Revolutionary Leaders Expedition!

This semester I have had the opportunity to lead an Expedition with the Sophomore class on Revolutionary Leaders.  We have looked at all sorts of leaders throughout the last couple hundred years and used the Sermon on the Mount to see who really is a "good" leader.  From Mao Zedong to Mother Theresa the students assessed all sorts of different leaders to see what it is like to be revolutionary leader in a Biblical way.
Over the last few weeks we have had some really neat opportunities to further that learning both with an Expert guest and with some field work.  Our guest which I think I have mentioned before was Shane Claiborne.  The conversation that we had with Shane revolved around the idea of what we could do to make positive/revolutionary changes within our community hear in Jarabacoa.  I think the thing that shocked the students and myself the most was how much he stressed internal change within our own lives before we can ever look to help anyone else.  The idea of taking the log out of your own eye before trying to take a splinter out of your neighbors eye.
The conversation with Shane was followed up by trips to New Hope Girls Academy and The Ark.  Both of these trips were based around the idea of seeing revolution in work and giving them our service however we can.  At New Hope we met the girls that were learning and living there and heard all about the ministry to one of the poorest barrios in the Dominican Republic.  The students also had the opportunity to serve by interviewing and translating their interviews so that the girls can communicate with New Hope donors in the States.  The last thing we saw at New Hope was their workshop where they make really cool bags and flip flops.  This workshop employs 7 women and allows them to provide for their families.  The trip to New Hope was a really cool experience.  The day after we went to New Hope we found ourselves at the Ark.  The Ark is a orphanage here in Jarabacoa.  The revolutionary thing about the Ark is that they have around 10 houses and in each house there is a set of parents that have their own kids.  This existing family becomes the family of the orphans that end up in the Ark.  A normal house their has a mother and father and around 10 kids living in it.  As much as I could talk about both of these experiences more, I hope the pictures do a better job.

Playing with the Girls at New Hope

 Joel and New Hope Girls

 The view from New Hope

 More playing at New Hope

 After the Interviews were done balloons came out of nowhere.

 The way up to New Hope

 Cleaning gutters at the Ark

 At the New Hope workshop

 Class pic at New Hope

 Raking Leaves at the Ark

 Moving cinder blocks at the Ark

Estancia Natura

Yesterday we got back from a fun time camping up in the mountains.  We spent two nights in the mountains above Manabao and filled the days with hiking, board games, and slacklining.  I only ended up taking a few pictures because one of our new staff members John took a lot.  Here are a couple of mine and I will try to add more later.

Our home for the time in Manabao.  All seven of us had hammocks and it became a rather amusing site when they were set up all over the place.

Looking down on our campground from the rappelling rocks.

The views don't disappoint.

It was a very fun trip and I was blessed to go with some great friends.  I may have left a little blood in the mouths of magis (worst bugs ever) but I killed many of their friends and even they couldn't stop us from having a blast.

Spring Break and Fire.

Today is officially the first full day of Spring Break.  Today was also the day I was supposed to be climbing Pico Duarte as fast as possible.  Unfortunately there are fires in the park where Duarte is, so we postponed.  Instead of going to Duarte we went up a different mountain today.  Myself and another teacher led one of our students,Yeudi, up in what was some of the best weather of ever.  It was Yeudi's first time on Megote and we had a good time, this was the beginning of his training for accompanying me up Duarte when I am able to go next time.
Last weekend the 9th and 10th grade classes put on a dance which was a smashing success.  I worked the school entrance to make sure everyone had tickets and didn't have alcohol.  It was a lot of fun to be there and great to see the students succeed in something they put on to raise money for Expeditions.
Most people end up going to the beach for Semana Santa (Spring Break) but myself and a few friends are going to a place called Estancia Natura.  Estancia Natural is on the Spirit Mountain property which is owned and operated by Chad Wallace, who is also one of the founders of Doulos.  Hopefully I will return from the trip with lots of pics.

Hyper Speed

Life has been flying by here in Jarabacoa.  The weeks are packed with school and other wonderful stuff while the weekends give some nice down time and more time for fun with friends.  Lately I have been getting back into running a lot and basically just ignoring the pain in my knee as long as it doesn't feel damaging.  This has led to want to do something crazy.  Next weekend I am going to go to the highest mountain in the Caribbean and along with one of my students we are going to try and make it up and down faster than has been recorded before.  It will be a nice round trip of 28 miles with somewhere around 10k feet of vertical in it.  It is gonna hurt a lot, but it should be really fun as well.  The good news is that we will get to use Semana Santa (Holy Week/Spring Break) to recover from the brutally crushed quads, calves, and hamstrings.
Its crazy to be less than 3 months away from Graduation and the end of the semester, and I feel like if I blink it will be summer.  I guess these are signs of enjoying life and living into the moment.
Tonight's agenda has me as a chaperon at a dance, I really don't even know what that means here, but it should be fun.

Don't go chasing waterfalls...

One of the most fun places to go here in Jarabacoa is a waterfall that takes a fun hike up a river to get to.  I've talked about this waterfall and river hike before but I have been back twice in the last couple weeks and it really never gets old.  A friend of mine took a couple pics of me up on the rocks next to the falls, so here is me getting ready to jump.

Today's the new day.

So after the last couple weeks and realizing that Monday is really busy first day of the school week I am now bumping my blog day to today (Wednesday).
This past week has been a blast.  It really has been one of my favorite weeks of the year, and I came into most of the events with a rather bad attitude.  This past weekend I was the work crew boss for a Wyldlife camp here.  I originally thought I wouldn't have the energy for it and I would be super drained to start school back up on Monday.  What really happened is that I had a blast and ran myself ragged cleaning dishes, tearing down county fairs, and whatever else random was needed.  At the end of the weekend I was totally drained but by Monday morning I was ready to go again.  Really glad I had the opportunity to serve God and the kids this weekend.
This week we also had a strength finders workshop that I was really dreading, but was really fun.  In case you were wondering... here are my strengths.
1. Adaptability
2. Consistency
3. Strategic
4. Input
5. Comman

Dia de Independencia!

I'm a couple days late on getting around to this, school stuff has been kicking my butt and this get pushed aside.  Yesterday we had our school Independence Day celebration which took up the whole morning with all sorts of dancing and drama.  Each class had some sort of presentation, it could have been a drama about the founding fathers (Duarte, Sanchez, and Mella) or it could have been a dance to a Juan Luis Guerra song.
Today we didn't have school because today is Dia de Independencia (Google even dedicated their headline to it today) so I spent the morning running (it stops really being running when you cover over 2,000 feet of vertical under 10 miles), the beginning of the afternoon watching some Harry Potter, and now writing.
As busy as the last couple days have been, the next few are going to be even more crazy.  Tomorrow is business as usual at Doulos but for dinner there will be a couple of the guys from a work team that are coming to check out what it is like for our staff.  Friday will be normal at school as well, but immediately after school until Sunday afternoon I will be going to Young Life camp to help as a Work Crew boss at a Wyldlife Camp weekend.  In other words, life is going to be nonstop from tomorrow morning until Sunday.
I keep seeing posts on Facebook about the storm in KC and pictures of mountains in Sitka.  I really miss winter right now.  Its been really hot and dry here lately and I am ready for us to get some rain again so we can get the temperature as low as possible.  I may have to go higher up into the mountains soon in search of some respite.
As per usual I am need of fundraising help so anybody that reads this is welcome to click on THIS LINK or the other place over on the right and help me out.
I don't remember if I shared this on here before, but I found this little guy on my bathroom floor not to long ago.