Picture Day!

Today I started an adventure of taking pictures of each child and class. This is for 2 purposes: 1. Is to have options of pictures to put in the kids progress reports that we send out to their sponsors June 1 (yeah right...hopefully july 1!) and 2. I am trying to put together a database of each child's name and picture that I can leave with the next missionaries.

Not a ton to say I'll just let the pictures do the talking. Remember all of these kids are in our ministry and if you want to sponsor one for $35 a month please let me know! 

Feria del Libros (Book Fair)

Here are some pictures from a trip to the Capital that I was able to take the 6-8th grade class. The "international book fair" lasts about 2 weeks and is PACKED with students and kids. It is essentially a cultural park, multiple museums, and tons of books to read and buy all wrapped into one. The big natural history museum was probably my favorite part. 

The kids don't get to leave Constanza very often, let alone go to the Capital, so I was so happy to be able to help make this happen. Today I have also been printing off photos to give to the kids to help them remember the fun day! 

This class is interesting to me because they are extremely close. They really enjoy being together and it is fun to see, and it was fun to spend the whole day with them. 

One thing I have loved during my time here is driving kids around/to their house. I do it way more often when I am in Jarabacoa but it is so fun for me to help out that way, especially when the alternative is a kid walking 5 miles home. One of my favorite things is when every single kid is belting out the same song at the top of their lungs! I thought I had a good video of it from this trip but it didn't work.

 On the way home, we had some extra "treat fund" money and we were able to have a nice Pica Pollo lunch, which was definitely a treat for them. In the capital there is a huge mall type place with great food places and a huge grocery store...I wish it was in Constanza!

Haiti

With a pretty open month of May, one of the things I was able to do was help with our site in Haiti. Jeff Vandermolen and Brian Veen have been doing the majority of work with team hosting and site planning. We had back to back teams where Brian was already in Haiti so I was able to help out by hosting the team in Jarabacoa for a night and then taking them over on a big Caribe Tours bus the next day. I then stayed on for a few days and worked with them and got to know some of the kids. I only had time to load 3 pictures, but there are a few more on my facebook page. Our site is really moving a long there! We have 90 kids living in homes in the community and it will be exciting when they are all moved onto our residential site! We helped pour the foundation for the 2nd house. The kids that were mulling around were awesome and really really not used to seeing Americans. This little girl was my favorite (even though there was one point where she got behind a pile of dirt and just took a little bathroom break about 20 feet away from everyone!). I was a bit caught off guard that these kids literally had the same clothes on all week. It was definitely different than the poverty I'm "used to" here in the DR.

Bahia de las Aguilas

One of the cool things about my job/role here in the DR is the ability to get up and travel without being stuck in one place all the time. I love living in Constanza, but for some reason after the Rowley's left in November I have been on the move a lot. Sometimes it is to help host teams in other cities, and sometimes I just need to get up and go!

 This was a last minute opportunity where Chucho (Gym teacher/sports guy in Jarabacoa) and his wife Alida asked me if I would want to help (drive) the College group for Kids Alive. I didn't really know what I was getting into, I thought it was a 4-5 hour drive but it ended up being more like 8-9! It has been great to get to know Chucho, Alida and their daughter Ali, I always spend a ton of time with them when I am in Jarabacoa and their daughter is like my little dominican niece! It was a beautiful trip.

Me and Ali (she was learning to swim!)

 Me, Chucho, Alida and Ali on the beach

 The nights were filled with lots of worship and hanging out. They turned the lights out on us so we moved to the only light at the campsite!

Ali sat up front with me and "helped me drive," she especially loved changing gears.

3v3 Tournament in Jarabacoa

Dave Adams, (roommates of one one of my best friends Mike McKevitt at Taylor)
playing some D. Small world.

I have loved getting involved in sports here in the DR. Playing in a basketball league and a softball league have been not only a great way to get some of my competitiveness out, but also a nice way to get to know people and be a good social thing for me.

Gotta love the baseball players on the trophies! The
pro player that I guarded in the Semi's is in the background too

Me and 2 other Americans, living in 3 different cities, decided to put a team together and enter into a 3v3 tournament for semana santa. We had never played together and didn't know each other very well, but it was great to play with them and get to know them. We were the face of the tournament from the very beginning, with the announcer telling the crowd that we were the first ever "international team" to play in the tournament, that we had been practicing for weeks in the mountains and that the international police were on call for the weekend. They also built us up as a great team (which was annoying, since none of us played in college and we were just there to play) so every team was very fired up to play against us.

Getting some much needed rest during free throw's

We played well in the first game, and the crowd loved us because of how physical we played. We made it to the Semi-finals where we met a team from La Vega (probably the best "basketball" town in the country) that had 3 professional players. As soon as they showed up in the morning they stole the show, including playing 2 on 3 in their first game and still dominating. They had some big guys, the guy I guarded was probably 6'5 230 and one of the best post players in the league in La Vega. It was an extremely intense and physical game and we played about as well as we could and still lost 16-14.



It was definitely a great experience and a fun time to hang out with a bunch of other Americans in the country that I didn't know very well. I also realized how much I need to play in the next 2 months to get ready for the big tournament in Constanza in July!

Keith Bogans

I finally arrived to Constanza today after about 3 weeks away. It is good to be back and it was great to see all my friends here. There was one friend I didn't expect to see. I looked in my sink and there was a lizard there - I didnt want to deal with it so I just ignored it and assumed it would run away..out of sight out of mind.

So I go back a little later (right before the Bulls game) and hes still there, hadn't moved an inch. I felt bad for the guy and bad for myself having to dispose of a dead lizard. So I ran some water just to make sure, and sure enough he started wiggling! He then proceeded to drink and drink and drink. Now I definitely didnt have the heart to kill him, and didnt want to just leave him outside so I have decided to let him live there for a while. He is way too weak to climb out of the sink, and I have already given him a name, Keith Bogans (in honor of his 5 3's in the Bulls win tonight) so he's not going anywhere. Hopefully he will gain enough strength to run away on his own, because I still really don't want to throw him in the trash...

Email Update - 2011 in the DR!

Friends and Family,

It has been too long since I have given a good update as to what I have been up to so far this year in the DR. It has been a fantastic start to the new year filled with a very busy schedule and the chance to meet and host some great teams/people. I am blessed to love what I do in the DR and to get to work with kids every day.

When I got back to the DR after Christmas I hit the ground running hosting a group of 11 students from St. Mary's College in Moraga, California. Their team leader Randy Farris has been a huge help to Kids Alive, leading roughly 20 teams in the past few years. He has a passion for kids and sports and has been a great help for me as I figure out what I want to do in the future. This was a busy month, filled with tons of driving as we spent time at each site in our DR ministry and worked with every kid under Kids Alive care! A very cool experience that not many Kids Alive missionaries get.

After that team, I have been working back and forth between Jarabacoa and Constanza helping host teams. It has been a lot of work and a much different role after the Rowley's left in November, but it has been a great challenge for me and it is definitely keeping me busy. All the teams have been amazing and I am blessed to be able to serve with them. One team with a big connection to me was when WFMP (Wheaton Football Ministry Partnership) was able to send a group of 14 to visit me in Constanza. It is always great to have friends/family visit and this team had many players that I had played with in the past, as well as my brother and parents.

Some big news in my life right now, is that I will be ending my first term with Kids Alive on August 1, 2011. I am currently at home in Wheaton, visiting family and also visiting potential schools to get some experience in coaching baseball at the college level. I will touch more on this in a future email, but my plan is to return to the DR after 2 years of coaching in the US. Got has given me a pretty clear plan for where He wants me long term and I am very excited to start working towards this. I return to Constanza April 20th, and I hope to get out another email before then to help lay out this future vision for my supporters. This transition time will be tough. The DR really is my second home and I am already anticipating how hard it will be to leave these kids that have become my little siblings. It is tough enough to leave for a few weeks and I know it will be extremely difficult to leave for a few years.

Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement. I know I don't update my blog/email as much as I should, it has been tough not having internet at my apartment, but know that I really appreciate all the emails and notes of encouragement I receive. Email is still the best way to get ahold of me, so feel free to shoot me a note - I would love to hear from all of you!

In Christ,

Kyle