Relearning how to do life... San Juan style

So living here in San Juan for the last 4 months has taught me a lot of things.  Mostly things that I had already learned but apparently I there are other ways to do them.  For instance communication, no longer done in English and unfortunately Spanish is not easy for me. So I would like to take this time to share some important lessons.

1) The only thing that really matters when talking about road safety is one question: "did you get in an accident?".  If the answer is "no" then you did a good job driving.  Along with that, it is also it is your responsibility to do everything you can to avoid hitting someone or getting hit. Your horn tends to be insanely useful and isn't intended to communicate anger but caution.  

2) Children are very durable.  I was lead to believe that they are actually quite fragile and if they fall down you should take them to the hospital and have an MRI done.  I have seen kids here wipe out from hanging onto a truck while riding a bike, get nailed by a baseball, and play with whips in such ways that they make Indiana Jones look like a giant noob (and sometimes things go poorly).  These kids bite it hard and then get up and do it again, no fuss or anything.

3) It's ok to shake everyone's hand.   In San Juan when you meet someone or to say hi, physical touch seems to be not only an expectation but a requirement.  At first I was a little freaked out, but after awhile I see that it actually makes the "get to know you" process much faster and more pleasant.  You can also get creative when your hands are dirty with things like elbow bumps, which is always fun.

We'll unfortunately that;s all I have time for right now.  There are many more examples but each one reinforces a very important lesson that there are other ways to do life and it's not too late to learn a new one.  

On a somewhat related note, I wonder what is was like for Jesus to learn how to do things all over when he became man.  Really annoying I bet.  But the effort I think was worth it.

-Daniel

Summer Craziness has Begun!

I've heard people say, "If only there were more hours in a day".
I think that those people are crazy.

Days here are never-ending! It might have something to do with waking up to the crow of a rooster at the crack of dawn, but days at the guesthouse are so filled! There comes a moment in the day when you stop and realize that you've faced and conquered 3 days worth of tasks, averted several major crisis, dealt with a half dozen schedule changes... and it's only noon.

So you can imagine what a blessing it has been to us to have Jeff and Kamanda Bucher down here with us for the summer! They are an awesome couple from Peoria, IL who have volunteered to spend 9 weeks down here with us during the busiest part of our summer groups, just to help us out and live life with us! It has only been a few days, but I can already tell that it's gonna be a great summer :)

The group down here with us now is a youth team from Northwoods church in Peoria, IL. They are a fantastic group and have been working so hard. It is exciting to see their passion for Jesus and the people of the DR. They have made me smile everyday. A member of their team, Kirk Moser, has been leading worship seminars at Central Mennonite Church in the evenings and the response has been incredible. Each night he has had well over 200 people coming to the seminars. They are young people who are asking questions and really getting excited about worshiping God. How cool is that? To close out the week we have rented a large stadium outside of town where we will be hosting a worship concert that will be open for the public on Thursday evening. Worship bands from several churches in San Juan, as well as the youth worship band from Northwoods will be playing together and leading us in worship. I can't wait, it is going to be fabulous :)

Updates 2

An update that I forgot to give in the last post- here's the progression of the front room to final(ish) product:

Our attempt to "clean out" was mostly disasterous

Eventually we managed to get through everything and find homes for it all- Whew!



ANDDDDD.... (drum roll please).....

 Here's it is now!

Yay! We are so happy with it- feels like home!

Updates

Last entry I mentioned the Cholera outbreak and I wanted to leave you with an update. First of all, a HUGE thanks to any and all of you who have ever bought coffee or vanilla from the Guest House Store! We save that money to use for community needs and there is no one is more need right now than the people of Cercado. With the money from that fund we were able to send 180 IV bags, 400 diapers, 80 yards of fabric and plastic for covering hospital beds, and over a thousand bags of bleach for water purification- as well as gowns, uniforms for the nurses, hand sanitizers, and other various supplies.

I accompanied Dr. Perdomo on Tuesday morning to drop the supplies off at the hospital and it was a hard sight. Even without entering the building you could hear the babies inside crying, watching people being carried back and forth to the bathroom and just feel the exhaustion of the staff. They have been working day and night in some pretty terrible conditions (they were all wearing knee-high rain boots and large yellow cleaning gloves because of the un-imaginable conditions that this disease causes). The doctor told me that the director of the hospital had tears in her eyes when she saw the supplies that had been given. She thanks you all for your generosity and prayers! There is a lot of suffering, but praise God that because of their efforts and because people are now aware of the disease and recognizing its symptoms, they are getting to the hospital and they are getting healed.

Dr. Perdomo unloading the supplies at El Cercado Hospital 

Numbers continue to fluctuate, last week there were 60 some new patients a day, then only about 25, yesterday it went back up to 43, but today was back down to 28. Overall the trend seems to be going down. Praise God and keep praying!

Other, much less important updates are that we are finally tying up the loose ends of the many projects that we began here at the Guesthouse over the last month or so. Margo has been cleaning like crazy, Dan has been working hard fixing broken pipes and tearing up old floors... and then there is me adding the girly touches. haha, I talked a couple of our dear friends (Andres the painter and Herman the tailor) into helping me with making some curtains and putting some paintings in the rooms to make them a bit cozier. Here's how they look now:

Fantastic, right?? And this is just one room! But I'm not gonna spoil the rest- you'll just have to come and see for yourself ;)

Projects

This week is a week of projects. During those weeks of break (that somehow just FLEW by), we might have bitten off more than we were ready to chew in projects and now we are in a mad scramble to finish them all before the onslaught of this summer's groups.
Dan's off painting 2 rooms that we are in the process of tearing out and laying completely new flooring in, we've got 4 bathrooms with toilet problems, 1 blue truck that needs 4 new tires, 16 rooms with brand new curtains installed, 3 screens that need to be patched and about 8 loads of laundry I've been putting off because of the rain. And that's just day one! :) But we really are so excited to get back into the swing of things and get to know the groups that we have coming down this summer.

On a little more somber note, I'm heading out with Dr. Perdomo tomorrow to pick up some more supplies for the hospital in El Cercado. If you hadn't heard, El Cercado has been hit pretty hard with Cholera over the last couple of weeks. The clinic and hospital staff have been working around the clock. As of today the report was better than it's been in awhile and we are going to do all we can to ensure that things continue to improve. Be praying for energy and love for the doctors as I am sure they are exhausted. Also, pray for us as we continue to work to educate and equip people to purify their water and sanitize their foods. It is so sad to see people suffering and dying from such a preventable disease. Pray pray pray!

I'll keep you updated on it all...