Constanza!

Ok, first of all it will be very difficult to recap my 5 days since I have gotten here because it feels like I have been here a month already! But here is my best attempt. I have been so blessed to have the Rowley's here to help me with the transition. Craig and Libby have been here for about 2.5 years with their 3 kids Carter (16), Gabe (13), and Isaiah (8). I will have pictures up of them all eventually once I start actually using my camera!

Picture of Isaiah, as you can see we get along well

with the video games! I took this right before

updating so I could have at least 1 Rowley

picture on here for this update!

Craig came down to pick me up from Jarabacoa monday afternoon. Their oldest son Carter is attending school in Jarabacoa during the week and comes home on the weekends, this means tons of travel time for Craig in order to help him get there and back. Travel is a little difficult with Constanza because of its location in the mountains, but it is very worth it.

Monday night I enjoyed meeting Libby, Gabe, and Isaiah and having my first meal with them. I have been placed in such a great position with them already established here to help me. I have really enjoyed my time and conversations so far with them. Craig has been especially helpful with finding my apartment and my moto, I am very appreciative of all the time and effort they have invested into my transition so far (especially while I live with them for the first couple weeks!)

Tuesday I spent pretty much the entire day with Craig, which included running some errands he needed to do for Kids Alive, going to the 2 available options for my future apartment, looking at prices for motorcycles in Constanza, and going to the care center.

Tuesday I also got to meet both Alfredo and Arsenio who I will be working extensively with. Arsenio is the director of the Ark and is a strong Christian man who I have loved getting to know this week and definitely look forward to getting to know better over these next few years.

The majority of my work here is going to be at the Care Center, and Alfredo is the director of the care center so he will be my boss. I couldn't have asked for a better person to work under, he loves God, loves kids and loves sports! He invited me to play on their fun and competitive fast-pitch softball team, and our first game is Sunday so I am very excited about that.

I was able to come to an agreement on an apartment also which is a huge answer to prayer! It is within a couple hundred feet of the Rowleys, and a very short moto ride from the Ark/Care Center. Couldn't ask for a better location, also it is on the 2nd story of a "colmado" where I will be able to get water and other food/drink items very conveniently. The owner/land lord of this apartment is the same person who owns the Rowley's house and he gave me a great deal and situation due to his great relationship with the Rowley's.

On Wednesday, Craig and me ventured down to Jarabacoa to look at prices for Moto's. He also had some work to do with overseeing a construction project at Jarabacoa so it worked out well. We met up with the Kids Alive bus driver and good friend from past visits Eladio. He was great to spend time with and a big help in finding a moto. I have very fond memories of getting to know him on past trips and I was glad to have this time. We bought a great bike and got a pretty good ( i think?) deal on it, so it was a successful trip in that regard. After a long, construction filled trip back up the mountain I was back.

Me and Eladio loading up the Moto (his idea for

the picture not mine!)

Thursday was my first glimpse into how they run "OANSAS" (awanas in the us) at the Kids Alive project. It was a blast, the younger kids are there in the morning and the older kids in the afternoon. The first 30-40 minutes are spent with the kids in 4 teams and playing various games and competitions with the winners getting points added to their team. After this the groups split up into small groups of about 8-10 where they show the leaders what scriptures they have memorized from the OANSA book. This was interesting for me because I was thrown right into being a leader for this section so my spanish was put to the test! This is a big part of what I will be doing and it was really fun to get to know some of the kids a little better.

Friday's are generally a day where I don't have too much responsibility at the care center. There are no classes and all there is is just a few hours of planning for the teachers. I don't know exactly what I will be doing on fridays, but I am assuming it will involve some work over at the Ark and spending time with the kids.

It has been a crazy, but amazing week and I can't express how excited I am to finally be here, and to be able to finally call Constanza home! Hopefully I can get better at taking pictures and put more on here...Please keep me in your prayers that the transition will continue to go as smooth as it has this first week! Thank you all for your support.

Post-Guatemala Update!

Ok this will be my much more detailed addition to the email sent out. If you didn't get the mass email and want to be on the update list just let me know.

Left Guatemala at 430 am Mountain time, spend 5 hours in Miami and finally made it into Jarabacoa at 9 pm on Saturday night. Was picked up by a few of the 2 year missionaries in Jarabacoa which was great, and then had some pizza at the Trautweins. The Trautweins are a family who I met on a trip after my senior year of HS through College Church. We have remained in contact and they are a huge reason I am with Kids Alive now.

Trautwein's (stolen from facebook, sorry!)

That Sunday I was able to go to to a church service that they have at the "Ark" the last sunday of every month. It is a cool time when relatives of the kids are invited to come to the service and I actually got to hear the house-parent of the house that our family has sponsored for years. I have a great relationship with the boys in this house and it was an absolute blast to spend time with them and for it to be a complete surprise for me to show up.

After the service, I tagged along with a team of dentists from California as they went to a "barrio" in a very poor part of Jarabacoa. It was a good experience for me to start using my spanish and communicating with the people who live there. My spanish was further along than I expected which was very encouraging..but still a ways to go!

Great story from Sunday Afternoon. One of the cool things about MTI (missionary training school in Colorado that I attended early summer) is that you meet people from all over the country who are going off to all parts of the world! I connected very well with a few families and one of those families was the Lanier's who not only were headed to Jarabacoa, but they were also from 20 minutes away in Schaumburg! So one of my goals was to come hang out with them a bit while I was in Jarabacoa, but unfortunately I wasn't able to connect with them and was only in Jarabacoa for a short time...so after me and John Breul (missionary in Jarabacoa) dropped the team off at the team house, he had me try out driving one of the vans from the team house to the Trautweins, to test my stick-driving abilities. Anyways I was driving through a back-way to get to the Trautweins and there were a bunch of kids out in the street playing soccer, and a dog ran in front of me and I had to stop. All of a sudden I hear 2 girls yelling "Great-Grandpa! Great-Grandpa!" (which was my nickname at MTI apparently because of my terribly old age and grey beard...) I somehow had stumbled into their neighborhood which was within walking distance of the Trautweins house! I talked for a bit, then dropped John off and walked back and spent some time with them in the afternoon. Such a God thing and I was so happy that I was able to see them!

Me with Anna and Sarah Lanier and their neighbors.

I forgot how much I love Dominicans

That afternoon I helped the dentist team set up for their week-long dental clinic and then spent the night with the Trautweins and the team at dinner/the house. Monday was a day spent at ANIJA (the school) where I received some valuable traning/orientation through Kids Alive. I was also able to spend over an hour with "Chu" the P.E. teacher at the school and help him with classes before my orientation stuff. So fun to play with the kids at the school, especially the ones from the Ark that I already had a good relationship with. It was a lot easier to say bye when I could tell them that I only live 2 hours away now.

My time with the Trautweins and the rest of the KAI staff in Jarabacoa was amazing, I am so thankful for families like the Trautweins who have been so instrumental in getting me to Constanza and preparing me for it.

Ok this was wayyyy too much detail and I am assuming only the diehard readers (family...) will be interested. I will post my post Jarabacoa update as soon as I recover from writing this one!

North Central Game

Before last year's game, cool picture with the bell

The week of the North Central Game was always one of my favorites. I love the atmosphere, especially last year when we were both top 10 in the nation. The game is the only one we have where we play for a "trophy." The winner gets to keep the trophy until next year's game.

All the seniors after winning the bell in '07 at NCC

Usually the "little brass bell" stays on our sidelines during the game, but last year we had a tough loss to North Central during the regular season so for a change they get to have it on their side.

Me and Coach Kirk after the '07 game

The last time we played at North Central we had an amazing come from behind win and I'm hoping for a similar result this week. It will be very weird for me to be in the Miami Airport during this game, but God definitely knew what he was doing scheduling my travel date to the DR on the same day. The fact that I am so excited about getting to the DR will help make up for missing the game.

Why Antigua Is the Perfect CIty for My Family

On my walk to school I was looking at the various shops on my 8 minute route to class and I couldn’t help but think it is the perfect place for my family to move!

Antigua Outlet Mall for mi madre

Emanuel’s Farmaceria for all of Chris’ allergy needs

The local Empesario to cater to all of Caroline’s accounting cravings

The scandalous Beauty Salon for Kate (there are only so many applicable stores on the way to school….)

Motorcycles everywhere for Eric for his commute to the city

Video game lounge for me and Chris

A huge mountain/volcano that the girls can use in order to train for their next half-marathon

A nice little park for Dad to do his crossword puzzles at and for Henry to run around for hours in

Many different travel agencies so Mom can book her weekly flight to Phoenix

Lots of school options for Henry to be raised bi-lingual

A nice little bakery for Mom to find Ice Cream Cakes for every occasion.

All sorts of Vehicle options for Kate and Eric's ever growing family? (kidding...)

And last but not least, stray dogs everywhere for Dad to play with!

OBERWOTLE CREW

This is what happens when you try to drive on cobblestone....

Sunday

Sorry no pictures or anything, but last night I had a great time watching the Chargers-Steelers 4th quarter with my host family! It was very fun trying to explain football to them and watching the watch it with such confusion and curiosity. Before we turned on the game we had a great time looking at pictures of both families and also of former students that had stayed at their house. I think I'm going to start spending more time out of my room at with my family because it really is great practice for me!

My Talking Spanish Friend

Here are my attempts to get some video of my new friend. He doesn’t really have a name, but he whistles and talks to himself all day and it is crazy how much he sounds like a person. Obviously he talks in Spanish which makes him way cooler. This is the best I could do for video so far, I am trying to get a better one of him calling for “Mama” when he gets hungry. You can hear it pretty well at the very beginning of the first one.

The bird is an unbelievable whistler, and would have been a great addition at either APT 180 or 863.

Just ignore these if they aren't very good, it was hard to get good video of this guy.

Weekend at Atitlan

Here are a few pictures from me and Brian's day in Atitlan. It is basically a HUGE lake with different towns surrounding it. We stayed in the main town because we were only there for a few hours. It was a 2 1/2 hour bus ride which really wasn't too bad. Our main objective was to find the "zip line" that carries you through/over the trees and the mountain. We were able to track it down pretty quickly and had a blast there. We were very fortunate that the weather was perfect while we were on the zip lines, most of the afternoon was spent at different cafe's or shops staying out of the rain.

Me and Brian with Jorge our guide

who took the amazing video

All geared up

Panajachel-the main city on the Lake

Volcano on the other side of the lake

Sunday is a day where we are on our own for food and we made it a very "American" menu for the day. I spent the whole day with the 2 other Kids Alive missionaries here (Brian and Emily).

Before church we had breakfast at McDonalds (which had an amazing patio overlooking a volcano, fountains, free internet, and plenty of room?), then we went to church at a service that had everything in 2 languages which was pretty cool, but at times hard to follow. After church we met up with another missionary through Kids Alive in Guatemala and a few other people from church and went to Pollo Campero which was definitely on my to-do-list. It is basically a Guatemalan Chick-fil-a and is the most popular restaurant in the country.

We went to the market during the afternoon and I found an internet cafe to "watch" the Bears game, but it was a very choppy connection. That night we spent 3 hours at Subway just talking and hanging out. It was a nice relaxing Sunday.