While we've all had our ups and downs while living in the DR, Emily has perhaps had the hardest time.  It's not easy being a teenager.  Period.  But making new friends in a different culture in  a different language has been pretty tough.  As parents it can be equally as tough to remeber that God is teaching us and growing us ALL THE TIME, and usually through the hard things we learn and grow the most.  We hope that the end result will be maturity, wisdom, and compassion.

The first day of 11th grade might seem a little anti-climactic after going to college.  Unless you're Emily and starting at a new school for the first time in your school career and it's in a foreign country.  Luckily and blessedly it is a bilingual school that is taught primarily in English.  Hooray for the best of both worlds. 

Max begins the second half of 8th grade not ever having completed the first half.

"What in the world are we doing" you might ask...

Doulos Discovery School is an amazing place where one-half of the students are on scholarship.  Doulos is a US non-profit and all of the teachers and staff from North America raise their own salaries in the form of support.  Giving the poorest students in Jarabacoa the ability to receive a private, Christian education would be fantastic enough.  But there's more!  Classes are taught in English, so all of the students become bilingual.  95% of the students are Dominican and the school's mission is to educate and equip their students so they can impact the DR.  What a great thing!  AND it's an Expeditionary learning school, which is an exciting way to learn.  If you want to know more about all of this, check out their website here.

We're privileged to able to serve here this semester and work alongside the amazing staff.  What a great group of young, smart, and enthusiastic people who love Jesus and followed the call to the DR.

So Emily will finish the11th grade and Max will join the 8th grade class (or possibly the 9th grade class because of his math level) and then who knows where they'll go from there?  Only God knows for sure.

By the way, the high school students start school at 7am!!!

A few days ago, our second day in the Dominican Republic, we visited Spirit Mountain with the work team from Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in Ohio.

Jarabacoa is a mountain town where city folks come to get away.  It's surrounded by more mountains and Spirit Mountain is atop one of them.  As an ecological reserve and coffee plantation, the scenery is fantastic and the views incredible. 

Getting there was an adventure itself!  First we crammed in a truck and drove out of town, crossing rivers and driving on roads worthy of any 4x4.  Yes, people gladly sit in the back of trucks.  It beats walking.

The rest of the group was in a taxi van, so they had to hoof it up the rest of the mountain.  Whew!  I got a seat in the truck.  Best husband ever made sure I sat in the front seat.  Didn't want me to barf all over new friends.  This gave "over the river and through the woods" a whole new meaning.  This is the river we crossed.  In a truck.  It's not very deep.  Really.

So we gathered at Camp Discovery, where kids from Doulos and summer campers experience views that are incredible, and birds galore!  Anyone a bird watcher?  There are 20+ bird species found only in the DR and many are found here on Spirit Mountain!

From camp, we hiked to the "Rock" for some repelling.  Here's a shot of the "Rock" from camp. Sorry, I'm not adept at any form of Photoshop, or I'd put a little arrow or something to point out the spot.  It's up there toward the top, almost dead center in the shot.  It's the big grey rock.  See if you can pick it out.  It was a decent hike, especially for one who doesn't hike often.  But the trail was good and the incline wasn't very great.

And there's Camp from the Rock.  Same story as before.  See those little white roofs over on the right?  We hiked from there!

At the Rock the kids all repelled.  I did avoid this certain unpleasantness.  There was pressure, but I prevailed in my need for self-preservation.  Surely they didn't want to carry me down the mountain?  Injured on my second day in the country?  I don't think so.  Smashing into a mountain was not going to make it a good day.

Emily loves it.  Max did it.  Last.  There he goes...over the cliff.

Some people like it...Darrell and Sandra...

Some not so much...

That's Lawrence from Germany.  He and 2 other Germans are volunteering at Spirit Mountain.  He was NOT so excited to be on the literal side of the mountain!  He's a great guy - we had dinner with him the next night.  Traditional German spaetzel (sp?) - it was delicioso!  Max's favorite meal in the DR so far.  German food!

And another shot of the amazing view!

Look for another post about the second half of our day (I know, right?!?!) which was equally as gorgeous and educational.

We've been here in the DR a little over 48 hours!  We've been SUPER blessed by the love and warm welcome we've received thus far. 

Our home for the next 7 days is a 2 bedroom apartment in a "villa" complex, where the short teams normally stay.  It's only a few blocks to the school (Doulos) and lots of little eateries and super-mercados.  It's cozy and we'll be staying here until we move to the our rented house next week.

We had a one hour ride from the airport (after arriving about 2 hours late - some guy trying to board the plane in NY couldn't find his passport, so they held the plane while they looked for his bag and got it off of there).  Our brief time at JFK airport in NY went smoothly with just enough time for Max to get his pizza.  For breakfast.   Lovely Sandra met us at the airport in Santiago in a taxi and got us safely to our new home in Jarabacoa.   Sandra coordinates the short term teams and she and her husband, Darrell are Aggies from Texas and have just been here a few months.  They made sure our first meals were good and not eaten alone.  Love them already!

Our first day, Joe had staff training at Doulos at 8am.  The kids and I slept in - Max won by waking up at 10:30!  He apparently was a little tired.  Ah, my baby is a teenager.   Joe met his co-workers and got familiar with his assignments.  He's really looking forward to getting started on Monday with a high school group from Ohio that arrived Friday.

We got a local telephone, and we're working on getting Joe's iphone to work here.  Skype works and we have other apps like viber.  So call us or let us know how you'd like to communicate (if at all)  PLEASE communicate!

This sweet girl, Sarai, is the assistant to the Executive Director of Doulos, and she showed us all around the town (we walked).  She also the local house hunter!

Our second day was incredible - but that story will have to wait until tomorrow.  Lots of beautiful pictures to come!