Day 8 - Dominican Republic

     Before you read this I apologize for the, perhaps, awkward sounding post...  I was very tired and not really in the mood to philosophy.  At the moment of writing this entry, I was sitting on a plane with a cup of water on my left and a cup of coffee on my right.  I don't drink coffee very often but for some reason I was the mood.  My phone had died and was hoping that my friend picking me up from the airport would be able to find me, (that is, if he even decided to come), because all he knew was that I was scheduled to come back at 11pm that night, and the last time I had spoken to him was a week prior.  I prayed that he would either be there or at least have an outlet there for me to charge my phone so that I could call him.

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     I was excited (am still am) to share my stories with him, my aqua fitness class, my roommates, friends, and whoever it comes up in conversation with.  Heck maybe it can even start some conversations.  At the moment I was still in "trip mode"  where there was a possibility of getting culture shock as I walked back into my old life which wasn't that old.

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     I had officially decided that I would remake a Facebook account.  I had one but I deleted it for many different reasons (The primary reason comes from the lesson in Judges 6).  However I figured that it was time to rebuild it, and I decided to try to build it God's way.

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   I'm really excited to start up school again and to remember that if I can connect with children who don't even speak my language, then I can connect with anyone right?  At least I can make an attempt.  That's one of my goals for the upcoming year.  Not to necessarily become best friends with everyone or change lives, but to simply lose myself in the lives if others.

P.S. - I think I found a new favorite drink combo: a cup of hot coffee and a cup of cold water, alternating sips of hot and cold.  Not only does it prevent cavities and yellow teeth stains, but it provides two extremes that create a "shock"ing equilibrium on the body's physiological senses (kind of like going on a Short Term Mission?)

Day 7 - Dominican Republic

     On our last day serving in the DR, we went to a private pool with children from a Grace home whose mission is to foster those who have been rescued from sex slavery / parents who are involved with it.  It was a blast.  One of the first things I noticed was that they were a lot more outgoing with us compared to the other orphanage.  However, they were less respectful.  The other orphanage was inspiring because we saw the children truly love and care for each other; bringing water for the boys in wheelchairs and pushing them around.  The children here though had a little more of a problem with this.  I heard a boy yell at another because he was distracting his kite flying, and the girls would tease me and tell me lies.  Some children were actually not allowed to hang out with us at the pool because they had refused to do their chores.  None of this was super obnoxiously bad, basically what you would expect from children.  This is just what I observed.

    There was one girl who, I think, had a type of albinism, that is, had dirty blonde hair on her naturally dark skin.  She looked just like Shakira.  Her eyes were golden brown to match her hair, and all of the girls in our group were in awe of her eyelashes.  She was four, and it was clear that she will turn into a gorgeous woman (by our societies standards).

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     When you're playing with children in an orphanage or Grace home you forget about why they're there, and only think about having fun.  You forget about their history, their disease, their pain.  When you look back on it and think about the adorable, lovable children that you were playing UNO with, it kills you when you remember that just two years ago they were in the hospital from HIV, neglected because of a lack of money, a lack of paternal care, or both.  It kills you to hear about children who are rescued from brothels when they are four, only to be taken back by their parents 10 years later kicking and screaming because they know that their parents are just gonna sell them back into a prostitution ring.  Yes that did happen at the Grace Home we went to, just weeks before we arrived.  (Just remember: "Hate the sin; love the sinner".)  We left in a good mood, having made some new connections and making lasting memories.

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     Later that night we went to a Saturday night Church service.  Wow.  It was crazy.  Very high energy with extremely loud music that was so loud that nobody could hear anybody, but it was ok because God could hear you and the service really emphasized audience interaction as was exemplified when the pastor asked me to come up stage during the loud music to scream, "GOD BLESS YOU!" over and over again to the beat of the music which really pumped me up because I just had to keep screaming, and screaming, and screaming but it was so loud I couldn't hear myself and I just kept screaming and dancing and jumping until the music stopped so that we could listen to a speech and learn more about Jesus.

     It was a good message, talking about modesty with a Dominican culture point of view.  I agreed with the message, it was just presented in a way that I had never heard before, and I learned that this topic is emphasized more in the DR more than in the US.  If you truly care about the topic talk to me about it later, it was about the role that men and women play in God's eyes and in the church.

     Overall it was fun, eye-opening, and allowed us to say goodbye to the translators that had been helping us the entire trip.

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     When we got home, we debriefed, and then said our goodbyes to the half of the group that was leaving at 4am the next morning.  Some of them I'll see again, some of them I may not see until heaven...  But only the good Lord knows for sure.