Weddings!!

This past week I had the joy of celebrating the marriage of 4 couples from El Callejon. I won't get into all the details again about how and why we are doing this, but read this post from 2009 if you're interested.

Kim giving a welcome to all of the guests

Sila and her husband (both in white).  They actually got married last December, but for several reasons we were unable to have the reception last year.  And unfortunately, they weren't able to make it to the reception this year either because of an unexpected emergency.  But the important thing is they are now happily married!

Tona and Censio.  They have been together for 20ish years and have 4 children.  They finally took the plunge :)

Yoenmy (center) with all of her guests.

Elizabeth (our friend and also the sister-in-law of one of the couples) giving a toast

Censio and Tona with their guests

Alexandri and Alicia (far right) with their guests

sweet :)

Alicia and Alexandri cutting the cake

Many of these men and women have been hurt by past (or even their current) relationships.  Our prayer is that these 4 couples would learn to live out what a Christian marriage should look like. That they would love and respect each other as a man and woman are called to.  And also that they would be an example to the other couples in the community.

Things we'll miss about the Dominican Republic

We love the DR. Here are a few things we loved the most;

1. Being call Bryan, Carolina, and Janes
2. In the past 1345 days, we’ve felt winter temperatures for just 28 of them.
3. Sitting on our balcony, listening to the beautiful harmony of music and mufflers all night
4. Hablando Espanol
5. A daily, 2 hour siesta.
6. Riding Motorcycles
7. Writing a police report in a Dora the Explorer notebook
8. An underdeveloped government. They don’t have resources for a legit police report, but they also don’t have the resources to get in your way when you want to put 20 kids in your car. It’s an acceptable trade-off.
9. Greeting people with a kiss
10. Going for a walk around our neighborhood and half of the houses have someone just sitting in front of their house greeting the passer-bys
11. Unannounced visitors at all hours
12. $2 buys you a full-course meal: salad, rice, beans, meat, and a side
13. 5 days at an all-inclusive for $44. Ridiculous.
14. Dominican sweet potatoes. They’re white, not orange and 10x more delicious.
15. All the people we’ve shared our life with here over the past 3 years, with 5 exceptions.

Toy Drive 2011

80 boys from Jarabacoa have picked up trash, washed walls, memorized verses, come to club meetings...and earned tons of Ryan Bucks in the process.  They're ready to cash in, but we have NO PRIZES.

Our goal this Holiday season is to raise all the prizes we'll need for 2012.

We need your help!

1. We need 20 people to fill a box with toys: you can buy them, give them, ask other people to give them, steal them...whatever you need to do to fill 1 medium-sized box with toys.  We'll pay for shipping...
2. We need 20 people to donate $30 each to cover shipping costs: Click the button to help out:

Important Information:

• If you're willing to fill a toy box, please leave a comment on this post and/or email hollowre@gmail.com and I'll get you more info
• If you want give some cash just click the button.
• The boys are 8-18 years old
• Prize ideas: Old video game systems, sports equipment, clothes, shoes, action figures
• We need all boxes to ship by November 18th so don't wait!

Read this post or this one if you want to know more about the SI Boys Club Site.

Some of the boys we work with on the peak of Mt. Mogote

Boys Club in Sabaneta

As you may already know, the boys club I started became an official site in May and we hired a Dominican guy named Leo Escalante to direct the site. One of the first orders of business was to begin a whole new club in a new area: Sabaneta. During my final months here I'm doing my best to establish this club and create all the little things that make a club a club: slogans, name tags, titles, Ryan Bucks (er, Leo Bucks), games, sports, Bible lessons.

It's gone really great thus far and I really enjoy it. Enjoy a few of the pictures from a recent club meeting.


This is the slogan for our club, in English: Dare to be different.


These beautiful murals were painted by Art Site students this past summer. Excellent work!


Singing a few songs to warm the boys up. Jose Antonio (on the right) doesn't seem too into it.


We meet in the morning and the afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is the afternoon group, usually about 20 boys.


Pay close attention the lesson, answer questions about the lesson afterwards, earn Leo dollars.


After Tuesday bible study we have an hour of rec time. This is the soccer field outside where we meet. The building was built by the Catholic church but is never used.


On Thursdays we do activities. Over the past month we've done an egg drop contest where you build an apparatus to protect an egg that I'll throw from the roof. The contest is this Thursday and the winning team gets $400/each.


Often times I'll ask the boys random trivia questions as we're waiting to start the meeting and they earn $10 for every right answer. Sometimes I randomly throw $10 in the air and whoever reacts the quickest gets it. Jilson capitalized on this occasion.


Leo going for a home run in kickball. He's done a great job with the boys and his story and humble beginnings are a great example to them.