Bacteria, Bummer!!

So I think the raw cows milk or the rivers or yet another source of being foreign and not adapting has led to some new inhabitants in my body. Which has not been fun. I have been in the capital of Santo Domingo for 4.5 days now, killing creatures inside me. I've come to find that little creatures are annoying outside you and just plain painful inside.

I have never been this sick before, which is a testament both to my fortunate good health thus far and my pain here. Normally, a person with bacteria has a level of 2-3. Being the intense, over-achiever that I am, I was able to push that level to 8-10, which means 3-5 times the amount of diahrreah, pain, etc. It's hard to tell sometimes if I am getting better or just getting really used to it. But the 3-day, bacteria-killing medicine ends tomorrow at 12:30pm, about 24-hours before I have to be at the airport to fly home. Hopefully the symptoms will end by then too. Hopefully I will have enough energy tomorrow to be able to travel the 2 hours back to El Seibo, pack and travel back here with two huge suitcases.

Definitely not the ending I was expecting for the summer. But I've come to understand that sometimes you just have to say "All's well that .... ends." It's kind of a nice circle in some ways- sick the first weekend and sick the last week. That's the physical definition of closure.

Can you mix cement? Cause I can!

So Thursday and Friday I traveled to San Pedro to meet up with a group of 36 awesome American teenagers (mainly seniors in high school) from Calvary Church in PA to do some serious construction work. I squeezed my way into all their plans, even getting to stay 5 girls to 3 beds (yeah, that was fun, the bedroom became just a bed with a walkway). Basically, air-conditioning, amazing food and instant friendships. What an incredible blessing! I hadnt realized how much I had really really been missing having friends, connecting with people and especially praising God with people (havent been able to connect that way in El Seibo).

So the days were spent mixing cement and I learned why in the states we use cement mixers... it's really hard work! You have to mix the sand and cement when its dry, then add water and mix again, then transport it in buckets to the dirt floor, then start all over again. Luckily there were a lot of us (at times too many) to take shifts. Plus the boys were pure work-horses. (We may be equal, but we are not the same- I can NOT shovel like they can).

I cried when they all left to go to the airport. Probably less for missing them and more for wanting to be the one leaving. Little did I know...
(for pics, check out facebook until I post some)

Beach, bed, bath, buffet...

So 2 weekends ago (sorry for the delay), Lindsay and I decided it was finally time for a little vacation. We traveled the 2.5 hours by bus and paid a relatively small price to stay overnight at the all-inclusive Caribe Club Princess Beach Resort in Bavaro (it pays to make friends who work at hotels and can get you a discounted rate with VIP wrist-bands). I doubt the hotel actually made money off of us though; we milked it for all it was worth.

Basically, the beach was gorgeous, the food was delicious, the sun was strong (which evened out my burns, though I still have some really weird tan lines), the water was warm, the pool was refreshing and the bath... no words for that one. Somehow the bath was the best, lol.

Definitely a well deserved break I think. And a huge blessing.
(pictures to come, check out Lindsey's blog for a better version that I ditto completely)

Redefining sin

So if you haven´t figured it out by now, churches here are very different. As sad as it seems to say this, Christians here don´t seem to have much of a social life because so much is considered sin and therefore off limits. (Note: I am living in a rural town with no movie theater, one ice cream store and only a couple restaurants. The closest big store is 30 minutes away and though people here get excited about it, its worse than a Walmart. Being a Christian here is much more restricting than say in Santo Domingo where a) there are more things to do and b) less things are culturally considered to be sin). So I struggle here not only with making friends, but with upholding a Christian-code I don´t agree with.

Dominican sins (according to Seybanos):

• Earrings- especially on boys
• Make-up
• Dyed-hair
• Pants on women (aka- can´t dress like opposite sex)
• Dancing
• Alcohol
• Smoking
• Non-Christian music
• Divorce & Re-marrying

Luckily, I brought mostly skirts. Not all Christian women here wear just skirts, so its ok if I wear pants. But other women don´t wear pants outside the house. I once heard a woman in church tell a story about rebuking a boy for having an earring, saying he had a demon or something. Then she heard that he was in a car accident but didn´t die and she attributed that ¨miracle¨ to her rebuke. Everyone in church applauded. Ironically, I have seen men wearing bracelets that in the states would be only for women. I have seen girls wearing shorts that were designed for boys. But culturally they don´t know the difference. I have seen Christians wearing shirts that talk about drinking in English. Ignorance is holy, I guess. I didn´t bother to tell them. I´ve passed the discos and though I am sure some are worse and the smell of alcohol is overwhelming, Christians refuse to delineate sin between being drunk and having a drink. Not that I don´t understand the rational, cause alcohol only adds to the poverty and domestic abuse. So therefore, simply entering a disco is sin. Plus there is the dancing, which is supposedly bad. Yet every time I pass by, the couples have about a foot between them, leaving plenty of room for Jesus, haha.

The sad part is, there are a lot more pressing issues that ought to be added to the list, such as domestic abuse, disciplining children too harshly and laziness. I worry that the Church, instead of being a great motivator for change, is isolating people with its rules. It´s not uncommon here to talk to someone and hear him/her say ¨I was a Christian for X amount of time¨ but didn´t stick with it.

Kids camp, beach and... the Red Cross?

Last weekend was an absolute blast. While weeks here may be hard to get through, the weekends are always an adventure. Lindsey and I made a pact to spend weekends together so that we can travel, get out of the house and generally feel like free individuals.

On Saturday, Lindsey and I went to a one-day kids camp that a local church was doing. When I say camp, many of us think of archery, crafts, bible lessons, etc. Dominican camp seemed more to be about letting the kids run around in a new area, rather than just the street. They did play a few bible games, handed out candy, sang bible songs as a contest, played soccer and baseball. We also went on a walk looking for a river/mangos, which turned out to be pointless as there was neither close by. The church service seemed to be more geared for the adults than kids, but I think they just don´t have a differentiation between the two. The pastor went around yelling at the kids to lift their hands in praise, which was scary and hysterical at the same time. At one point, he even grabbed a tree branch and chased a few. There are a lot of things I dont agree with about churches and Christians here, but I guess they would feel the same about us. Overall though, it was a very fun day, filled with casual activity. I even got up the courage to teach the kids how to play duck, duck, goose (pato, pato, ganso) like I had learned in Costa Rica, which was great to watch.

The next day we went to Miches, a beach about an hour away. After a little scare from my mom, Lindsay and I set out, traveling by motoconcho (like motorbike-taxis) to the bus station and then by bus through the hills to the beach. The view was breath-taking and the beach was fairly empty since it has yet to be developed for tourism. We met a few guys from the Red Cross and soon learned that pretty much all the people on the beach were with them. After 3 hours of laying out and swimming, we hitched a ride back in the Red Cross truck with the 30 volunteers. Though they had originally told us we were going to another beach for a little while, we soon realized that we were on our way back to El Seibo. So the day at the beach turned into only 3 hours at the beach. In hindsight, it was probably a blessing because my waterproof/sweatproof sunscreen was just melting off me. I came home only to realize my face and back had gotten burned, despite my diligent efforts to heed my mothers nagging voice in my head. Sorry mom.

So I finally made it to the beach after living on an island for two months. Incredible. And we are going to the beach again this weekend. Hooray!! Maybe I will come home tan afterall!