Meet the Staff of SI Dominican Republic

In continuing with our theme of "faces," I decided to post this recent staff photo....enjoy :)



Front Row (left to right):
Alberto: Education Mata Gorda
Raul: Sports
Fernando: Health Care
Fausto: Special Education
Dan: Physical Therapy

Back Row (left to right):
Lowell: Director
Cheryl: Lowell's wife (in charge of many behind the scenes things)
Luis: Pastoral Care assistant
Vicki: Team Leader
Caroline: Social Work at El Callejon
Arlene: Social Work at Los Higos
Daisy: Social Work at El Callejon
Katie: Education at Mata Gorda
Amy Green: Developmental Therapy
Amy Babb: Art
Johana: Education at Los Higos
Anyely: Education at El Callejon
Ryan: Microfinance
Yahira: Education at El Callejon
Josh: Team Leader
Vanesa: Dentistry
Maggie: Nate's wife (also in charge of many behind the scenes things)
Nate: Pastoral Care leader

The Lord brought this group together from all of the United States, Dominican Republic, and Columbia for one common purpose- to make God known to the people of Jarabacoa. Some of these people have been with SI DR since it started almost 9 years ago, and some have just been around a few months, but each person is working to fulfill SI's mission to "Bring students and the poor together cross-culturally, to encounter God, share the Good News, disciple, and serve others in occupational ministries."

The students have arrived

We knew things would get busy when teams started coming. Now we realize what everyone means. We've been going non-stop the past 2 weeks. We've had 2 straight weeks of teams and things went great with both. Caroline has really started to understand her role at the Social Work site because she's the link between the students and the site. That means lots of translating (only a matter of time before her Spanish is better than mine), explanations of the community, and getting the girls and women to connect during their time at the site. She's done an excellent job at both.

My role these past 2 weeks (and for the next month) is an interesting one. I'm leading the construction site until at least April. Yes, that's right I have no background in construction. As I told some of the students this week: I've never had a farmer's tan (until now). We had lots of construction projects lined up and no one to lead the site so Lowell and Nate asked me if I could step in along with Rudy (Dominican) to lead the site. I've actually really enjoyed it. In the past 2 weeks we've built a gate for a preschool, a drainage system for the Social Work site, 4 portable dental chairs and a playground for another pre-school. The microfinance site is still in the works for the beginning of the summer and I'll keep you posted.

Here are some more faces of the people here:


Andre is the Dominican pastor of a church in Los Higos, a community of about 500 way up in the mountains. He used to be on Staff with SI in that community but his ministry there eventually turned into a church plant and he left staff to pastor the church full time. His wife, Joanna, runs an SI preschool there and is pregnant with their first child!


Arlene also works in Los Higos with SI. She has done a variety of community development there and is currently starting a second SI Social Work site. In this picture she's holding a plastic-wrapped, roasted pig's head (a Dominican delicacy) which she won in a raffle at an SI banquet.


Ryan and Matt were 2 of the High School students that came down from Jupiter, Florida the first week of March. They worked with me in Construction. We spent most of the week working on the Pre-school and Social work site up in Los Higos. Ryan installed a flag pole and a new gate for the pre-school and Matt worked on the drainage and electrical system for the new Social Work Site.


Lourdes and her son Jaime, who is the youngest of 3. They live in El Callejon, just a few houses down from the Social Work site. Lourdes was recently diagnosed with cervical cancer and the doctors are saying that it could be terminal. She is a strong woman and has attended the activities of the Social Work site consistantly since it started 7 years ago. We are praying that in the midst of this tragedy that God will be glorified in El Callejon. Please join us in prayer for her and her family.

Faces

First of all, Caroline's birthday is on Sunday so give her a call (# is on the right) and wish her a Happy Birthday!

Second, we're going to start posting at least every two weeks. We don't want to start losing are huge fanbase.

Third, to give you a better idea of the people we work with and who we minister to we're going to start posting pictures and captions that tell more about who they are.


Lowell Troyer, his wife Cheryl and their daughter Alicia. The Troyers founded the SI ministry in the Dominican Republic almost 10 years ago. He is the director and Cheryl heads the kitchen, handles SI's finances, and many other behind the scenes things. Lowell is a visionary and always has a new ideas/projects that he's working on. To date he has not beaten me in Settlers (only a matter of time). Cheryl is the oil in the SI engine. When she leaves for the states this summer for 2 months I think we're adding 3 women to take her place. Alicia is 17 and will soon be leaving for college. She's really involved in our church and speaks nearly perfect Spanish.


Nate Slabach is the Pastoral Care leader and has been here almost as long as the Troyers. He and his wife Maggie have 5 kids but only the youngest still lives with them. We spend lots of time at the Slabach house playing games, eating Maggie's delicious cooking and showing off Booper's new tricks.


Mercedita, Araseli, and Muñeca are all attendees at the social work site. Mercedita comes pretty inconsistently and often keeps to herself. Araseli is 15 and is currently separated from her 29 year old husband. She has had a lot of health problems lately and comes to the site regularly for guidance with that. Muñeca is very, very quiet. She lives with a man who treats her poorly and she eats very little to ensure food for her daughter Yeni, who also hangs out a lot at the site.


Erika is part of an unusual, and sad, family tree. Her mom passed away and she was left to her father and his new wife, Negra. Things didn't work out with them, so they moved in with another woman named Negra (in case it wasn't confusing enough), who also lives in El Callejon. The father has 2 other children with each of the women. The 2 families live close to each other and often eat and do other things together. Sadly, stories like this are not uncommon in El Callejon.


Tule lives next store to the site and is also always around. Sometimes he comes over and I have ninja fights with him...he's tough. He also likes to help us with cleaning and maintenance around the site...but not for free, he normally charges at least 1 peso.


I posted this picture because there are a lot of things that I think are really funny about it

1. Lisauri's (the boy on the far right) half smile and full bowl cut
2. His bling watch (but it doesn't work)
3. Shorts that say "computer" across the leg
4. Lili's (far left) looking very skeptical of the camera
5. The little boy (I can't remember his name) always says "Goo bi" every time he sees me. In this picture he looks like someone just told him a hilarious joke.
   

Things lately...

Hello everyone,

So, clearly we are way overdue for an update. I wanted to wait and update when I had some cool story or something to share, but nothing has come to me so I will just catch you up on what's new. We've now been back to work for 2 weeks. Caroline continues to go to El Callejon everyday. Last week we just worked on organizing, cleaning, and planning, and this week we started back with the same schedule of Bible studies and crafts. A new big project that we'll be doing with the women this year is they will be making souvenir items (like tablecloths, purses, blankets) and selling them to American students that come down on outreaches. Everyone is really excited about this idea. But a large part of the last few weeks have been spent trying to figure out exactly what it will look like. Meaning what items would the students want to by, what items can the women make well, what is affordable to make and sell, and so on. So if this works I think this will be a really awesome thing for the women, but prayers during these beginning stages would be greatly appreciated :).

Ryan started working 3 days a weeks in Santiago with Esperanza (the already established microfinance organization that we talked about in earlier posts). Things have gone really well so far for him. He's been able to get an inside look on how the organization works and go to several meetings with women that Esperanza is working with. He plans to work with them for a few months in order to get a better idea of what works and what doesn't, and what an SI microfinance site in Jarabacoa will look like. One thing that he has discovered is that he really needs a Dominican to work with him on this. Because of the language and cultural barriers, and some of the stereotypes there are of Americans here, many people have advised him to find a Dominican to co-lead with him. So prayers for this as well are needed.

So that's short and sweet update on us. Our Spanish has improved, but continues to be a daily struggle, so this is always a prayer request. The first outreach team of 2009 comes on Saturday, and though there won't be any students at either of our sites, we are going to be able to work with them on a few other activities, which is really exciting for us. God Bless!

Enjoy some pictures....




A group of women that Esperanza gave loans to.



Ryan and Johana dancing during siesta. Not surprisingly, Ryan gets along pretty well with the 9 year olds.

Caroline and Vanesa. One of the site's "regulars"...if you will. She comes to the site to hang out as much as she can.

Another group of women at the store they have because of a loan from Esperanza.