Travel Week

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted.  After our first five weeks of Spanish class, we took a week off and traveled to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.  We explored many different caves, swam at some beautiful beeches, and saw lots of incredible historical sights.  Instead of describing it all to you, I'll let you see for yourself...
(You can click on the pictures to make them bigger)


 

 

Chillin in Paradise

Dolphins

Now that classes and Travel Week are over, we will be working at our ministry sites for the next 7 weeks.  I'm working at a Boy's Club where I will be teaching Bible studies and leading games and activities for boys who are 6-17 years old.  I'm excited for this opportunity and can't wait to see what adventures lie ahead.

What's in a Name?

Ever since middle school, I have always gone by some sort of nickname.  At one point in high school, I was going by at least 3 different nicknames depending on which group of friends I was hanging out with.   Some of my previous nicknames have included Garrett-meister, GP, Gap, Gert, Candy Man, and Garebear (which I hate, by the way, so if you call me Garebear be prepared to receive a very strong glare).  It may sound weird, but nicknames have become an important part of my life.  To this day, my family still calls me by my nickname “G” (or sometimes “GG”).  The same has become true in the Dominican Republic.  My host brother attempts to pronounce my name but it comes out as “Egrit”.  My Spanish teacher calls me “Chepe” or “Joselito”.  Even my substitute Spanish teacher the other day called me “Gerek”.  My grammar teacher comes the closest by saying “Garrrrrrrett” while rolling her “r”s.  The first day I moved in with my host family, my host mom dubbed me “José” because she couldn’t pronounce my real name.  I think it’s interesting that she chose that name for me because my late grandpa’s name is José.  What’s really interesting is that I brought some cookies with me as a gift for my host family – the same cookies that my grandpa José (Joe) used to love.  Now every time my host family calls me José, I think of my grandpa and am proud to carry that name.


Even though I have a lot of nicknames, God has been teaching me a lot on this trip about His name for me.  At our group Bible study 2 weeks ago, we learned that believers are never referred to as sinners in the Bible.  Yes, we sin, as Paul points out in Romans 7 ("For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do -- this I keep on doing.").  But more often than not, God calls us saints.  When I first heard that, I thought "No, that's not true.  Not me."  I always thought I was just a no-good sinner because I had identified myself by my sin.  But god identifies us according to what He has done for us, which makes us holy and set apart for Him.  As I have been reading through the Bible I have noticed that Jesus, Paul, even David refer to believers as saints who are seated with God in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6).  That means us, not just super-spiritual people who lived hundreds of years ago like monks in a monastery.  Everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ is a saint and is seated with him spiritually right now in heaven.  A quote that really hit me this week from Neil T. Anderson states that "as believers, we are not trying to become saints; we are saints who are becoming like Christ."  That is my prayer for this trip, that I would learn to live in my new identity in Christ, as a saint and not as a sinner.  Jesus didn't come to leave us as we were before, as sinners.  He came to make us like Him, as saints.  I still need to process this more, but God is doing a good work in my heart.

Critters and Creeking

View of the mountains from the school

My bedroom

View from my bedroom window

I’ve been living in a tropical paradise for a little over a week now but I’m still adjusting.  I have gotten used to the critters that live…well…everywhere.  Bugs in the sink, cockroaches on the toilet, and chickens that randomly climb the stairs and come into my room have become a normal part of life for me.  I usually spend a few minutes every night chasing huge cockroaches or crickets out of my room.  Thank God for mosquito nets though so I can sleep peacefully without fear of waking up with a lizard on my face!  Spanish classes are intense.  We have class for 3 hours a day during the week, which is equivalent to a week’s worth of classes in one day.  The homework load is crazy at times but I am learning so much.  Applying what I learn in class to my host family life is easier than I thought.  I am picking up on things during conversations with my host family that I have learned in class which makes me feel like I’m getting my money’s worth.

On Saturday our director and the missionaries that live here took all the students on a creeking excursion.  We started out crossing the river by walking through the rapids.  Then when we got a place that didn’t have many rocks, we let the current take us and floated downriver.  This was scary at first because you have to put one foot out in front of you to check for large rocks and the other beneath you to use as a brake.  All this is happening while you are floating down the river without any life preservers and trying to keep your head above water so you don’t drown.  Before reaching the next set of rapids, we got out and walked along the bank of the river.  However, the beach was on the opposite side of the river.  This meant that we had to wade out to the middle of the river just beyond the rapids and let the current take us down a few hundred yards to the beach.  Just before the beach, there are 3 or 4 large “cliffs” (or really big rocks) that we climbed and jumped off of into the river.  After spending a few hours at the beach and sunbathing on the rocks, we hiked for about 20 minutes up the mountainside via a horse trail.  I could tell it was a horse trail because of the considerable amount of poop, and sometimes diarrhea, that was on the trail.  (Sorry if that’s too graphic – I’ll put a disclaimer next time.)  Unfortunately two people had each lost a shoe in the river and had to walk through the excrement-saturated trail barefoot.  After that adventure, we walked to Mary’s house, a woman who lives in Los Higos, to eat lunch.  All in all, it was a great adventure filled with laughter and encouragement.  I can’t wait to see what kind of adventure we’ll have next weekend!

La aventura!

¡Hola! Saludos de la Republica Dominicana.  I have been in the Dominican Republic for nearly a week now and it's already starting to feel like home away from home.  After arriving in Jarabacoa, the other 12 students and I spent a few days at the base school for orientation and moved in with our host families on Saturday.  I'll be honest -- the first few days with my host family were rough.  My family only speaks Spanish so communication is difficult.  I haven't grown into my "Spanish ears" yet so I am constantly saying "No intiendo" (I don't understand).  Hopefully communication will come more naturally in the weeks to come.

I had my first Dominican adventure on Saturday after I moved in with my host family.  A friend of theirs, Carlos, took me and two other students to Salto Jimenoa, a beautiful waterfall in the mountains.  It is actually a set of 2 waterfalls - the lower falls and upper falls.  To get to the lower falls, we had to walk across several rickety wooden plank bridges that swayed when you walked on them.  This was especially exciting because of the large rocks and fast-moving water beneath the bridges.  The first set of falls were amazing.  (Sorry I don't have pictures -- I didn't understand where we were going when my family told me.)  Feeling adventurous, we decided to hike up to the second waterfall.  And when I say hike, I mean hike.  We literally used vines to pull ourselves up the side of the mountain and inched across ledges that were barely wide enough to step on.  Oh, and don't forget about the bridges made out of rotten logs and PVC pipe :)  When we finally reached the second falls, the sight was incredible.  You could actually swim beneath the waterfall.  We didn't swim that day but are planning on going back some weekend to spend a whole day there.  The entire way up (which took at least an hour) we constantly shouted "La aventura!" (Adventure!) to keep our mind off of the dangers that lay below us.  "La aventura" became our mantra and we still say it when we are doing something exciting.

Some other adventures that I have experienced so far:

- Watching a Dominican softball game (my family goes to watch every night).

- Playing and winning at dominoes, the official game of the DR.

- Taking walks around the "campo" (countryside).

- Spending the day at the river swimming and cooking on the shore.

I only have Internet access 1 hour each day, and most of that time is used to do homework.  However, I will try to update as often as I can, hopefully once or twice a week.  Thanks to all of you who are reading this because I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you.  I appreciate you :)

My Next Adventure

Well, it's been about 3 weeks since I've been back from Spain and I'm about 1 week away from starting my next adventure in a foreign country.  Starting August 31 I will be spending a semester in the Dominican Republic taking classes, sight-seeing, and serving at a ministry site.  I will be there until December 16.  It's hard to believe that in 8 days I will be in a completely new environment with new challenges and new joys.  This semester is definitely going to be tough:  I'm taking 18 credit hours of classes (including a 150-hour internship and an online class); I won't have a roommate since I am the only male going on the trip; my Spanish isn't great but I can still get around.  Despite these fears, I know that this will be a growing and stretching experience.  I will learn a lot from my classes; I will get real-world experience at my internship; my Spanish will greatly improve since I won't have a roommate to talk to in English; I will experience God in ways I never have before.  I am very excited for this trip, but would appreciate prayers to calm my nerves and subside my fears.  God is in control.

Home

Sorry I've been slacking on the posts lately.  I've been home for a little over a week now and have been busy with work and getting things ready for school.  Our flight home from Spain was never-ending adventure consisting of several more delays and missed connecting flights.  After missing our connection from New York to Cincinnati, we rebooked a straight flight from New York to Chicago.  We were supposed to leave at 6:40pm but didn't start taxiing until 7:15pm.  When we finally got to the runway and were about to take off, the pilot came over the intercom and said that everyone would have to get off the plane and go back inside the airport because O'Hare was shut down due to a bad storm.  If we had taken off 2 minutes earlier, we would have been able to avoid the storm and land in Chicago with no problem.  But such was our luck on this trip.  We ended up getting off the plane and waiting in the airport for another hour.  We met an interesting couple on their way back home from their honeymoon in Paris who shared in our frustration.  Finally, we got the all-clear to board again and were on our way to Chicago.  What was supposed to be a simple 2 hour flight turned out to be a lot longer than we expected.  Because of the storm that was still over Chicago, our small plane had to fly further north to avoid it.  As we started descending into what we thought was Chicago, the pilot informed us that we were actually landing in Milwaukee.  Because our plane was so small and we had fly north to avoid the storm, we were almost out of fuel.  This meant a "quick" stop (about 45 minutes) in Milwaukee to refuel.  By this time, the other student flying with me and I were pretty angry.  We just wanted to go home because all of our experiences at the airports were terrible.  We finally landed in Chicago a little after 1am.  I was blessed to be the only person from our group who received their luggage (just another frustration -- makes me wonder if "someone" was trying to prevent us from going home because of the seeds that were planted in Alcoy).  Everyone else had theirs delivered to their homes the next day.  I finally got home at about 6am and slept for a good 8 hours.

It was difficult, but I managed to stay at peace during the trip home and not let the circumstances bug me too much.  I actually enjoyed flying over both New York and Chicago at night and seeing the city lights from the air.  Flying over the storm was an amazing experience too because the flashes of lighting looked like lightning bugs from my tiny airplane window.  The stars didn't seem as far away and felt as if you could pluck them from the velvet backdrop of the night sky.  These simple, yet beautiful, sights allowed me to look at the big picture and not let small inconveniences upset me.  The city lights, the flashes of lightning, and the stars were worth all the trouble, and if we had not missed our connection then I never would have been able to experience them.  I am thankful that God can use the simplest things to show us His majesty and bring us peace.  Don't sweat the big stuff so much that you miss the small stuff.

Spain: Day 10 - Church

Today was a relatively relaxing day compared to the rest of the weekend (see the previous post for an explanation).  Everyone from our house and most of the other people from World Partners went to a service in English at the church.  The service was beautiful and the message was given by a Brit who is the most eloquent speaker I've ever heard.  He had an amazing way of taking a passage of Scripture and explaining every verse so that it makes sense.  After church we ate lunch back at the apartment.  Instead of taking a siesta like normal, I and two other students decided to hike up the mountain to the castle again.  It was a very hot and sticky day but we made it.  Later that night the church invited all of the Americans to come back to the church at 7pm for a Spanish service and join their choir in singing some songs in Spanish and English.  That service was very powerful.  Many of the families of the children we work with were there, and several of them have never stepped foot in a church.  This was a great ministry to show them that church people aren't weird and that they are loved.  The choir, consisting of both Spaniards and Americans, sang several songs in Spanish.  Then Pastor Pedro gave a message and explained what it means to have a relationship with God.  The moment at which he finished was a holy moment as a member from our team sang My Tribute.  The Spaniards joined us singing in English.  After several more songs, it was time to end the service.  Because the Spaniards have blessed us so much on this trip by being so gracious and hospitable, the Americans wanted to bless them with a song.  All of the Americans went to the front of the sanctuary and sang From the Inside Out.  As soon as we started singing tears filled the eyes of many people in the audience.  This in turn caused a lot of the Americans to tear up.  It was a beautiful moment that I believe helped strengthen the bond between America and this community in Spain.  After the service, the congregation mingled for a while.  Instead of handshakes, the Spanish women like to kiss both cheeks and the men give bear hugs.  Suffice to say, I received many kisses and felt like I had enough makeup on my face to paint a clown.  One of the men, Nando, hugged me, pulled me away, hugged me again, and then cupped my face with both hands and said "God bless you" in broken English.  The love that the Spanish people have for the Americans is unbelievable.  I only hope that we have been able to reflect that love back to the community of Alcoy and my prayer is that many doors are opened because of our visit -- not because of us, but because of the love of God that has been expressed by both nationalities.

Lisa stayed home from church that night to watch the kids.  When we got home, she had prepared a huge feast of bread, 4 types of cheese, melon, oranges, cherries, ham, salami, cherry tomatoes, and gaspatcho.  We all ate outside on the patio and reflected on how much this day meant to us and to the Spaniards.  It was just another day of adventure in the Kingdom of God.

Spain: Day 9 - Beach day!

This weekend has been even more busy than the weekdays.  Saturday was our planned beach day with entire World Partners group of volunteers.  After the late-night fiesta on Friday, we all met at the school at 11am and boarded a bus.  Again, we had no idea of what adventure might await us.  First, we headed to see a  lighthouse in Dénia called the Cap de San Antonio.  The view of the Mediterranean from the lighthouse was breathtaking.  The trails winding around the lighthouse were not marked very clearly and there were no guardrails along the cliffs, which made it all the more exciting.

After spending a few minutes at the lighthouse, we got back in the bus and traveled back down the mountain. On our way down, we saw a car laying on it's side (like, 2 doors on the ground and the other 2 in the air) with the windshield shattered.  The police were there directing traffic and no one looked hurt, so everyone hurried to one side of the bus to get a shot of the unusual position of the car.  I'm sad to say that I didn't get a very good picture of it.  That was only our first run-in with the police that day...

When we got down from the mountain we traveled to a little town called Jávea and ate at a Chinese wok buffet.  Interestingly enough, the Chinese food made me feel like an American again.  I was also intrigued by the workers at the restaurant - Asian women who speak Spanish and broken English; quite an odd mix.

After lunch, we had planned on going to a beach in Granadella with a 15 foot cliff we could jump off of into the water.  On our way there though, our bus got stopped by 2 policemen on scooters.  Even though no one on the bus had heard a sound, allegedly the bus had hit a fence which fell on a car behind us and scratched it. We finally got everything straightened out and were on our way to the beach again.  Run-in with the police #2.

This is a picture of a valley that we passed through on the way to the beach.  Just to put it in perspective, see those scrunched-up pieces of metal that look like popcans?...those are cars that have fallen off the cliff into the ravine below.  And just to remind you, we were in a full size bus with 21 people on board.  It was a bit nerve racking to say the least.

 After about an hour of driving through hill and vale, we finally arrived at the beach.  However, the bus driver stopped in the middle of a 4-way intersection when we got there; we couldn't go forward because the road in front of us was a one-way road and we couldn't back up because there was a line of cars behind us.  This caused an inconvenient traffic jam so a few members of our team jumped off the bus to direct traffic. The traffic jam must have been bigger than we thought because the police soon showed up again (to make it run-in #3).  The officers seemed a bit irritated that a bus that large traveled through the mountains and got stuck.  Nonetheless, they, along with a few of our team members, guided our bus through the process of a 3-point turn around.  The road on our right that we were going to back into was probably a 45 degree angle downhill while the road to our left was about a 45 degree angle uphill.  As we started backing up, the people outside the bus started holding their heads and pointing to the front of the bus.  Those of us who were still on the bus soon realized that they wanted everyone to move to the front of the bus to help distribute the weight.  Later, they told us that one wheel of the bus was 3 feet off the ground, which is why they had us move.  Eventually we got unstuck, but since we had stressed out the bus driver too much we decided to skip the beach and head home.

On our way home we ended up stopping in Jávea again to go to a different beach.  Jávea is a very touristy town and the beach was overcrowded.  Myself and few other guys walked about 15 minutes down the coast and found a secluded spot to relax from the excitement of almost dying in a bus (just kidding Aunt B, don't worry.  I'm still alive to tell the story).  We sat by the tide pools for a few hours getting to know each other better and attempting to catch crabs (the kinds with claws that you can eat...not the other kind...).

After winding down at the beach for a few hours, we hopped back on the bus and headed home for reals this time.  The ride home was definitely less exciting than the rest of the day but I did get some amazing pictures of the mountains.

We finally arrived back at the school a little before 10:00pm.  Little did we know that the excitement of the day wasn't over.  Myself and the other 3 students I'm living with walked for about 25 minutes to find a place to eat.  We thought our professor would be meeting us there for dinner but found out that he would be picking us up at 10:45pm at the church down the road from the restaurant.  We ended up waiting at the restaurant for 20-25 minutes before getting up and leaving because the waitress hadn't come to get our order.  The four of us decided to just go to the church without eating to wait since it was almost time to be picked up.  Unfortunately, the only student with a phone forgot to mention that we wouldn't be picked up until after 11pm.  To make a long story short, we waited for a while.  It wouldn't have been so bad if our day hadn't been so eventful and busy.  That said, I am thankful for our bus driver that day, for the missionaries who paid for our meal at the restaurant, for safety while traveling, and for new-found friends.  I must say this was one of the most adventure-filled days I've had in Spain so far and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings :)

Spain - Day 8 - Gandia y "la gran fiesta"

Today (Friday) we had a field day for the kids at camp as an end-of-the-week celebration.  It's amazing how much fun you can have with 25 kids, 4 buckets of water balloons, and 1 garden hose.  When camp was over, the missionaries took all of the workers to a beach in Gandia.  This was my first time touching the Mediterranean Sea.  The red flag was flying so we couldn't swim, but we were still able to wade in the water.

The beaches in Spain are huge and have full size sand volleyball and basketball courts, as well as large beach soccer fields.  I walked along the beach for about half an hour and then played some soccer.  Playing soccer in the sand is very difficult so after about an hour we decided to do some shopping along the strip.  On our way to the shops, we passed by a massive sand castle.  Ten children could literally fit inside this thing.

(Side note: I didn't take many pictures at the beach due to the amount of topless women and old men in speedos...this blog is PG.)

After our time at the beach, we headed back to Alcoy to get ready for a fiesta that the Spanish church put on for the Americans.  We arrived at the party at about 8pm and mingled outside for about an hour.  Then the women who were in charge of planning the party asked all the Americans to come inside.  As we all filed into the large open-air room, the Spaniards greeted us with Spanish music and food as if it was a welcoming home party.

The traditional Spanish dress for a fiesta is over-the-top and extravagant.  Each of the American women were presented with a large red flower and a brightly-colored clip to put in their hair.  The men were presented with  black sombreros (which must be a turn-on for Spanish women because they all wanted their pictures taken with the American men after receiving our hats...they said the hats made us "guapo").  We danced and ate for the next 3.5 hours.

There were four tables of snacks and appetizers when we first walked in.  The men carving meat would walk around with platters and serve the freshly cured ham.  The main course consisted of blood sausage, spicy sausage, mini hot-dog looking things, and hamburger along with a piece of bread.  The desserts consisted of chocolate covered cookies and small pieces of cake coated in chocolate.  This was the first time the church has ever had a party this big and elaborate.  They really wanted to celebrate our presence in Alcoy and they did a fantastic job showing their appreciation for us.  The fiesta lasted for 4.5 hours and may have gone longer if our bus wouldn't have had to leave at 12:30am.  This fiesta was a great way to get to know our Spanish friends better and experience an exciting part of their culture.  These are some of my new (and old) friends:

Escola Oficial d'Idiomes

Blue Team in Art Class

Our days have been pretty full lately.  During the week, we typically get up between 6 and 7 and have breakfast and devotions around 7:30.  Then we leave the house at 8 and get to the school in Alcoy at 8:15.  Devotions with the whole group start at 8:30 and the camp begins at 9:15 when the kids arrive.  The kids rotate between sports, music, art, and English classes.  The camp ends around 1:30 and we have a catered lunch at the school at 1:45.  After lunch, we head back to the apartment in Cocentaina and take a siesta for a few hours.  La merienda is at 5 which consists of a small snack of bread or fruit.  At 5:30 we load back up in the car and head to a church in Alcoy to teach adult English classes.  Eric, my professor, usually has dinner ready by the time we get back from class around 8:30pm.  Dinner is over by 10:30 or 11 and the rest of the night is free.  When we eat out, we typically have to wait a little longer to have dinner because most restaurants don't start serving food until 9pm.  In fact, you hardly ever see a person on the street until 9 or later because the heat of the day is so intense.  The past few nights have been extremely comfortable and we have been able to open the windows to let the fresh air in.

Art class

This weekend will be pretty busy too.  The entire World Partners group is going to the beach right after camp on Friday (there are no adult classes on Fridays).  The church we are working with is having a big fiesta for us Friday night.  Saturday may be a day trip to the beach in Denia and I think Sundays consist of church basically all day with time for a siesta in the afternoon.

Instead of taking a siesta tomorrow, a few other students and I are going to walk around Cocentaina to see what other kinds of adventures we can find :)

Castell de Cocentaina y el primer día de la escuela

Yesterday after our siesta we decided to hike up a mountain to a castle that overlooks Cocentaina and Alcoy.  We drove about 3/4 of the way up the mountain and hiked the rest of the way.  The road was only wide enough for 1 car, but thankfully no one was coming down as we were going up; otherwise, we would have had to maneuver around the switchbacks in reverse.  Unfortunately the door to the tower was locked so we couldn't go inside but the view was still amazing.

          

 

After our adventure at the castle, a few people from our group walked a few blocks from our apartment to a gelato shop.  The myriad of flavors overwhelmed my senses and included things like Ferrero Rocher, Oreo, and even Tutti Frutti (which is hilarious to hear when said by a native Spaniard).  I eventually decided on half crema catalana ("crème brûlée") and half caramelo ("carmel") -- not gonna lie, hands down the best dessert I've ever had.  Thankfully I don't know my way around the city yet so I can't go back and gorge myself on gelato.

Spain - Day 2

We've finally arrived in Spain!  We landed at the airport at about 6:30am local time (which is 12:30am back home) and met a man who drove us through a mountain range to our apartment.

Spain - Day 1 (Travel Day)

When I woke up this morning I had no idea of the adventure I was in for. Today was the first day of a task force trip teaching English to children in Spain. The trip to the airport was pretty normal, with no wrong turns and minimal stress. After getting through security, I caught up with another student from Bethel and sat to wait at our gate. At first, our flight had a 45 minute delay - no big deal. Then an announcement over the loudspeaker said that, due to high winds, the flight was delayed 1 hour and 20 minutes -- okay, still not a huge deal. We would still have plenty of time to catch our connection in New York. Then the really bad news came -- our flight was going to be delayed for 2 hours and 10 minutes. This would put us in New York 10 minutes before our connection left for Valencia, Spain. Would we make our connection or would we miss it and have to catch the next flight to Spain? The extremely helpful lady at the airline desk assured us that the flight was being rerouted so that it would only take 55 minutes to get to New York rather than 2 hours. This calmed our nerves - we were sure that we could make our connection with plenty of time to spare. However, after we had boarded the plane, the pilot announced that we would be in the air for 1 hour and 39 minutes. Um....what?