Birthday Boy and Surprise Visit!

 

 

 

 

Happy brothers sporting party hats on Tais'  8th birthday.

 

Eagerly opening the birthday gifts that arrived in the mail the day before.

 

Tais took a couple friends bowling for his birthday.

 

Pro-bowler Tais!

 

 

Helping daddy with laundry.

 

The happy traveller! James and I had so much fun surprising Anthony's parents in Ontario and my parents in B.C.with a short visit a couple weeks ago.

 

 

Opa and Oma loved cuddling James! They were so surprised and delighted with our little visit! Oma just about fainted at the sight of us suddenly standing in the computer room :)

 

 

"I think Grandma is happy to see me!"

Grandpa, Grandma and Auntie Esther were also super surprised to see us walk through the front door on a Friday evening. We "ruiined" all of their Friday night plans!

 

Tais and Kaelie got spoiled by dad while mom and James were in Canada.

 

 

Tais is so happy to be part of the SCS Eagles soccer team. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kaelie having fun on the primary playground

 

Here is a new one...

"Grazing" Dominican cows.

 

 

Trying out the Air Baseball station at the SCS Family Day. There were all sorts of fun stations for the kids including a dunk tank, obstacle course, various bouncy castles, face painting and of course lots of junk food!

 

 

 

James talk with his little friend.

Back in Hispanolia

When you're busy, time flies. And when times are good, the minutes seem to go even faster than normal. Such has been our summer vacation.
The months of June and July were wonderful as we spent our time with family and friends in Canada and relaxed in our suite at Sherilyn's parents' place. There were barbeques, a professional chef's dinner, several daytrips to Vancouver, some afternoons of boating on the lake, and much more. In short, a great Canadian summer break. Mattais and Kaelie were excited to see their 'old' friends back at school (Mattais was happy to have an extra week of school at Timothy Christian! :)) and at church, enjoyed a few sleep-overs, splashed in grandpa and grandma's pool for many an afternoon, and loved having all the cousins together several times. 

 Grandpa is so happy to hold little James for the first time!

 

Celebrating Kaelie's birthday the day after we arrived in Canada

 

Some great cousin time in Vancouver    

     

Quadding in Coalmont with some friends and family 



On July 31, we left from Vancouver, flew to Miami and stayed there for a little two-day holiday before heading to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is an amazing island, and we loved our stay in Luquillo. The condo we rented there is right on the beach, so the views are amazing. Besides having fun on the beach, we spent a day in San Juan, sightseeing the old Spanish forts and old merchant city with its brightly coloured houses. Mattais and Kaelie enjoyed the El Yunque rainforest where they swung from some vines beside the waterfall, making monkey sounds. A one-hour flight brought us back on the island of Hispanolia on the 9th of August. And after a two and a half hour drive from Santo Domingo, we were back in our familiar surroundings, back home in Santiago.



 James loves the beach!

 

 

 Helping the Puerto Rican locals pulling in their nets. The nets were filled with fish!

 

Old San Juan is beautiful!

 

El Yunque National Rainforest - La Coca Falls

 

 



The first two weeks of school have gone by quickly. It's all quite a bit different being here for the second year now. Much easier and relaxed in many ways, for sure. Wonderful to see so many familiar faces, knowing your way around the city, not having those million first-year questions going through your head, and simply being able to pick up from where we left off. We are happy that Mattais and Kaelie are excited about school and also feel at home again.
Kaelie is in kindergarten and Mattais is a big third grader now. Mattais has a little homework every day, and Kaelie has been wondering 'why my homework hasn't started yet?' (Well, in kindergarten you don't really have to worry about homework yet, little bear.) Since the summer months are pretty warm here, I usually head home pretty soon after the school day is over so that they can have a refreshing shower and relax at home with their little baby brother James.

 



Buying bananas and avocadi from the Haitian man who daily comes down our street.

 

Our little 'Santiago', James, is growing like a juicy fruit! He is the happiest baby around, and not a day goes by at school when a colleague or student asks me how our 'little Koster', 'Koster junior', 'little Santiago', or 'el bebe' is doing. A regular school visit with our little James brings a smile to many faces. Thankfully, James has been in good health, and we hope and pray that he will continue to develop in good health.

While Sherilyn stays and works at home, I am back at school with a full-time music teaching position. There are many new faces around the school, and with a student body of over 650, there are a lot of names to remember. Once again, I teach kindergarten through to grade twelve, so I see several hundred students each week. Thankfully, I know most of them quite well now, so at least we can interact with each other so much easier right from the start; I do not have to start remembering hundreds of Spanish names as I did last year.

 

This year, each secondary teacher also teaches an advisory class. During this time we have a wonderful opportunity to involve ourselves in the lives of our students as a mentor, helping the students set goals for themselves and also sharing the truths of God's Word, including the gospel.

Besides our family and school life, we have also become involved with a small ministry among the Haitians and very poor Dominicans. A Haitian colleague of mine at SCS has been instrumental in this for about a year now. For quite some time already he has given away much of his own money to rent a little building where he teaches children and adults from the Bible, and to provide for food and other necessities. Upon hearing his stories of the great needs within this little barrio, we decided to go with him and check out the place. Several other teachers of SCS has already done so, and told us stories of seeing great poverty and very unhealthy living conditions. All of this is certainly a very sad truth. We hope and pray that our friend will be able to gather enough money every month to provide for the needs of these families and to be able to organize this ministry sufficiently so it can be a great blessing.  

 

Yves, showing Anthony the property he is collecting donations for to buy to build his church in the little barrio. This  'house' and the land costs $5000.  Currently they worship at a little colmado or corner store, but the owner of the store practices Voodoism and wants them gone.

 

Kaelie watching kids playing around burning garbage

 

This is where they roast peanuts the old-fashioned African way to sell on the streets to make a bit of money.

 

At the end of our first year in Santiago....

The last week of our first year in Santiago has gone by very quickly. We've had our last days of school with the graduation last Saturday, the last teacher meetings, and now tonight our suitcases are packed and we are ready to go.

Here are some fond memories of our busy last week. 

Three happy kids on the couch.

Last staff birthday party at the Cohen family. The weather was very hot this week, so the kids were happy to cool off in the pool. 

Playing 'Headbands' guessing game at the staff party. 

 SCS graduation ceremony was held at the university in Santiago.

Always had a great and insightful time at the men's Bible study. We will miss Mark Widmer and Mike Aiello as they are returning to the US this summer.

 These two did a lot of packing this afternoon, so they deserved a nap. :)

We thank our heavenly Father for all His care which He has shown to us in many ways this year. As we look back upon our first year in the Dominican Republic at Santiago Christian School, we may say that all things have gone very well. We look forward to being back in Chilliwack for the summer.

Elections

Last week Sunday was the long awaited election day. Leading up to this day, several weeks before, predictions among Dominicans were that Hipolito, also known as Papa, stood a very good chance of beating his oponent Danilo. Dominicans were talking excitedly just about everywhere you'd go. Signs were popping up even more than before, with power poles being simply too short to support all of them. Great banners were displayed over the highway and main roads. Special party trucks, and even rickety old trucks, the box loaded full with speakers would blast through the barrios belting out campaign slogans. Dominicans like it loud and exciting, but this time it was LOUD and EXCITING.

As the election day got closer, people really got caught up in it all; some of the vehicles dropping off students at school were completely wrapped with Danilo's or Hipolito's face and support slogans. It was quite a sight to behold. Even the little second graders would have these political discussions coming into class. We learned a lot about Dominican politics, and Mattais even started drawing his own campaign posters of Danilo, while Kaelie would walk around the school campus chanting Danilo! and asking others who they would vote for.

 Signs are everywhere!

In the midst of all the political hype,  our Canadian friends Jonathan and Jennifer Gelderman decided to have a quiet get-away in Puerto Plata. Since I had a few personal days left, which I could use up before the end of the school year, we decided to accept Jonathan and Jennifer's invitation to join them for the weekend with our kids. So much for their quiet kid-free get-away! They got to meet James of course, and we had a wonderful and relaxing weekend together.

 Jonathan and baby James

 Ready to go out for dinner

 Sherilyn and Jennifer

 Que lindo!

Election day! On Sunday morning, May 20, we somewhat nervously drove out of the gate of our apartment parking lot. The night before we had received an email from the US embassy, recommending all North Americans to stay home and that the police troops would be out full-force. Things seemed pretty calm around our neighborhood, however. Traffic got pretty jammed as we neared one of the voting stations along the way. People lined the sidewalks, talking excitedly, street vendors were running around with coconut drinks and empanadas, glad to make a few extra pesos that day, and police and army personnel were keeping a vigilant eye on all proceedings.

Close to church, one of the voting stations was right across the road from one of the campaign commando posts of Danilo, so the street was filled with people, iddling vehicles, and mopeds.

By Monday morning, the results had been counted, and hearsay was that Danilo had won. Numbers were not publicly announced yet since the Hipolito was crying foul play. By Tuesday it was evident, however, that Danilo had been elected for president, and Ganamos Contigo posters were showing up in places, acknowledging the people for their support.

We thank the Lord for a peaceful election time in and around Santiago, and we hope and pray that this country will enjoy a more stable and honest government as time goes on.

 Our little James loves being with Mattais and Kaelie. Especially in the morning, when he hears their voices at the breakfast table, he loves sitting next to them in his bouncy seat. Kaelie enjoys giving him water in a little bottle, since the weather is really hot the last few days. Mattais is a great babysitter, bouncing his little brother up and down a little, and even changing diapers when necessary. So wonderful to see them loving each other.

Glimpses of April and into May

Wow, time flies.....In just over two weeks we will be flying back to Canada. The school year is rapidly nearing the end at Santiago Christian School, and when we look back at the past two months there are many fond memories and reasons for being thankful.

School has been going well. This past week we had our spring concert with the themes of Exodus, for the primary grades, and Heroes of Faith for the intermediate grades. The students were all very excited to sing their songs and speak their parts, and both programs were attended by many parents. Both programs focussed on the wonderful ways in which the LORD cares for His children, and so a great way to share the gospel with parents that may otherwise not hear it regularly in church.

Music classes for secondary end next week, and it is sure nice to hear from students that they are already looking forward to next year and 'what are we going to do then, mister?' I've already been looking into catalogs for what we can do, starting in the fall. At SCS we want to streamline our arts program a little more efficient next year by trying to work thematically across the arts program. We hope to have themed art evenings at the end of each quarter during which both music and fine arts students can show what they have learned. Exciting.

Well, let's get to some pictures and other memories.....

The weather is getting hotter and more humid again at this time. We had some incredible thunderstorms and much rainfall these past months. This is looking west from our roof.

Kaelie and her friend Drew Houck loved their fieldtrip to the farm in April.

Mattais playing soccer with highschool students from Plumstead Christian High from Philadelphia who came to visit during our spiritual emphasis week. We had a very nice time with those students and their team leaders.

 

The music room. I love the Wenger roll-and-flip stages for choir; easy to move around, and very sturdy. The music room is also used for ballet and chapel. It's really a beautiful room with lots of space and light. The only big need at this time is air-conditioning. Hopefully we'll have some soon. Temperatures easily hit 40 Celsius here in September. Yup, that's when you feel like having a shower several times a day.

 

With Seth Cohen, the director of SCS.

 

With Paul Gibbs (curriculum coordinator) and Jacob Bader (HS Bible) at

the pro-d day on Love and Logic in the Classroom.

 

With Reina, Erica, and Bruce off to Cayo Paraiso (Little Paradise Island) near Punta Rusia. Reina, Erica, and Bruce came during the first week of April, and we had a wonderful time with them. Cayo Paraiso is an incredible place. Just a teeny sandy island with six huts. Snorkelling there is phenomenal. The island is pretty much the top of a massive corral reef around which is home to the most stunning ocean life.

Quiero geneo maduro. Cuanto? Buying sweet bananas from the locals,

just outside Puerto Plata.

 

Danilo vs Hippolito. The signs are everywhere. One must wonder how much these two rivals have in their campaign budgets. It must be millions of pesos. Danilo's face is on just about every other power pole, and that's not exaggerated. Downtown Santiago is so bad that the power poles are too short to carry all the signs that the PLD and PRD want to put up for the elections. LOL. Downtown businesses actually have been complaining about the overwhelming amount of political faces that are just about everywhere you turn. 

Frutas y gomas. Oh yes, and there happens to be the smiling Danilo also.

 

Kaelie and Debrah Cohen. Those two are always up to something funny.

 

Sherilyn exploring old town Santiago with Mom Krul. James loves the Snuggli.

We had a really nice time with mom Krul, and we can't wait for all of our parents to visit us this next Christmas, the Lord willing.

 

Dairyland fresh. We use only the strongest of mules, and the finest of men to carry the rich and creamy milk from northern hillsides of the Cibao Valley to the local barrios. Quality you can trust!



At Playa Ensenada.

Mattais and Kaelie are very proud of their little brother James.

 

Grandma loves you!