New Habit #1: Cleaning Promptly
We have a kitchen and living room area that all of us interns share. If I leave behind even a crumb on the counter, within 20 minutes it be swarmed with ants. Because it is so hot and humid here, my clothes must be washed at least once a week. Also, because the plumbing system is poor here, we have to put our toilet paper in a trash. Thus, the whole packing trash cans to they are full (like I did at home) just does not fly here. ***Get it? "Fly here" haha.
New Habit #2: Self Defense Skills
As Sissy accurately put it the other day, PT stands for Physical Torture. The kids at Genesis School are so loving and affectionate. However, it's a good day when I only get in the face once or twice. God is definitely developing my patience. The other day, we were working with this boy Dani. He had managed to bend down and start drinking water from a muddy puddle. I lifted him just in time for him to turn and spit it right in my face. It was awesome. I do not share this story, but to give people a small glimpse of what these teachers have to deal with on a daily basis. I have grown to develop such an admiration and respect for people who work with special needs students. In addition, my reflex skills have dramatically quickened over the past few weeks. Although, sometimes the kids whip out moves that deem me defenseless. Below is a picture of Henny during our "field day". The school had a day where they made puppet horse heads and attached them to sticks. They had races around the school on their horses. It was so cute, all the kids dressed up for the occasion as well!
The 4 new interns have now joined us. It has been an fun transition. Brianne is my new roomie and we get along great. Thankfully, one of us farted the very first night (I wont say who), it totally broke the ice, and we have been great friends since. The other interns are awesome as well. Travis Gerig has joined me at the school and it has been fun to have another friend there. He has been working with one of the toughest kids at the school. During his spare time, he takes care of kids who get hurt. Below is a picture of Arhennis, the gatekeeper.
I have found my new favorite catch partner- Dave Adams. I don't know what my deal here is... but I cannot throw a baseball here for the life of me. Anyways, Dave is real tall and he used to play first base. So for the first time here is the DR, catch is somewhat enjoyable because I am not making the other person chase after my horrific throws. Also, the movie Nacho Libre holds a special part of my heart. Tyler and I are obsessed with this movie have tried to convince the rest of the world to feel the same way. It's the beeest! I looove it! All the interns have been such an encouragment to me. Their enthusiasm and desire to serve is such an inspiration. The only downfall of having such awesome interns, is that we all seem to stay up later now to play games. Oh and thanks to my amazing mom and sister's birthday package, I now have Settlers!
For those of you who know me pretty well, you know I have a "sensitive" stomach. Well, here it is seriously taking a beating. Actually, the reason I have time to type this right now is because I was up all night with diarrhea. Sorry, if that grosses you out. But because it is so common here, I have become extremely comfortable with talking about bowel movements. :) Pray for the rest of the staff as well, a pretty bad stomach flu has been going around. I am not sure if I have what they have had. But within the past week, 7/8 interns have been sick with something (diarrhea or throwing up).On a less "sensitive" note, I have had a blast here. I have completed over half of my time here and it has re-emphasized my desire to go into missions. I would love to come back and work with Students International. But I am still not certain that is what God's will is for me. I have fallen in love with the Spanish language and if I went to a Spanish-speaking country, I think I would want to go to language school and broaden my knowledge. I have been practicing a lot, but I still have so far to go. I want to go deeper with people and it is difficult when ability to carry conversation is limited. We get one day off per outreach and I have used it to go to the sports site. It is probably one of my favorite parts of the week. I absolutely love using sports to connect with people. So I am hoping God will open some opportunity to serve Him through sports. We'll see!!!! :) Below are some more pictures from this past outreach. The first is me at a house helping Miguelina (one of the teachers from the school) helping to make mangu. Mangu is basically smashed plantains, mixed with butter and other special Dominican ingredients. 
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