I have bad news...

I'm sorry but I don't think I will be able to have picture for at least this time and the last one. However, I will attempt to create vivid imagry with my detailed desctiptions. (Or, I'll probably just show you the pictures when I get home).
Okay well, for this week. Umm. I guess we'll start with monday. What..was..Monday..? OH! that's right, my birthday. Yeah, it was pretty cool. I woke up to my roomates singing. And then I went to breakfast and there was more singing. I then, that night, they throw we a suprise party. It was pretty cool. Nicole and Pedro can me a necklace. I think it looks very Dominican. So that was my Birthday. All in all it was a pretty cool day. Oh, and a big Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. Thanks for remembering me even when I'm not in the same country.
It was pretty cool because the next day was Valentine's Day, so we had another party...WITH HEART COOKIES! it was so wonderful. We don't have many sweet things here and Chocolate is supprisingly, super expensive. (Thanks Colleen, when I saw that chocolate you sent me, I pretty much almost cried, it's true.) However, here, they DO have really good (and cheap) fried chicken. Why, I think that when I'm done with this, I might just get some.
The rest of the week went by pretty fast. I'm glad it's the weekend. Hmmm...what else did I do this week. OH YEAH! I got my hair braided... with extentions! It's pretty cheap hear and SO easy to take care of and I LOVE having long hair again. Sorry I can't put a picture on yet, but I will eventually. I think I might have it done agian before I go home.
Well, I think I know where I'm going on my outreach. Guyana (find it on a map) it's in South America, one of the Northermost coutries. Apparently that speak mostly English here so that should be nice, HOWEVER, I am the only American going so hopefully my spanish it pretty good by then. This is the first time this base is sending a group down there and there are only going to be four student and I'm not sure how many leaders. We are going to help a lady down there who has been woking at a YWAM base by herself for many, many years. She has taken up many responibilities in her area and has even been working with and learning the lauguages of the surrounding tribes. I guess it is right on the edge of the jungle. So I'm pretty excited about this. But, again, it's not for sure yet. I think we find out on monday where we are going for SURE. WEll, I know these keep getting shorter and shorter but I'm running out of time so I'm gonna have to get going. We are going to the church on the pastor that was our speaker this week. I really liked him. His lesson what on interpersonal relationships. well, I really better go this this. Hopefully next week, I can get the pictures working again. Adios !

My Birthday weekend continues...

I keep telling people that it's not my birthday until Monday, but Sandra said that in her family they celebrate the who weekend, so we are to. First Pedro's Parents took us out to dinner. Then we walked around La Vega for a little while. It's kind of interenting because it you want to buy water to drink, you can buy it in bags instead of bottles. I guess it's probably cheaper that way. It's only about two pesos (which is about 6 cents). Me and Sandra and Nicole, which took me a little convincing, got a pedicure, and guess how much (mom your going to freak out) it was only 30 pesos (which it about $1 US) crazy, huh? But not everything is that cheap, most things are pretty comparable. But I must say, my toes look pretty nice.
After that we went back to their house for a little bit and then we went to a movie, The Pink Panther. It was pretty funny. It was in English too, just with spanish subtitles. Then we went to eat at this place that had really good empanadas (if you don't know what they are, I can't really explain them, but they are really good.) Then we had ice cream at Baskin Robins (I had chocolate Browie). I swear, I've eaten so much on this trip. And THEN we went to an arcade. (Who knew that the Dominican had all this stuff, I guess it's a little different then Haiti and it also depends where you're at. Oh, yeah, I forgot, we also got to see some on the historial site is La Vega. We saw some of the big Catholic churches and this "Holy Hole" thing where some tree was planted my Christaphor Columbus or something. Pedros mom was telling us that when she was little, her mom used to put her it there to try and "make her Holy." Crazy catholics (just kidding Colleen) but seriously, what the heck? She also was sent to a catholic bording school when she was only 6 years old. And at this school, a child wet there bed, they would have to stand outside with the matress on their head until it dried. Sad, huh? But the Catholics are pretty extreme here.
Well anyway, that was my day, I think now we are going to watch the rest of the movie we rented. Bye for now

Finalmente, el fin de semana!

February 10, 2006

Well, I hope don't dissapoint anyone but I didn't keep a journal of everyday this week like I did last week. Instead I will just try to recap. Right now I am at Pedro and Nicole's house. We invited us to stay here for the weekend. Tonight we are going to Burger King for supper and then tomorrow we are going to a movie...in the Dominican, AHH! Me and Sandra are so excited because we get to be tourists for the weekend! They are going to take us to some of the historical sites in La Vega. (by the way Jarabocoa, the town that I am staying in, is a suberb of La Vega) So we get personal tour guides.
Okay, but as for this week: well, the schedual was the same as last week. We did talk about our outreaches a little bit (for those of you who don't know we have outreaches at the in April where we go to another country for about a month) The outreach options are. Uzbekistan-Asia, Peru- in which we would need to travel by boat for three days to get to the village where we would work, North Africa-where we would work with the Saharawi tribe (they are refugees from Spain), possible Guyana- in South America where we would work with a woman who has taking on many responsibilities in her city, including an Aids clinic, AND the love of my life, Haiti. I don't really know where I am suppost to go yet, I'm still waiting on God. By the way, if you ever want to hear some pretty intence stories. Talk to me when-sorry I have to go to burger king now.
Okay, I'm back. What I was saying before it that if you ever want to hear some pretty crazy stories come to be, I'm not gonig to put them on here because I don't know who all will be reading this and I don't want to scared people.
Anyway tonight was amazing. It was SO much fun. We kind of celebrated my birthday and we went to Burger King and this was the first time Nicole and Pedro had been to Burger king in like a year. It's a lot more expensive for them here. But when we were there they got me one of those Burger King Crowns and told me to wear it for my birthday (as if I didn't stick out enought already being as white as I am) and Pedro took down some of the balloons they had a decoration, it was pretty funny, and they sang happy birthday to me.
After that we went to an ice cream shop and I got this really good ice cream, Pistacio. Then we all wanted to take a picture so we used the timer on my camera. I was setting it up and they were all ready and then I pressed the bottom and hurried to get over to where they were for the picture but the camera was kind of in an unsteady spot and I nudged it and it tipped out of place and then I was trying to hurry to fix it because we only had ten seconds before it would flash but I just kept running into things and I ended up knocking over a chair and the camera and just got a picture of the ceiling. We all were laughing SO hard. It was just like something that would happen with me back home. But then we finally go the picture.
After that we just walked around town for a little while trying to find an open store. (If you want to hear the interesting storie of why, girls, I'll tell you later.) Then we finally did and then rented a movie from a video store the Nicole's uncle owned. Then we walked back to there house and watched the movie until we went to sleep. By the way, Pedro and Nicole live with Pedro's family and it's Nicoles job to do the dishes so I helped her for that night too. I don't really know what we're going to do today. I think were going to go see a movie. They said that if we come over another weekend, that we could probably go to the beach. Well I think that's all I have for now. Adios!

This is a spanish computar so I hope it works

January 29, 2006
Well, I’m approaching the end of my first day in the Dominican. I will try to recap the past couple of days; this is what I wrote in my journal on the way to here:

January 28, 2006
7:25am
So I’m on the plane, we’ve just taken off, I’m listening to "At the bottom of everything my Bright Eyes (a song about a plan going down mind you), my eyes are still wet with tears from good byes and the only thing I can honestly think is ‘what am I doing here??’ and that’s kind of where I’m at right now. Turbulence, great…
4:20pm (I lost 2 hours)
So, here I am, sitting in the airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, waiting to board my flight to the Dominican. I spent $6 on a sandwich and $4 on a Puerto Rico bird statue (I had to get SOMETHING from Puerto Rico) and still I’m kind of wondering what I’m doing, ‘why did I want to do this again?!’ And then I look up and see the Haitian flag, and I remember, and I’m not scared anymore. (well… maybe a little) but mostly just excited
So I’m on the plane now. I think this is probably the most awesome flight I’ve ever been on. There are only about 40 seats total and less then half of them are filled. It’s kind of cool too because I am the minority. I’m the only Caucasian person on this flight, including the pilot and the flight attendants. Now I’m getting really excited, however, it kind of sucks being the only one on the flight who doesn’t speak Spanish, but hopefully that will be different on the way home!
When I got to the airport in the Dominican it was kind of funny because I was taking a lot of picture and I’m sure everyone was thinking, "look at that stupid American." I felt even more stupid when I realized that, yes, many of Dominicans at the airport don’t speak English, I guess they speak Spanish or something, huh, imagine that, Dominicans speaking Spanish…anyway it did pose a little bit of trouble in trying to get my visa but it all turned out okay. However it wasn’t too long before another little problem popped up; the airport had somehow misplaced one of my bag, but I don’t think that that should be too much of a problem, they said they would send it to me. Then luckily I found the people who were there to get me and it was about a 45 min drive back to the base. We had hot dogs for dinner and I slept very well that night.

January 30, 2006
7:48am
I haven’t had much time to right but I will try to recap the last two days. Yesterday was my first full day here. They let us sleep in until seven (versus the usual six) and then we had breakfast, cereal (something similar to fruit loops.) After that we kind of just waited for the Dominicans to arrive and boy you could tell when they did. They are very friendly, very excited people. I just remember a line of Dominicans, one after another, hugging me, kissing one cheek and then asking my name and saying theirs, nice to meet you, etc. I didn’t remember a single name. The place became a lot more
lively once the Dominicans came. We had chicken and rice for dinner afterward I talked with two Dominican guys for a while. They said that they wanted to learn better English and I told them that I wanted to learn better Spanish, so we agreed to help each other.
It is so pretty here; you would not even believe it. It’s like a picture. There are all different kinds of palm trees and beautiful flowers everywhere. Rich people in America would pay A LOT of money to get their property to look like this. And then you add the mountains in the background and you almost can’t even take it, it doesn’t seem real.
I can tell already that I’m going to really love the Dominicans. I just wish I could speak better Spanish. But they are all very friendly and very willing to help you out. There are two other Dominican women stay with us, me and Sandra (Sandra is from El Paso, Texas. She was the first one here and she helps me out a lot. She is thirty years old) I don’t quite remember the names of the Dominicans yet but they are both very nice. I think one’s name is Yohanni (sounds like JO HONEY) I like her a lot. She is very pretty. Last night, at dinner, she gave me some of her food because she said I wasn’t eating enough (The Dominicans are very generous with there portions) Anyway that’s all I have time for now, I will have to write about today, later.

9:08pm
Today was very cool. We got up and ate breakfast, pancakes, and then had class. We all introduced ourselves and the Dominicans are muy loco, in a good way. Every introduction was this who big ordeal. It was funny. Then there was this who student, Carlos, who is a professional Dominican rapper and when his turn came he just stared doing it up all rapper style and all the Dominicans were getting into it, it looked like a music video. I was like ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve died and gone to hip hop heaven. Then at lunch I told him that hip-hop was one of my favorite kinds of music and that I even was in a hip hop dance group. Later after dinner that news got out and they wanted me to teach them. Then they started a beat and wouldn’t stop until I dance for them. I was a lot of fun. They were all like, "Go Lauren, Go Lauren." Carlos also said that I looked like Lauren Hill (which I think is a bit of a stretch) they said that if I just painted my skin black I would look just like her. It was very funny. But then Carlos said that I was black at heart because I liked hip-hop. (I knew it all along, hehe) They later invited me to dance with them and practice some moves. I SO am meant to be here!
It’s funny, they also play this game where there is a rope hanging from the ceiling with a ring on it and you have to try and get the ring on this hook on the wall. It’s pretty hard and surprisingly entertaining.
There is also this little girl (hey, a child) named Isabella who is five. She likes to play on my computer. She is the daughter of the director of this DTS. She’s very cute and she keeps saying "Yo quiero ser tus aminga, yo quiero ser tus aminga" (I want to be your friend) she is very sweet.
I thought I had my mind pretty well set on wanted to go to Haiti, or possibly even Peru, but the more I hear about North America, the more I want to go there. Roberta was telling me about them; they are refugees from Spain who settled in the Sierra Desert and they speak Spanish. Laura (one of the staff, she did her DTS with Jessica. She is from Puerto Rico and is very cool) showed me pictures today and told me stories about her trip to Africa. It sounds Amazing! Well I think that’s all I have for today. I’m going to work more on my Spanish. Buenos Nocha!

January 31, 2006
Today was kind of the first actual day, we got up at 6:00am for devotions then breakfast, free time, then class. Class today was about hearing God’s voice. It was very interesting. I was thinking about Colleen while listening and I wish she could have been there. Later we talked about what are work duties will be for our time here. I ended up with working with computers and hospitalities (cleaning). After that we went into town. It was really fun. It seemed a lot safer then in Haiti. I mostly stayed with Porfolio. I help him with his English and he helped me with my Spanish. Yo pienso me espanol es major que ante. (ßcheck it, is it right?) Then we got alado (ice cream) on the way back we sat next to Carlos the rapper and he rapped for me. He said he was going to get me a CD. So when I get home, you all can listen to it. Then SOMEHOW I ended up rapping the MC peepants song for Aqua Teen (some of you know what I’m talking about). I didn’t want to, be once they start the beat, there is pretty much nothing else you can do. It was fun though. Before I go for now, I have to apologize, I could have posted this today and checked my email when I was in town but I was too busy learning Spanish with Porfolio. (I hope you understand). Well I probably won’t be writing everyday from now on, but I will try to get the important things. Adios!
P.S.
I though nothing else interesting would happen today, but apparently, some things did. I had an interesting dinner; I think it was very Dominican it was some sort of root and also a cooked banana, not a plantain, but a regular banana that was just very unripe. And also, somehow I got roped into being on the worship team for tomorrow so, I will have to sing in front of people and not only am I the only girl BUT also the only English singer who is going to be singing.

February 1, 2006
I guess you could say I kind of started my day out the Dominican way (or at least the Dominican Missionary way; when I when to take a shower this mourning, I had a little friends waiting, a "cucaracha" (if you don’t know what that is ask someone, I bet they do) un grande cucaracha, yeah, bigger then the ones on Fear Factor. But we took care of it. Besides, the water was warm, so that made everything okay.
So I sang in the worship team today (my first time ever singing in front of people. It was scary, but it was cool. Oh my goodness, Porfi, has such a beautiful voice! He is the worship leader at his church and you can tell. I wish you all could hear him. He has a very deep voice. Today he sang "God of wonders beyond our majesty…" it was amazing, especially in Spanish.
For lunch today we had PLANTINOS FRITOS! It was really good (but not as good as mine).



February 2, 2006
It seems as though I’m getting less and less time to write on here to I’m going to have to shorten it up. Today for lunch we had these really good corn meal, ball-like things. They were very good. Also today, it was really neat because I got to clean (I clean every day. We all have different chores and thats mine) with Yohonni. It’s interesting because she speaks very little English and I still don’t speak very good Spanish, so it is difficult to communicate but we will try and we get very excited when we understand each other. After we were done cleaning, we both sat in a hammock and talked, we actually had a conversation, don’t ask me how, but we did. It was really cool.

February 4, 2006
Ah, finally, the weekend. Today was actually pretty amazing, we went to the River to swim and tube. The water was really cold and there were a lot of rocks but it was still very fun. I also went Horseback riding. Not like on a trail with everyone and a leader or anything but by myself. It was really cool. We (me and the horse) went up the river a little and on some trail. It was like the kind of experience that people back in the states would pay a lot of money to have but I did it for 100 pesos (about $3).
Today I also had kitchen duty. It was really cool except for the

fact that I was with three Spanish-speaking Dominicans, not much English was spoken. Well, I’m tired so I think I’m going to sign our for now.

(I'm sorry about all the spelling errors I didn't have a lot of time to write this or look it over, hopefully you know what I mean)