13 others, including myself, got the privilege to be the very first group to actually live with a family in the Dominican. After previous plans fell through, Mateo, invited us to live under his roof. The whole situation being very Dominican, the Lord closes one door but soon after opens up a new opportunity. Now going, I couldn’t imagine being at a different place.
Mateo:
This man is a superhero to the Dominican. He’s not only the President of 200 reformed churches but is also the Preacher of two of them. He also is the principle of a school that he built up. Starting at 15 kids and after 7 years growing to 150. We spent the week teaching at his school and attending some of his churches. Everyday we would teach from 8-12. Each day after we taught we would make a plan for the next day so we weren’t reteaching the same information all week. This was a challenge as us students only know very little Spanish. You can also tell Mateo runs a tight ship as this school was well behaved and educated. We enjoyed spending time with the kids. For some people it would be playing basket-ball at recess and for Amanda and I it would be having a continuous line of ninos waiting to get their hair braided. Many of us left the week with “ our kids.” Mateo was very intentional on us spending time with them so he even went of the the way to make class shorter so we could just chill with our hommies. After each teaching day we had the rest of the afternoon off. For our small group it consisted of a plethora of Euchre playing. We even had a tournament, which Brooke and I won.
We had no idea what to expect the morning we went off. So all of us hopped in a van with our backpacks waiting for the adventure to begin. As soon as we got their they started rearranging furniture to make as all fit. I’m sure we didn’t make a great first impression by spilling red juice all over their white table cloth at the first meal, but near the end we totally redeemed ourselves. The girls, Addy, Amanda, Angela, Brooke, Teresa and I all slept together in one room 3 to a bed. No pillows, no sheets, just beds. The boys, Even, Nick, Ben, and Elliot with chaperones Peter and Will slept across the street in another building. We also had no running water at the house. This family is considered well off. But think about it for a second, no running water, no pillow, no sheets all things that we have all the time. If this is considered rich, what is poor? Even comparing this to the base. We have these privileges everyday at the base and we complain about it. But we have so much here. We are spoiled. And this worst part is we don’t even realize how blessed we are. It’s just sad to think that even us living here I have it better than 75% of the country.
I think this was a bit of a turning point during the stay. We really got to connect and spend time with them. I even got to help make a meal. They tried to tell me no, and to go have fun but in a battle of persistence, I won. They also took us to two churches. I particularly enjoyed the second one as we ended up breaking into a Congo line.
This family is the most welcoming people I’ve ever met. Who else would be kind enough, or crazy enough, to host 22 teenagers plus chaperones at their own house? Definitely no one in Canada. They engaged with us, taught us spanish and I think awesome friendships were formed in the process.
A song they left with us.
Dios tu eres precioso para mi
Dios tu eres precioso para mi
Y te amo, si te amo
Porque tu me amaste a mi.
Translation:
God you are precious to me
God you are precious to me
And I love you, yes I love you
Because you told me that you loved me
100% I would live with them again they are incredible and you can truly see God working in and through this family. This has definitely made me open my eyes and appreciate what I have and where I grew up. It also gave all of us chance to experience this culture on a new and deeper level.
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