Day Four: Our Wife Stock is Depreciating

The morning, again, came early. We dressed and prepped for the coming day’s activities. Keeping to the routine, we started the day with a play of Silas and Paul. Once again, we were happy to see that the kids were actually paying attention and participating. Although, it wouldn’t be a day at the orphanage without a few distractions. After the play, we started our art activity for the day- today’s was FACE PAINTING! Super fun! However, because we only had enough paintbrushes for two of us to work, we had to “split” up the group. One half went to Les and I for face painting, while the other half went to Mai and Katie for drawing and watercolors. (While our intentions of “splitting” the group equally were great in theory, the majority of the kids hovered around Les and I just waiting to be painted.)

Two hours later, we had a beautifully painted set of children. Mariposas and flores everywhere, even the occasional Spiderman (Les and I really need to consider starting a face painting business, forget grad school ☺). After face painting, we had lunch and then it was off to English classes. However, because the keys to the classrooms were misplaced, we had to wait a while before finding another available classroom. By the time we had everyone situated in this new classroom, it was time to leave for the field trip. So needless to say, our day at the orphanage went by really quickly today.

The field trip itself (while we were really worried given their rowdy behavior on the playground) actually went smoothly. The kids were engaged and well-behaved and just little angels once they left the orphanage walls. We all took a bus together to Altos de Chavon. As I mentioned before, Altos de Chavon is this beautiful town situated at the top of this hill, which overlooks the nearby beach and river- it’s stunning. For our field trip we were taking the kids to this archeological museum in the city there so that they could see all the ancient artifacts from the indigenous tribes of the Dominican Republic. The bus ride itself was great, lots of Justin Beiber and Miley Cyrus sing-a-long songs (and with the kids’ face paint, they were all just adorable). After the museum, Yanet was kind enough to drop us off at our casa and we prepared for some down time (FINALLY!).

So during our down time, we basically kept up with emails and lounged around (debriefed about our day) and then this thought came to our minds: why not do some laundry? And why not? Well here’s why…

Katie, Les, and I put our laundry in the machine. The same way we always do (trust me, we’ve done laundry before). And yet, 10 minutes later we hear Maile yell, “The ENTIRE downstairs is flooded!” So Katie and I sprint down stairs, soon followed by Les and yep, what do we find? Lake Michigan- on our downstairs floor. Sweet. Katie in her panic decided to grab every towel we own and throw them into the gigantic pool of water (so now we’re without towels- mind you, this is all happening while Leslie is hysterically laughing, and I’m trying to record this on the Flip Cam). Coincidentally, Yanet and Luke arrived at the same time as our discovery of our new lake, so they graciously decided to help us sweep galloons of water out every available door. It took about 40 minutes, but we kinda got the whole mess sopped up, kinda. Anyway, by the time we came back, the floors had basically dried (thanks to Luke’s ingenious engineering). Attention NASDAQ: Our wife stock has depreciated as of tonight. Doesn’t mean it can’t be fixed, I suppose…hahaha

Dinner was great, we went to this little local pizza shack and it was a relaxing dinner after such a hectic day. Luke, Chris, Yanet, and Chris’s son and his girlfriend all joined us for dinner (I can’t remember their names- but Maile and Katie tell me they were “C.J. and Laura” respectively). It was nice to feel like a family so far away from home. After dinner we went to this local bar for a half hour, just to get out and see the DR at night. It was quaint and humid. The power kept going on and off (generators come in clutch), but overall a good experience.

In the end, this whole day has been so eventful and great- truly such a blast in so many ways. We are so grateful that the four of us get to spend this precious time together before we all go off on our separate ways- and spending this time serving others could not be more rewarding. There is so much more we want to say and update you on, but that will need to be saved until tomorrow, when we all have more energy. The kids take it out of us, so we’re always frantic to try to get to bed by 10pm haha (realllll party animales). Anyway, sending peace and love and now trying to catch some z’s.

Ta-Ta!

Las Chicas