Friday, November 6, 2009

Medical Team!

The medical team came back this week! They checked out our students for about a week, gave medicine and made quite a few people feel much better. We really appreciate all the care they give our families. This is their 3rd year to come down to our little school.

We also had a dentist and his assistant come down during the same time so that all the kids got their mouths cleans and the bodies checked. Hopefully Bud and Jeri will come back again and continue the great work of trying to saving our kids' dying teeth!

Here are some pictures (taken by Charlie M. Nettles) from their time here:


The Ohio Medical team


Bud and Jeri working on a kid


Jenna playing with the families outside


Tyler checking out Gustavo's family (his mama, Lourdes, and baby sister, Estayci)


Jody and Darren discussing something important


Kim translating for Ashley while talking to Wilsenci's and Wilton's family


Julia looking at Yuneci and her family


Jack listening to Andy's breathing


Kim translating for Julia for Andy's family


Marileidi and her newest friend Jenna


Tanda with Yunairi's little sister, Ana Luisa


Nurse Laura irrigating Ambiolix's ear; he was not pleased!


Marileidi hugging Kim

We cannot wait to see you guys next year!

Chichiguans at the Beach!

Though we don't have any older kids coming to the school on Fridays we still want to keep up with them. So on Sunday the medical group that was here helped us take the kids from Chichigua to the beach. We talked about Job 38:8-11-
"Or who enclosed the sea with doors when, bursting forth, it went out from the womb; when I made a cloud its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and I placed the boundaries on it and set a bolt and door, and I said, 'Thus far you shall come, but no farther; and here shall your proud waves stop'?"

And then we swam! And rolled in the sand! And played soccer! And ate! We brought peanut butter, jelly, bread, oranges, bottles of water, and Dino cookies! They had a lovely time. Here are some pictures:


Marquito and Emilio...


...so excited to get in the water...


...almost there....


...SPLASH!


YAHOO!


You can see Marquito and Emilio in the background splashing away


Ernesto and Ronal


The waves were huge that day (even though it looks like there weren't any in the picture)


JOY!


Into the water!


Sili tried to do a flip but tripped...


...and face-planted!


Emilio and Ronal take a little break


Ernesto playing soccer on the beach


Martin, Jessica, Emilio and a few others. I love Emilio's undies!


Jaquelin and Sili RUNNING for the water! Sili finally did his flip without tripping!


Ernesto


The whole group: (L-R) Holly, Sili, Ronal, Martin, Susan, Jessica, Sara, Jaquelin, Emilio, Ronal, Marquito, Ernesto, Kendall, Guivenson, and Felipe

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

A sunset moto ride through the cane fields

Sorry the pictures are blury; we were on a moto, after all!







Welcome, Tasha Lee!

The newest addition to the Makarios family was welcomed into the world last Friday! I don't know all of her measurements but I do know that she is presh! Here are a few photos of the little one:


Her papá and older brother, Diego, were so excited. Diego just kept clapping and saying, "Chichí" (what Dominicans call babies).


Sleeping in the arms of her mama. She has the same nose and mouth as Diego!


And look at that hair. She only opened her eyes once while Anne and I were there visiting. She was enjoying sleeping!

We are so excited to get to know you, Tasha Lee Morel!

Friday, October 30, 2009

Baseball: much more fun with fruit!

Recently we've taken to batting the fruit that comes off of the trees in the school's backyard. Don't worry, we're only batting stuff that is rotting or won't ripen. It all started when Ronni, Ernesto and Felipe shook the avocado tree to get the one that were ready down. Some of the smaller ones fell off at the same time. They wouldn't have ever ripened so we decided that the next best option was to pull out the baseball bat. Then we just started finding more and more stuff to bat. There are a lot of photos in this post...I hope you enjoy!


Ronni. He pitched most of the time for us but he's pretty good at the bat!




Ernesto!


Great hit, Lauren




Look at Felipe! In my untrained baseball-form eyes, he looks like a pro!






Love it! Can you see the avocado splattering all over! It's really quite fun to bat tiny avocados!


Clearly I'm not athletic! And it's so much worse because Ashley (above) and Kim (below) look excellent in their photos! Oh, well. This is not the first, nor the last, embarrassing picture that I will post of myself! Just to clarify, though, I did manage to hit the avocado!


Lovely form, Kim!


It's a hit!




This was quite funny as it actually splattered all over Miguel's face! Desafortunadamente, guanpan burns when it makes contact with your eyes. Who knew?!




The guanpan is dying...


dead!



Riley's the only one I don't have a picture of actually hitting anything. Not saying he didn't break open a few guanpan, my camera just didn't capture it. Sorry, Riles!








Ewww, guanpan after being batted!


I can't remember what Jody hit. But it went flying, that's for sure!


Chepe hit baby coconuts




These were our fans...Profe Kim's class! They were learning about how to appropriately use their hands that day and we were providing a perfect example!


I actually hit it! And it really hurt!


I won't not want to be the coconut that Miguel's about to hit! Do you see the look in his eyes?!




That's right; Miguel broke the coconut!!


The bat. It's not slightly broken and really dirty!

Monday, October 26, 2009

A MacGyver moment from Gare



Garrett loves Odilsia's cooking (who doesn't? Honestly!). One day, after working all morning, Garrett had to go back to the Mak house in Puerto Plata but wanted some of Odilsia's delicious cooking before going. Desafortunadamente (my favorite Spanish word), the food was fresh out of the pot and super hot. So Garrett decided that he would make his plate para llevar (to go) and eat it when he got home. Ahh, yes, the beauty of ducktape! He just took two bowls, taped them together and tucked his precious food away in his backpack to enjoy later! Genius, really. And slightly Dominican. And very MacGyver!

Construction Update


The wall in the back is up! They just need to add the columns


It looks great, doesn't it?


Along this side they are going to put a chain link fence with barbwire on top. The neighbors didn't want us to take away their breeze.


We had some problems with the pump so Miguel was fixing it


Aaaaaand the best part of the day for the workers: NAPTIME! Everyday after lunch everyone gets to take a lovely nap. Aaaahhh!