Seeing Both Sides to a Rainy Day

It was weird giving the finals this year and not taking them. It was kind of funny to see the look on the kids faces when upon passing out the normal weekly Bible quiz I pulled a fast one on them and told them it was over the entire Bible. The air was sucked out of the room, it was funny.

This week has been pretty good, it’s weird to write that because as I look back on some of the moments in the classroom I wouldn’t use the word “good” to describe it. As we get closer to the holidays, I have many students who have never been away from home so some chose to act out. It was weird though at the end of the day I had out of control joy, it felt like being a little kid and anticipating going to Bush Gardens tomorrow. It was 4 in the afternoon and I got a burst of energy and a smile that wouldn’t leave my face. It was weird…and awesome.  This happened on Saturday, which is even more of a miracle because honestly I make it few Saturday nights without sitting on my bed and crying. Saturday is a very stressful I have been working for over 12 hours kind of day. I like them, and they are enjoyable but just super stressful. Anyways so this Saturday again at 4 I was hit with a wave of joy that took me all the way until 9 that night. It was beautiful! I have been pondering as to why this is and let me tell you my hunch. Almost two weeks ago we got a couple who is volunteering out here; the husband is going to be our Chaplin. I am guessing that when the current sermon series is over he will begin to step in and do some preaching…so what do they do in the meantime? They pray. Weird I know but they pray all the time…first couple I have met that take “pray without ceasing” literally. They pray hard and specifically for the students to have a real relationship with Jesus, for the staff to feel joy and rejuvenation, for the program. It’s awesome. The other night they went up to the house I work for just to be around the kids more so they can better pray for them. I was talking with the pastor’s wife about stress and she said that one night she woke up feeling this heaviness of stress on her and she felt as though she needed to pray for that spirit of stress to be lifted from the campus. It has been really encouraging to talk with them and to know that we are constantly being coated in prayer. I believe that every ministry and Christian organization should have someone who’s job is to simply cover everything in prayer.

On the flip side of joy homesickness hit me really hard on Sunday, for Christmas for the last four years I have been going to my sister’s house for Christmas and not doing that is hard. I still love it here and know that I am supposed to be here but I deeply miss my parents, family, and friends. What I do like about Escuela Caribe is we have traditions for everything, for the holidays I have already been caroling! We got to go into some of the Dominican homes and attempt to sing Christmas carols in Spanish. It was a lot of fun and the first time I have been in a Dominicans home. Yesterday we distributed big bags full of food to families who live in houses that you would probably call a neat fort from your childhood, just whatever you can find nailed together. I have to tell you a funny story, one of the houses was up a crazy steep mountain. I wish I had a picture because it was Grand Canyon crazy switch back comparable but I know I know without pictures I am just a big fish kinda gal. Anyway I had taken time away from work to do this so I am in nice work clothes hiking this insanely steep dirt path. When we got up there it started to rain, which was awesome but when it was dry I was worried about how I was going to safely without staining my clothes get down and now I have to factor mud in….impossible. As we start heading down one of my students says from behind “Ms. Donohue, I am really worried about going down this mountain” to which I reply “don’t worry I am too” she said “yeah I am so terrified of heights” then I replied “…oh…um heights don’t do anything to me I am just worried about getting my clothes dirty” it was really funny. It was so awesome to see the look of hope on someone’s face, that joy that says its all going to be alright…I am going to make it. I got to see that 13 times yesterday; I got to hug these tiny frail, beautiful widows, widowers, and families. I think I am going to pocket that as one of the best moments here so far.

Today I was talking to Sandy (guest star in the adventures of last blog) and she said she was in town today and saw the Finish guys (guys from Finland) from our vacation. I hope you remember them they were the guys who would just randomly show up around the town and also told us about the hike. How random is it that Sandy saw them 6 hours away in our little town! I thought that was so crazy and I told her it was blog worthy.

I hope you guys can experience true joy this Christmas season! I love you and miss you guys!

Oh man so much to tell it’s hard to determine where to start, therefore I will go chronological. We (Meghannn, Sandy, Phil, and I) left on Tuesday, we didn’t get on the road until about 2:30 in the afternoon so we were burning daylight. The drive took a long time and I rode on the back of Sandy’s motorcycle and the other two had their own, we were going to the Samana peninsula. The sun has set and the last bit of daylight is evaporating quickly with Phil in the lead and Meghannn in the middle we were in the back of the caravan. We started to fall a little behind but bound and determined to catch up, and very tired of sitting on a bike we pressed on to find the others at this point no sunlight is to be seen. Its dark, I am not talking night time in the states with street lights I am talking stinkin dark, no lights. The drivers coming toward us are driving with their brights on (common here, I hate it) so Sandy veers off a little as we are rounding a corner. We come around the corner and bam there was a tire in the middle of the road marking something and we hit it strait on and both spilled over to the side. It was like slow motion for me as we fell because I stuck out my wrist and thought ‘oh don’t do that, it will hurt’ but unfortunately I did. My next thought was I am laying in the road! So I got up as quickly as possible ( I had a backpackers back pack on so it was easier said than done), by this time tons of Dominicans are surrounded us picking up her bike and talking to us. Sandy comes over freaking out asking if I am ok, I let her know that I was asked her about her and she said her foot really hurt because it was twisted back under the bike when we fell. I got super nauseous and my wrist hurt a lot, like couldn’t really move my hand a lot. We waited and Phil and Meghannn came back after some Dominicans found them and told them we were in an accident.  Here is the crazy thing my wrist no longer really hurts, the bike was ok and Sandy’s ankle is ok. Sandy’s ankle was really sore that night and the next day she thought she needed crutches but within the next day it was almost all better. For me within that night I could move my hand, I couldn’t put weight on it but within the next day it was as if nothing happened. We joked right after because she asked if my jeans had ripped and they hadn’t and neither did hers, this was great news since we were both wearing our favorite jeans. I was talking to my friend yesterday and we still cant logistically figure out how none of us are severely scratched or have something broken, and that the bike is ok. It is totally and unmistakably God that saved us that night. It was a rough night because I had to get back on the bike and we still had about another hour and a half to keep going. I am not going to lie there was a lot of praying in that hour; I just wanted to be off of the bike and safe. Ok whoa sorry that story took so long. Hopefully you are still with me. So we get to the place and we are setting up to get some rest. At this place we slept in a hut that had four hammocks hung in it. This is the first time I had ever been in a hammock and given my track record with balance I was terrified. So I get my PJ’s on and carefully and skillfully successfully lower myself into the hammock while Sandy and Meghannn find this funny. I am laying there and Meghannn begins to start screeching about a spider, to which Sandy and I begin to make fun of her, tell her to stop being dramatic and to kill it. She chose to wait until Phil and the flashlight came back so he could kill it. When he gets back he shines is light on the creature and it turns out to be a tarantula with a body (this does not include the legs) about the size of a deck of cards, I am not lying or exaggerating. I immediately took back what I had said to Meghannn and let her know that was an appropriate response to an animal that size. Phil then admits to us he has two things he hates, jumping off cliffs and tarantulas. We convince him he has to be the one to kill it so he grabs his shoe and is trying to psych himself up to it. He finally hits it and we then put it out of our minds that the tarantula probably was not far from its family and got some rest. Whoa this is really long and I only told you about half a day. Go ahead and take a short walk if you need to.

Ok now that your back I will tell you about Wednesday. We got back on the bikes (I rode with Meghannn) and we went to a beach about an hours drive away, it was beautiful and nothing to terribly exciting happened. There I got through a day in one sentence. On Thursday we went to the most beautiful water fall I have ever seen, I know everyone says waterfalls are beautiful but look at the pictures! We rode on horseback to get there, this was my first horse experience and it was intense. I am still not sure how I didn’t fall off. At the waterfall we got to swim around and even go behind the water into a cave. The picture is of the group at the waterfall from left to right its Meghannn, Sandy, me and Phil. It was so cool. Friday we elected (very wisely) not to ride any bikes so we wanted to go on a hike. We had made friends with some Finish guys (guys from Finland)so we asked them if they had done the hike to the beach. They chuckled and said they yes they had but it was with a guide. We asked them if they could tell us how to get there because we don’t need no stinkin guide. They laughed as they told us to go left out of the place follow the road up you will see the trial go mostly left (chuckle) if you see red flags its geed because those make the trail, but they are inconsistent (chuckle) and to defiantly wear good shoes (chuckle). So we went our first cross road we went mostly left and were rewarded with a red flag. We went down into what I can best describe as “the jungle” there was green everywhere and a path you could tell people had walked but other than that you were surrounded by trees and just green. So we go along the path going mostly left until it dumps us out of “the jungle” onto the top of these cliffs where the ocean crashes into them. The problem with these cliffs is they are covered with “lavaish rocks” not the red smooth stuff you are probably thinking of, jagged, sharp to the touch, crater style, uneven lavaness. This was incredibly hard to walk, Sandy and Phil found it frustratingly easier than Meghannn and I. They were practically on the other side of the cliff when they began shouting to us. Five hours later when I got closer to them, it’s just Sandy now and she is telling me we are not on the trail and she thinks the trail is in the next piece of “jungle” that we can see but can’t get into because we can’t find the trail.  I ask her where Phil is and she responded with “he went in”. I am thinking oh great how are we going to explain that one when we never see him again. So she painlessly comes over so I encourage her to climb a lava rock mound and try to look into the jungle to find him. We call out his name and he hears us and he is telling us he is on the trail! At this point I go over to this area I just feel like should be an entrance onto the trail and I was standing there listening for Phil and looking for a way into “the jungle” right in this split second his shirt caught my eye and right then I look over at him and bam there was a red flag right in front of my face. So we got back on the trail and found the beautiful beach. We left the back early to head back to where we were staying. Where we stayed was on cliffs overlooking the ocean crashing into the side and one cliff was set up so that you could “safely” jump off of it. We told Phil he already faced the first thing he hated on this trip so why not face the second. He strongly protested but then gave in saying “I am only doing it for the cool pictures”. You guys should be proud I didn’t jump off the cliff because the last time I did it hurt my tail bone so bad that I could hardly sit and I knew the next day I had to sit on a bike for a long time. It was a wonderful end to a wonderful trip and the next day we made it home safely. Sorry for the length, adventures take time to tell. Now it’s back to the daily grind. Miss you guys!

Ok I am going to tell you guys a story but you got to promise you wont freak out…promise. Ok here goes So Thursday my roommate heard a noise and she thought it was bean (her dog) chewing on something. She thought that was weird because the dog generally sleeps through the night with no problem. So she got up and took the dog outside at 3:50am. When she comes in she sees a hand reaching into the window she yells “what the hell!” jumps on it and begins beating it and scratching it because her pillow is in the hand a long with cardboard that is trying to get her cell phone. She then yells “Heather wake up we are being broken into!” see my last blog for further clarity, but when I sleep, I sleep deeply. So I heard a crash and her screaming and it woke me up a little but then it worked itself into my dream. When she said my name I woke up immediately. I go to find her and she told me what just happened. The first words I remember coming out of my mouth that morning were “I wish we had a beating stick” then I say that we need to close all the windows and lock them (just so you have a better idea our windows have bars on the outside so the guy tore the screen and was reaching through the bars). Then I tell her to call Matt, the only guy who lives in our apartment building, he lives right above us. He doesn’t answer and I thought about going up and knocking on his door but I didn’t know if this guy was still around so then we called a person from the school and they sent a guy out here to check on us. He decided the guy was gone and the cops were called but they never came (typical DR cops). I was able to go back to sleep (with my windows shut now of course) poor Kate couldn’t though. Good news is now we have a guard who walks around our building all night. Lesson learned get a beating stick to keep by my bed. Matt offered his but I think I just need to invest in something. The picture is cones that I got for my birthday making off the cardboard that the guy tried to use, I made a crime scene. Never a dull moment.

I had a pretty good week. God really spoke to me in many ways. This week I really wrestled with stress and fear. Ask me what I was stressed and afraid of and it’s not what you are thinking because this was pre Thursday, which is stupid and weird. I had enough when I didn’t really sleep on Wednesday night, so I did the only thing I know to do, take my mess to Jesus and asked him to fix it. He did. That morning I just explained everything that on the surface I was worried about which then caused me to look deeper into what the real issue was. I struggle with constant negative self talk, always putting myself down, it’s like a recording that is always playing in my mind running all my failures and shortcomings through my mind. I am at the peak of my turmoil and I decide to go over my memory verses. About a year ago I started memorizing chapters of scripture and it’s the only thing that can usually stop these thoughts when they get to be intense. So I was actually going over the first chapter I memorized (Romans mindlessly, honestly just to check in that I still had it down. What is so weird is I can typically rattle it off on auto-pilot but on that morning I couldn’t get through the first paragraph hardly without stumbling so bad that I had to look it up. I did this a few times getting more aggravated because I couldn’t get through the first section without looking, and I wasn’t even consistent in what I couldn’t remember. I finally stopped in my aggravation and said “what the heck, what is going on!” and as clear as day I felt God say to me, I want you to hear this passage this morning, you need these words. I then slowed down and listened to what was coming from my mouth. These truths in this passage, that say, there is no condemnation, no guilt, that the spirit will give life, because I am no longer in the flesh but in the spirit. Immediately the stress, fear, and guilt were all gone. It was a beautiful day. 

Tomorrow I leave to go on vacation. Me and a few people from the school are going to this awesome place for a couple of days. I am not sure about a lot of the details, those will work out as we go, but I do know I get to sleep in a hammock in the lovely outdoors and I am so excited. Details to come…