Starting a new year!

I have been very busy since I've gotten back to San Pedro.  I have been working on things for my apartment including spending long hours at the electric company and the internet company (I'm paying to split cable with my neighbor, so I haven't had to spend time at the cable company too!)  Also, I hunted down the best deal I could find on a stove and I painted my walls and cabinets.  The landlord re-did the tile floors and all the tile in the bathroom while I was in the US.  It is all looking great, and I'm really settling in.

Nicol, my neighbor, helped paint to earn Silly Bands

My kitchen area (before I got the stove)

My bedroom

My bathroom with all new tile

On New Years Eve, I went to church at San Esteban.  From 9 pm until 11 pm they read psalms and other scripture and pray for the new year to come.  It was a very intimate service even though there were a lot of people there.  After the service, people traditionally count down till midnight with their families.  The parties don't really start until after the new year has started.   Trying to call the US is nearly impossible because the telephone and cellphone companies are overloaded by the number of phone calls being made and the system shuts basically shuts down.  I counted down with close friends and then went to a friend's family's party for the evening.  My night was rather low-key, which is good because over 50 people died across the country over New Years weekend due to traffic accidents, including the night watchman at the San Esteban Clinic.  People drive drunk here all the time, and it is worse on holidays.

My friend Madeline and I with our 2011 glasses!

Dia de Los Reyes, Epiphany, fell on Thursday on the church calendar, but the government switched the observance of the holiday until the following Monday to give a long weekend to workers.  At Centro Buen Pastor, there was a special Mass on Thursday morning and then we packed up presents for all of the students in the school.  Sister Jean Gabriel had told me in the fall that there were not enough donations to give to all the students this year and that only the pre-school children would get gifts, but thanks to the many donations I have received and been able to bring to Centro Buen Pastor, each student got a gift bag!  The pre-school kids got small toys, and every elementary school student 1-6th grade got pencils, pens, and a box of crayons.  The 7th and 8th graders got pens, pencils, and packages of colored pencils.  It was a lot of fun to package them all up and they were distributed last week when school started up again after Christmas Vacation.  During the Dia de Los Reyes season, the church also sets up a toy stand to sell toys in Las Flores that people give to their children on Dia de Los Reyes.  The toy stand earns extra money for the church and it was very successful this year.  They were almost sold out by the time I visited to take a picture 4 days before the observance of the holiday.  Dia de Los Reyes is really all about giving toys to children, and it was fun to see all the new bikes, roller blades, scooters, dolls, and games that the kids in my neighborhood woke up to on the morning of Three Kings Day.

All the school supplies that went to the kids holiday gift bags
and to the classrooms of Centro Buen Pastor

Preparing the gift bags for every student of the school
(There are just under 200 students pre-k - 8th grade)

The toy stand where the church sells toys for Dia de Los Reyes

My first week back to classes was slow.  Much like the beginning of the school year, students don't show up for class right away after the long Christmas break.  Many take the extra week off and won't start up until this week.  There has been a lot of new interest in my classes with the new year, and I already have a new adult student.  Hopefully I will have more.  I am also looking into starting a morning class for people who have more free time in the AM to study.

This weekend, I went in to the mountains in the center of the country to the Episcopal Retreat Center in Jarabacoa for a Young Adult Retreat.  The area is absolutely beautiful and the climate is like that of the mountains of New Hampshire or Vermont in the summer.  There were over 60 young adults ranging from teenagers to mid-30s from Episcopal churches all over the country.  It was a wonderful experience for me to see another part of the country, meet new people, and also worship and talk about God and how we as young adults are an important part of the church community and what we can do to follow Jesus' teachings in our everyday lives outside of church.  It was also a lot of fun!  Dominicans have fantastic hymns and they dance and play instruments with such joy!  There are a lot more pictures of the retreat on my facebook page.

The young adults at the retreat in Jarabocoa
(I'm standing with the Bishop)

The Episcopal Retreat Center in Jarabocoa

Let me know if you have any questions!  Its always great to hear from everyone at home.

Dios les bendiga.

~Tina