Huelga Without Water

On Friday after school the school staff was called into a brief impromptu staff meeting. Sonia informed the staff that there was a possibility of a national huelga (pronounce welga =strike) on Monday, which would mean no school. Over the past few weeks rumours had floated around about protests because of electricity prices and social issues, including abuse of women, which is a growing sad reality here in Santiago.
Sonia explained that we teachers live in fairly safe neighbourhoods, but since some would need to travel through some less safe areas to get to school, it would be necessary to shut down the school. Also around the school itself, a huelga might mean that some people might show their protest by means of burning tires or blocking roads. Sonia told us we would receive an email on Sunday to let us know whether school would be in session or not.

Sunday afternoon we got the awaited email, informing us that a huelga was in the forecast for Monday and that school would therefore be closed. We were excited to have an extra day off and started making tentative plans of what we were going to do the whole day. Anthony wanted to paint the kids' bedrooms, fix up the little school desks we have been using as night stands, I wanted to bake, tidy up the house, do a load of laundry, and the list went on.

Just after our Sunday night dinner, I noticed that our water was off. Strange enough, the power was still on. Usually when we loose power, we loose our water too since the water pump downstairs does not operate without city power. "Oh well," I thought, as I looked at the stack of dinner dishes sitting in the sink, "I have all day tomorrow to do them. The water should come back on soon."

But by the end of the evening, there was still no water. "Surely it will be back on tomorrow," I thought to myself.

But Monday morning came, and still no water. How disappointing. The day off, staying at home started to loose its appeal.  A whole day at home as a family and then no water?!  By the time breakfast was finished the sink was overflowing with dirty dishes and the counters and table were sticky from the pancake breakfast.  There wasn't even enough clean dishes to eat lunch! Never mind baking, which I had hoped to do!  I sighed. It was going to be a long day. I quietly asked God for extra patience for the day.

A while later Anthony came in carrying a large bucket of water. "Where did you get that from?" I asked, as he grinned from ear to ear. "From the tap outside in the parking lot!" he told me happily. "We need to wash the kids uniforms for school tomorrow, and besides the wet towels are beginning to stink with the warm temperature. I'll haul up enough water for a load of laundry and for you to do the dishes."
About 5 trips later up and down the long stairway the washing machine was running and I got down to doing some dishes.

"I'm going to take the kids to the store with me to pick up some paint, they need to get out for a bit." Anthony told me after a while. Since everything seemed quite normal and calm, and the La Sirena store is just down the road, I agreed it would be fine to take the kids out. I decided to stay home and finish the stack of dishes.

After all the dishes were washed and counters wiped clean, I went to check on my laundry. It was stuck on the rinse mode. "Of course," I thought to myself, "it needs more water to run the rinse cycle. I guess I will have to start hauling some more water."

By the time I was on my third trip up the stairs with the buckets I was exhausted and discouraged. I had at least another three trips to make to have enough water to run the rinse cycle. "Maybe I should just wait for Anthony to come home." As I made my way up the stairs, I had to think of the many people in this world who live every single day without running water. We are so blessed to have clean running water in our apartment. What was I complaining about, no water for one day? Just a few minutes away there are many families who daily have to find water to carry home. I had to think back to a few weeks ago when we were visiting the New Hope Girls Academy, and I had the priviledge of walking through the neighbourhood where these girls's families live. Just a little tin house with no running water, no bathroom facilities. I remember coming home afterwards and thinking that our little apartment seemed like a palace. I remember being so thankful to God for all our blessings. How could I forget so quickly how very blessed we are? How dare I complain about a few hours of no running water, or doing a little walking for clean water? I told myself to be thankful instead for the blessing that I do enjoy.

Although one of the neighbours had told Anthony that the prospect of getting the water running again would be slim, due to the huelga, late in the afternoon we were delighted to have our water problem fixed. A nice plumber who must have taken the time to come and fix the problem, despite the huelga! When Mattais and Kaelie noticed that the water was back on, they shouted, "Hurrah, the water is working again! Now we can finally have a shower!" At dinner time we all thanked the Lord for His goodness in giving us running water again.

A Visit to New Hope Girls' School in La Vega

La Vega is the third largest city in the Dominican Republic, and is about a half hour drive south of Santiago up against the hill sides.  This past Saturday we went there to visit the New Hope Girls' school, a project that was started by a Vidal and Joy Reyes, a couple from Santiago, who have their children in our school. Together with the Reyes and several other teachers and our children, we had planned to go to the girls' school to put up Christmas decorations and spoil the girls with some treats and as a surprise, a new pair of shoes.

After driving through the old part of the city of La Vega, we came to a very run-down "barrio", or district, up against the hillside, mostly comprised of shacks built of cinder blocks and tin. We parked our cars along the main road, and climbed up a dirty alley-way, littered with garbage, refuse materials, and dirty water trickling over the broken and uneven cement slabs. The New Hope Girls' school and home rises like a friendly place along this sad path of poverty, dirt, and brokenness.

Vidal and Joy bought this property in April, and coverted the old broken home into a functional two-storey building. During the day, 24 girls from the surrounding barrio come here to hear from God's Word and to learn how to read, write, and do some math. Back in June, when the Vidal and Joy had just started the school, out of all the 24 girls, who are between 6 and 14, only one girl knew the letter A. Tells you something about the illiteracy of poor Dominicans!

The school is also a home for 4 girls who are no longer being looked after by their parents. Very sad. Vidal and Joy told us stories of fathers who are not faithful to their wives, mothers who prostitute to make a living to care for their children, sicknesses, hunger, drunkenness, and fights. This is why the New Hope Girls' School is there. To stand like a symbol of hope on the hillside. Thankfully, soon after Vidal and Joy began working on the home, local Christian people began to help and offer their assistance in many ways. Three Christian ladies from the neighborhood have taken the task upon themselves to teach the girls during the day and also to stay with the 4 girls during the night. It is Vidal and Joy's hope and plan to have the local community involved as much as possible, rather than making this project look like it is run by some supposedly rich and arrogant Americans!

Sherilyn and Kaelie on the path leading up to the school.

Mattais and Kaelie were quite happy to hand out some little toys and teddies which Oma Koster had given along with us in July.

The upstairs level of the home functions as classroom and sleeping quarters. It's a very cozy place. We strung up some Christmas lights and all the girls helped decorating the room with little ornaments. They loved it.

 

The downstairs area is for cooking, eating, and playing. There are many things to be done to the home yet, but at least there is a partly tiled floor where the children can remain clean.

Look at this cutie! These little girls were staring at us with big brown eyes, and it must have been quite a bit to take in for them; to have all these new visitors, to get some treats, to get a pair of new shoes, to do Christmas decorations.

Tim Houck, our Canadian colleague said: "The title for this picture will have to be: Where is Waldo?" (see if you can figure out why he titled it that way -- guesses can be placed as a comment on our blog).

The shoe manufacturing company, KEEN, which has a factory in La Vega, donated shoes for all of the girls. They were so delighted!

 

This little girl was a new visitor to the school, and did not have a pair of shoes that had been ordered for her. She got a little bunny (teddy) as a gift. She was very happy with it and held onto it very tightly.

At the end of the afternoon we returned to our own apartment, quite overwhelmed by the many things we saw that afternoon, feeling very blessed by  everything that we receive from God every day, and determined to return in a few weeks again to do some work at this place of new hope.

Please pray for these little girls, and that God would bless the work that He has called Vidal and Joy to do in this little barrio.

Birthday Boy and a Trip to Playa Sosua

It was the day he looked forward to for such a long time already; his first birthday in the Dominican! Mattais turned 7 on October 17.

We had received a few packages in the mail a few days prior his birthday, which we kept out of sight and hidden until the big day! It's so special to receive a gift from overseas! No wonder he was super excited when he got to open the packages.

A package from Opa and Oma Koster

Wow! Soldiers! How did they know I like playing with soldiers? And 'droppies'. Yum!

Kaelie was pretty excited too, since the package also had a gift in it for her.

And another package from Grandpa and Grandma, Uncle Michael and Auntie Chantelle, Auntie Esther and Uncle Garold! A Playmobil safari jungle set! Kaelie soon found that set contained two "flingos"! (flamingos)

What better 'fun activity' than going to the beach for your birthday party? Of course, we had to wait until the weekend, but over here that is worth waiting for. Mattais and Kaelie love the beach, so we decided that was the best thing to do for the Saturday following Mattais' birthday.

The drive to the beach is absolutely gorgeous. We have driven it several times by now, and every time we enjoy it again. The road leads through the eastern townships of Santiago, through the village of Moca, and then winds its way through the mountains until it hits the ocean road. Along the way there are numerous interesting things that we enjoy every time: people roasting or smoking whole pigs along the road, troops of young guys sitting on their mopeds waiting to give people a ride in downtown Moca, overloaded pick-up trucks full of bananas, groups of ladies with curlers in their hair chatting along the road, roadside stands with local produce, cock-fighting clubs, and the list goes on. We all love it. It's a a cultural and human geography lesson every single time.

 Green and lush landscape around Los Brasos, a small mountain village

 This guy was just smoking up the hill on his moped. And...check it out.....!

 The back of his bike was stacked with crates, stuffed (literally!) with hens, and hanging from the handle bars, many more. They were alive. He gave us this big grin as we passed by and took his picture.

 Then we saw this boy along the road, sitting on his mule, on some kind of errand for his dad possibly. We stopped, said 'hola' and told him that his mule looked very nice, and asked him for his name. Frances, he replied. He looked totally surprised when we gave him a bunch of pesos, and instantly he put his old mule into a fast trot towards the village. We had to laugh. He must have sure thought it was his lucky day: a bunch of 'gringos' take his picture and pay him for it.

 We were awed by the sight of the beach at Playa Sosua. We had not gone to this particular beach before. The water was crystal clear. The scenery stunning. Like stepping into a postcard.

Mattais loved the colourful fish that are swimming around the reef not too far off shore. 'Dori' fish (Nemo's friend) by the dozens. Beautiful. We stuffed some bread crumbs into an small water bottle, topped it up with water, and fed the fish under water by squirting the bread crumbs at them. Boy, they loved us.

 Kaelie always loves the sand and the water too, and is busy for hours scooping sand, carrying water, talking to people that walk by, and laying in the crashing surf.

There was this super cute stray puppy that followed the kids around for a while. Kaelie was thrilled that he wanted to play! She often asks us if God can make her a puppy to play with. This made her day!

 It was a great day, and we stayed as long as possible. A very relaxing and fun family day.



Once Upon a Saturday Afternoon



Tais got his first Birthday Party invite from one of his classmates. Birthday parties are huge celebrations here!

The whole class was invited to a local country club to go swimming and have snacks and dinner there.

He was so excited and had a lot of fun!

Today we decide to go out for a drive, since it is a bit cooler and rain is in the forecast.

(Well, the rain never came, but we had a wonderful day exploring Santiago and some of the local mountain villages.) We all pile into "the Bullet" (for so we have dubbed our '92 caliber Toyota Previa), and we go rattling off.

We drive by our "colmado" (corner store). They deliver our water when we call for more. ("Necessito dos botellons de agua, por favor.") The delivery guy comes by five minutes later on his moped, loudly yells "COLMADO!" outside the gate, and after we open the downstairs door, he carries both 5 gallon bottles up 4 flights of stairs to our front door.

Next we pass a money portal. You see them everywhere, even in the remote mountain villages. They are always nicely tiled with bright shiny colors.

Another "Banca". Some day we'll do a blog post on all the old vehicle models you see around here. Old little Datsuns, Peugeots, Mazdas, and Fiats that we hadn't seen since we were kids, are kept 'alive' here. Very neat.

A common sight, as we are going down the Autopista (highway). This concho was stuffed with at least 15 people. The man in the doorway has to hang on tightly.

We pass a thrift store on wheels. We assume it most likely is an old Mazda. It's hard to tell with all the loose, rusty pieces hanging off it on all sides. We are surprised it still drives!  This collector takes people's unwanted "junk" and sells it to whomever is interested. Not sure who would be interested in these old mattresses!

Real thrift stores do not exist here.

Up ahead: HOMS Hospital. It is a very nice, clean hospital with doctors offices attached. It is only five minutes from our apartment. This has come in handy as Sherilyn has made several visits over the past months. This is where she will go in April when we hope to have a little addition to the family :)

Soon we pass one of the best bakeries in town: Panaderia La Campagna. They have a nice assortment of buns, bread and pastries. Anthony loves snooping around here!

 We drive north and head for the mountains. The drive is beautiful, and as we head up, we feel the temperature dropping. After a ten minute drive up the mountain road, we pull into the parking lot of the Camp David Ranch hotel and restaurant. Stepping out of "the Bullet", we all immediately shiver. "Wow, I'm cold!" Mattais says. No doubt. A fresh mountain breeze keeps the temperature just above 20, much cooler than we have been used to these past months. The view from the restaurant patio is spectacular. Mattais and Kaelie pull out our little binoculars to try spot our aparment.

 

Mattais and Kaelie posing on one of the original cars belonging to the former dictator Trujillo. Two Bel Airs and a Cadillac sit on the parking lot of the Camp David Ranch. Tais thought this one looked like Andy Griffith's police car.

After checking out the sights, we head back home. Then it happens again....After hitting a few too many potholes (which are impossible to avoid) our van shuts down, and Anthony quickly pulls over to the side of the road, ducks under the hood, fiddles around with the battery cables, and off we go again.This has become annoyingly more common the last little while. A few weeks ago this happened in the middle of the busiest intersection downtown. Boy, did we ever get honked at! Luckily today it was on a remote road, at the bottom of the hill, and we didn't hold up traffic. 

Close to our apartment, we stop and buy two pinas. They try charge us the "Gringo" price (one hundred pesos, $2.50), but when they realize that we want the Dominican price (thirty pesos, $1.00), they try sell us five instead! Not sure what we would do with five very ripe pinas. Pinas and avocados are in season now, and taste amazing.

Kaelie back at the apartment with her pineapple.

Back home again! And now for our workout we get several times each day...up four flights of stairs.

God’s Power in the Storm

It’s 2:30 in the afternoon. The air feels sticky with heat and humidity. My music room, which is on the far east end of the school property, is by far the warmest room in the entire school. So much so, it is nick-named “Africa”! My (and Sherilyn’s) music  room is on the second floor, has a tin roof with no insulation, and small windows lining the wall.  On days like today, days with not even a whisper of a breeze, the music room turns into an oven. I’m sure some days the temperature soars well over 40 degrees! For this reason, I have decided to teach my Grade 4 music students in their own classroom. It is warm in there too, but despite the heat, the children do remarkably well. At 3:00, the dismissal bell rings and school is out.

As I watch the children energetically run to the security gate, waiting to be picked up by their parents, I feel  an almost visibly thick air around me, and glancing up I see dark clouds rolling in. A warm, moist breeze picks up at once and I already feel the first large drops of rain falling. I spot Mattais walking towards me, his face red and sweaty, but full of smiles.   “I like this weather, Dad! I think it is going to rain!” (Rain here is always a welcome relief!)  I give him a hug as he runs up to me, and as we head toward the office for a few supplies, the clouds let go their torrents in an instant.

We both run for cover, and decide to wait for the shower to pass. Having waited for nearly ten minutes, I tell Tais to wait for me, while I dash across the soccer field to far away “Africa” for my bag and car keys. Honestly, I never realized how fast I could get soaked! In less in ten seconds, and that, streaking across the field! I quickly grab my bag and keys. As I head for the stairs, I’m shocked to meet a drenched Tais at the bottom waiting for me. He is grinning from ear to ear, and as we look each other over, we have a good chuckle. What will Mom say??Once again we cross the field, which looks more like a swamp now. Our feet are soaking wet by the time we reach the van. We truly are wet from head to toe!

Phew! We’re dry inside the van. My cell phone rings. Sherilyn asks if we can come home right away because our maid, Daisy, needs a ride home. She usually rides a motor concho (motorcycle taxi) to our house, but in this kind of weather, who wants to ride a motorbike? Over the phone, I hear what must be an extremely  loud thunder clap. Sherilyn says, “Did you hear that? It was so loud, it just set off all the car alarms in the neighbourhood here!” Wow. I promise her I will be there as quick as I can.

Going down the Auto Pista is slow. Traffic is a mess, and water is pooling everywhere! As we are waiting at the lights at the bottom of a hill, we watch a lone motorcyclist plow upwards through a river of water gushing down.  Once the light turns green, we proceed on home, sending waves and spray of rain water to the left and right of us. “Dad!” Tais exclaims, “this is like sitting on a jet-ski!” I chuckle. How true!

 I pull into what was our apartment parking lot. It somehow resembles Venice a little. The water is pooling at the entrance of the stairway. The neighbour lady on the first floor is sweeping water out of her front door. For once, I am glad we live waaaaayyy up on the 4^th floor!  Every few seconds the lightning flashes immediately followed by a loud clap of thunder. Each time, car alarms start wailing.

I drop Daisy off at the local supermarket, from where she can ride a taxi home. Driving home, I reflect on God’s power in such a storm. I have never experience anything like it.  So much water in such little time, a foot of water on the main roads and storm sewers that just can’t keep up.

As I near our apartment once again, the rain subsides as quickly as it came. The thunder is now a distant rumble. I reflect on a few things. I am reminded of Noah’s flood. How God opened the skies and let out the rain.  I also have to think that our God is sovereign, He does as He pleases, and we stand in awe of His power, like you read in Psalm 115:3. 

About 10 minutes after the storm started.

 The rain drops were huge!

another 10 minutes later....The storm sewers just couldn't keep up!

Down the street from our apartment

Just after it stopped raining.  Not sure how this concho made it through the "puddle"

First Week of School / Tropical Storm Irene

First Week of School

August 17 --The orientation weeks are over. Now it’s time for the real thing: the first day of school at Santiago Christian School! Mattais and Kaelie are eagerly waiting on the sidewalk for the Dioni bus to arrive. “There he comes!” Kaelie calls out, when the bus comes into sight at 6:45. She’s quite excited to be going to school officially for the first time in her life. Mattais is happy to have her along, and together they dart for the back seats once they are on the bus.

It’s a convenient service for our whole family to take the bus, which does a morning and afternoon route for all the teachers and their children. The route takes us through Villa Olga, the suburb in which we and about a dozen other teachers live, and then to La Moraleja, a suburb a few minutes further, where several other teachers live. Mattais and Kaelie are happy to have their new friends on board, and the excitement among the new staff is also quite audible while we head for school down the Autopista. At quarter after seven we arrive at SCS, and another chapter of our life in Santiago begins.

Waiting for the school bus in the morning

 Outside Mattais' classroom. -- He is happy to see his name included on the door. And Kaelie likes the hippo, of course.

Kaelie is right in her element, once she walks through the Pre-K4 door. This is it! There's a pile of interesting stuff here: books, shelves filled with blocks, games, puzzles, and an aquarium where you can fish for magnetic numbers. Her teacher, Ms. Kirsy, welcomes her, and then happily hands her a little fishing rod so she can start with some fun. Kaelie's first day is off to a good start.

So far, every day, after we have come home and we ask her how her day went, she tells us about her friends and what they did. When we ask her what their names are, she usually has a different set of names for them every day. She makes us laugh. She really enjoys pre-school so far, and has already told us that she wants to "stay here for 10 months!"

 Kaelie on the skippy ball during recess.

 Mattais is in Grade 2 with Ms. Metzler, is excited to have an additional two subjects which are typically not offered within the Canadian elementary school system, at least not in Chilliwack :)  : Espanol and Sociales (Spanish Language and Dominican Social Studies.) This week he proudly showed us his first Spanish Language worksheet on common language expressions. He's probably going to be speaking Spanish a lot quicker than we are, and so will Kaelie! In the classroom, the language used is English only (except for during Espanol and Sociales), but outside on the playground, the elementary students mostly speak Spanish. We're quite sure the kids will outdo the parents on this one!

 Mattais and his grade 2 class.

No School -- Tropical Storm Irene

Things are slowly falling into place. The first half week of school has been busy, with late afternoons and later suppers. The kids are happy to have the Saturday for a relaxed pancake breakfast, playing with their Playmobil, and going to BON for an icecream later in the day.

We tune into Reverend Klaver's service at the Chilliwack HRC, on Sunday morning, and we enjoy our day of rest as a family. Later in the day, Eileen Baas, our elementary principal, phones and tells us that there will be no school Monday since tropical storm Irene is approaching off the east coast. Nobody is certain what effect Irene might have on the Santiago area, even though we are not near the projected path of the storm.

On Monday morning, we see a thick cloud cover toward the eastern mountains, and by the early afternoon the wind picks up a little. We decide to do some extra grocery shopping and go for a short drive through Santiago. The Toyota van which we had bought from one of the SCS teachers is serving us well, especially on a day like today, when you don't really know what to do other than waiting it out. While we drive through the busy streets of downtown Santiago, rain begins to fall and we can tell that Irene must be somewhere far or near. We just hope and pray that we'll be on the fringes of the storm.

 A Monday afternoon drive through Santiago, as we wait for Irene to arrive or pass by.

 Moto conchos (motor taxis) are a popular and inexpensive means of transportation for local people. You pay only a few pesos to get from one point to the next. Mopeds and motorbikes are around by the hundreds here. More so even than in Holland!
And these guys (and their passengers!) are getting soaked by the rain. No rain gear. A piece of cardboard serving as a mudflap. But hey, they are a lot faster in dense traffic than a van!

 Signs and billboards are everywhere around here.

A little Daihatsu truck which has been well used.

 This humanoid (guy with a billboard) keeps dry underneath the busy overpass of Estrella Sadhalla, the main thoroughfare in downtown Santiago.

 A Haitian doing some cleanup along the road. (There are quite a few Haitians around here.)

Not bad for an average power pole, eh? Would you know which wire is which? Something like this would get awfully messy when it comes down in a storm.

By early Monday evening, the wind is blowing strong and the rain is coming down like a sheet. After Mattais and Kaelie are in bed, we stand on the covered balcony of our aparment and watch with fascination and awe. God is a God of wonders, and the storm shows His great power and majesty. Our balcony is getting soaked and we have to close the windows to keep the rain out. We talk to several teachers on the phone for a while, and Eileen tells us that school will still be out for another day, Tuesday, as we don't know what the night will bring. All night the strong wind blows and the rain falls by buckets. There's an occasional roll of thunder and flash of lightening, but we thankfully sleep through most of it all.

Early in the morning, as the wind begins to die down, our power goes out. Thankfully our inverter kicks in, and we use our battery power to toast some bagels and boil some water for tea. During breakfast the wind seems to die down completely, and the clouds break up a little. Irene must be on her way out. A few hours later, the sun peeks through the clouds, ensuring us of a brighter day. Thankfully we have no wind and rain damage. God has kept us safe through the storm.

Like most other teachers, we decide to spend a few hours at school that morning, seeing that we do need some time to replan our schedule for the week. Yes, of course, in Canada it's the snowdays that upset a teacher's schedule, and in the Carribbean it must be the hurricane days.

And so, we've finished another short school week, full of new impressions and excitement, experiencing above all God's love and grace toward us.