATE. Here are some pics....
This is Abby and Rachel slightly over reacting to the large pile of concrete we were mixing. At the time we thought this pile was HUGE... with 8 wheelbarrows full of sand, 4 of another type of sand, and 4 bags of cement. Then we moved on to piles of 12 or more. Good thing we learned a lot as we went!
This is the first house that got a new concrete floor. It took us a while to get the hang of mixing and moving the concrete, but we did! This was the first and one of the larger houses that we worked on. Alberto and Jose were our "finishers" leveling and smoothing out our work so that the floors dried even, flat, and with a nice "shiny" finish on them.
Here is how we mix concrete... and how Taylor supervises to make sure it is done correctly.
Great job team!
Alison and Rachel spent a lot of time laughing and playing with the kids. They, along with other team members, made bracelets, painted nails, sang and played. Part of the challenge for the team at the beginning of the week was for everyone to not only serve the Batey but also to engage with and interact with the people who live there. The whole team took this challenge very seriously and everyone connected with the people in ways that will stay with them long after the cement is washed from their clothes.
THis is the truck that we rode in to Batey #9 every day. About a 40 minute drive over dusty, dirt roads. It was a crazy experience every time. We like to be silly about this too. Shocker.
We know that Cholera and Malaria are serious and deadly diseases. However, we also like to joke to each other about them. We saw this sign on the side of the clinic in Batey #7 and OF COURSE needed a picture. (Sorry its sideways! I uploaded without rotating! Oops!)
At night we would gather on the 3rd floor of the guest house to read and share our book for the trip "Make Poverty Personal." It was a great book to discuss and we learned a lot from each other, from the book, and from the Bible about our calling to serve and love those in poverty and how poverty is a part of all of our lives. It was a great opportunity to think, pray, and learn. It was also a great challenge for our ways of thinking. We definitely also had a lot of laughs on the 3rd floor, where we gathered for hanging out, talking, playing games and being silly and where about 1/2 the team slept in the open air.
Someone (or 3 specific someones) took about 2894 pictures of the goats that roamed Batey #9.
Here is one of them.
On New Year's Eve we spent the day letting Pastor Pedro show us the beauty of the southern coast of the DR. We went to various beaches and little walks through beautiful areas. Here are the youth and college agers on the beach in Paraiso. Beautiful!!
On New Year's Eve the ladies from the guest house cooked a big meal for us, moved the dinner tables out next to the (empty) pool and we ate until we were stuffed, laughed at Pastor Pedro's "stories" which he told partially in English and partially in Spanish- so we were never COMPLETELY sure what the stories were about, watched the bats fly overhead, laughed and ate more, and watched the sun set and the stars come out. A beautiful way to end our trip and close out 2010.
We had a great trip and an amazing experience. We've already talked about a return, and although we don't have any kinds of plans, we are very serious in our discussions about how to make our trip count, how to remember what we learned, and how to live lives that reflect what we have seen.
THanks everyone for all of your support, love, and prayers! We couldn't have done it without you!
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