Ryan Dollars

In our last newsletter I said that I was starting a new site with the boys in El Callejon. It's a microfinance site with the boys that got it's start about 13 years ago when I was 11. My dad wouldn't give me money to go to the pool, instead he gave me cucumbers to sell and buy my own way in. I hated it, a lot, and the last doorstep I darkened was when I unknowingly knocked on the door of an older girl from my school. I'm still haunted by the memory of imagining her laughing at me later with her friends.

Here's the overview:

I'm amassing various prizes (basketball, baseball glove, bat, soccer ball, bicycle, whatever people will send) that the boys can buy with Ryan Dollars. They earn Ryan Dollars in 3 ways:

1. Weekly meetings: They get $20 Ryan Dollars for being on time for the meeting and $100 for memorizing a Bible verse
2. Community Improvement Projects: They get anywhere from $250-$400 Ryan Dollars each week if they complete the project I give them. Some projects are: fill 1 bag with trash from the street, clean murals on the wall by their house, or cut the grass where they play.
   
3. Microbusinesses: I pay $10 Ryan Dollars for every peso they earn through the microbusinesses I set up. Right now the only business is washing Motorcycles but we're working on 2 or 3 others.

I'm very excited about how everything has gone so far. Adults in the community have come to me and said they thought they'd never see the day with all the boys working so hard. The purpose is not just to keep them busy, though that is important. The purpose is to teach them about how to work, how to handle money, save, and to connect with them and teach the Gospel. It's gotten off to a great start on all fronts.

I still need tons of prizes so if any of you would like to send balls of any type, hats, baseball cards, etc...we could really use them. Also, the biggest prize of all is a bicycle. I know there's a significant shipping cost associated with shipping a small bike (for 8-12 y/o) but it would still cost way less than a bike here. If your interested in any of these let me know!

I'll leave with with the $10, $50, and $100 Ryan Dollars.

Photo Randomness

So I was looking through our camera and realized there are a bunch of pictures still on there from the past few months. And I decided to post them to help give you all an idea of some of the recent events have been in our life. Enjoy!


We took all of the women from the Social Work site on a trip to Puerto Plata on the north coast. The women were so excited they sang almost the whole way there.


We stopped at this skyline thing, but it was broken. But we still got to hang out a minute and enjoy the great view.


Here are some of the women at one of Christopher Columbus' forts.


Then we arrived at the beach where most of the women just collected seashells the whole time. They all brought them home and made home decorations, jewelry, and other crafts.


The last stop was a monument in Santiago. It was over a month ago that we went and the women had so much fun they are still talking about it!


This picture is from a cookout we had with some of our neighbors. It was an "American dinner" with hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, veggies, and brownies. It was a lot of fun and everyone was really grateful.


This is from a birthday party we had for Jess (right). And Katie (left) made this amazing and beautiful chocolate cake!


Last night we celebrated out anniversary by going out to a nice restaurant on the top of a mountain. It was delicious and had an amazing view. It's hard to believe we've already been married 2 years!


The view from the restaurant. If you look closely you might be able to see our house on the left.