June through the beginning of August

I have been terrible at blogging recently. I will get better when school begins, as it's now part of my job. Don't forget to look at the Makarios blog to see what others think of life here. Here are some pictures of the summer. I wasn't very good at pulling out the camera but there are a few here. Enjoy:


Becca Harris came to visit! She was on the Austin Stone family team that helped with our graduations. I just love her! I also love the sunglasses tan. Miss you, Beccy!


Staff Foto!! (l-r) riley, cara jane, ashley, katy (te extraño), myself, anne, garrett, cristina and jody


I went to a basketball game with Riley, Wilson and Jody. It was terrible, as most of the basketball games are but still fun. And we got to eat bolas de yuca before the game...yum!


Christmas in July! Audrey, Marissa and Holly set up an entire dinner and present exchange just before they left. Just look at how lovely the decorations are!


There was a tree! With Christmas presents. I gave away 2 cell phones that don't work and got plastic lips in return! The theme was trash to treasure.


AND they made us dinner!! Mashed potatoes! Chicken (just for me because I don't eat pig and that's what everyone else had)! and a DELICIOUS pie!! We listened to Christmas music and just had a great time. I heart Christmas in July!


The beach! Doesn't it look lovely? Notice that I'm safely on unsandy ground? Yep, on purpose.


These guys really know how to build schools! It just went right up.


And it's so large! ¡Bien hecho, trabajadores!


Ronal was my first friend when I moved here. What a lovely smile. And then he moved back to Haiti for 6 months. But he's been back for over a year.


Look at how big he's gotten! He still has a great smile.


This is was Ronni looked like when I first moved here.


Now he's so grown up! What happened to my precious little Lonni??


It was almost avacado season when I left; now it's in full swing!! Today for breakfast I had eggs with an avacado, toast with jelly, yougurt, and freshly squeezed cherry juice! And yesterday I had rice & beans with avacado. I heart this time of year!!


Happy Graduation! I'm going to miss these kids. They are so precious and mean a lot to me. But we are making room for more pre-schoolers and so we won't be able to have a before/after school program any more. It was a great celebrations, thanks to the Austin Stone Family trip.

PS-I miss Profe Katy!

MTI's SPLICE August 2009

I just spent 3 amazing weeks in Colorado at Mission Training International. We were in the program that is meant to be predeparture for those going across the world to share Christ. There were 42 people (Adults and kids) going to 19 nations!! It was an incredible time of building community and learning about myself. I wish I could accurately describe what those 3 weeks mean to me but, alas, words fail. If any of you are moving to another cultre for the Gospel and your organization doesn't have a specific training to send you to, I would highly suggest going to MTI. If I have one "take-away" (obvioulsy I have way more than just one), it would be that all of the emotions that have flooded over me in the past 2 years of living here and all of the stuggles and joys, etc, etc, are completely normal! I am not going crazy! People, this is great news! Hallelujah!! Here are some of the pictures from my time there:


S'mores!


Glowsticks!!


The Mak staff that was at MTI: (l-r) Garrett, Anne, Lauren, Holly, Jody, Myself, Ashely, Kim, Charlie, and Kendall


The MTI property backs up to the most active train track I have ever seen. Seriously, there were trains passing every 15 minutes all day. It made me think of Emiko!


Garden of the Gods. So beautiful!!


Our hiking group around Garden of the Gods.
L-R, T-B: Neil, Scott, Garrett
John, Shelly, Courtney, Ashley, Holly, Kendall, Anne, Lauren
sitting: Jody, Emily, Laura, Marggy


Visiting my step-gramma George Ann. We looked through tons of photo albums of her life spent traveling the world!


Kind of cool/kind of creepy mushroom cloud.


S'mores!! Again! Delish!


lovely fire for making delicious s'mores.


Watching the sunset.


Our entire MTI group. FREESTYLE!!


I think this was the "look surprised!" picture


MTI's got talent! It was hilarious!!


Anne did an interpretive dance to Lydia's poem about MTI



Jody played and Robb and Sheila had to make up the words to the song. SO FUNNY!



Karel and Lori did some Salsa Dancing. That's how they met...so cute!



After the talent show we went to the local coffee shop and listened as Jody serenaded us.


We got to see Layne and Caitlin and meet Lucy Layne! They lived in the DR for about 2 years and moved home at the beginning of the summer to welcome Lucy Layne into the world. They were coming through MTI for the Debriefing and Renewal program for those who have returned from the field. It was so great to see them!


Beauty


Oh the mountains and the cooler weather they bring. I will miss you.


Walking on the path to get ice cream our last night together. So lovely!


Sweet little Anna eating ice cream...have you ever seen anything so cute?