Bookshelves!

Disclaimer: This post was written last week, but the power went out before I could post it. (Meaning the internet went as well.) Because I am some what technologically incompetent, I could not find the post after I had power once again. My blog page is also half in Spanish and I am not up on my blogger Spanish vocab, so please forgive me.

It has been quite the adventure to get there, but we finally started school on August 23. The original plan was to start Thursday August 19, but there were several loose ends that needed to be tied up before doors could open to students. In my American mind it at first seemed crazy not to start school when it was originally planned for. But when I am honest with myself I was extremely grateful for the extra time to plan. You can't always complain :) We also didn't get all of the curriculum and textbooks until after school started. Again, very strange in an American mindset, but for some reason it wasn't!

Much of my time has been spent in my classroom. I quickly learned that when I am there it is one of the few times that I don't mind being alone. Most of you who know me well know that I can not stand being alone, no matter what the situation. Apparently things are a little different at school. I have fallen in love. Organizing, arranging and decorating consumed my thoughts and time for the week and a half before school.

It was also fun to be creative and resourceful with the random materials I had. For example, I only have one set of cubbies in my room for storage. These are to serve as students' lockers and storage of my own. Having brought several large boxes of materials and discovering MANY more boxes upon my arrival, I was at first very overwhelmed. But thanks to Mother Necessity, I got to work. My favorite thing that came out of this whole experience was my "bookshelves". Cinder blocks and wood are my new favorite things. I now wish I had documented the process.I think it would have been entertaining for you all to see me first describe a cinder block to a Dominican hardware store employee, try to find cinder blocks with the store employees in the back garage (of course they wouldn't know where they were) and then purchase and load the cinder blocks into my friend's trunk from the garage in the middle of a forceful rain storm. Then of course, there was me searching through the school's huge scrape pile to find suitable (and safe) pieces of wood for the shelves, finding a random bucket of paint on my house roof and finally going to town with the paint in the middle of the JCS soccer field.

Needless to say, these kids better loooove their library bookshelves!

One Week In

Hi Everyone!
Thanks for all your prayers and support, because I am now back in Jarabacoa! It has been a week since I left Chicago and it feels great to be back! My first night here I must have already felt at home, because I slept straight through the heat, the noise and the power outages..Gracias a Dios!
For those of you who aren't aware, my two house-mates, Amanda and Melisa, are both fellow Bethel 2010 grads. It has been such a blessing to already know these two girls prior to arriving. Amanda is already here with me and Melisa does not arrive until Sunday, so please pray for her safe travels.
Being back in Jarabacoa has been an adventure. There will obviously be cultural adjustments as I arrive back: like power outages, no air conditioning, language barriers etc. But they are all not difficult. For example, Mandy and I discovered an avacado tree in our backyard the other day!! And any of you who know Dominican avocados know that they surpase American avocados in both size and flavor! (and price because they are free!)
Mandy and I have kept busy between moving into our new house, exploring town and visiting friends. One of my concerns in returning to Jarabacoa was being disconnected from the true Dominican culture that I was immersed into 3 years ago. Having the school so close to my house I could see how it would be easy to let this happen. However, I must have forgotten what true Dominican culture is like: welcoming! Once you have stayed here, you are family forever! I have been to see my host family twice now and seeing them for the first time was more emotional than I thought it would be! I had heard through some people in town that the oldest daughter of my family had just gotten home from the hospital from having a serious case of Dengue fever. For a while they were very concerned for Vida's life, because her case was so bad. So needless to say when I saw her, especially, I tried not to get TOO emotional. God is so good. She had only been home for a day when I first went to their house and the whole family was praising God for her health. The second visit to their house consisted of a true Dominican meal-rice,beans,chicken and avocado(que rica!), Dominican jokes(which I actually understood!),lots of laughter and shared memories. It was by far the most enjoyable evening I have had since being back.



It has also been great to see the beautiful scenery of this city again! Jarabacoa is in the mountains and has so many beautiful places to explore. A group of us JCS teachers went out the other day to the Salto Jimenoa, some waterfalls not too far out from the city. I had been only to the lower waterfall when I was here before, but this time we made the great hike up to the upper fall. It was absolutely gorgeous! I also discovered that two of the other teachers are fellow explorers and we went out looking for cliffs to jump off of! We found some great spots, but because of the large amounts of rain the current was too strong to go as far as we would have liked. (Thanks for the pictures, Elissa)(Hint, you can click on the pictures below to see a larger image!)




Here I am talking about all this fun stuff, but I haven't said a word about school! We started new staff training today and all staff training will start Monday. And just so you know classes begin August 19. I will have more to post on this later!

Thanks again for all your prayers. Post comments, e-mail (jolynne0610@gmail.com), or Facebook me. I would love to hear more about whats going on the home-front! I can't promise an immediate response since I do not have internet at the house yet, but that is soon to come!

Peace and Blessings,
Jo

My Support Letter

May 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

Many of you have been closely following my life over the last four years as I have been studying at Bethel College. I have been blessed to have been across the country and around the world in pursuit of my Elementary Education and Spanish studies. This past year was my busiest yet as I completed classes, student taught, worked part time and began the lengthy and in-depth process of job hunting! Well, on May 2 I finally completed my degree and received my diploma from Bethel College! I have been so blessed to have been able to have such a rich educational experience and have supportive people, such as yourself, in my life.
So, whats next for me? Some of you might have known of my desire to live and work overseas. After spending a semester in the Dominican Republic, God had confirmed my desire to use teaching as a means for international ministry. So, starting this last winter I spent my fair share of time filling out applications and interviewing for several schools around the world. Despite my own efforts, it was God’s plan that prevailed over my own. While my trip to the Dominican strongly shaped and influenced my desire to be overseas, I never expected to return to teach. However, God had different plans. With that said, I have accepted a 1st grade teaching position at Jarabacoa Christian School (JCS) in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic.
JCS is an independent, non-profit, college preparatory Christian School in Jarabacoa, a beautiful city in the mountains. While the majority of students attending JCS are Dominican, a few expatriate families send their children there. The school is ten years old and was started as a gift to the Dominican people. The school’s primary purpose is that each student would come to know Christ as his/her personal savior and receive a quality Christian education. I will be teaching a first grade class and am very excited to begin my school year in August.
Jarabacoa is the city where I spent a semester on my first trip to the D.R. During that time I lived with two different host families, took classes, worked at a preschool and made deep friendships with neighbors in my community. When I return I will be living in a Dominican neighborhood with two fellow teachers, only minutes from my first host family. I feel so blessed to be able to return to the city and people that were so influential in life. I look forward to building relationships with my students, their families, fellow staff members and neighbors. Please keep me in your prayers as I enter this mission field in Jarabacoa.
I have been directly hired by JCS for two years and will be receiving a salary that will pay for living expenses while living in Jarabacoa. However, the salary will not cover extra costs, such as travel expenses and start up costs for our house. All JCS staff members are recommended to raise about $2,000 for their first year of service to cover these extra costs. If you feel lead to minister to the people of Jarabacoa by financially supporting me you can do so by giving to Village Bible Church. You may write checks to Village Bible Church (address below) with JCS in the memo line.

Village Bible Church
600 Kuhn Road
Carol Stream, IL 60188

I greatly appreciate your prayers and support as I begin this new and exciting part of my life!

In His Love,
Johanna Craig