The Final Countdown
It´s so strange to think of leaving in 5 days! School ended yesterday, and we have a few days to process before the other Kids Alive interns join us here in Montellano for two days of fellowship and wrap up before we head to the airport on Tuesday. I´m glad for the time to transition.
Yesterday at school was great. We started a little bit later than usual and set up the dining hall like an auditorium. There was a mini stage and the band from the church we´ve been going to. The kids all got juice and little cupcakes in their classrooms and then headed to the auditorium for some praise and worship, each of the class presentations, review of the story of Moses and the Israelites that they all learned in class, and prayer. Some of the class presentations were hilarious. For example, when Rachel K´s class acted out the story of Jim Elliot, all the kids laughed when Jim and Elisabeth got married and it was two of their peers, and when David was going to win Michal in the story of David and Goliath, more laughter. Dominicans love stuff like this, the romance stuff. And it is really funny with first graders. My fifth graders did the poem really well, they all wore white shirts and jeans and were beautiful. They surprised us by calling each of us onto the stage and having our teaching teams present us with a little present and say how much they loved having us here-- that was the part when I teared up. It was a really good last day. Sad to say goodbye to the kids, but a good celebration of the summer.
Saturday night we went to the wedding of two of the teachers at the school. All the staff came to our house and we stuffed about 20 people dressed in their finest into the van without a/c to drive to the church, the location of which no one was quite sure of. The bride was late, the groom was nervous, both wore all white. The groom had these great white leather shoes... The church was totally packed out, standing room only, people were outside the church. When they said their vows, the minister made them say it loud so that everyone could hear, and they both said ´´Si señor!´´ Yes sir! The groom couldn´t decide if he was going to kiss her or not at the end, but the crowd was chanting ´´beso, beso, beso´´ so he didn´t really have a choice. It was a beautiful wedding. I liked the interactive audience, it made it fun.
We´ve gotten a lot of really good people time this week. Ariel (husband of one of the American missionaries who normally is here, but has had to take some time to be in the states because of health) took us to the beach this weekend. Sunday and Tuesday night, Rachel K played her violin at church and the people loved it! She played songs that she knew they would recognize, and they sang along. They were so blessed by her playing. This week we also got to take out Lydia and Alberto and their family as a way of saying thanks for everything. We´re always amazed by them-- their wisdom. We got up to the village again and I played chanchi (a card game) with my fifth grade girls. Last night, we had two of the teachers over to our house and made pizzadillas together, played mancala, and Rachel K taught them a little how to play the violin. We´ve also had a great time as a team the past week, we´re happy to be together. We´ll go to the village tomorrow and say some more goodbyes to the kids and have all the female teachers to our house tomorrow night. They want to eat hotdogs!
Not many stories this week, but it´s been really full and good. The trip is wrapping up well. I´ll send another email when we´re home about the next few days and our trip home.
Thanks for thinking of us,
with love,
Sarah and Co.
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