Ch-ch- changes.

Lots and lots of changes going on in this part of the world:

New positon:

I have a new position with Makarios! I will be the Sponsorship Coordinator and Resource Teacher for Makarios this school year! As the "Resource Teacher" I will be working with students one on one with the subjects they need extra help with. Alot of our students would greatly benefit with 1 on 1 help in phonics and math to help them excel to where they need to be academically! So as the "resource teacher" I will be working individually with various students throughout the week. As the sponsorship coordinator, I will be the link between Makarios in the DR, and our students' sponsors in the US. That entails writing emails, updating the blog, updating facebook/twitter, with updates on what's going on at our school. I'll basically be using my Public Relations major. (who would have thought?)

I'm so excited about the change! I'm excited to spend quality time with the students I will be tutoring, to be able to love on them, share Christ with them when the opportunity arises, and help them exceed academically. And I'm super excited about the idea of communicating with sponsors. If I were a sponsor in the US, I would love for the distance between me and my sponsored student (although its thousands of miles) to be as "small" as possible. I hope/pray to help do that this year, by updating the sponsors with wonderful stories about our 96 students! Sponsorship and tutoring were both things I was doing at the end of last school year, now I'll just be doing them full time! 

Perla (the 2nd grader I spent time tutoring last year) and I on the last day of school in May.

New apartment: 

WE’VE MOVED! Sarah V. (my roommate for the last year) and I had been praying on & off about moving/ possibly having a third roommate for awhile.. and then we kind of forgot about it.  But a few weeks ago, God just completely worked out the details for Sarah V and I to move into an apartment with our new teammate Sarah H! When I say God worked out the details.. I mean God WORKED OUT THE DETAILS! Seriously, these details are SO unique and SO intricate, that you can only give credit to God for the way everything worked out! This apartment is better for us in so many ways: the rent is cheaper, it’s more comfortable and we’ll also be living next door to two other American girls (Karen & Emily) who are going to work for another missionary organization (Kids Alive) in the area. We’re so excited about the change! I’m especially excited to live next door to fellow missionaries, and grow closer with all of these girls! Pray with us as we continue to make the transition of living in a new place!

New School Year:

Hard to believe that my first year anniversary in the DR has come and gone (a separate blog on how I feel about that later). We’ve been making tons of preparations for the new school year! Painting desks, cleaning classrooms, welcoming new staff members (Sarah H & The Becks), and undergoing a 3 1/2 day teacher training! Bev Sparling (an amazing woman who was a missionary here in the DR for 10 years) came to visit our school to specifically train those of us who work at the school. It was amazing. Beyond amazing. She taught us so many amazing things, (that will continue to challenge us for years and years to come)... but one of the things that challenged me most was her explanation of the "calling" we have as teachers of our Makarios students. Bev greatly emphasized 1 Corinthians 11:1 (“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”) to us as teachers. She explained that as a teacher, we have an incredibly high calling on our lives. That God is using us as vessels to shape our students lives. And that as we follow Christ, our students will follow us, which can prayerfully/hopefully lead them to eventually following Christ! With that in mind, we must realize that our personal relationship with Christ and how we follow Christ personally, effects our students.

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I'm light years behind on updating this blog. (What's new?) According to my past few posts, I did little to nothing this summer. Not true at all. So hopefully in the next few days, I will post post various blogs with short stories/few photos to give a full recap of Summer 2012! Yay! One day I'll stop playing the catch up game.. but for now, check back tomorrow! ALSO, the 2012-2013 school year starts this WEDNESDAY. Raise your hand if you're as shocked as I am?

And because every blog post needs plenty o' pictures.  Here are a few from our amazing End of Summer Carnival:

(Clockwise: Perla, her mom and I, Carlos Miguel, Son)

*Special note about the title. Apparently its a David Bowie song? Just found that out. To me its always been from an episode of 7th Heaven, when Ruthie continually says "Ch-ch-changes" over an over again throughout the episode. I guess she got it from David Bowie...

May & June

Dear World, How is that I'm behind on blogging again? Better question- how many more times do you think I'll talk about how behind I am on blogging throughout the course of my time in the DR?
Oh well. C'est La Vie. Does anyone else that song?

A few blog posts ago I was catching up on April.
Two months later, I'm updating you all on May & June.
To update you on these past two months, I'm going to repost my update letter that I sent out to my supporters!




Other May & June happenings not mentioned in the letter:
-Final ESL classes in Chichigua & Tamarindo. We played Jeopardy, ate cookies and took pictures!
- Weddings, weddings and more weddings! (Separate blog post about that later)
- Two short term mission groups!

[the people in my life] Dena

Continuing my new blog series thing from yesterday... here's DENA!


Dena is one of my lovely teammates, and today's her BIRTHDAY! Dena is a Kindergarten teacher to 16 adorable students at the Makarios school. She has an INCREDIBLE heart for the Lord, her students and the people she loves.


*Photo on the left taken by Bridget Daehler! 

That's the factual stuff. What the world should also know about Dena is that she is naturally HILARIOUS. She never tries to "intentionally" make you laugh, but you always end up doing so! Sitting by her during bible study, meetings, or in public transportiation guarantees that you will end up in a fit full of giggles. At least for me.

Here are a few of my favorite Dena-isms of the past 10 months (intertwined with a few photos of our favorite photos together)

Conversation after Bible Study
Imani: You were a heartbreaker in high school, weren't you?
Dena: Yes. I still am.




Another conversation after bible study. 
Background: We were talking about a specific scene in Breaking Dawn
Sarah: What was it that you didn’t like about the scene? 
Dena: It was lame. 
Sarah: I know, but what specifically didn’t you like? 
Dena: It was a waste of my existence. 
Sarah: But what specifically? 
Dena: I could have been doing anything better during those 10 minutes.
(maybe you had to be there, but we were all cracking up with laughter during this conversation)





Six Degrees of Separation. Between Dena & Pirates.
Fact. Dena is obsessed with Pirates. She can be in a conversation that has absolutely nothing at all to do with Pirates, and Dena will find a way to work a Pirate comment in. I call this the 6 degrees of Separation between Dena & Pirates.

Example:

Paige: We used to scuba dive all the time. I love it.
Dena: Oh my goodness, I would love to go scuba diving and look for sunken pirate ships.

Another example:
(Said as we were on a boat heading whale watching and getting a bit sea sick)
Dena: I guess I can't be a pirate anymore





And last, but not least. If life was a musical, Dena would be the director, choreographer and star! Here she is in a picture where we all decided to do a hand on hip/leg type of pose. Right before the photo is taken, Dena turns to me and says "I'm going to do jazz hands" Naturally I cracked up.





And these are just a few of the things I love about my dear friend Dena. There are tons more, she's a pretty awesome girl!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEENZ! Love you! Wish I were there to celebrate with you!

[the people in my life] Perla

            I've decided to start a mini "blog series." No, not like all the blog series that I said I would start way back in the beginning of my time here in the DR.. because we all know how well those worked out (hear my sarcasm). But this time a blog series that I think will better introduce everyone to the life I live here, as well as a blog series I feel in many ways that the Lord is leading me to. (How many times can I say, "blog series" in one post).
            It was through various conversations and prayer that I've realized the great importance of... relationships. Pretty simple revelation, right? It is so easy to get bogged down in the details of ministry/the job, and forget how amazingly glorified God can be through the relationships we're forming/cultivating in our time here.   I therefore want to start introducing the various people the Lord has placed in my life, here in the DR. The posts will be random and they will be great. Just you wait and see.

With all of that being said, I want everyone to meet Perla.

Perla is in the 2nd grade at our Makarios school, has a super sweet personality and is crazy eager to learn! Perla is behind most of her classmates when it comes to reading, so in the last few months of the school year I began to work with Perla one on one. Three times a week I would pull her out of her phonics lessons, so that we could privately work on her letters and sounds. 

As Summer School continues, I plan to continue spending time with Perla to continue to advance her reading level. Not only do I hope Perla will continue to grow as a reader, But I pray our time can be filled with moments where I can minister to her heart with the gospel!

Other random things about Perla:

-Every time we start our lessons together, I ask her to pray. Hearing a 7 year old prayer is one of the sweetest things ever!
- Perla is one of the shyer students in a class full of 15 other energetic kids. She's also one of 7 children. I love being able to give her one on one attention!

-We had a week off from school, and during that week I heard that Perla was asking for me to come visit. #meltmyheart

- Her teacher this past year, (Johan) is also her Uncle. 

April. In photos

April recapped in Photos.
Photos include: Me & Bekah's amazing spring break trip in the capitol, pictures from the school, pictures from village visit and a few pictures from one of my ESL classes.
If you haven't yet, be sure to check out March, February and January as well!

my happy list this week (May 28-June 1)

As a missionary, I have found it incredibly easy to "focus" on the bad, and almost never on the good. Who am I kidding, this was my tendency in the states as well. Life is "hard" at times, and  Life is "good" at other times. Life is a paradox all the time. Whenever someone (from home) asks me the simple question of "how are you?"... the first thing that always comes to mind is the bad. Why? Why do I only ever want to complain and not rejoice? I dont know exactly where I'm going with my little speech, so I'm just going to stop and introduce where I wanted it to end up. Introducing.."My Happy List this week." Inspired by this blog, I hopefully will begin to blog (with frequency), the various blessings throughout my week, to remind myself about all the "good" in this paradoxical life. 

My Happy List This Week
(May 27-June 1)

1. Chopping down a dead tree in the Makarios school yard.
 The guys were the ones really chopping, but us girls wanted to take a few whacks ourselves. It was hilarious, especially to the neighbors that began to watch us.

2. Finishing "The Help" 
Saw the movie last year, and I was finally able to read the book! I'll be honest and say I appreciated the movie a little bit more, because it was a bit funnier... but Kathryn Lockett: kudos for writing such an amazing story!

3. Finishing the entire series of Felicity.  
Few things about this:
#1. This TV show was amazing. Like seriously, amazing. #2. This show is over 10 years old, and I just watched it now for the first time. #3. Thank you Dena for owning  all the seasons on DVD.  #4. Watching TV show series on DVD (or Netflix) has become my new favorite post-college hobby.  #5. Next series I'm going to watch = Friday Night Lights! (But I'm not letting myself start it until GRE studying is over.)

4. Receiving not one, not two, but THREE items in the mail on Tuesday. 
An amazing package from Emily, a sweet card from Carissa and the wedding invitation for Amanda & Rob's wedding! Made my entire day!

5. Laughing hysterically during lunch with my coworkers. 
Seriously, you can give us ANY topic of conversation and 5 minutes later, you will find us all in tears from hysterically laughing. I love them so much.

6. Having some pretty great skype conversations. 
Sarah Elyse, Emily P and Gabby, you ladies are amazing.

7. Going to pick up our new summer intern from the airport with various members from the staff.
We arrived at the airport and  spent an hour planning (read:hysterically laughing) how we were going to welcome her. Various plans included clicking our heels, screaming "hello my friend" and  a special arm thing (that only Dena could seem to do). In the end our plans fell through, but we still had a great time. I love my staff. And Bienvenidos Paige!

Waiting for Paige to arrive.

8. Josh Turner's "Would You Go With Me"
My friends and I share so much music that I often have songs on my iTunes that I've never listened to. I'm not sure how long I've had "Would You Go With Me" or who gave it to me,  but I just listened to it for the first time on Tuesday and I'm in love.


9. Opening my "membership" at a movie rental store!
A friend/fellow missionary, Rachel, showed me this place about a month ago, and I can't even describe to you how excited I was to realize its existence. Movie watching is one of my favorite past times ever, and the ability to rent current movies in the DR is the bit of "normalcy" I am so incredibly grateful for.

10. Iced Coffee and Air Condition at Casa Colonial
Casa Colonial is a super fancy expensive hotel. We couldn't afford to stay there, but we can afford the coffee in their little lounge area. We bring our laptops (and sometimes our GRE study material) and treat it as if it was an American-like coffee shop.

11. New flavor of Coffee Creamer at La Sirena (our amazing grocery store, and one of my top 5 happy places in the DR)
Vanilla Carmel. I'm drinking it right now. It's divine.

12. Taking our new Makarios summer intern, Paige to our favorite beach (Playa Alicia) and favorite restaurant Gorditos. 

13. Sleeping in until 10am.
I love sleeping in, and the older I've gotten, the harder it's become to sleep in without waking up once or twice. This morning I slept in WITHOUT waking up until 10:12am, and it was grand.

13. Waking up in a grateful mood this morning (Friday, June 1st). I've been making this list all week but these last 5 items were added literally in the last 7 minutes. God is good.