Santa needs good hiking boots!

Christmas means we get to do things a little different here in the D.R. Part of the schools tradition is to give out Christmas bags. Not boxes, not hampers, but bags. If you have been to the D.R. you will soon realize that the lowly plastic bag is really what keeps the world going 'round. The "funda", as it is called, can be used for groceries (we were familiar with that one), but also as a hat, a raincoat, a motorbike seat cover, rainboots, or perhaps something to hold your hair rollers in. When it comes to shopping you can also get almost anything you want in a plastic bag; eggs, sugar, candy, flour, 1 tylenol pill, 1 scoop of tomato paste (I'm serious about that one). In any case the "fundas" that we gave out for Christmas were hand sewn and good for many different uses, besides the fact that they were filled to the brim with groceries. For many of the people that we visited this might be a weeks worth of groceries. We had a blast riding around in the back of the Diahatsu (Japanese import work truck) with the students. At various spots around or nearby community we got out, attempted a Christmas carol or two in Spanish, and handed out the bags. Our students delivered approximately 35 bags, with our Dominican staff hand delivering the remaining 35 to the more remote locations. Ethan had a blast handing out suckers and toys to the kids along the way. This was a great opportunity for all of us to see how many of the poorer Dominicans live. Within the city of Jarabacoa itself we become accustomed to cement houses, some of which are actually mansions, but this was the Dominican countryside and things look a little different out here. The people were very gracious, and we received many gifts of fruit in return. One lady, who obviously had nothing, tried to get or entire group to come inside for juice. I'm not sure how she was going to pull that off, but she tried anyway. Even with our terrible singing I think the day was still a great success.

Yet another storm!

Here on this tropical island, we dream of a white Christmas. It's so hard to believe that Christmas is rapidly approaching, and yet the calendar (and our children) assure us that the day is actually coming quite quickly. We have purchased a 3 foot artificial Charlie Brown tree at the local shop. Picture tacky flashing coloured lights, paper snowflakes and lots of space between the branches and you nearly have the complete picture. Now, picture the tree sitting on a tiny plastic table with a small bandana scarf on it for decoration. (thanks Naomi, that scarf came in handy) It's not a picture of beauty, but you can't imagine what that Charlie Brown tree has done for the morale in our family!! Chris and Frank had brought gifts from family and friends, so the base of the tree has gifts around it. That hasn't hurt the morale either!!

So, another tropical storm has hit our parts. This has hit our closest major city (Santiago) very hard- many people died, including the parents of one of the Dominican ladies that works with our summer program. However, Jarabacoa has many that are now left homeless. When the river swells, the squatters that primarily live along the banks of the river just watch their meager possessions float down the river. For two days last week, our school basically shut down classes and the staff and students went to work cleaning up the mess that the storm left behind.

On Wednesday, they went out hoping to re-direct a portion of the river away from the homes. Many hands worked incredibly hard, and the staff and students came home tired but feeling somewhat successful. Bob came home tired and filthy, but feeling like he had made a difference! He also commented on how different it was to work with the students off the campus, on a project that they knew would make a difference in someone elses life. A good day!

The second day- I pulled Brodie and Drew from school and they went out to help the crew. By now the river was pretty much re-directed, and the job was more of a clean up. They came home with stories about a lady who had 3 feet of mud in her tiny house. The boys swung pick axes and dug with shovels. They came home excited about what could get done in one day! It was a very positive experience for them.

So with great amounts of water outside, comes very little water inside. Literally. When it rains like this, the city turns the water off. So that means that our city is without water. We are lucky enough to have a cistern, so we had access to water. Toilets flushing, showers running...good times. AND, when you have, you share, right!?! We did. Infact, if company came over and didn't shower at our house.... it was weird!! Now, the time has come, and our sistern is near dry. We are ultra-conserving right now. We are hoping that the water will come on, but at this point they are saying that it won't likely be on for Christmas. When I was once hoping for snow for Christmas....now I want running water.

It's amazing how your priorities change!!

On a health note: Drew's impetigo is healing....slowly, but we are seeing progress. Brodie has a small spot on his face, but we are trusting that it will stay under control with the new medication we found. We have successfully infected many people around us. Odd, considering that our Dominican doctor said that it wasn't contagious.

Take care everyone, God bless as you prepare for the Christmas season.

Missing you all, and expecting picture of you and snow!!

Love,
Carrie