New Link

You can see more Doulos class info on the new class links.
www.doulosfirstgrade.blogspot.com
www.doulossecondgrade.blogspot.com
www.doulosthirdgrade.blogspot.com
www.doulosfourthgrade.blogspot.com
www.doulosfifthgrade.blogspot.com (Mickey's Class)
www.doulossixthgrade.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday Blue

Hello everyone!

Hola from the DR! Ben and I hope all is well with you!!!

Last week was great! We had electricity part-time for 5 days. School went very well. Thursday we went on a field trip to a water park in Santiago. The kids had been looking forward to going for weeks. They were so excited and had so much fun there. After a very long day at the park, it was very hard to get them to leave. It was a great time, but I was ready to leave!!!

My kids are really starting to pay more attention in math and are really grasping the skills we have been going over for the past two months. It is so exciting and rewarding to see them learn!



Throughout the past three weeks we have had three missions groups come to Doulos from the states. Each team came for one week to begin extending our classrooms. (Before this my classroom was so small that the four tables and stackable cubbies made it difficult to walk around the classroom.) Extremely fortunately, my class gets the largest new classroom!!!


It has huge windows, as you can see in the picture above, on two of the walls and it is a zillion times nicer than our last room. It is such a blessing. The kids were so excited! A few of them stayed and extra two hours after class, until 5pm, to help organize. These kids are wonderful!!!

This past weekend was a lot of fun for us. We went out on Friday to dinner at a new pizza place, Vito’s New York Pizza. It was a wonderful slice of the states. Mmmmm….. Delicious!

After dinner we went to our favorite hangout place with a few of the people we had dinner with. This favorite place of ours doesn’t have a name, but it is spectacular. It is a great little spot with live music and a huge TV, right in the middle of Jarabacoa. It is the only place with a big screen television, so it’s the only time we watch any sort of TV here. Unfortunately, this Friday we only got to see a Dominican basketball game…disappointing. However, we had a blast and (of course) Ben was happy with the basketball game.

Saturday Ben and I went to Santiago. We did some window shopping and went to Burger King and Yogen Fruz- a great frozen yogurt place. We went back again that night to our favorite nameless restaurant.

For those of you wondering, Ben is looking good and looking more and more Dominican each day! He’s dark!


I am also excited to let you know that our oldest son/dog turned 1 today!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLUE!! (The picture below shows off are beautiful birthday boy!)



My mom is coming in about 2 days! 4 days later my dad and Nellie are coming to join up with us. I couldn’t be more excited!! It is going to be so great to have them here and I can’t stop thinking about it!

The 5th graders know my family is coming and they are so excited too. The boys have been trying to decide which one of them is going to date Nellie since January! I would approve of any of them. The girls are excited that my family is going to help us paint the new classroom a “prettier” color and the boys are just hoping they bring m&m’s.

Please keep my kids and my family’s vacation in your prayers.

Well, that is all for now. Take care of yourselves! If you are reading this I am guessing I miss you a lot and can’t wait to see you in three months.

Love, Mickey

Mega Blog

Hello friends and family,

Sorry I have been awful updating our blog site, but I am excited to write to you now!

Things in the Dominican are going very well for Ben, our animals and me. We are in love with Doulos Discovery School, Jarabacoa and the Dominican in general. It is a beautiful place with very friendly people.

We have been here for two months and Ben has been accomplishing a lot. He has made several brochures, which are now in the printing stage. As soon as they are done we will get them posted on this blog. He is also going to be working on a video of Doulos and Jarabacoa. The brochures and videos will be helpful tools to encourage people to pray for the school, sponsor a child's education, donate money or go on a work trip to help with certain projects at the school. When Ben is not working on marketing the school, he can be seen schooling the kids on the basketball court. Winning a scrimmage makes him so cocky you would never guess he beat an 11 year old. (It is sad).



Teaching 5th grade has been a really good, but challenging, experience so far. The kids are so crazy, fun, joyful and are so eager to learn. They are so appreciative of the opportunity to go to Doulos and they don't take their education for granted (like I may have done in the past). Each child is so unique, which makes the classroom extremely exciting and different each day!

Teaching squirrly fifth graders is (in the process of) helping me to learn the importance of patience. It can be difficult to keep their attention, so discipline and structure two of the things I am constantly working on with them!

Getting to know each of the kids has been so much fun! The are so hysterical and have me laughing all of the time. There are so many stories, but my mind is blanking. I will think of some for later.

We have made good friends with the other people who work at Doulos. They are so fun and have helped us get acquainted with the area. We love going to the nearest big city, shopping at the little shops in town and trying foods and restaurants I would have never considered before this trip!! Six of the girls have formed a Bible Study. It has been so helpful and has made a big impact on me.

One place we go to all the time is called Pica Pollo. It is everyone's favorite street vendor. There is raw chicken hanging on a rack above the man who is deep frying the food. All they have is fried chicken and the choice of fried bananas or a vegetable called yuca. There is nothing more delicious than this place! For fried chicken, one huge side and a bottled water, the total is $1.50! It is worth the trip to Jarabacoa from the states! Yummmmmm.....

We have had 5 wonderful visitors and they have been so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would love to write more, however, I have to go to class and am probably boring you with this mega blog.

I am hoping this blog finds you doing well. Keep us updated on your life!

Love, Mickey

La Familia

Hello all,


It has been a while since our last post and a lot has happened. My family visited us and we had a GREAT time! My Mom, Grandma Helen, and sister Quinci arrived for a short but sweeeet visit. We made the most of each day they were here. We showed them around the city and introduced them to "La Concha", which is a little shopping area in Jarabacoa that has the best deals around. Nowhere else can you find a Prada jacket for 250 pesos -(about 8 dollars). While the product may be knockoff, it is still a fun place. My Grandma made a haul!!!



The next day we headed off to Caberete, a beach about 3 hours from Jarabacoa. While the ride was long and hot w/o AC, when we arrived it was definitely worth it. We laid around the beach and ate great food for each meal.
We returned to Jarabacoa and showed everyone around the school and toured the city.

We enjoyed great Dominican food all week. My mom had mashed plantains in this picture.


It was so much fun and we appreciate the visit!


Mickey's brother Zach and his fiance Krist came the next week. We will post the pics and blog as soon as they are downloaded.

It is HOT down here

In uniform......infront of our house.


Bubba, Skunk in the kitchen.


Mickey is enjoying her 5th grade class.


Driving is crazy here. There are not many rules of the road. This is our 1997 Nissan March. It works pretty well, although sometimes we have to pull over and put water in the engine....it's just what they do!

v

Hello all,
We hope everything is going well back in MN and everywhere you are. The rainy season has officially ended here in the Dominican, and it is getting HOT. The past week has been around the 90's everyday. Mickey's class is really growing together this week. She is using new techniques for teaching and disciplining her kids. Their math comprehension has improved and to control the out-of-turn talking she has implemented a color code system. When a student isn't listening or talks out of turn, she has them "change their color." It has been great to see her improving her kids behavior and helping them grow as students.
I completed two new brochures for the school. One is a general information brochure and the other is a recruiting brochure for retired teachers. They will be available to view on the Doulosdiscovery.org website next week. My next projects are sponsorship brochures and a short DVD film all about Doulos to be used for fundraising, sponsorship and teacher recruiting. It will be a big challenge as I am working with a videographer that speaks only spanish.
Mickey and I are VERY excited about a couple of visits coming up in the next 2 weeks. Next Thursday my Mom, Grandma Helen and little sister Quinci are coming to visit for 5 days.....very exciting. At the end of the following week, Mickey’s brother Zach and his fiancée Krista are coming here to stay with us for a week.

We hope everyone has a fun, safe weekend......

Loving constant attention, these are the doggies.

Mickey's 5th grade class

These 2 students are not in Mickey's class, but they are a couple of our favorite students at Doulos.

Hola

Hey everyone!
We are about 20 days into our trip and we are finally getting situated. We have a house we are renting, a car, couch and bed. Mickey is doing great with her 5th grade class. They are very nice, driven, and wild kids. We are having a lot of fun and taking pictures that we will be posting on this site very soon. We are also trying to have the internet set up at our house so we can be more active on this site and emailing everyone back at home. Mickey and I will update again soon....until then....take care!

We made it

Hello all,
After an unexpected overnight stop in Miami, we finally arrived in the Dominican last Friday. We are having a great time getting to know the people around Jarabacoa. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. We are currently living with the 6th grade teacher, Diane. She is very nice and has helped with a lot of our questions. We hope to have a place to rent by the end of the week, but some things move slowly down here. Our pets arrived safely and are enjoying the warmer weather.
Classes started yesterday for the students, and Mickey has a great class of 5th graders. She is working with Diane this week, and next week she will teach class on her own. I will update again very soon with Mickey, and include some great pictures from this week. I hope everything is going well back in Minnesota too!
-BEN