Settling in

Hello All!

I thought it might be a good idea to update you all on what´s been going down in the D.R. after over a week has already passed. I´m settling in well I think, although the first few days away from home, with three months ahead of me, were a little hard... but I´m feeling a lot better about it all now, and adjusting to this insane culture.

It´s been a busy week, watching and observing how the project runs, and smiling and waving a lot to make up for my lack of a grasp on Spanish. I´m picking it up slowly though... I can muddle my way through an introductory conversation, and get the gist of peoples conversations. I´m planning on getting better.

The centre acts as a kind of drop in for the local people, young and old. It´s hard to keep track of who comes and goes. The project runs a little shop, or ´colmado´for the locals, who are mostly extremely poor and can only afford small quantities of essentials. It´s well placed, as they´d otherwise have to travel for five miles to the nearest store on foot or, if they´re lucky, on one of those death trap bikes.

This week I got a chance to play basketball with one of the local boys that they call ´´little bird´, he´s 11 but could easily pass for about 7 yrs old. I showed him some of my moves. By which I mean I made myself a source of great comedy, but together we (he) mastered some trick shots like shooting from the tyres on the playground, and after spinning round in a circle.

I´m not built for sports, especially sports in heat.

I´ve also repainted the Project Isobel sign outside of the main gates that needed some attention, and as soon as I remember, I´ll attempt to post a picture. But if you´d like to see the grounds and the animals, and some of the children the project works with, check out Project Isobel.

I´ve been introduced to, and groomed the horses, and I got a chance to ride Jefe. Apparently my posture was good, but I was just grateful to have stayed on the horse. I´ve been involved in general duties, feeding the other animals, helping with the accounts and stocking the shop, keeping the project´s builiding tidy, and sorting out the toys and games in the kids dorm.

Speaking of which, I´m pretty sure there was a cockroach in one of the boxes, and I removed a giant spider corpse from the chess set. There´s also a giant spider, the size of the palm of my hand, living in my room somewhere. Occaissionally I catch a glimpse and scare myself silly for a bit. I much prefer the lizard that appears to have vacated the premises after I moved in. There are a lot of creatures of that kind here.

I wake up, and am immediately covered in dog slobber. Each of the dogs takes it in turn to do so, which is always delightful, I´ve just accepted it as fact now though.

But it´s all good! I´m safe, and settling in, and I´ve already got a great tan that has worked its way through my sunscreen. I´ll tell you all about the food I´m eating another time, because that´s good too.

So bye for now, please keep praying for me and the project, as it´s all needed. I thank God every day for the amazing work he´s doing with the project.