My New Apartment

So a lot of people have been asking me what my apartment looks like...so I took a few pictures and here they are! Once (if..) I get internet in my apartment I will be offering skype tours as well! Here are pictures of my bedroom, living room, kitchen, view from the roof, etc.

Lots of Soccer...and "super bowl party"

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the first group this year was a soccer group from St. Mary's College in California. The group comes every year with different people but Randy, the leader, is always here. All the kids know him and are always asking when his team is coming back.

A little pre-tournament ceremony. Randy is the 2nd one in from

the left sitting down.

It is pretty incredible to see the amount of interest they generate through their clinics and games. The kids play soccer almost every day now. I also picked up some tricks and games to use in my gym class.

Very fun to see these guys in Constanza

The group was a big encouragement to me, as it was fun to hang out with some people (almost...) my own age. I realize that this group isn't a typical group, but I am very excited to get going with more groups in the next few weeks.

A few of the kids from my favorite house in Jarabacoa,

and Starling in front who used to live there but is now

in Constanza.

Keeping tabs on whats going on in the sports world has become much less of a priority to me this second time around (except for the bulls obviously..), but I still thought it would be weird if I didn't watch the super bowl. I invited Jhoan (helps at the care center) and the Rowley's 2 youngest boys Gabe and Isaiah. We had a good time and had some Chicken, some refrescos and played some games as well. The actual game was pretty good, but I think it was fun just to have some people over to the apartment for the first time!

Playing some card games during halftime

Back to Soccer, while the group from California was here. We had a big tournament on our new soccer field behind the care center. Teams from Jarabacoa travelled up here and it was a blast. It was awesome to see some of my little Jarabacoa friends in my town.

This picture is from a game I went to in Jarabacoa,

but I think its cool and my family has been sponsoring

this kid for a long time now.

Sorry...Community Visits

First off, I am sorry for the lack of blog updates since I have been back in the DR the 2nd time around, I am going to try to do better and feel that it is likely I will now that I have better access to internet. After a great time being home for Christmas, the transition has been very smooth in 2010. I feel that I had a good base to build on with relationships when I returned home and they have definitely strengthened since coming back.

At Palmas in the afternoon. It started small but soon there

were people everywhere!

One thing I have really enjoyed this year has been going with the teachers or Alfredo into the community to visit families of children in the Care Center. I actually had no idea that they did this on fridays until about a month ago when I mentioned to Alfredo that I was interested in going into the community and building relationships with the families. I am usually pretty drained by thursday from the week, but these are always refreshing for my friday off.

One of the houses in Palmas

I don't like to take pictures while I'm on these visits so I don't really have any to post, although I do have some that were taken when a team was here from our visit to "carrera de las palmas." This was my first introduction to this community, Alfredo and I went in the morning to ask if it was ok if we brought a team to meet the people there and then we stayed and talked for a while and I really grew to like this community. The trip that afternoon was amazing. Even though I had only been there once before (that same day in the morning...) they treated me like we had been friends for years. I randomly asked the seemingly leader of the community if he wanted to get everyone together and pray and he jumped all over the idea and before I knew it the whole community was out with our team and we had a great time of prayer with these people. This was my first trip so I didn't really think it was a rare thing but Alfredo pulled me aside later and told me how amazing it was and that he had never seen that happen with such a large group. It was a very cool day, and Alfredo and I are going back there this afternoon to keep the relationship going.

A picture taken during the group prayer.

Most of the community right before we left.