Melissa

I was trying to think of a way to help you understand a little of the lifestyle down here and I came up with a small list that you may find interesting! It’s called...

1. Make homemade tomato soup. That’s right. ..from scratch! How crazy is that when Campbell’s does such a good job providing me with the service already?’ However, it would take a boatload of Campbell’s to feed a group of fifteen! Let me just say.. .it was pretty dang good!

2. Eat pasta that I, only minutes before, pulled bugs out of while cooking. In the States we would just throw it away... it’s only .97 cents! No such luck here. We eat everything and consider it protein!

3. Jump on the back of some guy’s motorcycle and trust him to take you where you asked him to go. This can be a hard one since my Spanish is so non-existent! I find myself thinking “I hope he understood that I was asking for Escuela Canbe and not some strange city up the mountain road”. I also pray that I don’t fall off as we maneuver our way through potholes and on-coming traffic.

4. Pull out the salsa I made (yes made!) only to find a moth floating in it. So, I simply scoop it out and throw it away so that I can actually eat the salsa. If you find a bug in the salsa at home you sue the salsa company and win lots of money. ..you find one here and you thank the Lord that you saw it before you ate it! Then again.. .one needs all the protein one can get!

5. Live with ten males and not be married to one of them. Of course, only one of the ten would be appropriate since the rest have to be locked up in a room every night.. .but still... it can feel a little strange at times! However, they are super respectful and always rave about my cooking (even when I bum things. ..like the homemade refried beans that I boiled the water out of and didn’t have time to make all over again, due to the fact that you have to soak the beans for many hours before actually cooking them, and then, you have to do that - cook them - for at least two hours). The beautiful thing.. .the boys never complained for fear of what the housefather would do.. .it would not be a pretty picture! They ate it and declared the bean burritos just right! Little liars!

6. Enjoy getting up at 5:30 just to get started in the kitchen! Okay.. .so getting started in the kitchen is not a surprise; but, enjoying the 5:30 part...that’s just crazy! You do realize that I’m talking about the A.M., right?

7. Jump off a perfectly stable cliff into the DuDu below. We took our girls to a place called, Lagoona DuDu, simply so we could say that we swam in DuDu! How great is that?! However, I found myself leaping from about twenty feet above the water and no one even pushed me! I voluntarily flung myself over the edge! Why I would do that is still a mystery to me!

8. Continually be amazed that a pisola (a scooter) is actually the family vehicle and can carry up to five people at one time. That’s right.. .no car seat laws! Infants are being toted around on the backs of scooters with only their mother’s grasp keeping them in place. It never ceases to leave me speechless!

These are just a few of the things that I have surprised myself in doing! I am sure that I could find more but I feel like I’ve been here long enough that some things just seem normal these days! Please be praying for the kids here at Escuela Caribe. . .pray that their hearts would be open to knowing Jesus! Pray that they would learn how to build healthy relationships here so that when they go home they will know how to avoid those that drag them down! Pray that they have the courage to be real as they seek to repair the broken relationships in their families! Pray that God would grant us, as staff, the wisdom needed in knowing the right course of action for each student! That we would pour out lives into them on an individual basis, to show them that relationships can be a good thing!

I love you all and can’t wait to see how God works in each of our lives over the course of the next year! Please be in touch when you can and I promise to do the same! May God show you a little piece of Himself today!

For HIS Glory in the D.R.!!

Melissa