Things I've Learned

It’s hard to believe that I’ve already been living in Monte Plata for a month! I arrived here on August 25, so yesterday marked my one-month anniversary. Here’s a list of things I’ve learned so far:

1. Carrying a 5-gallon bottle of water up the stairs to your house is not fun, but you can pay 5 pesos extra ($0.12 USD) to have it delivered to your front door. I’d say that’s worth it.
2. Chopping the toenails off a chicken before you cook it is pretty fun.
3. When the electricity goes out, all your icecubes will melt together into one big icecube in your freezer.
4. It is important to master the art of perfectly placing your rotating fan at the side of your bed each night. You want to make sure that it rotates from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet, but no farther as to not waste precious cool air flowing somewhere besides on your body.
5. Working out in a non-airconditioned gym is like doing your entire workout in a sauna, which I think people pay extra for in the USA. Also, you can buy a one-month membership for $9.40.
6. Turn signals on a car, motorcyle, or pasola only mean that something is going to happen, not that someone is actually going to turn in the direction the signals are indicating.
7. There is nothing more satisfying than watching a mosquito trying to get into your mosquito net at night and knowing that it can’t touch you.
8. There is nothing more terrifying than seeing a mosquito flying around in your mosquito net at night right before you turn the lights out.
9. If you leave the door open, sometimes a frog will come into your house, your roommate will scream, and by the time you run into the room, it will be hidden under something so that you can’t find it. Also, pet frogs are free here.
10. La Piña (the bar across the street from my house) only has 5 songs on it’s playlist, and one of them has the same melody as Hakuna Matata from The Lion King.
11. When you finally hang all your laundry out to dry, there seems to be a significantly greater chance than usual that it’s about to start raining. 

On a more serious note, I have also learned a lot about what it means to keep my eyes focused on God and His Glory. I have been reminded over and over again of the blessing it is to be placed in a situation that forces you to rely solely on the Lord. I find myself on my knees a whole lot less when life is easy and a whole lot more when life seems tough. How thankful I am that life is not necessarily easy in Monte Plata. Don’t misunderstand me; my life is llena de gozo aquí– full of joy here. But joy is not always accompanied by comfort or circumstancial happiness. In fact, true joy is found solely when we are living freely in the blinding light of the glory of our Savior, and oftentimes our earthly comforts cast a shadow, blocking the source of true light and true life – Jesus.

Thank you for praying for me as I know so many of you are. Please know that I pray for you often as well, that God would continue to shine His light brightly in your lives, so that you too may come to know the full joy that is made complete only in Christ. 

Hanging out before OANSA - notice my shirt, I'm an official OANSA helper now!

How awesome is this photobomb?!

This summarizes my life here - chaos while I'm trying to organize things

Isn't she beautiful?!

Tarra and I

Most of our OANSA kids and leaders (I'm taking the picture)

Game Time Craziness

This is me, my roommate Nadelly, and Argentina. Argentina is 68 years old and she is so fun!! She helps clean the school every day when the kids go home. Today she was walking home at the same time I was walking to the colmado to buy some fruit. She wrapped her arm around my waist and we walked together to the store under her tiny pink umbrella. Then I bought her a coke and we hung out for a little bit. She's pretty much the greatest woman ever!