... quick catch up...

I realized today that I have only posted one blog this entire week. It has been a full week, which has made it go by very fast. It has been so good to learn about COTN Dominican Republic, meet the staff and listen to their hearts and their stories. Since we were not able to go into Haiti wed-fri, we got to see more of what goes on in COTN Dominican Republic and participate in a few projects in the area. On Tuesday we had the opportunity to see the COTN program "I Love Baseball" (ILB) in action! This is a program geared toward the thousands of Dominican boys who are rapidly dropping out of school to pursue their dream of baseball and becoming the next Sammy Sosa. Unfortunately, while a large pool of professional baseball players come from the DR, not every boy is chosen. So, ILB is a great program that provides coaching, training, healthcare, spiritual mentoring, with a strong emphasis on education for boys who apply to the program.

On wednesday the team broke into two groups: one to paint the classroom in Altagracia (a large batay about 20 mins away from where we are staying) and the other group to interview 4 different children who are or are in the process of being sponsored. I was in charge of the painting of the school [insert big smile] and making sure that we were painting things that the teacher wanted on her classroom wall. (Once I download the pictures I will make sure to post them up here) We painted a food pyramid, the ABCs, 1-20, days, months, vowels and a verse, a large tree and flowers with the childrens' hands as the petals and leaves. Language barriers made it fairly challenging in making sure that the teacher was getting what she wanted, but at the end of the day I think she was pleased. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun.

Yesterday we facilitated a leadership workshop using Strengths Based Leadership tools from Strengths Finder. It was so fun to learn more about the COTN-DR staff, their passion for what they do and poor into them more so that they can continue to poor into the lives of the hundreds and thousands of children that they care for on a daily basis.

Today we had the great opportunity to host a day at the waterfalls for the COTN-DR staff all day. We got to go to the local market and use the kitchen here at Casa Bethesda so that we could serve a meal for around 30+ people (staff and their families). They have been working so hard, serving so many teams that we wanted a chance to give them a little retreat. We went up to some gorgeous waterfalls and for $150 we were able to rent the entire place out for the whole day. It was so worth it! We bar-b-qued hamburgers and hotdogs, cream corn, veggies and made chocolate cake and swam and laughed all day. It was so rewarding to see them relaxing and having fun.

Well, it is late here and we have to pack up tomorrow morning to go back to Santo Domingo so I am off to bed. Once I am there I will have more time to write... I think. That way I can share more about what we have experienced during our time in the DR. Until then, buenas noches :)