Dominican Motocross Scores an 'A'!!

This past fall Robbie and I were told about the motocross competition that takes place in the mountains of Jarabacoa, and we got so excited to attend! After church we were planning on getting a ride up to watch it, when we found out that it was canceled due to rain, illegal bikes, a possible gun threat, etc. We're not really sure what the main reason for the cancellation was, but we were bummed that we couldn't go!

Luckily for us, Jarabacoa has 2 motocross competitions a year! Last weekend we went up into the mountains of Jarabacoa to watch the competition with friends. One of my students lives right across the street from where the competition is held, so they let us park in their field, and hang out with them while we were there. It was such a fun cultural experience! 

Ready, Set, GO!

Fans lining the track! I was surprised how many people came out to watch. We estimated about 2,000!

Watching the motocross with Rubi and her mom, Fladida

Two girls from my class, hanging out at a motocross competition. I was so surprised to see how family friendly the event was. We saw lots of Doulos kids there!

Parents Visit the D.R.!!

Having my parents come to visit was so fun, refreshing, and quite surreal. We had so much fun spending time with them, playing games, cooking, laughing, reading, and checking out some natural beautiful areas of the Dominican Republic. Their visit to the D.R. started with them treating us to some time at the beach. We picked my parents up from the airport in Yodeliza (our car), her nick name is Yodi (like Jody), and then were on our way. We drove through Moca, which is the scenic route that bypasses the large city of Santiago--its a little bit quicker, and a lot prettier (or so we've heard, we've never driven the other way). With the wind in our hair, some good conversation, and a little bachata music in the background, the 2 hour drive to Cabarete flew by. Our first stop in town was to Janet's, a grocery store, which is about 4 times larger than anything we have in Jarabacoa. We stocked up on food for making meals, and headed on to our vacation rental. Cabarete is on the northern shore of the D.R., so technically it is still the Atlantic Ocean, but it is still a little hidden jewel. There is a small strip of stores, restaurants, and hotels on the main drag, but almost as quickly as you have entered Cabarete you have left it. Its quite a popular place for kite boarding and wind surfing because there is almost always a beautiful breeze. The breeze can be quite dangerous in the caribbean sun, especially if you forget to apply regular sunscreen...most of us leaned this the hard way.

Recently my dad got a new camera, and I think he got some pretty cool shots from the place where we stayed. He had a good little look-out spot that we all liked to sit at. It was right in the shade, in the breeze, and it was great for catnaps and reading. Mom and Dad, thanks again for taking us to the beach! We had so much fun with you!

My favorite picture my dad took. Its the background to my computer!

We went for a little walk on the beach and saw this sun dial. It was amazingly accurate...down to the minute!

Watching the kite boarders! Robbie really wanted to get out there and try it. Maybe next time!

While going out for dinner one night, we ran into some teachers from Doulos. They were kind enough to snap a picture of us!

After our time at the beach we climbed about 1, 800 feet into the mountains of Jarabacoa. Instantly my mom was talking about how nice the fresh air was! My parents stayed with us in Jarabacoa, and it was such a blessing to have them there. My mom worked feverishly at cleaning our place--Mom, it has never looked or smelled so good! And my dad got to help Robbie with putting a frame on one of our mirrors. Thank you for your help! They also came to join us for lunch at work. One afternoon they came into my classroom to play "Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar" and hand out Tootsie Rolls. The suckers were a hit, and they got bombarded with hugs!! It was fun to watch the kids great my parents at school each morning with hugs. My students have such big hearts and just loved meeting my parents and welcoming them into their world at Doulos. For service week my mom and dad joined us at the Geriatric Center. Then we got to celebrate their last night in town at a restaurant a little ways down the mountain that has BBQ ribs and chicken. The BBQ isn't really a sauce, but just the way that the meat is prepared. There is nothing that I have ever eaten like it!

One night we went to Moshe's for dinner in Jarabacoa. My mom loved the guys' hats, so we took a picture with them. The guy who owns Moshe's had just put in a new phone called Magic Jack, and he told us its a phone for his customers to use to call the States. So we called Sean on it!

Robbie and Dad building a frame for our bedroom mirror.

Me goofing around after they broke the bedroom mirror!

Mom and I during out hike to Rancho Baiguate. Robbie and I had never been there before and it was beautiful!

View of Jarabacoa from our drive in the mountains.

Last night, dinner at the ribs restaurant!

Mom and Dad, we loved having you here! The invitation is open to any more visitors, we would love to host and to have your company! Blessings to you all!

Service Week at Doulos

"Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky." Deuteronomy 10:20-22

I remember my first post of the school year--it was after a really rough first day, and I wanted to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I knew it was sooo far away. I want to share a praise with you--the light at the end of the tunnel is coming! At the beginning of the year, I had a class of 20 students, 17 who spoke no English...and I spoke no Spanish. Walking in line to the bathroom was disastrous. Walking into the classroom to sit in a circle left kids with black eyes (not from me!) and things falling off the walls. Praise God for the awesome wonder of how He has enormously provided for our class' ability to communicate. I am learning Spanish (thanks to my awesome kids, my amazing assistant Rosmery, and some tutoring by an wonderful woman Miriam)....and what's more is, my kids are learning English! Lately, I have been trying to speak only in English to see how it goes, and they are really understanding! Many times Ms. Rosmery or I will go to translate what I had said, but the kids will start interrupting us saying that they UNDERSTAND!! They are even translating for each other, and for their parents when I am trying to explain something. AHHhh. Light. He promises to be our Provider. And He is.

Last week was Service Week at Doulos. Its an awesome opportunity for our whole school to get off campus for 3 days and do various types of service in the community. First grade and 11th grade teamed up to visit people in hospitals, bring them cookies and play games, the High School art class painted a mural at the Barrio Blanco public school,  sixth grade spent time serving our cooking, cleaning, and grounds team at school. My class went to visit the Centro Geriátrico (Geriatric Center). Before we went we talked about why we were going to serve these people and how we could serve them. We talked about the story in the Bible where Jesus washed his disciples feet (John 13)...this verse stuck out to me: "Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end." (John 13 v. 1b) I love this illustration of how Jesus continues serving people until the end of his own life. 

In Dominican culture, elderly are taken care of by family members; it is uncommon for elderly to live in a Geriatric Center. For example, in our city of about 30,000 people, there are about 75 elderly people in the only Geriatric Center. Much of the elderly in this center believe that they are there because their families don't love them or care about them. Our class talked about how we can serve and love the ancianos, and bring them joy and happiness. I was really amazed at how my kids interacted with the ancianos, at first they were a little shy, but they warmed up and became friends with people 80+ years older than them. It was a beautiful thing.

Reading Books Together

The kids made name tags for them and their new friend.

This woman's name is Luz. Her name means "Light"--and she certainly was.
My kids all loved her (you can tell by how many name tags she has!!)

Kids colored pictures and gave them to their new friends.

On Friday, Robbie and my parents were able to join us!

Friday morning we made play-doh in class to bring with us. I had forgotten how much it looks like food, so once we got there I was repeatedly telling my kids to remind their new friends NOT to eat it!! 

On Friday we also brought finger nail polish for the Kindergarten girls to paint the ladies fingers. This woman wanted to paint nails too! :)

 We were so blessed to have my parents come visit from March 2-11. They were a joy to be with, to relax with, and to share our life here with. I am hopeful that this weekend I will make another post about our adventures with them! Thank you for reading our blog!

Catching Insect Fever

This past fall our Kindergarten Expedition was on Inventions. This spring we are studying Insects. I have to admit that I was NOT excited about starting this Expedition...not even a little bit. But this week I had to introduce the Expedition on Insects and start teaching on this topic during Science, so that we would have enough time for the unit to complete before Expedition Night. As I have been doing research online and looking at other classroom's Bug or Insect Units, I have been getting so excited about our Expedition! :) So excited that I want to share some of our fun activities from this week!

Students used play-doh to make models of insects.

Sammi couldn't have been more excited for his picture! By the time I said, "3," he was already off his chair, and running over to my camera to see himself. I have so many pictures of just a blur of him! :)

Today we made caterpillars out of egg cartons. The kids loved their sparkly pipe cleaners and crazy eyes!

If you come across any cool Dollar Store finds of cool insect stickers, plastic insect models, foam insects, insect books, etc. I am currently looking for ideas and ways to incorporate hands on learning through sorting, graphing, drawing insects, etc. Next week we will be going on an insect hunt around campus with our magnifying glasses! And as homework, students will be bringing in dead insects they have found. I hope to post more pictures of that at the end of next week! Thanks for reading our blog and supporting us with your prayers! :)

Mailing Address:
Rob and Meghan Ellis
Doulos Discovery School
Unit 3017-DDSDR
3170 Airmans Drive
Ft. Pierce, FL 34946

Fevers. Oranges. And Cream of Tartar.

This weekend was quiet, restful, and quite refreshing. It started with Robbie going home from school sick on Friday morning feeling clamy and having stomach issues. When I got home from work, around 5, I took his temperature--102.6--and thought it was pretty high, but nothing that some close care and a few ibuprofen wouldn't help....until I found out that 2 hours earlier he had taken 4....dum, dumm....So, I went into action trying to be the best nurse I could be....I got him a cool, wet wash cloth for his forehead, made some Jello, and rubbed his aching feet. (I'm sure you are thinking BLAHHH....but, this kid is NEVER sick, so I had to go all out!) We were so encouraged when one of his students (Josue) called to see how he was doing. Josue had noticed Rob wasn't at school, and wanted to see how he was feeling. Josue ended up stopping over with an ample supply of medicine: 5 (HUGE) white pills for fever, 2 (HUGE) blue pills for diarrhea, and 2 (HUGE) yellow pills for parasites. Thinking that it was probably a virus that was going around our school (many other teachers/parents have been having similar symptoms), Robbie opted to just stick with ibuprofen for the night. In the morning, he was singing a different tune. After a night of tossing and turning with fever (and sweating through his pillow case), he took some fever medicine. Unfortunately, this only worked for a few hours, and Robbie returned to the pot, and to a fever...(details, details...) Saturday night his fever was still at 102.4.....Yikes! Long story short, it wasn't until he took one of the HUGE yellow parasite pills that his body finally returned to normal. Thank the Lord!

That brings me to my next story from this weekend. Oranges. On a short little outing (when we were tricked into thinking that the fever medicine was helping Robbie) we made a run into town to get some veggies at the market. We have made friends with our favorite guy at the market, José, and were happy to see that he was working. I wanted to buy some oranges, but had learned a lesson the hard way the last time I tried to buy them. In the D.R. oranges come 2 ways: dulce (sweet) and regular (used for juice)....the last time, I asked for dulce, but they were so, so incredibly sour...I learned my lesson...buy all things from José--he's just the best. I asked José for some "dulce" oranges. He pointed with a shrug to the big pile of oranges in his area. I didn't know if this meant that they were sweet or not, so I repeated, "dulce??"....he proceded to pull out an 8 inch long kitchen knife and peeled and cut an orange in about 20 seconds, and offered both of us a taste. The were SO SWEET, and SO JUICY....I bet you wish you could come visit and try one....As we left the market after this, I looked at Robbie and said (what we say a lot here...)..."That would have NEVER happened in the United States." And this time, it was a good thing---because its something I love about living here.

Second story during our same outing...we were at el Cofre (a grocery store). I was looking for some Cream of Tartar for a new recipe I was trying for Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies (in my Martha FOOD magazine). Well, Jarabacoa is a small mountain town, so if there was any store that would have something like Cream of Tartar, el Cofre would be it. I couldn't find it...so what do you do when you can't find something you want? You ask...right? I asked this wonderful lady behind the counter about "Cream of Tartar" (as said in my best Spanish accent--because thats what I do when I don't know the Spanish word for something...just say it with an accent...someone might understand me). Lucky for me she did understand. But she said she didn't have any in the store. I asked about going to La Vega. She said no. Santiago had it in their specialy grocery store "National." BUT. She told me she had some in her house...and before I could say, "no, no, no!!" she had the stock boy go run to her house and bring me her personal container of Cream of Tartar. Please say it with me...."That would have NEVER happened in the United States." Again, a good thing.

Here We Are!

Well here we are, back in the D.R.--in case you were wondering, we haven't gone missing!! The best word that I can think of to describe coming back is refrexcinew...RiGhT? Refreshing, Exciting, New. Landing in Santiago after a full day of travel 4am to 10pm...we felt like we were really coming home. We met up with some friends who also teach in at Doulos in the Miami airport and we all got picked up by Giovanni (our favorite gua-gua driver). On our way driving up the mountain Giovanni treated all of us to a Domincan drink--its name translated means "to die dreaming."

The day before we left Minnesota, we got a call from Nathan (a great friend of ours, and an usher in our wedding) who said that he and his friend Ryan would like to come visit us. We were all for it (not sure if it would happen or when), but that same night we got a call from him saying they would be coming down--2 days after we got back!! Honestly, I think both Robbie and I can say that we haven't had as much fun living here as we did when they came to visit! They stayed with us from Thursday night to Monday morning, and we were so incredibly encouraged by their visit. We got to take them hiking to a waterfall not far from our house, walked around town, and our favorite part was playing games and talking until 2am every night. One night we visited Minerva (our host mom) and played 12 games of sequence---of course Nathan and I won the series :)

Here are a few pictures of our time with them--all visitors welcome! More blog posts to come soon! We are hoping to go into La Vega (20 minutes down the mountain) to try figure out how to get internet in our casa, which will significantly help in communication! :)

Dinner at pica pollo. You order your food by how much money you want to spend.

Our beautiful group hiking to a waterfall.

Nathan, the lady who asked to hike with us (and did the whole hike barefoot!), and Robbie posing in front of the waterfall.

Happy family eating ice cream!!

Thanksgiving--To--Now: Updates

Thanksgiving Weekend:
In two words: Pure Bliss. Total Relaxation. La Playa.
The first time we went to the beach was in July after being in country for 8 days, and having spent 7 nights apart hosting the girls and boys work team. We were exhausted and cranky, and our experience at the beach was anything but relaxing. THIS TIME, we spent 3 days and 2 nights at the beach with 3 other couples, and had the best experience! THIS TIME, was all that we had hoped for. THIS TIME, we stayed in a condo that had a full kitchen so we were able to cook some great meals with friends, go on a dinner date, and relax on the sandy beach. THIS TIME, we were able to relax, recuperate, and rest. THIS TIME, we were thankful that we had this place to call home.

Beach Access.

We got up early one morning to watch a sunrise. Kind of missed the sunrise, but we got to walk for a long time on the quiet beach, and look at the beautiful sky and waves. God's creation is AWEsome.

Robbie and I made breakfast for everyone on Sunday morning. French toast, scrambled eggs, coffee and OJ.

R.E.S.T.

Expedition Night:
As many of you know, Doulos is an Expeditionary Learning School, which means our students learn through exploration and hands-on experiences. Each grade level has one "expedition" each semester. An "expedition" is basically an in-depth study on a particular topic. Kindergarten learns about Inventions in the fall. In our last post, I wrote about our field trip to the brick yard in Jarabacoa. This was all part of our expedition. My students learned about things that God created, and how people use these things to create something new. These new things help people, and are called inventions. We learned about clay/bricks, cotton/clothing, and trees/furniture. Very basic inventions. At the end of each expedition is a final project. The students in my class (along with my help), came up with the idea to build a bookshelf for our classroom. Since the beginning of the school year, I have had books sitting in boxes behind my desk because there was no space in our current, make-shift bookshelf. The students designed the layout of the bookshelf--they voted on how many shelves, and if it should be taller and more skinny or shorter and longer. They also did the measurements. They sanded. They hammered. They painted. And then, they presented all that they learned, and their final product to their parents at Expedition Night. Here are a few pictures of the process!

One group sanding.

Teamwork. Sammi (in blue) finished hammering in his nail in T-2 seconds. Now he is demonstrating to Jacob, how he should be hitting his nail.

Holding it steady.

Thankfully these painted hands stayed off the walls, floors, and other kids, while 1 student at a time put their handprint on our bookshelf! 

Christmas Party:
Our last day of school (Friday) was a half day. We watched "Charlie Brown's Christmas" with the 1st and 3rd graders. Then we did an art project with 3rd grade. After our art project it was time for our Christmas Party! A BIG thanks to Ms. Rosmery, Kerrie, Lorraine, Harley, Abby, and Robbie for their help!

This would never fly in the states...good thing it was a half day!

When I asked them to smile for the picture, this is what I got.

Pretty sure thats a whole cupcake.

So now the blog is caught up. We hope to catch up with you while we are in Minnesota for Christmas! Thanks for all of your love, prayers, and support this year. It has been a exciting, challenging, and transforming year. We are constantly reminded of what an amazing God we are serving. ¡Feliz Navidad!
With Love and Blessings,
Meghan and Rob