Jaina

One of the things to affect me most here in the Dominican Republic has been my relationship and interactions with a girl named Jaina. Jaina is an 11 or 12-year-old wheelchair bound girl who suffers from Cerebral Palsy. There’s a hut at the edge of the village in Chichigua where Jaina usually sits all day while everyone plays around her. She doesn’t really speak but seems to understand and can make some noises that sound like words. That said; she is one of the happiest girls I have ever met. I love getting to sit with her, or bring her into the schoolhouse when we are doing activities. One great memory of mine is when I brought some bubbles that a group had into her hut and blew bubbles for her. She tried so hard to blow them as well, and after about 15 tries, succeeded! Even the other kids, who often ignore her, cheered.

Yesterday, the group and Constance and I went to Chichigua for the afternoon. When I went to see Jaina, she was smiling as usual, but a complete and total mess. I think she had been eating sugar cane and so she had crumbs and drool all over her, plus her arms and legs were covered in dirt. She just smiles and squeals when people come in so of course she was excited. I had some antibacterial wipes on me that the family group left the other week (thank you guys for leaving those!) and so I took them out and cleaned her up. She loved it! She took one of the wipes once I was finished (I used at least three to get all the dirt off of her) and started wiping it up and down her leg the same way I had. Her skin is so cracked and dry and so I think I want to bring lotion another day to help her elbows and knees.

Many of the group members came to sit with this sweet girl as well, just to be there and to read some Bible stories we have in Spanish. She absolutely ate up every second, smiling and laughing and just enjoying the attention she so deserves but never receives. The group who is here this week has tons of energy and so they were running around playing tag with the kids and Jaina kept pointing outside, partly because we could see her horses, cows and her father, and partly because she wanted to be out there so badly having fun. So, I picked her up and ran around with her in my arms. It brought me so much joy to see her so happy and laughing! I loved seeing some of the guys from the group pick her up as well and run her around. I’ve never seen a smile so big. Overall, it was one of my best days in Chichigua.

I think part of why being with Jaina is so special to me is because of my own sister, Abi. I see a lot of parallels between the two of them. It kills me seeing Jaina’s legs, scrunched together and unable to be straightened, knowing that if she had the resources we have in the States, she might have been able to have the physical therapy to make her legs straighten out—maybe to even have walked. The way she moves and sits reminds me of a more rigid version of my sister. The same things even make them happy—Abi loves people and animals, as much or more as Jaina. You should have seen her when cows started walking by the hut; she was “mooing” like crazy! It reminds me just how much I have been blessed to live where I do and that my sister has had the opportunity to thrive under her circumstances. If she lived here, I can’t imagine what her life would be like.
Abi at Special Olympics
Abi on her birthday

Mosquitos and ants and wasps, oh my!

Well, here's a new first for me. I was taking a nap after a long day out in the villages, when I woke up suddenly and brushed something away from my eyes. That something struck me and immediately caused pain to shoot all through my face. I touched my cheek, or rather, the skin just below and to the right of my right eye, and could feel some sort of bump from a sting. Trying not to panic, I went next door to Alexia and Robin's room and asked for their help. Robin took tweezers and managed to pull out a really long stinger. Thank goodness it didn't sting my eye! It was huge! Too huge to be from a bee. And so close to my eye. I have iced it, rubbed garlic on it, and taken Benadryl, but even an hour or so later, it is still hurting. I guess you can pray for it to stop swelling and stop hurting! This is the most interesting thing to happen to me today so I think it merits writing about.

The new group who is here for the week are mostly part of a youth group from Philadelphia, and I am again continously amazed at how these people cross language barriers to love kids well. Not only do they tackle the villages with new energy that those of us who are here day in and day out simply do not do, but they encourage the staff as well too. I am so thankful for them!

Please keep Evelina in your prayers. This is a woman who lives in Chichigua. She was an English student of Alexia's and has four sons, Junior, Ernesto, Jesmarco and Ambiolin, some of whom attend Camille's classes. On Sunday, her husband passed away suddenly. We have no idea what happened, as it was a completely unexpected death, in the middle of a game of dominoes. Haitians and Dominicans grieve differently than we do--after the death they mourn outwardly, wailing and screaming and crying, and then they bury the body and live moves on as though unchanged. But this woman is hurting and needs comfort that she will not find here, so pray for her. Pray for the four little sons this man left behind, the youngest of whom probably does not even realize that his daddy is gone. Sorry it's sideways, but this is picture of Ambiolin, Evelina's youngest son. He wears sweatshirts a lot.

A picture from last week: Rebecca, Camille, Robin and Alexia in Cabarete -- all the current and former Makarios teachers!

Things Spotted on Motos

This is a short list of a few of the random things we have seen on motoconchos (little motorcycles) here in the Dominican Republic:

Babies
Four people (including three male gringos: Brad, Drew, AND Barrett)
Television
Groceries
Chihuahua puppy
Bag of trash
Washing machine
Ladder
Chicken
Wheelbarrow
Skim-Ice popsicle cart
Pig (alive)
Pig (dead, see photo)

I hope to add more to this list.

Did you go white water rafting today?

…I did!

Brad and I woke up around 5 a.m. to head out to Jarabacoa and go white water rafting. The plan was to catch the 6 a.m. Caribe Tours bus to a town called La Vega, and from there take a guagua to Jarabacoa, where the white water rafting place is. Unfortunately, we had one of the most fun and best bonding nights last night, as the staff went dancing. That is another funny story in itself. We did wake up, just not quite as promptly as we had hoped. Constance is pretty much the most wonderful intern coordinator ever since she let me wake her up at 5:40 to drive us to the bus station. Small problem. None of the three of us knew exactly where the bus station was. We had to make that bus since the rafting trip started at 9 a.m. and Jarabacoa is far enough away to where we would need all three hours.

We missed the 6 a.m. bus, went to another station, took a Javilla Tours bus to Santiago, hopped on a guagua to La Vega, got on another guagua to Jarabacoa, took a moto up to Rancho Baiguate, and arrived just before 9:30 a.m.—amazingly, we were still able to pay for our trip and head out with the group! For the price we paid, we got to white water raft, rent all our gear, and had two all-you-can-eat, DELICIOUS meals.

Rafting the Yaque del Norte River was just amazing. I have been rafting once before, in Colorado, and that was one of the best experiences of my life. This was absolutely wild, especially because it poured last night, so the rapids were stronger than usual. For one rapid, we counted seven people who fell out of their respective rafts (this happens often, and really isn’t a big deal as the current pops you right back out of the water, but this is nothing like the US!) Brad and I headed up the front of our raft, with three other American girls whom we didn’t previously know and our guide behind us. Our guide likes his rides to be more interesting, so he would take us ways to make the ride rougher. At one point, Brad’s entire body weight was on my face when we went through a rapid. Don’t worry parents, my face is still fine!

One of the girls in our raft came into the ride pretty afraid. She and Brad were thrown out in the first ten minutes of our trip, and even though she was fine, she started to panic. We even had her sitting in the middle of the raft, where she was safe and didn’t even have to paddle (thus, we did all the work), but she started getting hysterical and insisting that we let her out of the raft. This was impossible, as we were in between two cliffs. She started crying and cursing and yelling that it was her right to be let out of the raft and no one was listening to her. It was quite the ordeal. We were able to get her out of the boat and to a place where the bus that had taken us from Rancho Baiguate’s property to the water could pick her up.

I have never felt fear like that! I am really thankful that I haven’t, because she was really distraught and it just seemed like a miserable place to be, stuck in a panic attack like that. Luckily, we were able to continue our ride and it was wonderful. I am continually in awe of the beauty that surrounds me. It is impossible for me to paddle down the longest river in the Caribbean, dodging massive rocks and watching the way the current moves the water in the most unique patterns, and think that all this creation came from nothing. Being in nature convinces me more and more that God made this world beautiful for us to enjoy and to show us his character.

Just pointing to some places we've been on this world map: Alexia, Brad, Rebecca, Camille, Robin, Constance, Phillip
Out dancing: Jennie, Alexia, Camille, Robin, Rebecca, Constance

This Week

Our internet has been going out every afternoon and evening, which is frustrating since it’s at those times when I want to write about our days! I haven’t gotten to write about what we’ve been doing with the Westlake Bible family group so I’ll debrief on that a little.

We started off by traveling from Puerto Plata to Ruben’s farm outside of Santiago for Saturday’s day trip. I visited Ruben’s farm on my first day in the country, but I didn’t really get to tour the actual farm. It was a neat experience to eat my way through with the group; we ate star fruit, passion fruit, bananas, coco beans, apple bananas (my favorite!), and sugar cane. I heard Ruben’s story once more and ate some delicious Dominican food, then we toured around the Makarios farm, which is just up the street from Ruben’s. The other week, when Sharla was here, we ate some sweet potato fries made from the first fruits of the Makarios farm and let me tell you, they were awesome!

Makarios has recently gotten the money to buy another house on Ruben’s street, which has made it possible for us to take in Marianela and her husband and six kids. I know I have mentioned her before, but this is the family where both parents are dying of AIDS and their youngest child, at just 18 months, is HIV positive. Robin, a new staff member who will be staying here for a year, will be caring for them, and so the coming year is going to be an interesting one and a huge time of transition. It was exciting for me to see these houses and know that God is going to do great things there through Robin and through Makarios!

The group came so well prepared for the week! In Pancho Mateo they organized a VBS that included a puppet show, a story, crafts, a snack, and games on the cancha. Honestly, I was amazed at how well the kids behaved—sure there were a few bumps, but this village is full of wild children! The thing I really cherished about this group is the fact that there were fathers out there loving on Dominican and Haitian kids who don’t necessarily have fathers that love them. What blessing for them and for me to see these grown men holding children and swinging them around and showing them love! I also really enjoyed watching the American kids interact with the kids in the villages. Not only were they holding and playing with kids, but they also participated in the puppet show and helped with the games and crafts. It is so cool to see kids at such a young age wanting to make a difference.

Not only did the group love the kids in the villages, but the kids loved them! When we pulled up to Pancho Mateo the second day of VBS, there were already about thirty kids waiting, all wearing the little backpacks they had decorated the first day and cheering! We never get a welcome like that! It was amazing. As we left today (the group’s final day in the villages) I sat in the van between two of the mothers, in tears because they didn’t want to leave the kids.

Today we are taking another trip to Cabarete. Working hard pays off when you get to lie on the beach at the end of the week!
Robin, Camille and I

With two Tamarindo girls that I love, Lisana and Evie

Some adorable kids in Severé, a new village we visited.

Reflections on the First Month Here

The group is at church and I have opted to stay back and listen to a sermon here. I truly cannot believe that I have been here over a month, and I don't even want to think about how quickly this next month is going to pass. Before I know it, I am going to be back in Austin. That's exciting in some respects, but a lot of me doesn't ever want to leave! I am trying to enjoy every minute, to not be frustrated when I am exhausted, to love even the hardest to love well.

I think that one of the biggest lessons I have learned being here is just how little I need to survive. I was sending an e-mail to a Young Life girl of mine whom I love and I made a list of things I missed about Texas. Surprisingly, I found my list to be very small, comprised mainly of people--my family and friends and roommates, etc. All the comforts of the US -- my bed, air conditioning, reliable water, my car and cell phone and clothes; all those things are nice, but here I am, not just surviving but thriving without any of those comforts! Really, we are spoiled here in the MAK house. I am sitting here, on the Internet, with a fan pointing at me.

I am so thankful that the Lord is teaching me not to depend on my earthly possessions. I feel like he brought me here to break me of sin in my life and that each day he is forming me more and more into someone who possesses a joy not from anything this world can give, but solely from him.

Tamarindo Days

This has been a good week! Progress is being made at the schoolhouse and relationships are being built in the community of Tamarindo, where Makarios will have a strong presence this year and those that follow. The walls are getting taller around the schoolhouse and I can finally visualize what the school will look like! Yesterday the kids and Leticia, Anne and I used chalk to write on the schoolhouse walls (which are just bare block right now) prayers and blessings on the school. This basically turned into everyone writing their names on the walls with a few scattered hearts and crosses here and there, but it was neat all the same!

Although we were out in Tamarindo on Wednesday from just before 9 a.m. until around 6 p.m., which is a very long day, the time passed quickly because I really enjoyed interacting with the kids and the workers. I got to watch rain pour down, I mixed cement, I played with kids and I talked with adults.

This area is not quite as poor as Pancho Mateo, and the difference in the way the kids act is really amazing. They don’t fight as much and they’re still pretty blunt but somewhat less mean. While the kids in Pancho Mateo are jumping all over you and tearing your clothes and calling you bad if you don’t give them gifts, the kids in Tamarindo taught Anne and I every clapping game in existence and some versions of “Ring Around the Rosie” and we really had a blast with them. Even the boys, who were either playing with their handmade tops or with various balls, made sure that Anne and I got to toss the ball around (even though I am terrible at it!) and they spun the tops and would fight over who got to hand it to us to spin. Just the fact that they were so welcoming really blessed me.

With some Tamarindo kids

I met this sweet girl, Amanda, who asked me if she could borrow my Bible. It turns out that she and another girl had seen Leticia’s bracelet that says “1 John 3:18” on it – “Dear children, let us love not in words or tongue, but in action and in truth” and they wanted to look it up and see what the verse said. So the girls opened the Bible I had brought, found the verse, read it aloud, then immediately closed the Bible and said it from memory. I was amazed! I ended up giving her my Bible because although she could even sing me a song of a Bible verse she knew, she didn’t have a Bible of her own.

Unfortunately, I had a headache on Wednesday that continued through Thursday, so I only spent half the day out in the villages and the other half back at the house sleeping the pain off. We crossed the river into Pancho Mateo where Anne and I took a few kids to the cancha to color from a coloring book Leticia had brought. It was difficult for me because I wasn’t feeling well and the kids were climbing all over me but also insulting me and yelling at me to give them more crayons, more papers. One girl gave me her coloring page as a gift and another girl took it from me and ripped it to shreds. It broke my heart! I hate to get frustrated with these kids whom I really do love, but it’s hard at times when they don’t seem to appreciate you one bit! I know this isn’t the truth; I brought home at least five pages colored and signed by several different girls today. It’s little things like those precious pages that I need to cling to, and not the fact that one of the kids who usually loves me called me bad today because I didn’t let him keep the crayons!

We have had a lot of new people coming through this week but no groups, so it’s been nice to have some low-key days. We have taken to playing a lot of cards (I love the game Nertz so be forewarned that we will be playing it at home!) and have eaten well—grilled chicken and deep-fried fish along with various desserts. We never eat desserts with groups!

A family group from Westlake Bible Church just arrived today, and I got to welcome them at the airport and then we went to Cabarete for dinner. This week will look different (every week does!) but I'm excited for it!

La Huelga

It's very quiet in the Makarios house this afternoon. Unfortunately, this is because the Usry's have just left for the States. There is definitely a six-person-shaped hole here in their wake, and I am dearly going to miss them! From getting to listen to Rose's wisdom on life and cooking to playing Jurassic Jumble with the kids, life here will just not be the same without them! Thank goodness they live in Austin.
The Usry Family -- Zach, Bill, Blake, Sara, Rose, and Paige

We have a couple staying with us this week from Westlake Bible Church, Garrett and Anne Boon. They are great; Anne used to be a Young Life leader in Austin so of course we have tons of mutual friends, including a summer staff boss of mine, Angie, and my old Young Life leader, Sara! This week is fairly laid back since they are the only guests and because we have significantly less people to transport and feed.

This morning we did some crafts and played baseball in Pancho Mateo, which was chaos as usual. In the afternoon I did some manual labor at El Boss -- that is the land where the educational center is being built (See photo). Can you believe I mixed cement? It was actually a nice change; although it is equally as difficult as working with kids, I didn't have to be talking all the time and there weren't six kids tugging on all my limbs.

I'm not quite sure what is going on exactly, but there is a national strike (huelga) going on here in the DR. I know for sure that involves public transportation striking, but Miguel, who is Dominican and on Makarios staff, says that it is a strike against a lot of complaints that the people have, including taxes and such. Well, strikes can make things more violent in the cities. Although our neighborhood is very safe, in other areas there have been injuries and deaths because of protestors rioting in the streets. So we came home a little early to be off the roads and are staying in tonight (like every night)!

If you are praying for us, please pray for safe travel for everyone traveling to and from Puerto Plata and the DR this week. And be praying for me as this Friday we have a large family group coming from Westlake Bible Church and I might be translating for them. I know I can do it, but prayer is always good to have behind me to give me confidence! Thanks for reading!

Happy Weekend!

I'm usually more consistent about posting, but our internet always seems to go out right when I want to write about the day so I just haven't been doing it!

The Westlake Bible Group is on a plane back to Austin, and I am going to miss having them here. I got to build relationships with a lot of the girls who were on the trip, because some of them knew some of my roommates or other random friends of mine and I found that I saw myself when I was in that stage of life in them (most of them were starting their senior year of high school) so we could relate well. The interns and I didn't know what to expect from a high school group since our last big group was adults, and they truly blew me away. Although several of them didn't speak Spanish, they still threw themselves into serving and loving kids in the villages, whether through playing futbol or holding a child. What an example they should be to all of us!

I was really encouraged by this week in general. I mostly worked with Camille and the group in Pancho Mateo and Chichigua putting on a sort of VBS for the children. The kids in these villages don't know how to love each other, so we focused on friendship, forgiveness, and cooperation themes for each day. Sometimes it can feel like you are talking to a wall and that little to no progress is being made because kids seem to be running around, whining, and smacking each other while you are trying to teach them about love. The last day though, in Pancho Mateo, we did a review, and I was shocked to hear them recalling the story of the good Samaritan, the father's forgiveness in the prodigal son story, and even remembering what happened in the little skits and Camille and I had performed! I think that God was speaking to me specifically just in witnessing that; he was showing me that nothing we are doing here is in vain, and that he is working through us even when we don't see it.

I hope the 4th of July was fun for everyone back in the US! This was my first time to be out of the country on the holiday and I missed the fireworks. I am thinking that I'll have to set off double the fireworks on New Year's Eve this year. We had an all-American meal of burgers and fries, with apple pie that Rose made for dessert. I made sure we listened to country music beforehand and played "God Bless the U.S.A." on loop while the meal was being served. Not everyone appreciated that, but it helped me to get into the spirit! Then we went to the beach here in Puerto Plata.

Speaking of the beach, we spent another wonderful day in Cabarete yesterday! There's nothing like getting that day of relaxation after long, hot days in the villages. I'm so thankful to get the time to read and write and enjoy the country.


Lastly, I just wanted to tell you that my name has been graffitied onto one wall of la cancha, the basketball court in Pancho Mateo. This is a picture of it with Natalie, the artist. She wrote my name somewhere else on the wall too, with a heart. Please notice that my name is spelled "Rrebeca" and that this says "Rrebeca, I love you, Natalie." Don't be weirded out by her face paint--we had a lot of fun with face paint on the cancha that day.

Some Prayer Requests

It's nice to get to sit down and post this after I just took a shower and put in a load of laundry. Sometimes I feel like I have been holding my breath all day in the villages, from 9 to 4. Now that I'm home, I can finally sit down and exhale. It's not a bad thing; I get so focused on what I'm doing and being with kids though that once I'm here I realize how exhausted I am! It's a good thing we go to bed before 11 here.

The new group, a part of the Westlake Bible Church youth group, is here and falling into the swing of things. I personally love them because my whole ministry in Young Life is hanging out with high schoolers so I find them easy to get along with. They are doing a great job in the villages, too, and help around the house without complaining. What more could we ask for?


As we hit Wednesday, pray that we wouldn't not give into our exhaustion. Pray for energy and focus. For me, pray that I would not put the pressure on myself to say and do the right things and that God would use what Spanish I have to stretch across language barriers.

And finally, please be praying that we find someone who would be willing to help care for Dominic. This is the old, sick Haitian man that I wrote about last week. Each day that we visit him, it is like we had never been there before as he is usually naked again in his own filth. Dr. Santiago, who is here this week, believes that Dominic had a stroke about nine months ago, which makes sense. Since his family and neighbors don't seem to be caring for him, we are looking into finding somebody who we can pay to do so. It is a horrible thing to watch and I hope that we can figure something out.