Adjusting to Our New Life in the DR (January)

We made it to the DR!  It has been an eventful month and we are adjusting as well as can be expected.  We arrived on Dec. 30th and spent the new years at our friend's house (The Menolds).  Our first day was spent trying to get cell phones, groceries, and other necessary items for living here.  We ended up eating our lunch out of our grocery cart while in waiting in line to get our phones.  It is hard not to say things are weird here, they are just different. We don't want to have an ethnocentric view of things and are really trying to understand and enjoy this culture.

I started Spanish lessons the first week and was going 3 hours every day for a few weeks.  Now I am doing 2 hours 2 days a week and Becky is doing the same on alternating days.  Our teacher is Dominican and her husband is from the Ukraine.  One night we learned how to make sancocho (a Dominican stew) it was very tasty.

The Makarios school started on Jan. 8th, which means I have been at my job as the Health Care Administrator for several weeks.  I have a one room clinic/office and I see kids throughout the day.  They have a lot of abdominal pain, headaches and other various injuries and illnesses...sometimes they have neither and just want to come visit because they think they "need" some medicine.  Makarios has had two teams visit for one week each since we have been here.  The first was a group of college students from Austin Stone Church in Austin, TX.  They worked at the school building shelves, doing a drama/Bible story, and spending time with the students.  The second group was a dental team also from Austin.  I was responsible for triaging all of the kids and then make a schedule for them to see the dentist and hygienist. The team did great and they saw all of the kids at the school (about 96) and the staff.  They pulled, cleaned, and fixed a lot of teeth.  A much needed thing here in the land of sugar cane and coke.

We are currently still living at the Mak house but have a good lead on a house and hope to be there soon.  It has been challenging looking for housing.  We've looked at a lot of different options.  Our top priority is location and safety.  We've seen houses that have been owned by a Swiss, a Belgian, and Dominican of course.  Some of the houses were shown to us by a German realtor.  We really like the variety of ethnic groups here on the north coast, especially in Sosua and Cabarete.  Thanks for all of the prayers and support during this time.  We will keep you posted.

We were able to find a good reliable (sort of) vehicle in our price range also.  So, we have an SUV (that is very beneficial on the roads here) in addition to my moto.  When they are both working properly it's great:)

We have a busy time coming up in the next couple of months with different people and teams visiting, as well as a staff retreat in Jarabacoa next week.  A couple from our church is coming next week for about a month to help at the school.  He is a 4th year medical student doing a rotation here with me. We are looking forward to them being here with us!

Thanks so much for the thoughts and prayers.  Hasta luego.  Si Dios quiere.  Until next time...